LH19rn

ajsmom, I briefly worked at a Los Angeles Plasma center in 2009 and they were paying 33.00/hr. Twenty five dollars an hour is very low pay for an RN in Los Angeles. Maybe due to the economy and so many desperate new grads looking for jobs, they have lowered their pay rate. Did you get the job? The center I worked for is Grifols. I recently saw an ad for an open position. You may want to apply there instead. I am curious to know what they are paying now. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Can you please elaborate on why the med surg experience is the only way to get a good foundation. I know you will be doing alot of procedures and busy work. Is it alot less horrible in med- surg with the new ratios of 4 patients per nurse?

If you have experienced dialysis as a relatively inexperienced nurse and then went on to get med surg experience can you please discuss your experience. After getting med surg experience did you feel it made a big difference in your dialysis nursing. I am debating whether to reenter acute care nursing in a hospital med surg unit new grad program or reentering hemodialysis which I have 8 months experience five years ago. I also did a few months of maternity nursery but I did not like it. I am wondering how essential med surg. experience would be. I eventually would like to do acutes and maybe home hemodialysis. They appeal to me because I can avoid alot of the politics that go on when you are stuck on a unit for years with the same people.

Chill598, please what company trained you for six months? How are you currently doing? Are you doing acutes now? Is it overwhelming for someone with no ER/ICU or at least Med-Surg. background? I am debating whether to start in chronic dialysis or a new grad med-surgical program. So many nurses dont want to do med-surg due to how busy it is. During this economy, not many hospitals are doing new grad programs. They all want at least one year of recent acute care experience. If I decide to do med-surg first I would have to apply at San Diego even though I am in Los Angeles because they are willing to train a bilingual nurse. I am trying to decide if I really need the med-surg experience. Please give me your insight based on your experience. If you prefer please email me privately [email protected]. Thank you.

BellaCerra, it sounds like you found a good company to get started in dialysis. I would like to find a company that takes it slow and is not going to put me in charge. I have been dissapointed after reading all the posts on Davita. I thought they would be the best company to get training in dialysis. What company are you working for and where are you located. I am in Los Angeles and I am really wanting to find a good unit to get experience in chronic dialysis and then move up to acutes.

Soulofme, would you say you have always been a faster learner and found it easier to adapt than the average person? Have you always been one of those people who are able to think well under pressure? I am wondering how you made it as a new grad RN in acutes. I imagine you must have been an above average nursing student in both clinical and theory.

Do you know how long the orientation for new RNs is at the Yountville Veterans Home? I was looking at an opening and the only requirement listed is an RN license. Desired are good customer service, communication skills. I have been looking to get into a new grad program because I never did med surg. I went into maternity nursery for a few months, did dialysis for a few months about five years ago and my most recent job was at a blood bank. Do you think they would train reentry nurses at Yountville and would this be a good place to get experience? Do they have a great need for bilingual spanish speaking nurses? Do you know what the nurse patient ratios are? I will try to call their HR tomorrow but would like to get more insight into their working conditions from someone here. The pay is great but I need to get good experience.

tirzo13 I have been reading all your posts on correctional nursing and was initially interested due to the pay. However being a female re entry nurse I was also very intimidated. In one of your posts you mention the Yountville veterans home and your interest in working for the veterans. Are you working there now? I have been working at a blood bank for the past three years and have no acute care experience besides dialysis for 8months, five years ago and a few months of maternity nursing as a new grad. I have worked in a nursing home as a CNA and it was really hard work but I enjoyed helping the elderly. Do you think the Yountville veterans home would be willing to train new grads or re entry nurses? If you got a job there how long did they orient you? How is the working environment. Your response is greatly appreciated. I am searching for a good place to get a good foundation in acute care nursing. I am in Los Angeles but I would be willing to relocate.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my dilemma. You are right, I have to get going and work hard to gain experience and I know more schooling is just a start that I was hoping would get me going on in a better direction.

That statement about it being routine was from someone who does not have alot of experience and only worked in a chronic unit for 6 months. It highlights my very basic experience but luckily the director was always available and the ER was in the same building. I honestly felt uneasy alot of the time but would call the doctors often to be safe. The ER experiences I had were increasing respiratory distress before the patient was actually hooked up to the dialysis machine and the doctor ordered that she be sent to the ER and receive acute dialysis, chest pain often resolved with nitroglycerin, low bp easily resolved with saline, hypoglycemia, and a TIA. I agree with tired nurses statements above but I have friends who have done NICU and med surg and those sound alot more hectic and stressful than dialysis. Since I dont see myself working in those fast paced environments I thought that school might give me someowhat of a better understanding and skill since the instructor really breaks it down in the books she has written and I will get a chance to work slowly with actual patients with someone who is actually willing and not time crunched to share their knowledge. I know it is nowwhere near as good as having years of experience in med surg or ICU but I would consider those areas just as challenging if not more than dialysis. I also enjoyed alot of the dialysis patients. Before I move on to acute dialysis I thought about working as a traveling chronic dialysis nurse once I have 1-2 years of experience in one chronic dialysis center.

Thanks for your advice I agree that finding a good unit is the key but I am so jaded after all my bad experiences that I find it hard to believe that I will find that. I have considered sending out my resume to see what kind of responses I get. You mentioned you felt confident in your nursing skills and I honestly have to say that I dont after being 1 year off, right out of school and then taking 1.5 years off this last time. In all fairness I have to say that even if I found a well intentioned preceptor I am afraid that my nursing skills and knowledge are rusty. I never worked in med surg so I have even thought of taking a refresher course at a local community college. I think chronic dialysis is more routine than other nursing areas but I think someone like me would have a more difficult time learning on the job partly due to insecurity then a nurse coming in from med surg and feeling confident about his/her knowledge and skills as a nurse.

Hopefully there are los angeles nurses who are familiar with Joanne Pittards very expensive but reputable 4 month training at Glendale college. If you have paid for your own training elsewhere to enter the field of dialysis versus getting on the job training, I would like to hear whether you thought it was worth it. I have had bad experiences with preceptors in the three different areas of nursing I have tried. I also made the mistake of not getting a job in nursing when I was fresh out of school. I got my first job one year later. I need a good foundation in Dialysis because I do not have med. surg or ICU experience. I have 6 months of experience in hemodialysis and I received 2 weeks of lecture and 12weeks of training with a preceptor by a big dialysis company. However this was 1.5 years ago and I had a preceptor who was impatient and who just did not want to train me. Then the new manager who came in was a total witch and very unprofessional. She was fired 2 months after I left. This center has been through many managers. I learned the machines through the dialysis technicians who were more willing to train me. I was able to perform the routine more slowly than others but I did not feel confident and I could not trouble shoot most of the time. I never missed a day though despite the hostile environment i worked in. I really want to get back in but the thought of going back to encounter all the criticism and lack of support has kept me away for a while. I have an easy job now making a decent amount but it is not going to help advance my career in nursing. Eventually I would like to do acute dialysis. Do you think these schools charging $5000 can really give someone entering the field a more solid foundation than they could get through the big corporations training nurses? Please let me know what you think and share your experiences. Do you think the training on the job is only suitable for nurses who already have a solid foundation in other areas of nursing such as med surg or ICU, or those really smart nurses who can thrive under pressure? I did very well in school but I cant seem to thrive under pressure on the job . I have friends who I helped with studying in school who say they had great preceptors and now they are established and doing well. What do you honestly think?