contramanda

Just a tip I found helpful, keep a little document for yourself that reminds you of situations that occurred during clinical. That way, when it's time to interview, you'll be able to remember clinical situations and will be better able to answer those "Tell me about a time when xyz happened...". I would go over my list when I was practicing for interviews and was able to actually recall times that I dealt with conflict, implemented an idea, had an unruly patient, etc.

I didn't get the scrubs info until I went into HR for my new employee health screen and to turn in my paperwork.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this. If you have a professor you are particularly close with, like a clinical instructor, I would consider being open with them. I don't know about Chamberlain, but the school I went to had counselors specific to nursing students if they needed help with anything, school-related or not. And personal advice, seek counseling/therapy. As someone who has experience with depression, therapy is the best thing I ever did. Best of luck.

Where I live, the ADN program has an excellent reputation for teaching great clinical skills. No one in my class has had trouble getting a job. People are getting hired into ICUs, ERs, L&D, Med-Surg, etc. I think it just depends on where you live.

I've had people in my ADN program get hired into ICUs at Level I and Level II trauma centers...no capstone.

Look for a new grad residency that is for ED specifically. Where I live, they start posting positions up to 6 months before the start date, so most people have jobs before we even graduate. It's a lot of competition to get a job in the ED as a new grad. Most places I heard only take a handful of new grads every cohort out of the hundreds that apply. I was hired into an ED residency and they said that a huge reason for that was I had been a tech during school. If that's an option for you, you should definitely do that! Best of luck.

I'm not sure, I'm only doing my clinicals there so I don't really have insight into their hiring process. One of the nurses I was with on the trauma side had been a M/S nurse for a couple of years but has only been working ER for about 6 months.

St. David's South Austin Medical Center just became a Level II trauma last year and is the busiest St. David's ER. I believe they have around 70-ish beds. One side is a regular ER side and the other is a cardiac/trauma side.

I spoke with the recruiter and she said it depended on the hospital, but base pay is about $22.20-$22.70. Differentials depend on the hospital as well. In other news, I recently accepted another offer so have withdrawn my application from TriStar, but best of luck to y'all!

I really think it's a lot of luck. ER jobs are hard to get. I am also graduating with my ADN. I interviewed for ER positions at a couple of hospitals and they all said they had literally hundreds of people apply and they were only hiring a max of 3 new grads. I was lucky enough to be offered one and they told me one of the big reasons was because I was a tech during school and had experience within that hospital system as an actual employee and not just as a student. You said your interview skills/answers need work. Those situational questions are huge, because they'll tell the interviewer how you response to a crisis, what you do when you are overwhelmed, how you handle tough situations, etc. Sit down and think about a clinical day and list every thing that was a challenge or out of the ordinary and how you responded. I started keeping a list like this in my second or third semester and it helped immensely when preparing for interviews. Keep applying and best of luck!

I had a worksheet where I was given 7 scenarios and had to prioritize them and list the actions/interventions I would need to implement or expect to implement.

You're right! But I haven't spoken to an HR recruiter through this whole process, so I'm unsure of who my contact would be. Pay was not brought up during the interviews and it comes off as a taboo subject to bring up. So, I guess my next to-do item is figure out who I can ask about it!

Do y'all have any idea of what the base pay is like? I've seen some numbers but they are from posts a few years back.

I applied ED first and ICU was my second option. Fingers crossed for all of us!

I had a phone interview with the recruiter last week that was supposedly for the PICU, but he asked my questions related to location and unit preferences, so it seemed like more of a general screening. A little disappointing...