daisyfleur70

Thank you! :)

I am originally from Austin, but have been living in Seattle for the past 18 years. I have been a nurse for a little over a year (RN, BSN), and have been working for just under a year in addiction nursing. I am looking to move back home sometime in the next couple of years to be closer to my family (long overdue). I have no idea what the state of the market is down there. I'm not a new grad anymore, and I do have some experience as an RN, but I'm not sure if my experience will help or not, as it is a bit specialized. I work with detoxing patients, as well as treating patients, and as such, some of my patients experience pretty serious withdrawals, and have co-existing conditions which involves a bit of med/surg knowledge, and I have experience that is similar to PACU nursing (caring for patients coming out of sedation), and of course psych nursing... With this is mind, would I have difficulty finding work? When I graduated, I really wanted to be an ER nurse, and I precepted in the ER for my final clinical rotation. I would be willing to start just about anywhere, though... med/surg, PACU, whatever. I would like to move sooner than 2 years, but I'm trying to be realistic in terms of getting my license endorsed, money saved, etc. Any thoughts, advice? Thanks in advance....

There was a mix of new grads and experienced RNs

They were mostly behavioral, but not the ones I'm used to getting. I had to think a bit harder about what I was going to say and how to phrase it, and then try to write it out. There were 5 questions, we were given 25 minutes to answer them, so that broke down to about 5 minutes a question. Blah. I applied for another ED residency today, so fingers crossed if I don't get this one (and I don't expect to) maybe that will be the one.

The interview was a group interview and the first part was us filling out a packet with timed activities on it. We had 10 seconds to complete the first activity, then 3 minutes to do the second, which was a longer version of the first activity, basically. We also had to randomly select 5 questions and were given 25 minutes to answer the questions we picked. We had to pick 5 numbers between 1 and 17 and the numbers we picked corresponded with questions on the sheet and those were the questions we had to answer. We were told that this was because the ER is fast paced and you have to think fast, etc. Many didn't finish, myself among them I am nervous that this will be viewed as a negative. Has anyone else had an interview like this? Does running out of time disqualify you, even if you were close to the end? I know that speed is a factor, accuracy is too... I know that I was accurate, but just not fast enough to complete it. Also I didn't get all 5 of my questions answered. They were pretty involved questions and some took me more than 5 minutes to answer. Plus we were interviewed and grilled as a group, questions randomly selected, I don't feel like I had a chance to dazzle anyone. There were 11 of us, and we weren't the only group they interviewed, 2 slots available. I guess I better get back to searching. :-/

Whereabouts in TX? Did you get your license before you started looking in those other states? I'm a homesick Texan, but I'm from Austin and I suspect I'd be no better off there than here.

omg! that was me too! Do you eat?? Really? -.- Am I breathing? What do you think? I was 5'10 in 7th grade and didn't get over the 100 lb mark until I was nearly out of high school. I can add "are you bulimic and are you diabetic (um what?) to that list.

I totally feel you. I'm a new grad also. I graduated with my BSN in December, passed NCLEX in February and I'm still hunting for jobs. Have been looking since before graduation for residencies. It's been very disheartening. I haven't quite gotten to the point you are at, but I'm close. I'm sorry I have no advice to give you, but I do hope that everything works out for you, and I am interested in responses here as I may likely find myself in the same boat soon. I wish you the best of luck!

Hi, everyone! I am a new grad nurse, freshly licensed in Washington state. I am a Texas native, though (and a bit homesick at that). I have been considering getting a license to practice in Texas for a number of reasons. I went to the BON site and saw that you have to take a jurisprudence test, pay fees and cut through red tape etc. My question is this... should I go through this process before I start looking for jobs in Texas. Being a new grad puts an added wrinkle into the job hunt scenario, trying to time applications for residencies at the appropriate times and such. I know there will be a new cycle of residencies in late spring, early summer. Any advice as to when to initiate the process, tips about navigating through all the steps, etc?

Did your transcripts get sent to the board of nursing? All programs do things differently, but we were responsible for sending thay stuff to the BON. Some didn't realize that, expected the school to do it and it caused delays. If you got the good pop up, you should be fine. I know waiting is hard, I hope you find out soon!

I PASSED! My license just activated!

I'm a new grad nurse. I've been applying & applying to residencies. I am either getting rejection letters or just silence. I've had one interview and didn't get the job. Meanwhile many in my cohort got jobs, some before we graduated, and are starting to work on the floors. It's very disheartening, and I'm feeling like the kid who never gets picked...standing on the sidelines and watching everyone else. I have a lot to offer, I have health care experience prior to nursing school, even. Just not sure what, if anything, I'm doing wrong. Just got another rejection e mail and needed to vent. If it's a residency & you're looki.g for candidates new to the area of practice, how are there other candidates "more closely aligned" to the position than me? I don't understand. Smh.

I took NCLEX today. It shut off at after 75 questions. I got the good pop up. Won't be completely relaxed until I see my license activated at the dept of health website. Question, though. I see some posters that do the pvt more than once. Has anyone had it change from a good to a bad pop up? That's got me a li'l nervous too, I admit.... LOL

I am a new grad nurse (just took the NCLEX today in fact). I've wanted to be a SANE for about as long as I've wanted to be a nurse. I know that to work as a SANE, along with certification, experience is desired in either ED, women's health, or L&D/MBU (so say the job postings in my area at least), along with advanced crisis management experience. I have been applying like crazy, but ED residencies have been hard to come by/attain, I precepted in the ED, which makes it nearly impossible for me to get a residency in L&D/MBU (and that's not an interest area for me anyway). I have tons of women's health care experience, but not as an RN, rather as a certified health care assistant, I worked at a women's health clinic for 10 years, and have worked with sexual assault survivors in that setting. My question is this... my best bet for jobs at the moment seems to be psych nursing. I can definitely get crisis management experience in this area, but I don't know if my work at the women's clinic would count because I wasn't an RN there. The economy is such that I can't afford to be too picky about my first job...but I din't want to stray too far from the course for a SANE certification in the not too distant future (I'm in my early 40s, new nurse, but no spring chicken! lol) Any advice? I know I have to get the certificate, but figured I could do that while I'm "paying my dues". Thanks so much!

Taking it tomorrow... I hope I prepared enough

Glad this thread got bumped, as I was wondering the same. Got a 69% on the pretest and have been ranging 65-70% on practice questions there and pretty much across the board. I take NCLEX RN on Thursday and am nervous as hell! Lol

No... They knew many of us were new grads, and I asked it, if I needed to mive my date up (residency starts Feb. 11) and she said I had plenty of time... I just didn't stick out enough, I guess.

and I'm scared to death! I graduated in December and have been studying like crazy. I couldn't afford the Kaplan course, so I've been looking through Saunders Comprehensive, the NCSBN 3 week review course, and doing practice questions from the ATI mobile mentor app on my phone, as well as the Saunders book, and the Lippincott Q&A Review book. It seems like no matter how many questions I do, how much content I review, my scores stay pretty much the same... 65-71% (One section I got a 56% on). I know not all reviews are necessarily created equal, but I have heard from friends who took Kaplan that 60% and up is a good score and probability of passing is high. Does anyone have any insight about this? So far everyone in my cohort who has taken it has passed, and I got a 97% probability of passing NCLEX on my ATI predictor. I just don't know what else to do to bump up my scores and the date is coming fast! Any advice would be most welcome! :)

how are you approaching ncsbn review? do you read the content and then do the post tests? or do you do questions then backtrack? I got a 69% on the pre test.. ugh. I've been averaging 60-65% for the most part, got 56% on one section in the Kaplan Review book... I take it next week (Feb 7th) and I feel by turns ready and not ready. I just want to get it over with! Good luck!

I didn't get it...

It's been a week and I still haven't heard anything yay or nay. Beginning to think I'm not gonna get this job. Trying to study for nclex while job hunting is sooo stressful!

Just got home from my interview. 20 candidates for 6 residencies. I honestly have no idea how I did. It felt like it went so quickly after having to wait so long. I did the best I could, I think. I feel like I fumbled a bit with parts of the critical thinking , but with other parts of it I feel like I think I did ok, maybe even well, so hopefully they balance out. I am a brand new grad, this was my first nursing interview, and I have zero connections here, so I am probably looking at long odds... Fingers still crossed though.

Got it! Thanks so much! Congrats on having it all behind you! :) We all just got our ATTs today and a bunch of the girls in my cohort are taking it this month, I feel like a slacker for waiting till February, but I haven't been able to study much over the holidays, so I wanted to give myself a month to prepare.

Good call, I'm on my phone... I'll get in my laptop

Is there a link to this study guide that is floating around? I would love to check it out if someone would be willing to share it.