Obama likes nurses

Good luck to you in your job search. I, like yourself, had done my research prior to entering nursing school and find myself in the same situation as yourself. It sucks doesn't it, but it will improve, keep your head up

Yes it does suck but I am going to keep at it! Good Luck with your search as well

Okay...now have you tried the correctional facilities (this is where I got my start and I can never replace the experience I received there) in your area - or how about nursing homes.....

Secondly - MOST per diem companies will ask for a years experience - but go in person - book an appt with the HR dept and bring your transcript - sell yourself on your grades. Get letters of reference from the profs and keep at it.

Make sure to call all the places that you have applied to...at least once a month just to touch base. Maybe the job that your suited to just opened up and they forgot about you......refresh their memory. Ask about new postings of positions - websites for hospitals are NEVER updated as often as you think. Look at night shifts - most hospitals are desperate for this shift as it is the most "undesirable".

Finding a job is never easy, especially if you have no experience in the field, but by keeping your nose to the grindstone and keeping your name at the top of the pile you will succeed!

All very well made points. Thank you.

My question is: what would a graduate nurse's preceptorship consist of as a newly hired p.r.n. nurse?

Most likely (for the majority of hospitals), at the most, one shift, if you are lucky. PRNs usually only get a couple of hours of preceptorship before they are expected to take on a full load. This does not include the hospital oreintation part, which can vary and be as long as a week; however, the hospital orientation has no real value when it comes to clinical capabilities.

So True - I was a presceptor at an ER and we only gave 1 day to PRN's but keep in mind - if you are hired by someone - ask them for an RN mentor....someone you can go to with questions or concerns...if you are open and upfront about wanting one it will go a long way in showing your new employer that you want to learn the RIGHT way of doing things the first time. Normally, they will put you with someone they respect themselves. The RN will be pleased that you know "you are not God's gift to nursing" and that you realize there is so much that is not taught in school in the way of practical critical thinking and practical knowledge. Also, keep in mind, there are often things that you can teach an old nurse....but be sure to back up your up to date knowledge with concrete proof.....some old nurses are resistant to the "new" way of doing things.

Kudos to all new nurses that take their future into their own hands and get the extra lessons from the senior staff. And extra Kudos to those that are willing to share their new knowledge with those of us who graduated before you were born.

Obama said "I love nurses...you're the bedrock of our medical profesion". It's a distraction. Why did he wait until now to address what was his main priority in the election? He gave all the money to the banks which gave it to the CEOs and that helped no one, just the CEOs. That trillion or so dollars could have been an REAL stimulus. He could have paid for nurses to start treating the 30-40 million people without enough coverage. I'll agree that maybe half of those people actually deserve it. Those are the people who work hard or recently lost a job. The government can't keep giving free sh*t to people who are able to work and contribute to sociey but just don't care, don't want to, don't try -- those who don't deserve it.
How about fixing all of the problems with Medicare/Medicaid (which are almost broke) before he borrows another trillion from me, my children, and their children? How about stopping the frivilous and multi-million dollar hospital-hurt-my-feelings lawsuits against the medical/nursing profession? What about putting a cap on the number of patients we care for, based on the type of floor; MedSurge, ICU, PICU, CVA, etc? Then he could use "stimulus" to help the hospitals pay for more nurses?
If a Canadian has enough money they leave their Government-Free Healthcare Country to come here. Why? Because when everyone gets the exact same treatment and MUST buy healthcare, the system breaks down. Canadians don't have to wait 9 months to get a four-way CABG when they come to America. At least, until ObamaCare gets approved.
The single mother of two who works full time, pays for insurance and is working towards (for example, an RN degree) should get better coverage than the lazy, not-want-to-be-employed, sleeping on other people's sofa, waste of space who is collecting social security, food stamps, and Medicare.
I pay taxes. I don't need Obama to take my money that I worked for to give to someone who is in a bad situation because they don't try! If your life took a bad turn in health or financially, but you were trying to make life better than take the money. You earned it. Otherwise, go to the White House and ask Obama to give you HIS money.

Right On, paul!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You said it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul, I completely agree that the money to Wall Street was a mind boggling way to handle the problem. In a capitalist/free market society you DON'T intervene to give money to prop up the companies that made BAD decisions! Sure, it would hurt, a lot, in the present, but it will prevent the mentality that brought us to the brink of collapse in the first place from enduring and flourishing in the future! The mentality is strengthened now, that big companies can take substantial risk and either A:make tons of money, or, B: get bailed out, and that their execs will make huge profits either way. Bad companies should die out from their dumb moves, not be helped to continue on their destructive paths, which will only make things worse for the next generation. Meanwhile the small banks that did right are actually penalized for running legitimately, as their competition is strengthened and they missed out on a windfall of money from doing shady deals.

And the money used for that garbage could have instead been used to fund incredible medical breakthroughs that would save billions in healthcare costs down the road. Imagine what a cure for diabetes would mean for the world, and the incredible amount of healthcare costs (and lives!) that would be saved.

Very, very frustrating indeed.

"Obama said "I love nurses...you're the bedrock of our medical profesion". It's a distraction. Why did he wait until now to address what was his main priority in the election?" from Paulwalkman's post # 36

During the presidential election campaign, the financial ruin hadn't happened, so Obama didn't know that the country would face immediate problems that would supercede health care. He also had faith in the decency of Americans to whom he gave bailout money, which was quickly dashed when some companies used some of it to continue the disastrous path they were on.

In order to provide services, tax money has to be coming in. When the ruin of many companies that employed hundreds of thousands of workers happened, it was necessary to get recovery going, which Obama did. Many nay sayers still won't acknowledge the save, Barack Obama made,when we were on the precipatous edge of our country's financial disaster. However employment has been getting better, stimulus money rescued many small businesses, and the automobile exchange was sheer genius. It got fairly new, not too gas guzzling cars off the road, while selling those new ones that get better fuel mileage, that had already been on the market, and were sitting there unsold. Now there's impetus to get much less fuel dependent cars manufactured and sold. Wins on many levels.

So now he can address health care with gusto, after propagated nefarious lies turned many against his plans. There's another agenda going on there....... As I drove across this country of ours a few weeks ago on a Sunday, I was appalled in the mid west to hear blasphemy spoken from church pulpits, on the radio! The lies that had been carefully peeled away from the substance of the health care bill, were being repeated; and congregations persuaded to turn away from an honorable President's thoughtful respect for all of our health care needs.

It seems that racists, mongers of greed, and those insurance and pharmaceutical companies who turned health care into rubble are at it again. For a while, health care bills were sent to insurance companies without our being given notice of them, therefore we were uninformed about the extent of wildness to which the expenses of care reached. Only those without insurance that covered medications, knew that costs were escalating at a previously unheard of rate. In fact, pharmacists told me, the manufacturing companies changed the cost of prescriptions daily, according to their worth on the stock market! Hospitals were eliminating some drugs from their pharmacies' formulary list, which prevented continuity of treatment for admitted patients; and increasing their premiums to the extent that employees were made to share in their cost.

All that was quietly tolerated when unemployment rates kept people at increasingly less beneficial jobs, to maintain their salaries. Then those, too became tapped. No one who maintained their jobs dared to sacrifice their incomes, and suffered unprecidented loss of income through having to pay
inflated premiums. Does that indicate to anyone, that big business gives a hoot about the well being of their employees? Or that bankers are our trusted friends?

My bank just told me that modification of my mortgage would give me a fixed rate of interest, and the length of the term of the loan would be extended to 40 years, to make payments more affordable. I was thrilled! Then they said the starting rate would change the next year and for each of the first 5 years of the loan. Huh?? How dumb did they think I am?

"That's a variable rate", I said. "No", that bank official insisted, "It's a fixed rate and for 15 years after the yearly adjustments, the cap will be 6.5%". They don't know what the rate will be after that, but I most likely won't live to find out - not because of the Q 5 year nudges to get me to make a living will, which have been called ghastly things by those who don't want us secure in our country's leadership - but because I'd be over 90 years of age. My family hasn't longevity in our DNA........

Being from Canada, with many family members and friends there, I know many incredibly wealthy people there who don't take their health needs needs here. They realise that the treatment they need isn't urgent, and
wait until their turn to have whatever treatment is needed (unless their condition worsens, at which time they're placed at the head of the line).

It's those who want what they want when they want it, who come here at great expense, and may be told their condition is worse than it is - I knew a man who was told that here; and he returned to Canada, was reassured and had the treatment done in a timely manner (which doesn't mean, as it does here, immediately). I was told in the USA that I needed to have my knee replaced the following week, 5 years ago. However when I found that the surgeon would be retiring the day after my surgery, I decided to use the knee band recomended by PT. I've had no pain since then!
DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR, THAT'S NEGATIVE ABOUT THE NEW HEALTH CARE BILL!!!

Medicare is not broke. I and those millions of people who have worked here, paid into that plan our entire working years. The inflation in hospital, medication, and doctor costs must be turned around, so it doesn't leave us with less than we put in!! It's those who are greedy and charge hugely that more and more threaten our health as they fear being monitored or bargained down. They are spreading untruths so they won't be made to keep yjeir prices reasonable, which will happen with the reform of health care!!

A small bank where I kept my meager money has done just as much harm to me through undeserved exorbitant charges, as big banks do! When I refused to pay them, they blackballed me and I can't get any other bank to take my money, until I give in to the other bank's fraudulent demands for $66.

That wasn't a problem, until I wanted to cash my social security check.......
made out by Bank of America, but they won't cash it!

Stick with Obama and your frustration will yield to hope and excitement when finally the bad guys are trumped.