Pkham

Latest Activity

1. Pay Rate in Seattle or San Francisco

   Pkham replied to mn05bsn's topic in General Nursing

   Your base salary will be around that much without over time. As a new grad I was making 120k, which now I make more oh happy life. Keep in mind I am writing this from the inside of my brother in-law's garage that I pay him $1000/month. (Desperately...

2. Can I make it in CA?

   Pkham replied to Mobe123's topic in Career Support

   You can make it. I'm in the bay area but Davis and Sac are only slightly lower in pay while the COL in housing are almost half as cheap. My first full year of working with a few OT shifts and call and I was at about 150k gross. With day care or sc...

3. 2018 Nurse Salary

   Pkham replied to #MakeItRain's topic in General Nursing

   Location: CA Experience: 1 year BSN Specialty: Operating Room Facility: VA Base Pay: $65/hour OT: 1.5 after regular shift hours. Pro's: 8 hours Annual leave + 4 hours sick leave every pay period (2weeks), pension, paid federal holidays.

4. Perioperative new grad residencies

   Pkham replied to Kellywolfe89's topic in Operating Room

   I got accepted into the VALOR VA learning opportunities residency which is available in certain areas and colleges, worth a Google since it's a paid internship during nursing school. We get to choose our department and I randomly chose the OR withou...

5. Is it best for the new nurse to start with night shift?

   Pkham replied to northmississippi's topic in General Nursing

   My first job is 9-5 M-F, I had no problems finding time to learn how to chart. I think a lot of it depends on your preceptor and hopefully they will help guide you with their methods for time management and little tips and tricks they've picked up.

6. VA JOB OFFER!

   Pkham replied to Tbmingo's topic in General Nursing

   First off, congrats on landing your very first nursing job! Here is a link to VA RN pay scales for different states Title 38 Pay Schedules - Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) I believe with Tampa you are RN Grade 2 (BSN) step 5, or $77,096....

7. What nursing field do you think is easiest and hardest?

   Pkham replied to Tinkx RN's topic in General Students

   Easiest- As long as you aren't scrubbing and the anesthesiologist doesn't kill anyone, OR nursing seems really easy. Review pt info, set stuff up and let the surgeons do their thing. Forgot an instrument? I'll get that for you. Of course if things ...

8. I Graduated Nursing School, Now What?

   Pkham replied to mnurse2016's topic in General Students

   I'm in my final semester of nursing school BSN but I applied for the VALOR program from the VA this past summer and got a "job" as a paid intern in the operating room which is amazing. I knew absolutely nothing about the OR, but now I know it's what...

9. Ok Class of 2017, Where are you??

   Pkham replied to Wifeoffireman's topic in School Programs

   Still alive, but barely. My baby is 9 months and doing peds and medsurg which is really helpful but hard. I also got a VALOR internship working as a circulator in the OR and it's awesome. I feel as students we don't get enough exposure to the OR a...

10. Reading?

    Pkham replied to Zyprexa_Ho's topic in General Students

    You'll get a feel for the pace of the class and adjust from there but quite frankly I read 20 pages of the 100 assigned prior to our first day of instruction and that was about it for me. Everyone is different but you can decide if you want to gambl...

11. How much money to expect as a new grad RN?

    Pkham replied to Grier's topic in General Nursing

    Currently set to graduate 1 year from now but got a paid internship and getting $36 an hour with a job lined up after I graduate around $50. Norcal, very expensive but you can commute from cheaper areas.

12. Ok Class of 2017, Where are you??

    Pkham replied to Wifeoffireman's topic in School Programs

    Consider yourself lucky, my program has 13 ebooks totaling around $1300 + a nurse kit containing bandages, needles and what not for 150. I commute 45 minutes with a motorcycle so I'm very happy about the text being in ebook format instead of lugging...

13. Ok Class of 2017, Where are you??

    Pkham replied to Wifeoffireman's topic in School Programs

    I had orientation a few weeks back but I had my uniform ordered on Amazon along with a stethoscope and sphygmometer. We learned about sim labs and got our schedule which they all picked out for us so that's a little less stress. Met the faculty and...

14. How much did your nursing program cost overall? (LPN, ADN, BSN, etc.)

    Pkham replied to kariace's topic in General Students

    2 years at a community college to knock out prereqs for free with financial aid, then using my GI Bill to pay for my BSN. Not only is my nursing tuition free, I'm also getting a 3k per month stipend.

15. Pre Nursing Student Help

    Pkham replied to sgeorge1746's topic in General Students

    Many schools value the TEAS score more than prereqs. Do extremely well on that and you should be fine. For instance I have 4.0 in prereq and overall with an 81 on TEAS and 100 hours volunteer at a hospital but was still on a waitlist. Some other p...