Student Nurse With Questions!!

[Raquel.Perez, RN]

Hello,

I am currently a senior nursing student in Rhode Island. I graduate in May but am looking ahead now to the future. I do not have any family members in the health care field or have anyone that I know who works in a hospital, so what I know is from trial and error.

What I would like to do after graduation is work in the NICU so that I can go back to graduate school for a Masters degree to become a NICU NP. How do I go about working in a local NICU? I would like to stay in RI and work at Women and Infant's Hospital, but am not sure if I should be looking into getting an internship/CNA job or anything else in the meantime.

I'm just really nervous that by the time I am licensed, I won't have the qualifications to work in a NICU setting, and will have to start my career by settle for a specialty that I'm not super excited about in the mean time.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

Many NICU's require experience for employment. If you have opportunity to shadow, do clinical, or a residency in the NICU, I would suggest that. Sometimes being an internal hire is helpful, so if you have the time to work as a CNA in the hospital where you want an RN job, try to get one. You can also review current job postings for NICU positions and see if they list any qualifications, such as experience, certifications like NRP, etc.

[cherylnicurn]

When I graduated there were very few jobs for a new grad. I found a NICU nursing course through a community college that included 144 hours of clinical in a local NICU. I am sure that course is what got me my job.

Good luck!

[babyNP., APRN]

Welcome to AN. Your questions are good ones, and asked on a weekly basis :) Do a search and you'll find a lot of good answers. Your best bet is to be flexible on where you want to live post-graduation to get experience and working at an academic center which has residencies for new grads.

In my experience at 2 children's hospitals, the new grads adapted to the NICU RN role far better than the experienced in other specialties RNs. Yet when I did per diem at community hospitals, the staff told me that they found it to be the opposite. I believe this is because academic centers are more naturally suited to teaching new graduates with long residencies.

Best of luck and keep us posted on how it all goes.

[c.dom]

hey there!

I'm a senior nursing student and I guess I got lucky when I landed a NICU nurse tech job at the end of my junior year. I don't get much hands on patient care related experience except for feeding/changing diapers/giving baths/taking temps but I do get to watch the nurses perform skills.

At this point I'm just trying my hardest to make a great reputation for myself so hopefully my unit will hire me as an RN like they did the two techs before me :)

My advice for you as a fellow student, even if it isn't NICU you should still look for a tech job (not CNA) before you graduate. Hospitals near you should begin hiring soon to replace their graduating techs. Once you graduate, an internal hire would be much easier than applying from the outside along with 100 other applicants. At least this is what the RNs at my job always say and I do trust them

[Raquel.Perez, RN]

Thank you for the response! I had a clinical rotation at the NICU and am doing a senior honors project on it. I have not been able to find any open CNA positions though. It makes me a little worried!

[Raquel.Perez, RN]

Welcome to AN. Your questions are good ones, and asked on a weekly basis :) Do a search and you'll find a lot of good answers. Your best bet is to be flexible on where you want to live post-graduation to get experience and working at an academic center which has residencies for new grads.

In my experience at 2 children's hospitals, the new grads adapted to the NICU RN role far better than the experienced in other specialties RNs. Yet when I did per diem at community hospitals, the staff told me that they found it to be the opposite. I believe this is because academic centers are more naturally suited to teaching new graduates with long residencies.

Best of luck and keep us posted on how it all goes.

How do you think new grads are able to get these jobs?

[Raquel.Perez, RN]

hey there!

I'm a senior nursing student and I guess I got lucky when I landed a NICU nurse tech job at the end of my junior year. I don't get much hands on patient care related experience except for feeding/changing diapers/giving baths/taking temps but I do get to watch the nurses perform skills.

At this point I'm just trying my hardest to make a great reputation for myself so hopefully my unit will hire me as an RN like they did the two techs before me :)

My advice for you as a fellow student, even if it isn't NICU you should still look for a tech job (not CNA) before you graduate. Hospitals near you should begin hiring soon to replace their graduating techs. Once you graduate, an internal hire would be much easier than applying from the outside along with 100 other applicants. At least this is what the RNs at my job always say and I do trust them

Thank you! This is very good advice and congrats on the NICU position. Why would you say to become a technician rather than a CNA?

[prmenrs, RN]

Many hospitals actually prefer to hire new grads, and have special programs for them. Rationale being, a new grad is not "set" in adult nursing norms, and has more flexibility to learn the specialty. Ask if the facility has a new grad program for NICU.

You might need to go out of your local area, but I should think that the Brigham would have one, or possibly Yale-New Haven. I'm in Southern California, so not too familiar w/New England.

Best wishes.

[prmenrs, RN]

Check this list out: Access Denied

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

How do you think new grads are able to get these jobs?

80-90% of our new hires are new grads that worked as a summer extern prior to graduation or PCAs on our unit or PICU. The other 10-20% are experienced peds/adult nurses or did an externship at another NICU (I did a 135 hr Capstone preceptorship at another Level IV NICU).