rileyjw90

I recently bought a couple sets of navy Figs scrubs after I got a bonus at work for referring a nurse friend who accepted a position (expensive but man are these things comfy!). I like to wear jackets with my scrubs but I find the 2 womens scrub jackets offered by Figs to be…unattractive, if I’m being honest. I went to a local scrub shop to see if I could find a jacket to match but the Figs navy seems to be a pretty unique blend. Has anyone else managed to find a close match? If I can’t find anything I might just get a men’s Figs jacket as they look a lot closer to the style I wear in WonderWink jackets, but of course they’re nearly $100 a pop so I’d prefer to avoid going that route if I can.

Thanks for the response! I am similar in that I can run on less sleep, usually 5-6 is fine for me. I struggle more with staying up for that many hours in a row, however. And I’m glad to hear it’ll be good for me to start ICU on nights. I’ve been there for a couple weeks with a preceptor on days and dealing with family is probably the hardest part about it right now, especially the ones who think their Google searches know more than we or the doctors do.

Also, and I hate to say it, COVID cases that result in critical care has been trashing a lot of kidneys. Especially if there was any sort of prior underlying kidney condition or comorbidity. In the ICU I am at, we have several on prisma and several on hemodialysis that were not on dialysis prior to getting COVID.

So, I will be starting night shift next week. I just finished 10 weeks of new grad rotations and have settled on ICU, and since I have been wanting nights since I was initially interviewed, I will be doing a 3-shift trial on nights before my official ICU interview. I have already been endorsed to the ICU RN manager by both my preceptor and the RN supervisor, as well as my new grad supervisor, and they are super short on nights, so I've been told the "official" interview is a formality, so the night shift thing will most likely be permanent for me. I worked nights several years ago when I was a phlebot at a huge hospital. It was 5 days for 8 hours and I had a newborn at home. I did not last, as I kept having micro-sleeps on the way home and it freaked me out too much. I also was not taking ADHD meds at the time. Now, it is 3 12s, I do not have a newborn, and I have ADHD meds that I take qAM. My question is, for those nurses or techs with ADHD working nights, do you take your meds before your shift? A few hours before? How about on your days off? I really don't want to struggle taking them all over the place, as I do actually need them to help with focus and concentration even when I am not at work. I also am not totally sure on how to handle sleep on your days off. Do you try to stay up all night on days off, or just stay up later before going to bed? I just know a lot of folks who are super tired all the time and don't want to be a zombie constantly. I see others who seem to thrive on nights and have no issues whatsoever.

Digging this month old thread up to ask how your interview went. Interviewing in a couple weeks for an ICU nursing fellowship for new grads and also looking for tips!

I have applied to a couple nurse residency positions. One was just a straight up residency and really no different than a regular staff RN. It's a huge health system through the state university and it says right on their website that all new grad hires are automatically enrolled into the nurse residency program. I applied several days ago but have not heard back. The other one I submitted my information to was for a new grad nursing fellowship, and is unit-specific. They have med-surg, surgical, ED, and critical care fellowships. It's also a large health system, though private, and have several large hospitals in the network, so I'm fairly certain there will be multiple fellowships available. I actually submitted the information at the tail end of December and then heard back a couple days ago. Emailed back and forth a little with the program director to clarify some qualifications and then she formally invited me to submit an official fellowship application and sign up for an interview slot to take place the second week of February. The fact that the interviews are only a few weeks away tells me that you should definitely already be looking and applying if it's something a little more competitive you're going for, like a fellowship. Otherwise, in my general searches, I've seen tons of job posting for regular staff RNs that do not list any specific experience requirements. Right now with the pandemic, I think may places that might have been more stringent before are loosening their requirements in favor of getting warm bodies in to work. I also know that many systems actually like hiring in new grads, because it's like cracking open a fresh container of play-doh that they can mold into any shape they want. They don't want established bad habits, they want someone they can build from the ground up to fit their unit's needs perfectly. I will say, I am in a very large city. If you're in a smaller city or town and not finding a lot of opportunity, expand your search to the closest bigger city. Some places are offering higher bonuses to people driving from further away, or are paying more to make up for travel expenses. If you don't have young children at home and can devote a little more time to driving, or can even move closer to a bigger city, then that might be better for your job prospects. Good luck! Can't wait to graduate in May!!