ripsky4501

Do nurses working in California get overtime pay for hours worked over 8 in a day? For example, say you are scheduled to work three 12 hour days in a week: do you get paid for 12 of those hours (4+4+4 extra hours worked each day) at time-and-a-half? Thanks.

Hi all, I'm a new grad and will be starting my first RN job in the OR in a little over a month. I want to start learning and to have a good reference on hand. I've heard good recommendations for both of these textbooks. I'm sure I wouldn't go wrong with either, but which would you recommend and why? Or another book? Or additional books? Thanks in advance.

As a new grad, if I wanted to work in the OR after getting a few years of experience, what specialties would be best to work in to prepare for it, i.e. in terms of learning the most roughly applicable and transferable soft and hard skills? Thanks in advance.

I just graduated from an accelerated BSN program. I studied maybe on average 2 hours a day. It really depends on lots of factors like how efficient you are with studying, how tough and fast your program is, what GPA you are aiming for, how hard the specific class is, etc. My critical care class was devilishly hard because of the teacher's tricky tests and I studied wayyy more for that class than any other.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, come out here! There are many job openings for RNs with at least a year of acute care experience on almost every hospital job board I've looked at.

Thank you for the reply. Does anyone else have any suggestions? A few more questions to spur some ideas... In your state, if you were a new grad and got a job, was it particularly difficult? How long did it take? How many applications did you send out compared to how many interviews you got? Were there lots of other interviewees at your interviews, i.e. lots of competition? How about for your fellow new grads? Just a reflection on your experience getting your first job would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I'm a licensed new grad in California and it is very hard and competitive to find an acute care hospital job here. I'm hopeful to find one here in the near future, but just in case I don't I want to endorse my license to another state as a backup. The process is quite expensive so I would endorse to at most a few. Does anyone have any idea of states that have a lot of entry level or new grad acute care hospital job openings? And are not crazy competitive? Thanks in advance.

Took it July 2, test shut off at 75, was pretty confident I passed. Very happy to see just now that my license has been posted! I'm in California. Used Kaplan and my own Anki flashcards. Questions felt a bit easier than Kaplan overall. They prepare you well.

Are there any nursing specialties/units in the hospital where this flexing is less common?

I'm a BSN student graduating in June. One of my instructors suggested I join a professional nursing association in what I may be interested in, e.g. AACN, and attending a conference or two. I haven't done so because I'm not exactly sure what specialty I will pursue. I'm also wary of putting, e.g., AACN on my resume when I will be applying to jobs and new grad programs that aren't critical care; I'm afraid the employer may see that as an indication I would want to move on once I get the minimum amount of experience, thus making me a less desirable hire. I figure joining the ANA is a safe bet because it's general, but my question is whether it will be helpful on the resume. I figure at worst it won't hurt but I'm wondering if it's worth the money. The primary purpose of joining anything is to enhance my hirability for that first job. Any thoughts or opinions? Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I'll be graduating my BSN program in a few months. I will definitely get ACLS and PALS certification before graduating. Is it worth it to do an online EKG course like this one from AACN, https://www.aacn.org/education/online-courses/basic-ecg-interpretation ? Or are there other better options? Thanks.

Hello all, I will be starting my ABSN program in a few months. I'd like to start studying so I'm well prepared. Can you recommend any good resources to get started? What subjects are most important to really get down pat that will be of great aid to me in the fast paced program? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Interesting, I expected all of them to require at least one letter of recommendation. That's not the case for the ABSN programs you know of in Indiana?

Hello, I'm curious if the admissions staff at ABSN programs generally put any weight on what university their applicants got their undergraduate from and if they do, how much. I'm going to get my undergraduate at a fairly good school—UC Davis—and I'm wondering if this will help me at all when applying or if it's more or less irrelevant. Again, I'm asking for the general trend: I'm sure there are extremes that don't follow whatever that trend may be. Also, I'm curious if ABSN programs put any weight on what an applicant's undergraduate degree is actually in. My major is Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior (the degree that most pre-meds take here, AFAIK) and I will be getting a BS. Will this carry more weight than a less relevant and/or less rigorous degree? Finally, the impression that I get after reading a few threads here is that GPA is, for many ABSN programs, the most important factor in determining whether an applicant is accepted or not. Is this generally the case? What other factors are weighted very highly and what factors are relatively less important? I apologize if these questions sound rather general. I hope to learn more as I read and participate more on this forum. Thank you.