Re: NEW GRAD ICU RN Originally Posted by David's Harp 
I'm sorry that this has been your experience. I am still on the "student" side of the wall until May, and am beginning to send out applications without a ton of knowledge of how the different area hospitals stack up. I've been looking on this site and trying to search for blogs, but it's a matter of "who's gonna go public and expose their place of employment?!", the obvious answer being, "No one!"
Can anyone offer advice on _how_ a soon-to-be-grad goes about choosing a "GOOD program"?
I would say to ask nurses what they think of, or have heard of, working at other hospitals. When doing my clinicals, I talked with the nurses about their perceptions of working there and what their opinions of the other hospitals were as well. Even if you don't find a nurse who's worked at other hospitals, they will know people who have... and people talk! Ask about their orientation experiences and whether they felt it was adequate, how long it was, etc.
Where I live, there are 2 main hospital systems, and the cultures within the two organizations are very different. Talking to the nurses about their perceptions of both hospital systems helped me immensely in determining which would be a better fit for me.
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