ER Nurses: Do you perfer to work in hospital er's or free standing er's? Why?

[bella201]

What are the pros/cons to each? I am a future nursing student and would like to become an ER nurse. Also did any of you go straight to working in the er after graduating from nursing school? This is what I plan to do. Would you recommend it? Why or why not? How did you go about getting an internship/preceptorship in the er? Is the internship/preceptorship during nursing school or after? I am told that one does not have to be certified in ER nursing to work as an er nurse. Is that true? If it is, do you recommend getting certified? Has not being certified become a hindrance to finding a job/keeping a job? Do any of you work weekends only? By weekend's I mean specifically saturday and sunday only. This would be the ideal schedule for me but I am open to other arrangements. What's your schedule like? Are they the typical 10hr /12hr/16hr shifts? And in general, what tips/recommendations can you give me as a future nursing student? Especially for clinicals. What should I do and not do during nursing school? If you could go back in time what would have you done differently? Thank You.

FYI: As of right now I am completing the pre-requisite classes for the nursing program and will apply to the program in 2014

[missnurse01, MSN, RN]

Well there is a lot there isn't there...questions I mean ! The best thing you can do is see if you can shadow an er nurse. Many hospitals allow students to do this.

Some short answers-in school just do everthing asked of you and always be smiling and willing to try anything.

Most places do 12 hour shifts , some have 8's thrown in. Yes place will let you work weekend's only but that's only 24 hours so you would still need more during the week if you need to work full time. Also when you orient you do that on your preceptors

schedule , not yours. And orientation happens when you are hired to a job after you graduate. You may have clinical in the er during school. Think about working to get a tech job in the er during school.

Many places like if you have your cen (certified emergency nurse) but you cant apply to take the test until you have worked a certain amount of hours in the er.

I did not go straight to er. It is very different then floor nursing. I am not sure how I feel about new grads. They seem very stressed with the fast flow and everything they need to know. I think time on a floor to learn procedures and different drugs would be helpful before being dumped in the er and them expecting you to know all of that.

Anyway , good luck !

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Try searching in this forum. You'll find answers to all of your questions.

Anyway, with respect to certification (CEN), there is no minimum amount of time you must work before taking the exam. Most folks seem to get a couple of years in first. That said, passing the exam states that you are an expert in the field. So even if you pass, without any actual experience, are you truly an expert?

Weekends only, aka Baylor, has you work 24 hours (sat/sun), get paid for 36 hours, are considered full time and get 1 weekend off each quarter. That's how my hospital does it.

[One1, BSN, RN]

I'd recommend you get your EMT-B + IV certification and look for a ER tech job while you are in nursing school. It'll show you if you really would like working in the ER or if you like the idea of working in the ER. It also exposes you to a lot of "typical" ER situations and patients, and can help you build a relationship with a potential future employer.

Some ERs do not have weekend-only options, and every nurse has to work a certain amount of weekends per schedule, other ERs do, so find out before you apply. See that you can get your senior clinical in an ER, although that is sometimes easier said than done. Yes, you can make it as a new grad in the ER but it is not easy, and you need to be willing to spend some time at home researching and learning about things you weren't strong in at work. I would not recommend getting your CEN prior to having some experience. Technically you can, but like the previous poster said, are you really specialized if you have all the book knowledge and zero experience?