NEW GRAD Inner city ER

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Hello everyone. I'm a new grad who just landed my first job. I'm in the second week of orientation and will be working in the ER in ******. I'm pretty nervous beginning my new job, especially with no prior RN experience and being in the ****** ER. So, I know I'm going to see some crazy stuff. I want to love my job and hope that things go smoothly and I'm able to adjust well. From what I heard, the drop-off rate for new nurses is pretty high. Meaning a lot of new nurses leave the profession within their first year of becoming a RN. I don't want to be one of these statistics, and hope that I will love where I'm at. So, I thought I would post on allnurses and see if anyone would be kind enough to offer some insight into ER nursing, offer any tips/tricks, and let me know what I should do to prepare myself.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Psych.

Hello Browcounty, congrats on landing your first job!!! I am still in school so I can't offer any advice. Will you share a couple tips on what you think helped you to get hired?

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Thanks!! I see you're from Memphis, are you considering applying to the ***** area? Well, my interview for the ER was actually super easy LOL. I was surprised, I had plenty of interviews where the manager asked intense questions that really made me think. For example: Name a time when you didn't provide proper nursing care, and the implications this had on your patient/patients. Pretty difficult question, at least for me it is. So once you pass your NCLEX I would definitely look up online nursing interview questions, there's a ton with good answers. So I wrote a lot of those questions down, reheorificed my answers, and practiced. And surprisingly, a lot of the interview questions I found online they asked in person. But that wasn't really the case for getting hired in the ER in ******, surprisingly. They asked me pretty straight forward questions, and mostly told me about the hospital, the Unit, and etc. I would also have a few questions up your sleeve to ask the interviewer, like "Describe to me you management style..."

Secondly, what I believe helped me out in getting into an acute care setting was having prior experience in a critical care environment. In nursing school students were able to choose a specialty their final semester, so I chose the Intensive Care specialty. Therefore, I did my final clinical rotation/preceptorship exclusively in the Neurosurgical Intensive Care. A lot of places saw that I was in the Intensive Care Unit in nursing school, which many managers like if you're going into acute/critical care. Lastly, I did my pediatric clinical rotation at the hospital I'm at now. So they liked that I had experience and was familiar with them.

LASTLY, I would consider getting into a hospital and working as a CNA or Nurse Tech since you're in school right now. Something I didn't do, I mostly just wanted to focus on my grades and pass nursing school LOL. But I feel that helped out a lot of my friends who did that. And the hospital is likely to hire you once you complete your degree.

Hopefully this helps!

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Specializes in ER.

*****??? Jesus Christ..

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

There are a ton of tip/trick threads in the forum if you do a little browsing. :)

One thing to keep in mind: it is normal at first to feel like a completely incompetent idiot. Give yourself time to develop and be honest with your preceptor if you don't know something or don't get it something the first time. And offer to start as many IVs as you can! Good luck!

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Specializes in Emergency.
rearviewmirror said:
*****??? Jesus Christ..

Dr Klahn "Take him to....*****!"

Agent "No! No!"

From kentucky fried movie, one of my all-time favorites.

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Ok awesome that's what I hear Pixie.RN! Thanks for the heads up:)

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