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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

Mr. Croaker, of course everyone on this site realizes that you need an education, and a very tough education at that, to become an RN. We're all RNs/NS/or future NS. (That's just not being very nice). There are tons and tons of statistics out there about this, that and the other thing, some of them very accurate, some not so much. But we don't want to fight about numbers! :redbeathe The main thing is that nurses and people putting in the education for nursing put in a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears, and it's tough when someone blows it off as saying "oh, it just for the 'big bucks'". There are a lot of professions out there, along with ours, that don't get paid what they deserve for what they put up with. Teachers, police officers, and firefighters for examples. They educate, protect, and save lives (sound familiar? ). While the people that entertain us are paid ten times the amount of us "normal folk". Kind-of sad if you think about it... :heartbeat

First off i think this lady is really pushing her luck. Don't let it get to you too much, soon enough she'll be gone. Excuses only last so long. But I have a question. One of my friends works at a hospital on the night shift and she says that occationally during their breaks the staff will "shut their eyes". What does everyone think about that? their pts are taken care of and it technically is their break so i suppose they can do what they want, but what does everyone else think? :heartbeat

So anyways.... I think that the next time she asks you that, very nicely - in front of everyone - tell her you've done some research, but was unable to find the answer and would greatly apperciate the teaching if she could show you how/tell you what the answer is. Looking at the posts this doesn't seem to be common knowledge, so maybe she doesn't even know! How funny would that be in front of everyone?! and even if she does know, then she'd get to show off "how cool" she is. Then thank her very much, and maybe she'll leave you alone since she was able to make her point. No one expects you (or should expect you) to know that kind of stuff or anything even close to that right now. You're a student, you're here to learn, not to impress the nurses with your vast depths of knowledge. If she still doesn't stop then tell your instructor and just let her know you've got a conflict of personalities with the nurse (just do it very professionally) and would apperciate not being paired with, or working directly with her. Soon enough she'll find another poor soul to bother. But hey, kudos to you for trying to look up the answer and good luck with that whole situation! :heartbeat

While I don't have any suggestions I can sympathize with you. I just started working nights, and it totally kills your routine. I'm just a tech/CNA and I'm still in nursing school so that makes it hard going from work to school to bed then back to work. I completely understand what you said about the hungover feeling too. It totally ruins your day! You're lazy and feel crummy so all you do is hang around the house when you should be cleaning or grocery shopping or doing laundry or anything more productive than being a bum. I just started a few weeks ago, and it is already putting a strain on my relationships too. never get to see my husband, then the few days i do have off i have to try to get all the housework, and errands done that i hadn't finished during the week, plus make time for friends and family. Everyone told me that it was going to be tough and be an adjustment, and I'm willing to deal with it for a few years, but I don't know how long I'll truthfully be able to last. *sigh* Okay, I feel better. Sorry I couldn't offer any suggestions, just wanted to join in the moaning. :) I hope everything works out well for you. :heartbeat

First of all, whatever you decide to do it sounds like you'll do fantastic with it. You're organized, youre thinking ahead, and you're planning. Great qualities to have in nursing/nursing school. My first semester I had my 9 hour nursing courses, then i also took physiology (4 hours) and pharmacology (2 hours). It was stressful, and it was crazy, but I was able to pull it off without pulling every hair out. If you can split up the classes, then do so. take one first semester and the next the other, that will definitely help. I just finished my second semester and i took 2 additional classes with my nursing courses again and found it to be no problem. (even though 1st semester was a joke compared to second semester). I would suggest staying close to home, with gas prices and if you still need to work trying to work your schedule around a 2 hour commute a day gets pretty tough, especially with studying and everything. But again, whatever you decide you'll do great and that's all that matters. Best of luck to you! Let us know what you decide on! :heartbeat

I myself have not been there, but a bunch of my friends in class went to their hospital for clinical and everyone had HORRIBLE experiences. Every single person I spoke to said they would never step foot in that hospital ever again. not to sound too over dramatic. They said the staff was rude and absoultely refused to teach. The nurses were condisending (sp!) the techs were rude and expected the nursing students to do their jobs for them. One of the girls told me they asked a nurse a question and she said "it's not my job to answer your questions, go ask your instructor". Just a heads up. I'm not sure how the program goes, but if you'll be doing your clinicals in their hospital i would be very very cautious! Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

First of all I have to say that I agree with almost every single poster so far. Leave the jerk! I know it's so much harder said than done, but trust me, you will be SO much happier down the road. I also had a similar situtation when I was close to your age (20). I wanted to go to nursing school and my then boyfriend told me i "would be horrible at that, wiping all those butts and being pushed around, i just wouldn't be any good at it". Not long after I saw my foolish ways and dumped the jerk. But it took me another 3 years (and meeting a wonderful man who would encourage me to be a dump-truck driver if that's what I wanted) to realize that I could do nursing and I would do well in it. Yes, you do have to wipe butts sometimes, and sometimes you do get pushed around, but what job out there do people not have to deal with s*** and get pushed around? None. Nursing is a FANTASTIC career, it's SO challenging, every-changing, and it desperately needs people like you who are willing to stand up for what nursing really is. Good luck with your future schooling, and future career. and like others have said, RUN! don't walk away from this guy! Best of luck.

My mom told me this story, and I wanted to share. When her hospital went to computer charting they had their set computers that were on desks and they also had mobile laptop type computers that they could roll into patient's rooms for admissions and such. Since they were "computers on wheels" they were calling them "COWs". Until one nurse asked another "where the COW was?" and the nurse answered "room xxx has the COW" well the patient in room xxx overheard that, and didn't really apperciate being called a cow. Needless to say they now call the computers "WOWs" (workstations on wheels) to avoid anymore confusion.

I've heard, from talking to a few nurses - not from personal experience, that L&Ds really love ICU experience. Since they are specialized, and they are a type of critical care unit a lot of managers look for people with ICU or critical care experience so if a critical situation does arise they know how to handle it. So maybe, if you can't get into L&D just yet, try an ICU, or step-down unit. While it may not be your first choice, you never know, you could end up loving it and never want to leave! Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Thank you to everyone for your fantastic suggestions and honest opinions on this matter. I know we're definitely going to admin first, see what we can fight/persuade out of them, and then see where we are at and figure out things at that point. A pinning is really important to me (and my family, my mom and grandma are nurses and they would be really bummed if they couldn't see me get "pinned" like they did in school) but i know it's not important to everyone, which is totally fine, everyone has the right to their opinion. That's what makes this site so great! But an extra thank you to the few that kept this post on track so i didn't have to spend an hour reading 8 pages when i should be studying! :typing Thanks again to everyone - I'll post again once we figure something out to let you all know what happened! :heartbeat