cozzy66

Hey all, Congrats to everyone who passed! I'm taking the ACNP exam on Saturday. I'm pretty nervous about it, but feel like I've put in a decent amount of studying.. hopefully. I listened to all of the Sally Miller review CDs, read the majority of the ACNP practice guidelines by Barkley (that ~1000page spiral book) and am now going systematically through the Barbara Todd Q book, although I probably won't finish all the Qs by Friday. Any advice? Any specific topics I should have drilled into my head? Thanks, Mary

Just curious what your experiences have been if you've worked the ED at either Kaiser Richmond or Sutter Alta Bates Summit in Oakland... Thanks

Thanks for the responses! That's what I've been doing, but I am going to get that list so I know for the future...

Hey all, I know there are a number of threads regarding nursing abbreviations, but I think this one might be slightly different. I'm a new nurse, still on orientation. My preceptor has been telling me that I should not/can not use certain abbreviations, because other nurses don't know what they mean, especially if it were come to my notes being read in court. I have a hard time believing this, especially since the docs use these abbreviations in their notes and I assume RNs should be able to read MD notes and understand them. Examples of what I've been told not to use: S1S2 RRR no CVA tenderness CTA bilat Is this reasonable? I have been meaning to get a list of acceptable abbreviations from my hospital, but haven't had the chance yet... any help is appreciated. Thanks.

sunny is going to give a lecture about integration sometime in october or november, but basically anywhere you do your integration, if they like you, you will get a job there. if you don't want nyp, you request non-nyp hospitals, and you can name where you would like to do it, but it doens't mean you're gonna get it. for example, i requested st. vincents and some other hospitals, but ended up at beth israel, which was a great integration site, but didn't get offered a position and know a few others who also didn't get offered positions there. regarding courses and timelines of various specialties, i know fnp starts in the summer, peds starts i think in the summer or fall, adult starts in the fall (But you should take classes in the summer, just because you can get them out of the way), acute starts in the summer, midwifery summer, psych summer. there is also a peds slow track that starts in january. you will get a chance to look at all of these schedules before you commit to your specialty in the spring. most programs end in december of the year following your start(1.5 years), acute is 1 year, psych is 2.5 years. you get 2 weeks off between etp and masters, but you should really use your integration time to study for nclex so you can take it immediately after the white coat ceremony and have 2 weeks or whatever to take a nice vacation if you start masters in june. i didn't do that, but wish i did. hope that helps, if you have any questions lemme know.

I got a job straight out of school in the ER in NYC. Many places officially say that they will not hire you to the ER without experience, but if you get to an open house, you can possibly convince them or find someone who doesn't share that sentiment. Also, if you have experience in your final clinical rotation in the ER, you are more marketable to managers, especially if you were handling your own section. Many nurses say that you start off on med-surg because you need to learn how to organize your time, but if you don't have a problem with that, then you can go straight to the ER.

As a new RN it is very difficult to get a job part-time. I think approx half our class either took the year off and is working full-time (which means they work at their job for 2 years+ before becoming NPs) and the other half is working full-time and doing the masters full-time. I haven't really heard of anyone doing the masters part-time though, because scholarship doesn't get applied in that case. It's always up to the grads to decide whether or not they want to pursue NP work right after finishing the MS or be an RN for one more year and managers should ask what the potential hire's plans are for the next 1 or 2 years. Of course, telling the whole truth might screw the applicant out of a job...

Hi all, I'm a new grad and I just started my first job - ER in big city hospital. Yesterday was my first day and my preceptor told me I would place an IV. I've done this a lot in my final practicum with a couple of seasoned nurses in another ER in the same city. Those nurses and every single nursing instructor, have said that you must start the IV distally and then move proximally, because if you blow the vein proximally it might infiltrate if you start in the same vein more distally. You also want to preserve the bigger veins in case of an emergency. This makes sense and that's what I've been doing. Coming back to me starting this IV, my preceptor told me you always start proximally and move distally because afterwards you can't draw bloods off that arm if you, lets say, place the IV in one of the veins in the hand. I don't understand this rationale at all. Why not just draw off the other arm then? Can someone please explain this to me? Thanks!

Yes you can switch specialties in Columbia. If you are in the FNP track and decide Pediatrics is right for you, it's not a problem. You can not switch into CRNA or midwifery track if you are not accepted to it. There are so many specialties for the masters track, it's easy to switch around. I think if you are looking at a program that will take you step by step, an accelerated program will not be right for you.

Yeah they do everything for you regarding Integration. Lemme know if you have anymore questions!

Well in Columbia Presby a lot of grads left after a year, I guess to pursue NP jobs. In Cornell I guess they had a couple of grads in their ER who didn't know how to do basic things. Also, a lot of nurses don't agree with accelerated programs like these, because they don't understand how you can possibly learn to be an RN in 1 year and then to go straight into becoming an NP without working for a number of years as an RN. It is a constant battle explaining to people that it is possible. Integration is 'senior practicum' and the best part of ETP because you are doing clinicals full-time for two months one on one with a nurse who actually works in that place. Since you want to go the CRNA route, you need to get an ICU job, which means that for integration you would get placed into an ICU. Without having an ICU integration, it is almost impossible to get an ICU job in the city. If you impress your integration site admins, you will almost surely get a position there.

I know CRNA is hard to get into and I think there were only 10 ETP students from my year going in. It is also a great program, from what I've heard. I know a couple of students who actually switched out of CRNA, because they decided it wasn't for them. This is a great thing about Columbia, because you get a year to decide if you really want to stay in it, and if you do, you have a spot. The main thing about ETP is that you're there, you do what you have to do and then it's over. You become an RN - no better or worse in the eyes of a potential employer than an RN from NYU, Hopkins, UCSF, Yale, Hunter College, community college. Don't sweat that part, it's the Masters that really makes a difference, because you want the best training possible since you will actually be in charge of patients making life or death decisions.

SFChef, I am in the Masters portion right now. Unfortunately I could not take a year off, because of my time frame for finishing school. My specialty is Acute Care and I don't like how it's being run. What specialty are you going for? I think most people post about ETP on these boards, and nothing really gets said about the masters. I believe the admission criteria for the MS degree is much higher than for ETP and I know many students are very happy with their chosen specialty (except in Acute Care). I would recommend researching the masters portion as much as possible, because the ETP portion doesn't really matter. Nurses who have an AAS from some community college may be just as good as a Columbia educated nurse.

Tanguera, I just finished the ETP portion of the program. Obviously there are pros and cons to any school, Columbia not excluded. I think before you go and rack up tens of thousands of dollars in loans, you should really consider whether this is something that you want to take on. Can you get financial support from anyone you know so you can take less gov't and private loans? There is also a scholarship that many students receive that provides 20k in your first year and 10k for your masters if you go straight through. Another factor is that you will most likely work as an RN within a few months after completing ETP and normal salaries in NYC for a new grad nurse with no experience with a BSN are around 72000/year. Also, hospitals do full or partial tuition reimbursement, so that is something to consider for your masters. Why do you want to go to Columbia? Is it for the name recognition (it was for me)? You get your RN in one year and that is the main reason people attend. I can't even imagine having to do a 2 year program after this. Unfortunately, in NYC ETP grads to do not have such a good reputation, but hopefully that will be changing. Because it is a one year program, it's impossible to learn everything and some new grads may slip through not knowing how to do basic things (you have to be aggressive in learning at your clinicals, it's very easy to kind of sail through and not do anything). Another negative is that the NYP hospital system will not hire a new grad unless they have clinical experience in addition to school clinical experience. So basically, unless you do your Integration in Columbia (or Cornell), they will not hire you, which is ridiculous. Of course there are plenty of other hospitals that don't have that requirement and most of the grads get jobs from their Integration site. The professors... some are great, some are okay. A lot of self-learning. Just because you're paying 1000/credit doesn't mean you don't have to study on your own. The presentations are powerpoint and you have to print your own slides. There is no hand-holding. There are office hours and you can visit the professors and other faculty members if you are feeling overwhelmed. They are very open about expressing feelings, etc. Continuing onto the Masters portion, I'd say about 50% of the class stayed on to go straight through. I know a lot of people who dropped out of the program all together, for a variety of reasons, not just being upset with the school. Some of the Masters specialties require you to take a year off or recommend that you do. All of the higher-up faculty have a lot of Columbia pride and constantly say that Columbia is the best nursing school, etc. There is also a lot of physician bashing (especially at our white coat ceremony this year). You have to take everything with a grain of salt. Overall, I had a great experience and am happy that I did ETP. The accelerated pace was great for me. The year flew by and I can't believe I am an RN and am starting in a dream position in a few weeks. I hope this helps!

To clarify on SteveRN21's post, you don't need a science related degree, any BA, BS, BBA, etc will do.