Where would you like to work after graduation

[WildShot]

never mind

[sunnyjohn]

Thanks for clarifying that as I had no idea. I assume one could start in the OR without prior experience?

You can start in the OR as a new graduate. Some hospitals have Operating Room internships just like they do in other areas in the hospital.

In order to become a CNOR you have to have 2400 hours and 2 years of experience as an operating room nurse.

Check out the website of AORN, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses

http://www.aorn.org/

This is the website of CCI, the Competency & Credentialing Institute.

http://www.cc-institute.org/cert_cnor_abou.aspx

[labman]

I really want a job in the intensive care unit when I graduate or intermediate care floor to learn the basics. I have big dreams of becoming a CRNA. Hopefully I will even be half way motivated to go back to school when I get done.

[casualjim]

ER, I'm coming from EMS and Military field med background. I'll do whatever it takes to stick with that. Well pretty much whatever :chuckle

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

I would love to do OR/ER/ICU :)

If I graduate that is

[Swedenboi6]

After I graduate as an RN I'm looking forward to either working in the OR/RR, Acute Care/Rehab, or as a Forensics Nurse. And if the mood suits me I'll attend a graduate program to become an FNP.

[B.H]

Any type of ICU for a year or two, then hopefully get into a CRNA program somewhere.

[CSimonFan]

When I finish RN school, I would like to work in MICU or CICU in the hospital where I now volunteer. It is an excellent teaching hospital and also the home of the #1 heart surgeon in the world! He is quite "The Man" and his word is law there. One of the things I like about the ICU area are the 15 minute only visiting hours. The nurses run the show and the visitors do what the nurses tell them to do. That way you don't have to deal with visitors all day long and the attitudes that they bring with them when they visit!

[sdgreen]

IF at all possible I would like to do 6 months in Med-Surg to get my feet wet. Then I would like to do ICU.

I like being able to move around. I am hoping within 5 years I will be experiences in ICU, Peds, PACU, Med-surg and OR.

Agape

This is probably the best post I've seen thus far, and makes GREAT SENSE!!

I know, the Med/Surg experience in school really bites, and is often the reason that nobody wants to work there after school (with few exceptions). For me, Med/Surg just seemed like a place for old burned-out nurses who spent most of the day squabbling about personal agendas, or eating food. As students, we were farmed through the patients that most nurses would just assume shy away from. All in all, this made for a poor appearance of M/S.

During school, I was a tech in the ER and Surgery. I worked at a local hospital that encouraged diversity in their employees, rather than repressing it. I felt I learned from the best ER nurses there, and once having graduated, I promptly began working part-time in the ER. It was a "scary" feeling to finally be out of school, and assuming this level of responsibility.

In due time, I eventually came to resent my decision of going to the ER after school, mostly because of the "abuse" of the ER by patients (many who did not need to be there), and the looming reality that as a new graduate, I simply did not encompass that "nurse gut-feeling" that I knew would take YEARS to craft and understand. I decided then to work part-time on M/S and p/t in ER. This made for a good variety. It allowed me to hone my assessment skills, time management, and the increased understanding of the patho-physiology of many medical conditions. It really was a great adjunct to my working education. After about 3 years of this, I eventually felt a niche' for the M/S floor, and ended up leaving the ER. I felt I could provide a better and more fulfilling level of care for patients on the M/S floor than the ER. ER is simple in many ways -- get 'em in, get 'em out, but nobody stays. Not to mention -- you've got a doctor to guide your every move. Well...not always. Don't get me wrong, it's not a party there -- it's HARD WORK!! But my belief stands (by experience) that new grads should reconsider working the ER, ICU, etc., until they've climbed some ladders. I think THEN, they get a level of respect that is well deserved. They've honed their skills, and now they're ready to take on a higher level of intensity, training, and thinking! Remember, just because a GN passes the nursing exam, doesn't suddenly equivocate to their ability to care for a patient in high-level areas. There is a WORLD to learn after school, and one that NONE of us can begin scrape the surface on.

Please realize that many years ago, it just wasn't this way. Preceptorships in high acuity areas were given traditionally to established nurses who had "earned their stripes", per se. Not to new graduates out of school. Now, with the nursing shortage, we have no choice. There is no "right of passage," but a humble acceptance that this is the way it is. It just is.

I know this sounds like I'm raining on peoples' parade, but I mean no harm. Just some advice from someone who's been around the hospital block a few times. You may want to consider those "skills" you have, and decide if you're really ready to take on caring for the life of that premature child, the patient with a head bleed, or the person who was flung through the windshield of a car; clinging on to a thread of life. --- As that new GN, ask yourself -- "am I ready for that?"

Best of luck to all of you, and make the right choice.

Above all, strive to not only succeed, but to do the very best you can!

Your patients are counting on you! Their lives are in your hands!

All the best,

~Sean

[Hex, LPN]

CRNA

Hopefully in NYC