nessaRN

well, i'm a new grad who has just completed her residency at a smaller community hospital and i have to say that i love it! i have friends from school who are at stevens, uw, harborview, childrens, evergreen, swedish and providence in everett. all the above have residency programs, and they are all different. if you want to start out in the or many have a 12-15 week program that combines classes with clinicals, then you have a ~3month/90 day preceptorship. for med/surg the preceptorships average 30-90 days depending on what hospital you choose. you have to decide what you want to do and what is important to you. to me, commuting to seattle wasn't high on my list of how to spend my off duty time. i also wasn't interested in starting in a high stress environment, rather, i wanted to get my feet wet in a smaller hospital and gain some experience before i moved on to a larger, busier place. i also wasn't interested in working 12 hour shifts, nor did i want to work full time, so my choice of what hospitals to apply to was based on those factors in my graduating class of 25 students, all of those who have passed the nclex are employed locally, so opportunities are out there. as a new grad i'm making $23.34 base, with $4.00 for the night shift differential and $4.00 for weekends. make a list of what you want in a position and then web search the appropriate hospitals for openings. most of the larger hospitals have postings for new grad residencies with descriptions of what is involved. list the pro's and con's of each and make your application decisions from there. good luck!

I graduated from EVCC in December, passed my NCLEX in January and I'm now working at VGH on Med/Surg/Tele. Did I like nursing school? Sometimes... it's a tough program and it should be. It's very doable though, just remember to study, study, study. Don't slack off and, if you possibly can, work while you're in the program. (I didn't, but I think that working as a CNA or LPN really gives you a leg up on confidence with clinicals). I will say that there are a few instructors there that are fantastic, and a few that aren't. Take every opportunity in clinicals to observe, ask questions and perform. Practice assessments as often as you can and pay attention to how your preceptor/mentor nurses assess patients. There were times during school when I thought "Why am I doing this???", but now that I'm out on the floor I know that I made the right choice! :)