Pre-Grad placement

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Today my class was given our assignments for pregrad I have been placed in an ER very excited but also very nervous. This has made me wonder what the role of RPNs (in Ontario) in the ER environment actually is? Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect, what my role will involve and what skills beyond head to toe assessments I should brush up on before I start. I want to give a good impression on my first day and as I've never been a patient in an ER I have no idea what to expect.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the offers of help I really appreciate it. As for applying for everything I'll admit that I'm only now starting to apply to LTC and mental health jobs but I have applied to every hospital job I've seen with in an hour and a bit drive of Cambridge (Hamilton health science, Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Brantford General, Guelph General, Grand River, Joseph Brant, Saint Jo's, Trillium - port Credit, fergus- Groves memorial) not sure if I'm missing any with in my doable area.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

I will send you a message explaining more detail, but your resume and cover letters need to be more concise. Three to four short paragraphs for a cover letter, two pages maximum for a resume.

Also, it's really not you. The GTA and surrounding areas are saturated with applicants now for almost 7 years. There's a lot of competition. I'm from Toronto and I have no intention of returning anytime soon.

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Specializes in Public Health.

If you really need a job, you have to apply to everything. As was already mentioned, there is no shortage of nurses and realistically no one looking for a nursing position (new grad or otherwise) can truly afford to be picky.

There are so so so many options. Hospital, LTC, community, clinics (family health, methadone, urgent care), are just a few. Look everywhere, I even scoured (and got calls from) places I applied to who had advertised positions on kijiji!

ANY type of job (even if it is not necessarily a job you plan to stay at forever) is experience and makes you far more attractive to a potential employer than someone with no experience at all.

Just keep applying. You might be surprised by what you actually enjoy in a job. There are transferable skills and lessons to be had in all areas.

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If you really need a job, you have to apply to everything. As was already mentioned, there is no shortage of nurses and realistically no one looking for a nursing position (new grad or otherwise) can truly afford to be picky.

There are so so so many options. Hospital, LTC, community, clinics (family health, methadone, urgent care), are just a few. Look everywhere, I even scoured (and got calls from) places I applied to who had advertised positions on kijiji!

ANY type of job (even if it is not necessarily a job you plan to stay at forever) is experience and makes you far more attractive to a potential employer than someone with no experience at all.

Just keep applying. You might be surprised by what you actually enjoy in a job. There are transferable skills and lessons to be had in all areas.

Absolutly right!!

I bit the bullet and worked for a staffing agency for 8 months, and eventually landed a job in a forensic setting. i dont think i would have gotten this job if my resume lacked nursing experience. once you start gaining that experience just like xokw said you become more attractive to employers over the no experience new grads.

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I had an interview last week and waiting to hear back from Saint Pete's Hamilton on if I got the job in their float pool, interview went great I feel I answered all the questions appropriately and the med calculations were easy.

Having a real issue with the new grad guarantee though, A recent post was for ER department in St Catharines, I thought great I'm sure to get this as almost no one will have ER experience and be eligible for the initiative. I apply online and then to make sure that I'm know to the manager I decide to call them up, mention my name ask if it would be possible to see them to discuss the position that kind of thing. Well... lets just say the manager was not happy to be told that there was a posting and I was told they where not taking on any more new grads. This is not the first time this has happened where managers are unaware of positions being posted by HR, it really doesn't make applying for jobs easy.

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Little update and seeking advice. I had an interview at St Pete's (a geriatric hospital in Hamilton) a friend who was also in the group interview has been offered a place while another was told she should contact them once her CNO registration was through - I am calling HR back on Monday to chase this up.

Now comes the bit where I seek advice, the new grad ER position I stated in the previous post, my persistence has paid off and I have an interview at the end of the month, McMaster is offering ACLS on the 16th of August and I was wondering if I should do the course on the off chance that it makes me a better candidate for the job? Would I be offered ACLS training through the job? Should I save my money and do another course that might help me land a position in an ER or elsewhere?

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Hi "relaxingbath" i was just wondering, when you went for your interview in Hamilton, did they ask you math calculation questions during the interview? or was this some type of paper test you had to do? (I am from Hamilton too but have not received any call backs)

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There was a collection of written based questions most where what I would call "soft questions" like what makes you a good nurse, followed by about 10 math questions all of which where very simple eg. Dr orders 10mg of drug PO you have 5mg tabs how many tabs do you give. After the written portion of the test we were individually taken for one on one interviews with various members of management. I recieved my registration lastnight after a prolonged delay with my police check- I really should have sent my old one that was less than a week past the 6month stage. I am waiting to hear back from St. Pete's now that I am registered hopefully it will mean a job.

I've continued to apply for other jobs and have an interview for ER department in St. Catherine's this Thursday, it is a new grad guarantee position which was posted at the start of July and reposted last week (for 2 days). I completed the ACLS course which was difficult considering how little time I had to study before hand but I really enjoyed it, and received positive feed back from RNs and physicians taking the course.

Good luck in your job search Starlane, best advice I can give is keep trying and follow up with all your clinical instructors/preceptor to see if they know of any vacancies.

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Thank you for the reply, and good luck to you as well!! :)

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Interview was cancelled less than 24 hours before hand via email, decided to go see the manager anyway, while she was nice she pretty much told me no RPNs would be hired into the ER department. I'm am seriously annoyed with the way this has all happened, initially the job was posted on the new grad website, I managed to land an interview with was 3 week wait! I've studied my ass off taken ACLS and really tried to make myself the most suitable candidate for the position (I have continued to apply for other jobs in this time however I haven't chased up managers like I had before). The position was re advertised last Thursday and Friday on the new grad website, which I again filled out an application for.

Yesterday afternoon I received an email telling me that the position was no longer required, I was lucky? in reading the email before hand I would have expected a phone call on such short notice, I tried calling the HR specialist from 4-5pm without luck and tried for an hour this morning before deciding to see the manager in person at the previously arranged interview time. To say i'm angry at this point is a bit of an understatement as I expected a higher level of professionalism from the people I had interactions with. Do I feel I'll ever get a job in a hospital setting even with glowing reports from clinical teachers and top marks, nope!

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Glowing reports from teachers, whilst nice for the ego, do absolutely nothing in the real world. I've wound up getting every job I've ever had because I fit with the staff on the unit or due to life experience. When I was hired into postpartum, it was because I gave off a motherly (whatever that is) air, had given birth, and was easy to talk to.

At the end of the day, I think it's due to the phase of the moon or whatever, that gets you hired.

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Reports from teachers particularly from clinical settings is the only way to show my skills to departments which I haven't had direct experience with. Having the opportunity to even meet with staff would be amazing I've always left with positive feed back from other members of nursing staff, unfortunately they aren't the ones that do the hiring.

I'm not straight from high school I've lots of real world experience unfortunately health care in Canada is not part of it (even though my training is here), so getting my foot in the door even to get experience is proving impossible. I realize that I'm just venting at the moment as I feel mistreated. I've committed myself to seeing as many HR/manager in every hospital with in 1 /12 hours of where I live over the next week to some how land a job.

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