ER position

*bump*

It may be tricky to get your foot in the door there without experience, although I'm sure that this would depend on your location and the competition for ER positions. I precepted in an ER, and am currently working in an urgent care clinic with the goal of applying to an ER once I have a solid foundation in my current job. I'm thinking that your best bet might be to call the HR department of the hospital where you're interested in applying and asking what their requirements are. Good luck to you!

Apply. The worst that can happen is that they don't call. If you get the job you may love it, or if you hate it, at least you get experience. Nothing ventured is nothing gained

I interviewed in an ER for a new grad position, but I chose to take a med surg residency position instead. I have several friends who are new grads who are in their fourth month of ER orientation. It varies from hospital to hospital, but from what I understand ER new grad orientation is longer than say a med surg orientation. I too would check with the hospitals HR department.

I started in the ER as a new grad in 2007, I was lucky and got to go through a 6month residency, which made the transition from a new-grad to ER nurse very smooth. I enjoyed every day of the 7 years I worked there. It was, and to this day has been my favorite job. There is something about the ER that gravitates certain personalities to it more than others, you will notice as you start working how people tend to fall within the stereotype of their respective work environment (ER, ICU, OR, L&D, etc...). From my experience, people who liked ER, loved it from day one. Those who didn't left quickly.

Here is how I would describe ER work as a nurse: Your work flow comes in unpredictable waves, you can go from 0-100 in a split second! This happens because there is no agenda, no rules, and no schedules. Patients come when they choose! The flip side is, there are down-times as well!

Your weakest link is the unknown, the brewing cardiac arrest in the lobby, the four people coming from a car wreck by ambulance, the suicidal teenager, the girl that's giving birth as she is walking in. These things can (and will!) hit you all at once. This is what makes the job so exciting, dynamic, and unlike anything else. You get to work with every single kind of patient. You get to develop amazing relationships with your coworkers, who you will depend on, and they will depend on you. You WILL be a team player; else you wont survive.

Your role is critical, because meanwhile there is a doctor right next to you, you will be seeing the patients long before the doctor gets to. It is your job to figure out which ticking time-bomb you need to diffuse first.

ER nursing is procedure oriented, you will be starting IVs, getting labs, and EKGs on just about all your patients. You also get to participate in tons of procedures, traumas, airway control, bone reductions, chest tubes, wound repairs, the list is long. You will hone your assessment skills, you will be making judgment calls on what's going on, and how to address it long before you have anything objective, sometimes not even vital signs.

What you will not get to do in the ER is a whole lot of actual nursing. You will have absolutely no concept of what a medsurg nurse does, you will not learn how to follow a patient along their hospital course, how treatments impact patients long term… And as such, you will be doomed to misunderstand the frustrations of an inpatient nurse, simply because you two are looking at the same thing from completely different angles.

If what I describe sounds like something you would enjoy, then apply for the job and enjoy the ride!

One more thing, as a new grad its not your skills or knowledge that will get you the job, it's the attitude that you bring to the table. Be positive, teachable, and fun to be around. Leave the attitude at home.

We had several new nurses in orientation who got hired for the ER, so I would say go for it if you believe that you can learn it and do it. Don't be afraid to try what you want to do......