New Grads in ICU & Overtime Availability

[MHaffer]

I am currently still in school (Accelerated BSN) and I am hoping to go into ICU when I finish. The first thing I am wondering is how likely it is for a new grad to get hired in the ICU? I live in Cleveland and there is just a plethora of hospitals around here, but I have noticed that many of them prefer at least 1 year of experience for ICU. Anyone here get an ICU job as a new grad?

The next question I have is how overtime works with most hospitals. With the current demand, do RNs work as much overtime as they want? Or do most hospitals have required overtime or a limited number of overtime hours? I would like to work as many extra hours as I can manage, both for the experience and the extra $.

Any input is appreciated!

[hellerd2003, RN]

It all depends on the area, and when you are applying.

For example, when I was hired 3 years ago as a new grad, I moved to the SW and had job opportunities in ICU in 3 different hospitals.

Now, the hospital in which I work does not accept new grads into ICU. To be honest, to get into ICU, you need to first work in our stepdown unit. Our stepdown does accept new grads, although most are on night shift.

In our hospital, overtime is voluntary. If you want it, it's generally yours. If you don't want it, you can turn it down. If you have overtime on your schedule, and someone else is on regular time, you're cancelled. Don't count, however, on OT scheduling to supplement your income. The economy is too bad for that.

[uptoRNin04]

I work in MICU in a hospital in Florida. Surprisingly, all our new nurses are new grads. For some reason it is rare for nurses on our other floors to transfer to ICU. We do get RN's with experience when they move here from another state but rarely in house transfers. Most of our new RN's were techs in our unit and have been groomed from all of our nurses from the day they started as techs. Overtime is not usually a problem and readily available if you want. Good Luck to you !!!!!!