It was disappointing to say the least. Interesting enough, in December the ICU wanted me to take a travel assignment based off of my resume alone; not even an interview needed. Unfortunately they pulled the contract altogether before I could accept it. Then in February I applied for 3 of their night FT positions and received a call from their recruiter, who asked me random personality based questions and then setup an interview for me in the ICU. At the last minute I received a text message from the "ICU interviewer" stating she needs to reschedule, so I did and met at her office in the ICU. The interview was not very formal and it really just went over my resume and previous work that I had not listed (i.e. non RN, but pt care roles), but no real in depth scenario or knowledge based questions. She did mention that she had some new nurses on nights. She said she would speak to my references and get back to me and told me to email her if I had any questions. I did email with some questions while thanking her for the interview. However her reply did not bother addressing my inquiries and just said I don’t have enough experience although my resume states otherwise and they wanted my travel contract in December based on my resume alone. So over the last 4 months there have been openings and recently 5 ICU night positions. It appears the Staff turnaround is high there and most likely need staff more than the staff needs them. I applied and a month later I get a call from the same "ICU interviewer," who had no idea she had talked to me before. We setup an interview and I met with her in her office again. She recognized me, she inquired, and I told her she didn’t hire me. She asked why and when I began to state the above someone barged in the office asking questions about an ER admit, getting a patient out, etc., etc. The person left and the "interviewer" apologized while holding her phone and text messaging, which went on for the majority of the interview. Again, no knowledge or scenario based questions. The first request was to tell her about myself. As I went on from the beginning of my hospital career 8yrs ago and discussed my different roles and experience at each job, she interjected and wanted to know about my time in ICU. Most of my time as a nurse had been step-down ICU until now where it’s been mostly ICU. I am currently on a travel contract at a nearby facility in the ICU and she concluded that it’s not an adequate ICU although I stated that I take vented patients on ICU drips. She asked about my preceptors back home and said she would need to speak with them because there has been too much of a gap between when I worked back home until now (6mo) and I basically don’t have my skills current. That was not an issue in February, but apparently it is now. She also mentioned that she has 5 brand new graduate nurses and needs someone with experience. So basically, they can’t keep staff, so they hire nurses with zero experience, but won’t hire nurses with 8yrs bedside care, 4yrs RN (2yrs as step-down ICU, 2+yrs ICU) experience. I stated that back in FL, the work experience is exponential without the unions or patient ratios to protect nurses. Medical staff are put to the test every single day back home. While text messaging, she just said she would need my references and gave me her card, so that I could email them to her. I emailed my references to her the next day, my references were waiting for a phone call, but the next morning I received an email again saying I don’t have enough experience. My references were never contacted. I replied back to the email questions that decision and the rationale for everything stated above, not expecting a job, but wanting a logical reason for such inconsistent reasons and telling me one thing, while not giving me a professional interview, and doing something else entirely. Not a good representation of what I thought would be a great place to work. Obviously they need to fill ICU positions regularly. It seems they need staff more than the staff needs them as reflected by the multiple job listings. I considered staying in CA and making Santa Rosa my home, coming back to my home state of CA. It would take a lot now to make me reconsider that. It’s their loss. The only reason the interview was difficult is because of the lack of professionalism on her mobile phone and not really giving undivided attention, and not following through with what she said she would do. If I got the job, the interview would have been simple because no challenging questions were asked. They would rather hire people with zero experience, who will most likely make many mistakes rather than hire someone with 2yrs experience, which is not enough experience. However that makes sense, I will never know. It’s probably not a facility I would feel comfortable trusting or working with.