focuszx5

Does it matter if the work is not voluntary as I am currently working as a medical secretary on a Renal Care Unit whilst enrolled in a batchelors program and will be a junior in the fall. I am completing all the pre requisites and hope to join an accelerated program as soon as i graduate

Moving would not be an option for me as I have four children in school.I would be willing to travel 50 miles to work if I had to though On another note if I was able to secure a job in a local pediatric office would that be a bad move if I ever hoped to get back into the ED? THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR KIND HELP!! Anita x

No I have not I was not that sure what they were!! It is certainely a great idea thank you!!! Where do they post those sort of jobs? Anita x

I am based in Dutchess County nr Poughkeepsie NY.I am happy to orientate at any time of the day or night if I have to!!! I just want to get back to work in fact I cannot wait to get back!!!I am not sure what the orientation problem is only that I would need a longer orientation than a regular nurse. I am fine with that ..it seems that the hospitals are the ones that have a problem.I understand their trepidation however I am sad that I cannot be given the chance to show them my skills. I know its been many years since I have practiced but the experience I had for several years can never be erased. My skills included suturing aswell!!! Thanks for helping out!!! Anita x

I had NO idea how hard it would be to get a job. I am an English R.N. fully licensed for NYS returning to work after an absence of 15 years to raise my family. All the experience I have is in the E.R. where I was one of the most senior nurses in the department before we moved over to the United States. It was a hard job to get my license as I had to go through the whole process including taking the NCLEX in june and certs for ACLS and PALS.I have applied for MANY ER positions and only had one call back. At the interview the HR liked me but it was all about my orientation and how could they fit me in. I need some advice. What language should I be using with regard to barganing with these HR people.I feel very confident that I would be a huge asset to thier department I just cannot seem to get that across as I am unsure what all this orientation is about? How can I get on to an orientation? Can you offer to pay for your own if its not within there budget so you can get cetified for iv's and whatever else they want from you. It is so disheartening as all I want to do is get back to work and use my skills. I applied for a ER per diem job at a tiny hospital that sees bearly 5,000 patients a year and I did not hear anything, my last job was outside London in a Level 1 Trauma that saw more than 60,000 per year!!! Its like they see the UK and they see 15 years absence and in the garbage it goes! I have the Accident and Emergengy Course from the UK which is similar to the CEN over here. If I go ahead and do the CEN in January will that make any difference to my job application or will it just be the same as it not current work experience. I am not sure I want to spend another 400 on something that will be worthless if they cannot get past the experience thing.I have also thought of joining the local EMT as a volunteer to show that I am sort of using my skills.. what does anyone think about that one? Thankyou all for spending time to read this and I welcome ANY advice Happy New Year! Anita x

Do they pay well? I want to work nights part time!!!

Someone else told me to do that too!! Thanks for the idea!! I cannot believe I missed the "b" off job....ha ha I loved the post above...too funny!!!

Poughkeepsie area upstate!

dec 02, 2009 11:42 pm - permalink focuszx5 hi can anyone shed some light on how to get a job! i have a british rn license ,new york state license, acls, pals,bls (all current) and 6 years experiance in the er in the uk. i have been in the us for 15 years and have not worked as i have 4 children. i have sent out tons of resumes and have only had one reply. i had an interview but could tell that the hr person was shocked that i had not worked fro so long(she must have missed that on my resume). i am so current its crazy as i just sat nclex and did all the certs for acls etc. i was very senior in the er when i left and had an awful lot of trauma experiance as we saw over 60,000 patients through the department each year. i tried to explain this at the interview but they didnt really seem that bothered it was all about orientation and whether they could possibly accomodate someone like me!!!!! cheeky!!! help!

You really have to stop bogging yourself down with TOO much information. Focus on infection control and those things that WILL make a huge difference if you do them wrong.ie meds and wound care.Priority care is SO important too. If they give you your license its because they are sure that when they let you loose on the patients it will be so you will do no harm! Think about it you will see what I mean. Kaplan tells you at the beginning that the NCLEX is given to students as a test to see if you are a safe competent nurse (or something like that) Look at the statement and think.. then you will see... Does it matter if you don't know what some weird disease is ..no not really but it does matter if you give the wrong meds to a patient or if you leave a patient who needs immediate attention and go and do something else. Remember you cannot know everything good luck!

Absolutely...what do you need help with?.....Study..infection control...infection control till you know it backwards and forward and backwards again. Medications...what they are and what they do...as above .... If you think about it the exam is to find out if you are safe practionioner and so infection control goes without saying..all the other stuff they expect you to know anyway as you have just been to nursing school... they want to know that when they let you loose on the units you are basically not going to kill the patient with an infectious disease or wrong medications...because after all they are giving you the license so they HAVE to be 95% sure you are a safe practionner... so if you get the odd thing wrong I dont think you will be back down in the none passing grade.You have to get the things right that are going to make a huge difference ....don't do too much stuff and get all crazy. just those things that WILL make a huge difference..tracheostomy care for instance has to be right and so do medications and so does infection control!!! Think about it and you will see what I mean....its not as hard as you think it will be at all Listen if I can do it as an experianced British nurse who came here 15 years ago who never worked here at all as I had four kids...anyone can.!!!

Well I took it last week and I passed!!!! Amazing!!!Im shocked! I have to say if I can do it anyone can get through it!!! Phew what a relief!!! Anita!!

Nope not really....I was breaking down the medication word to see if i could recognise any part of it..there were loads of those.questions like...... the dr orders such and such meds which ones would you question and there would be a mixture of different drugs..what do they think I have a degree in PHARMACOLOGY!!! When not in NCLEX land you have the BOOK on the bottom of the medication trolley if you are not sure..well they do in the UK anyway so a drug error can be avoided if you are not sure...also a LOT of drugs have different names in Europe just to make it more interesing for me!! If you want some advice...read about INFECTION control TILL YOU CAN SAY IT IN YOUR SLEEP!! Go to the page in SAUNDERS or KAPLAN about MEDICAITONS read them until you are so familiar with them its like reading a cornflake packet.....everything else you should have some idea about anyway from your nursing school so don't bog yourself down too much. TRUST ME if you know only those two things really well you have no chance of failing as the rest is pretty much common sense....well nurse common sense anyway......

So I took it yesterday!!! Oh boy it was tricky...I know I got one of the infection control questions COMPLETELY wrong...and probably infected the whole unit.....are these infection control questions a deal breaker? For instance if you get it wrong because it WAS NOT infectious and take too many precautions..thats not as bad a doing the opposite is it!!I should have realised as it asked me a similar question again about the same question and of course I did the same answer as last time as I thought I was right the first time...this is important to realise I think the computer is giving you a second chance, so what happens if you get it wrong again!!!!LOADS AND LOADS of medication questions ,no calc,LOADS OF SATA....DELEGATION AND PRIORITY....but every other question was infection control.....it was crazy....Being an older experianced RN from England I found it hard to not to apply my experiances into the scenarios they gave me! Some of the questions were so simple I found myself thinking they were trying to trick me and over thinking obvious answers that were right in front of me and then picking the one that was probably not correct as it was TOO obvious.So beware of that trap.also the questions are very short...not great long explanations as you are expecting,even the delegation ones if anything the answers chioces are longer...oh I had a couple of put them inthe correct order too!! So now I will wait and see..I am not sure it switched off at 75 so its in the lap of the Gods as they say!!!! Chin up!!

Oh dear...so negative..

I am a british nurse registered in 1986..worked in ER for many years...came over 15 years ago and didn't work as my winkies were only 3 months and 3 ..now they are all grown up and going to college in the fall..plus I have two more..,5 and 7!!!!I need to work to help payfor it all!!!!!! Its extremely tricky and challenging.....I feel I have done the best I can do within the constraints of my life at present..I do so hope I pass!!! I will be so proud of myself if I do!! Not to mention what will the children make of me if I don't!!!!I really feel as though I am on the cusp! I feel it could go either way, i am not supremely confident nor supremely under confident! We will see!!!!!I have found this resource fabulous by the way thanks to everybody that runs ALL NURSES!! Anita

thankyou your are such a sweetheart!!!

I am about to take the NCLEX on WED.....I just took the Readiness test for Kaplan and only got a 58%...I got a 64% on the diagnostic and 63% on the Trainer 7... now I am confused...HELP!!

I am the same I have just taken the trainer seven and got a 54..the others were around the same some 57..what did you get on the diagnostic..it was a 63 for me...I take it on the 24th...its so tricky to figure out the answers..what works one time doesnt the next!!!! To be honest if I don't think too deeply and just answer them off the top of mt head and trust my first answer i would have got a a 61 instead of the 54 so I am just not sure what to do and which stratergy to apply....its hard to trust your intsinct when you are told to take each question apart and go through all these different steps.. I am so confused..input please...and is there anyone out there who gets in the 80's on these trainers? I take my hat off to you if you do!!! Anita:bowingpur

Thanks guys!!! I am so glad you let me know.. now i can plan how much I can write down and time how long it takes me!!!!

Hi everyone!!! I am wondering if anyone knows the size of the white board they give you when you take the exam. It is a strange question I KNOW!!! I want to write down a few stratergies to remind me and to stay on track if I get tired. I find that the longer these question trainers on Kaplan go on the more I tend to rush them as I am getting fed up!!I am trying to work out a way of doing this. I think it might work if I start the test by writing down the decision tree quickly and some formulae for the math so I can refer to them. For those who have taken it is there enough room on the board or is it only small. I would welcome any feedbach from anyone whether they think this could work or a waste of valuable time. Best wishes Anita

Today I took the priority test questions and scored a 78% then I took another qbank and got a 51% oh boy!!!Its SO demoralising!!

What is passing int he exam anyway?

iTs weird cause I cannot seem to get above 58 to 60 on any of these trainers either!!What does this mean?

Assuming you are getting the harder passing questions what percentage of these harder questions are needed to pass. I keep taking the application and anaylsis types and I can't seem to get above 58- 60%. I have tried applying the Kaplan desicion tree and seem to get worse scores HELP!!!