MLS Assignment #4 Hawai’i
Traveling to Hawai'i!!!
My journey to Hawai'i started in the middle of January when I got an email. The email was from the manager who covered most of the labs on the Big Island – asking for an interview. WTF was my first thought. I mean you always say 'I would like to live in Hawai'i' but you don't actually think it could become a thing. I had applied just to see and had gotten my Hawai'i License when I started as a Traveler thinking it's a long term goal. But, to get an interview seemed surreal.
A zoom call was set up with the Manager and one of the Techs. And truthfully I didn't even know what part of the island this interview was for – I had applied for three different locations, because why not! I asked my standard interview questions and they asked about my experience. If I had ever worked in a smaller hospital and used Sunquest before. I had, actually at the last assignment even though this hospital would be even smaller.
The hospital I would be working at has only 20 beds (4 ER rooms). Acting more like a Urgent Care than a true ER in my opinion, but at the remote top of the Big Island of Hawai'i consisting of only two small towns with most of their shops on one main road. I suppose they don't need that big of a hospital.
I learned most of the job would be phlebotomy and maintaining the few small instruments they have. These were more POC instruments than the larger instruments I was used to. Truthfully I hadn't had a phlebotomy since my schooling about 5 years before that. I told them as much saying I can run your lab, I'm super organized, and I'm extremely a calm person allowing me to deal with even the toughest personality, but my phlebotomy skills are not strong. Never lie about things like this – you do not want to put yourself in the awkward position of not even remembering which side of the needle you poke within insert the beveled tip upside-down. It's better to be upfront about your weaknesses and have them respect you for it and train you properly then lie and BS your way through something that can cause pain to a person, even risk their life.
After the end of the interview I was pretty sure my no phlebotomy would have put me out of the running. But you know, why not just look up housing options, just to see. There were more options than I was expecting though they were all between 40 minutes to an hour away from the hospital.
It took a few days for my recruiter to reach out to me again. As they asked if I wanted them to apply to other places, I thought Hawai’i was out of the picture for me right now. But the next day I got an offer from my recruiter from them. And the day after that another interview offer for a different Hawaiian Island. Excited with the Big Island I turned down the other interview and focused on getting the contract signed. I was going to Hawai’i!!!
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