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I need to get at least 3 interviews so if anyone else has any opinions or wouldn't mind taking a moment to answer the questions that would be great! Thanks!!

Thank you very much for your reply Union. That does help my studys and I appreciate your time! Thanks again!

Hi everyone! I was looking for anyone with a faith/religious background other than Christian to answer a few questions for a school paper I have to write. It doesn't have to be long drawn out answers. Anything will work, and it doesn't matter what your profession is, anyone/everyone will do! Here are the questions... (1) What is your spiritual perspective on healing? (2) What are the critical components of healing, such as prayer, meditation, belief, etc? (3) What is important to people of a particular faith when cared for by health care providers whose spiritual beliefs differ from their own? (4) How do patients view health care providers who are able to let go of their own beliefs in the interest of the beliefs and practices of the patient? Thank you so much for your help with this! I work nights on a relatively small unit in not a very diverse area of town so it's hard to find people to interview that don't have Chrisitian backgrounds. Thanks again in advance for everyone's help!

Hi everyone! My husband and I are considering a relocation from Chicago down to Austin. I wanted to get some info on the area... Weather, cost of living, expected wages for an RN with a year of experience, how the job market is - if a lot of places are hiring, outdoor activities, the nice areas to live etc... Any info anyone can give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all!

Hi Mid. Thanks for the reply. I was actually looking at the arrowhead area but hadn't heard anything about it yet, so thanks for the info. Could you PM me some of those hospitals that I wouldn't want to work at? Or if there's any particular reasons you're not a fan of Abrazo. I've been looking at a few websites and theres a few definite possibilities it all depends on if they'll actually hire or not. I'm curious to how much in advance I should be looking for a position... Should I interview 3 months ahead of time? 6 months? or should I look close to moving date incase they'd want me to start right away? It's so tough to completely relocate somewhere. But again, thanks to all for the replies they're definitely helping a lot and I've been looking into everyone's suggestions.

We'd love to be able to go hiking and enjoy the outdoors. We don't have a family yet, but we would like the typical suburb living with a nice neighborhood with parks and activities, I'd also like to be semi close to work, (but I have to find a job first!) :) Is there much of a difference between the west and east side of phoenix? more bad areas compared to good on one side or the other? Thanks for your help!

Thanks for everyone's replies. They have all been very helpful. The more I look into AZ the more excited my husband and I get! We're in the process of planning a trip some time in April. Please keep the suggestions coming about neighborhoods, hospitals, and job opportunities. Thanks again!

Thanks Bug! Yeah that was a HUGE help! I'll definitely find a job before I come out, and it sounds like it would definitely be worth the effort. If anyone else has any suggestions/comments or anything please keep it coming!

hey everyone! a little background information: i'm in my late 20's and live in chicago and am sick and tired of the weather! my husband and i are looking to move somewhere nice and warm with a great outdoor life. i started as an rn in august '09 on an ortho/neuro floor and we aren't looking to move until after august '10 so i'll have at least one year experience. ideally i'd like to get into the icu or er but depending on the market i'd work med/surg again too. we haven't decided on an area of az to move yet, and were hoping to visit some time in the late spring, early summer. i was wondering how the job market is, especially with only a year experience. i only want to work in a hospital, but don't mind if it's really big or a smaller community hospital. but my other questions include the cost of living (esp house prices vs. pay rate), neighborhoods/areas anyone suggests, outdoor activities. i have 3 dogs (2 pugs and an english bulldog) so i'm a little worried about the heat during the summer months and the creepy crawlers (scorpions, spiders, snakes) that could possibly hurt them. is that something i should be concerned about? any information anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated! thanks you all! - stephanie

Harper college in palatine... you have to take the hesi but it doesn't matter if you pass or not. It's just for your personal information.

Hey all! So I'm graduating nursing school this month (actually my final is tomorrow - Yay!!) and I was offered a position on the Ortho/Neuro unit at my hospital. I decided to take it even though I'm totally freaking out about it now. Don't get me wrong, I know it's going to be a great experience, but everyone keeps telling me all these horror stories and about how heavy the unit it and how I'm going to hate it. It's really discouraging! I'm also a tech on a mother/baby floor right now so you can imagine how different the work is going to be and how totally naive I am going to be going up to a floor like ortho/neuro. So here's where the help comes in... 1) How do I respond to all these negative comments? I want to tell people to just shut up sometimes, but I'm looking for something a little more diplomatic :) 2) Does anyone have any suggestions for books or anything that I can read up on to better prepare me to work a unit like this? In nursing school we barely talked about ortho/neuro and it was during our first year, so I really don't remember much, and I want to have a decent knowledge base before I get up on the floor in August. 3) Are there any professional organizations for ortho/neuro nurses that would be beneficial for a new grad to join to get extra information about the profession? 4) I know narcs are obviously a HUGE portion of the meds that are passed, but what are other common meds that are important to know well on a ortho/neuro floor? I want to be as prepared as possible before I go into my orientation. I know this floor is going to be a challenge, and it's going to be tough, and I'm okay with that, but I figured anything extra I could do to help me from needing to look stuff up during my shift, and to try to get a good grasp on concepts could only help me in the end. Thank you for all of your help. I truly appreciate any comments/info you can give me! :heartbeat

hey all! so i have a dilemma. i have an interview with hr coming up on friday for a new grad position (i graduate in may! yay!) and people have been telling me that hr will ask what your top 2 positions are that you want, but they're not telling anyone what departments are actually hiring (even if you straight out ask). doesn't sound too bad. but here's the deal. i would love to do critical care, esp emergency or icu (which rarely hires new grads), or l&d (which is also not hiring new grads this year at all) or even or (not my first choice but it's something different than floor nursing). i do not want to do med/surg, god bless the nurses that work there but i'm just not one of them. but with the economic times i just want a job, so many people aren't getting hired period i just want a job so if i have to stick it out on a med/surg floor for a year or two, i'm okay with that and i'll definitely work really hard and use it as a learning experience. but it's definitely not my first pick! so hr is telling people that if they don't name med/surg as one of their top 2 picks then they're not giving out their (the new grad's) names to management bc they only want people who will stay there and not just transfer out after a year or two (which i completely understand, but still). so what do i do? do i be honest and try to do something i know i'd love but that i have a really good chance of not getting or do i play it safe and give one of my top 2 positions as a med/surg unit even though i know i'd hate it, but at least i'd have a job? i've been working at this hospital for the last year and this is the place that i really want to work (plus it'll be next to impossible to try to find somewhere else right now), i just don't know what to do. what does everyone think? any and all comments are welcome! thanks so much for your help!! :heartbeat

I work on a mother/baby unit so our census is always up and down. We have a book on the floor that keeps track of all the employees and the date and hours they were downstaffed, and there's also a sheet where people can sign up for voluntary downstaffing if they want that particular day off. When they do need to downstaff they start with whoever wants to be (whoever signed up), anyone who's picked up shifts (the time and a half-ers), then hourly/registery people, then for part and full time people they look at the dates the people were downstaffed, and then hours if everyone's dates are pretty equal. I think it's a really fair system. It does hurt a little if you're new since you have low hours, but they do start you out with 48 hours and it adds up quickly, and that works with seniority too, so I think it's fair and it's not too tough to keep track of. Hope you can figure something out! Good Luck! :heartbeat

I'm not a nurse yet, but I do work at a hospital as a nursing assistant. They didn't do a credit check on me (that I knew about), but I have heard of places doing that in the area, so I would keep that in mind. Also, usually people don't claim bankrupcy when they're only $1400 in debt. I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out to be able to work at least part time during school so you don't have to totally destroy your credit. Best of luck to you! :heartbeat

I'm still in school, so I can't say anything for sure. But I started school saying there was NO WAY I'd do anything OB - then we had our OB rotation and I fell in love with it. I'm now working on a mother-baby floor as a CNA! So not to swear anything off just yet but this is where I am right now... I definitely don't like the old people with all their funky smells, not even the bad smells, just that "old people smell" that can really turn my stomach and seems to stick to me for days no matter how many times I shower. I do like the challenge that many of the med-surg patients pose though. While I like OB and working with the infants, I couldn't do peds. It's not the children, but the families - always there, always looking and judging, watching my every move. It just creeps me out. Like other people have said thank god for the variety of life! One man's heaven is another man's hell! :heartbeat