Lipoma

You don't HAVE TO do med-surg for a year before going into a specialty. I started off in the ER, and I'm 10 weeks in. I give props to all med-surg nurses because I couldn't do it. The ER is hectic but I couldn't fathom doing head-to-toe assessments for 4-5 patients and do all that you guys do. I prefer focused assessment over head-to-toe. Many of my classmates started out in the ER, ICU, OR, Mother-Baby, OB-GYN, etc...I only know of 1-2 that started in LTAC or med-surg. Like you tho, I feel like I'm drowning in the ER but that's expected. All new grads struggle with time management and completing tasks in an efficient manner. My preceptor told me it's going to take 1-2 years to feel somewhat comfortable.

My hospital didn't require it...My friend's hospital did.

Thank you. I had 3 years of experience working in urgent care as a medical assistant with the last year being PRN because I was out of state for nursing school. That said, I was hired with 7 other new grads in the ED. They had no prior experience. I knew limiting myself to those 2 areas was a disservice to myself but I couldn't convince myself to apply to inpatient positions. It takes a special nurse to work inpatient and that is not me. Apply to atleast 5 positions per day until you get offered a position. That's what I did. I think I submitted around 20 applications over the span of 2 months to 5-10 different hospitals/clinics

The whole application process (especially for new grads) is torturous. I graduated in Aug...applied in September...didn't get a call for an interview until October...interviewed early Oct...offered position 3 weeks later...started orientation mid November. Overall, it was a 2 month process. I was also picky in where and what positions I applied for...I limited myself to only emergency departments and urgent care centers. One of the urgent care clinics offered me an interview and I had thought I had it in the bag...but they ghosted me. Although passing the NCLEX in 75 questions is a great personal achievement, employers only care for the RN license. Congrats on the Latin honors!

Cramming will absolutely do you NO good. Your best bet is to continue doing 75-100 questions a day with whatever study material you've been using. If 1-2 years of nursing school isn't enough to learn everything, 1 week of cramming won't either. Be confident, you'll do great, and you will pass

I struggled with general chemistry and general biology. Thoroughly enjoyed micro, A&P, and nutrition. Absolutely hated chemistry and college algebra. Statistics was meh and psychology was boring. I did a 12 month accelerated BSN program and it was much more enjoyable than my 5 years spent in undergrad. The material wasn't hard because it was applicable to real life. That said, it was intense, time-consuming, and often annoying due to random changes and the unorganized instructors. But I would rather suffer through nursing school again than to redo 5 years of useless classes. To put things into perspective...I completed my first undergrad with a 3.5 while I completed nursing school with a ~3.7. But, its easy to burnout in nursing school due to time commitment required.

87-90% of US-trained RNs pass the NCLEX on the first try. Your school is making excuses for doing a poor job in preparing you for a test that is testing you at a minimum competency level. My class had a 100% first-time pass rate and we all graduated in Aug.

A temp license isn't worth it imo I had a few classmates that paid for it, only to work for 2 weeks then immediately began working under their actual RN license. Just schedule your nclex at the earliest date you can take it.

I am too haha! I graduated Aug 24 and took it Oct 1st, but didn't actually started studying until I got my att which was Sept 20. So it was more like 9-10 days.

If the question specifically state "round to the nearest tenth, whole, etc" then I round. If it doesn't say to round, I don't round. In that question it doesn't say to round so I'd say 2.27 mL.

I studied for 11 days using Kaplan (100 questions a day) and passed. Kaplan was definitely harder than the NCLEX. The format of Kaplan was pretty identical to the NCLEX-RN.

I agree with others about taking the NCLEX first. I had a buddy backpacked in Europe for 3 weeks before taking the NCLEX. He passed. Me, on the other hand, will be going on a cruise this week for 2 weeks. If I had gone before taking the NCLEX, I wouldn't have fully enjoyed because I'd be worrying about the NCLEX lol.

I'm also a new grad and I'm starting off in the ER. When I did my last rotation as a student in the ER, we saw everything! ER nurses are true generalists.

I interviewed at a UC as a new grad and the only qualifications they required was RN and BLS. They did have ACLS equipment like intubation kits...but that was for the providers. I ended up accepting an ER position over the UC position.

I worked as an MA in an urgent care and I was mostly 3 12s 7:45a - 8:15p. We didn't hire RNs so the majority of my scope was nursing interventions without the RN title or pay. I was making 32K as an MA after 2 years of experience (which included OT). As a new RN, that has more than doubled with a 72hr pp without OT. My MA job was not easy because I had multiple patients to triage for the provider and then do ancillary services/occ health like drug screens, pre-employment vaccines etc. I 90% of my job was patient care so I want to say I lucked out with that position. Becoming a RN was the next logical step. Now the only difference between my former experience and my current experience is that I am held liable since I now have a license...and the fact that I am MUCH more educated and can better handle emergent situations.