NAtoRN

I understand your anguish! I've been off orientation for 6 weeks and some days are horrible and leave me feeling like I wish I was still in school? Thank you for posting this question; reading all these comments has made me feel better. Exercise has definitely helped with my anxiety and I ask questions whenever I'm unsure of things. It also helps me alot to remember that the first year of nursing is usually very difficult; that way I expect difficulty and know I have to stick it out. Good luck! Feel freel to send me private messages if you want to!

I'm a new nurse. I started out on days on my stroke unit. It's really busy and often short staffed during my day shift. The nurses help eachother as much as they can. I think the big thing is, are you a day person or a night person? I am totally a day person so I was thrilled to work days no matter what.

We wear those crappy surgical masks at work. When I work 2-3 days in a row, I cough alot when I first get up then usually feel better. Recently, the hospital switched to lower quality surgical masks and today my lungs and throat hurt. I can't tell if I'm getting sick or it's the masks.

Navelyn- I took a position in a neuro unit and also got a day shift?. All the questions were behavioral- what would you do if: you had a difficult patient, why are you a good candidate, whats your personality, tell me how you treat others. Also, it was helpful to Google Nursing interview questions. Nurse Sarah(nurseRN.com) had a good list

As a new grad nurse who just worked my first 4 shifts on the floor with my preceptor, I completely agree. My clinicals did not provide sufficient experience and my school does not have the capstone at the end where you are one on on with a hospital nurse for multiple weeks. I am so thankful that I worked as a nurse assistant while I was in school; it was great experience, but I still have sooooo much to learn. Why aren't nursing schools run by hospitals anymore?

Thanks for sharing. I think this stuff is so interesting!

I'm a new grad with 3 interviews at the same hospital. Yesterday I had a brief phone interview for a neuro ICU step down unit and the manager told me that she is going to tell HR to call my references and if everything checks out, I'd be getting an offer within a week. Is this standard procedure? It seems weird to me that she could decide that quickly. Today, I have a Facetime interview for an orthopedic/spine post-op floor and tomorrow I have an in-person interview for a telemetry floor. If I get multiple offers, what criteria should I use to help me decide? Is it weird how quickly the first interview progressed? Should I try to find someone who works at the hospital to get an insider's input? I have been a nurse assistant in this hospital system for 2 years, but have not worked at this specific hospital. They are all fulltime night positions. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you for your help!

Thank you for your responses. This will be my first interview and it is in a covid only hospital. I'm assuming they are hiring more nurses to eventually reopen as a fullfledged hospital based on the variety of positions they have posted.

I just graduated from nursing school, taking the NCLEX 6/5/2020. I have an interview at a COVID only hospital. I'm having second thoughts- would this be a bad place for a new nurse to start?

Be glad that your school has a plan!! We are still waiting for answers from ours. They’ve switched to on Lin classes, but still have to get the secure testing for us to do tests from home. They said they are working on a replacement for clinicals to be approved. And theses other responders are right- clinicals are a joke!! Maybe some schools are good, but I feel like mine can’t teach us much because we have 1 instructor and 8 students! I just pray that we are able to finish in May so I can get a job and really learn to be a nurse!

Are any schools replacing clinicals with something else?

I'm in my last semester at a community college associates program. They have great NCLEX passing rates, but I can tell you that most of the students in my class feel like we are lacking in clinical skills and that our clinical rotations have been limited. We have 1 instructor for each group of 8 students. My advice is go to a BSN program because in their last semester, they have a multiple week preceptorship/capstone where one nursing student works with one nurse and learns alot more than in the typical 8 students to 1 instructor situations. As far as I know, only BSN programs have preceptorships/capstones.

Nursing assistant jobs give you alot of patient experieince and if you are good, you will most likely be offered a position as an RN after school. If you can get hired per diem instead of part time, the scheduling is much more flexible. My first semester of school I worked part time which meant I had to work 3 days a week; I made it but it was very difficult to juggle with school and kids. I switched to perdiem my second semester and my stress level has dropped tremendously.

When you study for tests, do you do the practice NCLEX style questions? They are really helpful.

I am currently in my second semester of an ADN program and I feel so unprepared! I really wish we had more clinical experience. I’m so glad I started working as a nurse assistant before school or I would feel even more unprepared. Six clinical days in each semester is not enough!!!