annnais

a) what was your first job and how long after graduating did you land it? My first job was on a surgical/step-down/tele unit. The patients were ortho/plastics/general surgery/and vascular patients. I was offered the job four months after graduating from nursing school. b) how long did you stay at the first job? I stayed for 2 1/2 years. c) why did you leave and what did you do before going to the next? I left because it was a really heavy patient population and I was feeling burnt out. Most of our patients could not ambulate on their own and I was feeling mentally and physically drained. Also, a few nurses were getting injured on the job with major back injuries and I didn't want that to happen to me. Now I am in Labor and Delivery at the same hospital (inter-hospital transfer). I love it!! It was definitely what I wanted to do since nursing school. I also just applied to enter school for my NP in Women's Health.

I have lived in NYC for four years now. I moved from California. Where are you moving from? My parents are originally from New York so I have family out here which made the transition a little easier. A lot of hospitals out here will not hire a nurse unless she has a BSN degree. I do know that St. Lukes Roosevelt does hire Associate nurses. So, I agree with the previous poster that you might want to pursue your BSN prior to moving. Sounds like you have great experience and being bilingual is a definite plus! I also agree with the previous poster that the subway is excellent and you don't have to live in Manhattan per se if you want to work in a Manhattan hospital. I have lived in Manhattan since I moved here. I started out in the East village with roommates while I was in nursing school and stayed with them through my first year of working full time as a nurse. The support was great and sharing the rent was awesome because I could save money and walk to work! I now live by myself in Manhattan way East in a neighborhood called Yorkville on the upper east side. SO, it is possible to live in Manhattan if you want to. My rent is comparable to some of my friends who live in trendy areas of Brooklyn like Clinton Hill and Park Slope. This neighborhood is not as trendy as the eat village but I love the quiet/safety of it and also it is close to my work (just a 25 minute bus ride) and I love my gym (92nd Street Y) and I have found great restaurants and more things are starting to open on this side of town (great Fairway supermarket and WHole Foods is coming on 2nd ave in the summer). Let me know if you want any more information. I would be happy to share my experience living here.

I just wanted to give you a virtual ((hug)) and some support. I really understand what you are going through. I moved from California (born and raised there) to start nursing school New York City. I ended up working at a univeristy hospital in Manhattan on a very busy surgical/step down unit/telemetry. The median age of our patients was like 80-90's. We had a lot of confused patients and we could have as many as 6 patients who were all pretty high acuity. We also had tracheostomy pts if we were in the stepdown unit. I stayed on that floor for two 1/2 years until I realized I was just burning out. I recently transferred to Labor and Delivery and am loving the change. I still have to deal with some doctors that think they are God but it is waaaay better than where I was. What helped me on the tele floor was getting to work a little early to read through my cardex and try and prioritize my day. Nursing is unpredictable and somedays I just had to keep calm when everything seemed to be happening at once (afib/transport to pick up a pt/doctor calling for status of pt.). Also, I found allies on my floor. I knew there were some people that were not willing to help but I did find other nurses (who are now good friends of mine who became my source of support. We always helped one another when we felt like we were drowning. I am surprised you don't have ancillary staff to do vitals and EKG's. Hang in there. I say maybe look for something different. Maybe Kaiser is hiring? I will say that time made things get better for me and I also got back into my yoga/eating right/meditation. That helped A LOT!! But hang in there the first year (actually the first two years of nursing for me) were really hard!! I hope you are able to find your rhythym and a sense of calm when you are at work. But I would talk to someone and maybe see if there is a position that is more stable for you to transition into. Floating is stressful!! I remember even senior nurses on my old floor hating to float! It was almost like you know what you are dealing with on this floor so why go out into the big unknown!! LOL!! Anyway, I am sending positive thoughts your way. I hope things look up for you!!

Wow, That is not a lot of time! I am from California too and it was tough getting out for me so I cannot even imagine what you must be going through. I just got here on Thursday and have been scoping things out. NYU does have a clinic where they do walk-in immunizations. So you can get that done here. And I am sure they will offer you help and push back deadlines (I surely hope they do). I think the drop dead date they gave me to get in my immunizations was the 7th o January. And the housing deadline was pushed back also. Wow, good luck with everything! Send me a pm if you want any additional info. Good luck to you! Rashida

Hi Everyone, I got my acceptance letter today!!!!! I am so excited!! So, I will be seeing you there. Are any of you going to live in campus housing? I just got my letter during my lunch hour and gave my notice at work so it has been a bit of a whirlwind!! If anyone wants to contact me, send a PM

Glad I found this thread! I applied to NYU for Spring 2008 and I am still waiting to hear. I called them on Friday and the admissions person said that they "haven't made a decision on my file yet" and that I should hear in roughly two weeks. At least I have finals studying to keep me busy while I wait!! I am from the San Francisco Bay Area (live in Lafayette) and got my BA in Spanish. I will keep you all posted as to the decision. I hope to be joining you two in New York! We will see. annnais