Moving to Fort Collins, info. please.....

U.S.A. Colorado

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I am considering a move to Fort Collins, CO. I have family there and would like to be near them. Can you give me any information about Fort Collins, such as, do they have a hospital? What is the average pay for a new grad RN? Do you suggest a better place to work? Do you have a suggestion for apartment rentals? Do you like the community? And so on...... Anything you think will be useful for me to know, please share. :o)

Thank you!! :p

Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.
Well this is not what the HR lady told me that I spoke to about a month ago at all. I assumed she knew what she was talking about, but maybe I was wrong in assuming. The whole reason I contacted her was to find out what is the best thing for a NS to do to help up their chances of getting hired on at PVH. That is when she gave me specifics and none of which is what you mentioned.

Banner put a freeze on tuition reimbursement according to a couple of friends I have that work there. They had to put their schooling on hold because of it. They weren't going for nursing though it was another field so I am not sure if it only effected them.

What I described was what was going on with new graduate hiring up to 1 year ago when I was working as a RN for PVH.

Maybe things have (or are) changing, but if you look at the PVH online 'job board' you would have seen that there is a 'contract new grad RN' (it isn't there presently) in which you can only apply with them if you have a 'contract.' Right now they are hiring for a new grad ER nurse w\o contract but i assure you they will get around 100 applicants. Maybe they have eliminated the 'contract positions.' Don't know, don't care, don't work/live there anymore.

A friend of mine who started the FRCC program last year said that on the first day of class they were warned that not many new graduates were getting hired with PVH, which is what my experience was in working there.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

Well I can only go off the information HR gave me recently.

According to her, they have about 4 new grad ER positions open up a year and they have about 24 new grad positions each semester that are reserved with their contracts with 3 nursing schools, FRCC is one of them.

She also said right now their are not many, but that when you see the new grad jobs listed on the web site that those are open to everyone.

I am merely passing along the most recent information I have received to those interested as I do live here currently, and go to school here and plan on working at PVH. I am not to worried about getting a job there. I don't graduate for 2 more years.

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Hey, Just thought I would chime in here. I moved here a year ago as a new grad from NC. I did get an interview for the ED, but did not get the job. Four months later they had another opening for new grads "without a contract" on the spine/neuro floor, but they were interviewing experienced nurses as well as new grads. My interview lasted over an hour with 4 scenario questions at the end. I did get a very nice rejection letter. In the end I went back to NC and worked as a new grad at the hospital that I did my clinicals. Last January I got an offer at the county jail, so I was able to move back to Fort Collins. At the jail I work with 4 other new grads that were unable to get local hospital jobs. One of the new grads actually worked for years as a CNA at Poudre, but did not apply for the contract,so did not get hired. If you have a year of acute care experience, there are jobs for you here.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

That is really sad about the CNA who they wouldn't hire.....experience and dedication should count for something. PVH did seem really big on giving those contracts to people with previous bachelors degrees. I was somewhat surprised when I worked there by how many RN's (and CNA's) there did have other BS degrees but then turned to nsg school apparently b/c they couldn't get jobs with those degrees.

I do hope things get easier for new grads to get that 1 year acute care experience like you describe.....from reading other posts (on allnurses) it sounds like it is difficult all over CO and in many other states right now.

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Update on PVH student contracts:

I recently spoke with FRCC and UNC (the local nursing schools) and they both said that this is the last year that PVH will be having contracts with new grad students. The 'contracts' were actually scholarships that some students received in exchange for working with the hospital for a designated time after graduation. UNC said that PVH has a ton of newer nurses with ADNs and they want to train them up to BSNs before taking on more ADN new grads. PVH's website still shows that they have local contracts with schools, but I imagine that info will be coming down soon.

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Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

Funny how things change in a year, isn't it? Or even a semester. :(

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

They now have contracts with the actual school. My semester is the last semester they did it with the actual student. There are I think 6 people in my class on contracts with PVH and the contracts/scholarships were for previous Bachelor degree students.

According to PVH they have contracts with 3 schools to hire a total (between all 3 schools) of 25 students per semester. They get these students from 4 semester placements and the STAR Internship. Meaning that is where they look out for the candidates. This is what I was told from 3 different resources from inside PVH that work in the hiring area.

Again though, things seem to change from one semester to the next. I applied for the STAR internship, it's really hard to get though and experience counts for a lot. But I did get called for an interview and not everyone that applied did so I have a small ounce of hope. I was told from the lady that a lot of the job offers come from these internship spots if the student does well.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Hey, Just thought I would chime in here. I moved here a year ago as a new grad from NC. I did get an interview for the ED, but did not get the job. Four months later they had another opening for new grads "without a contract" on the spine/neuro floor, but they were interviewing experienced nurses as well as new grads. My interview lasted over an hour with 4 scenario questions at the end. I did get a very nice rejection letter. In the end I went back to NC and worked as a new grad at the hospital that I did my clinicals. Last January I got an offer at the county jail, so I was able to move back to Fort Collins. At the jail I work with 4 other new grads that were unable to get local hospital jobs. One of the new grads actually worked for years as a CNA at Poudre, but did not apply for the contract,so did not get hired. If you have a year of acute care experience, there are jobs for you here.

So are you working at LCDC? For our Muliti Cultural Project last semester I shadowed a nurse there. She hired on as a new grad from DSON. Anyway, it made me consider working there. I know most jail and prison jobs are not ideal, but from talking to, shoot I can't remember her name now, I am sure I will after. Anyway LCDC seems like it would be a good jail to work for. I was impressed.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.
Funny how things change in a year, isn't it? Or even a semester. :(

No kidding! I started working for PVH as a unit assistant/cna in 2002 - there were probably 75+ vacancies at any time on their job board and you could pretty much choose your unit. I graduated from frcc nsg school in may '05 and about that time there became fewer 'open positions'. Although all over the news media you would hear about the massive nursing shortage - it didn't really seem to be so in northern CO. .

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