accelnurse

I've heard mostly good things about the surgery unit. I've heard it is a good place to learn for new nurses. From what I understand, the staff gets along well and works well together. I've also heard they have great CNAs. The only negative things I've heard is that the census on that unit drops sometimes, so nurses are often pulled to another unit to work or called off completely. I've also heard people comment that this unit involves constant pushing of pain medications. Other than that, it's overall a good unit in my opinion.

I work on the Telemetry unit at North Oaks. In the past, we have had our share of staffing issues. It was mostly not enough CNAs to help the nurses, which caused nurses to quit. This has been resolved for now. North Oaks took the initiative to start a CNA school. Nurses now have help on the floor, so it is much better. This happened after several meetings between the Telemetry nurses and the DON. On Telemetry, nurses take up to 6 patients. The good thing is that the charge nurse usually does all the admit paperwork for new patients. It really helps. My advice would be to apply to the Telemetry North unit. North Oaks might have a few problems, but not any different than other hospitals. Overall, it's a great place to work. I highly recommend it. I have no desire to work at any other place.

Hi. You are right about better chances at OLOL since they have more programs (accel and reg) and they accept more than once per year, but they are MUCH more expensive than BRCC. The main difference in OLOL and BRCC is that OLOL does NOT require the labs for A&P and Micro, where BRCC does require them. Each of these schools gives preference to their own students. I went to OLOL. I only took 9 hours pre-reqs and then got accepted into the accel program. I'm now an RN at North Oaks in Hammond. It went by quickly. Good luck.

Hi everyone. Also, you should understand that just because you are nursing students, you do not have to be treated like crap by certain staff members who put their own needs before students' needs. You can always call the Baton Rouge campus if anything is not right. We had to do that several times last year with good results. No one at the New Orleans campus wants the Baton Rouge campus to know what they are doing. Some staff members will try to get away with as much as they can until Baton Rouge administration finds out. Then they straighten their act up for a while. Just remember, you have power too.

Hi, I lived in Shreveport several years ago, but I was not a nurse at that time; however, the most popular hospitals are the Willis Knighton hospitals -- either the Bossier City location or the Pierremont location in southeast Shreveport. Both are very nice facilities with good reputations. Good luck. We loved living in the Shreveport/Bossier area. Hope you enjoy it.

Hi. I'm currently in this accelerated program (graduating Thursday!) It has helped me to have a study partner, but I found groups are not good. Also, you really won't be able to go home on weekends since most weekends you will have clinicals or major studying to do. But you were right about it being the most difficult 10 months of your life, but it's worth it.