StudyinginCT

I agree with NedRN. I am coming to the end of my 13 week assignment, my first, with Talemed. They are ranked #1 by highway hypodermics. I have been very pleased with my recruiter and my assignment. I traveled within driving distance for my first assignment and will be renewing. I found that there is a sharp learning curve for the hospital and culture and will enjoy staying there now that I feel I've found a groove. I took the stipend as I travel from home and use hotels rooms or air bnb when needed. I have found a culture amongst travelers "I won't get out of bed for less than..." decide what your salary basement is. These recruiters make money off of you. You're the commodity. Decide what you're worth. With 6 year experience, I'm worth $1500 after taxes and insurance....

#1 - that won't change. The patient population is what it is. Doesn't matter which town you go to - if it's in the middle of nowhere or the big city. The only thing that changes is the volume and the creativity in how people decide to f**k themselves up. #2 - Yes! Press Ganey! Have you met the *****? Super fun, right. You totally want to take her out for cocktails so she can tell you how you should have been faster responding to your bells or provided more warm blankets or more cranberry juice to your diabetic with belly pain. I know, she's such a gas. Don't worry - she's in PACU and Day Surgery and other places too! She doesn't just haunt the ER. #3 Health care is changing/has changed, will continue to do so until we die. So saddle up and hang on or jump ship, but it takes gifted people to do what we do and we will always be in short supply. If you can't take the heat,get out of the kitchen. We do important work with unnecessary ******** like lactics and blood cultures on afebrile patients. But we do it anyway. If there isn't a bigger reason for you to do this and you can't reconcile the ******** then yeah, go do something else. But beware, all nursing professions involve some degree of ********. So do all jobs for that matter.

This is all terribly disappointing news! I graduated in 2009. I made $27.50 to start in Hartford, CT. From what I have seen online, real estate prices in Utah are very comparable to prices in the greater Hartford area. I have since moved to northern rural NH where I can only find per diem work, but I work FT hours. My base is $26, plus I make a 20% differential per hour for being per diem. I am tired of the lack of predictability in my schedule, no ability for paid time off or education benefits, since I am considering going back to school for my masters/DNP. We have wanted to move to Utah for years since we are avid skiers and my husband works in the outdoor industry and many of those companies are located in and around SLC. Hearing that I will take such a massive pay cut is very disheartening. I was hoping to stay at or above my current salary. It is certainly a deterrent to moving there. Nursing is a physically and emotionally demanding job that is hazardous to your health. We take risks everyday caring for our patients with grave illnesses. To think that this work is rewarded at a rate I could make behind a bar in a resort town in beyond unfair. Perhaps we will have to wait until I become an NP or CRNA to move there. I don't know that we can afford to maintain our current lifestyle and manage our significant school debt without our current rate of pay.

It is a very difficult market. I would consider applying for a per diem position to get your foot in the door. I found that many hospitals did not consider outsiders for FT or PT positions. If you're able to take a per diem job without benefits, the threshold for hire definitely seems lower. I got 2 per diem offers from 2 different hospitals during the 2 months I waited for my license. I would also consider contacting Core Medical. The handle the majority of the travel assignments in NH. The pay from those gigs is generally in the $40/hr range. I live so far north that I could never make it work for anything they offered me. But that would be another route. Get going on that license!!! Remember, mine took 2 months! Would suck to get an offer and then have to wait forever (like I did) to actually work. The other thing is that the hospitals couldn't even technically offer me the job until I had a valid license, so all I had from them was a verbal offer, nothing in stone. Both hospitals were very patient while I sorted through the various licensing issues, but some employers may not be as patient. Particularly if they have a staffing need and others waiting to take the job with license in hand. The nice thing is that NH is part of the compact, so once you have a NH license, you can also work in Maine. Or any of the other 20 states. It's a valuable license to have.

Hi! I moved from CT to the White Mtns in August. I have cardiac critical care experience. I just got a FT job offer last week. Of course, up here there are far fewer options as far as hospitals are concerned when compared to the southern part of the state. Be prepared - you will take a major hit in pay. Even though I work in a rural critcal access hospital, my pay is comparable to friends of mine who are RN's in the seacoast region. Also, the licensing process can take forever. If you are positive that you will eventually move here, start the application process now. Get your fingerprints done and paperwork submitted. That way when you do receive an offer, you can accept without waiting for your license. It took 2 months for my license to come through.

You will have to do the pre-reqs in order to be accepted into any school of nursing, UConn, CC, or otherwise. Choose the school for you based upon the cost of tuition and length of time you want to spend getting the degree. I believe the CC system in CT now awards acceptance to qualified applicants based upon a lottery system due to high demand for spots.

I've been job searching in the Bay Area myself. I have 18 months experience in a large teaching hospital in Hartford, CT in Cardiac Step Down/Med-tele. I've found a few comparable positions @ Alta Bates and Kaiser systems. Am I going to face an uphill struggle if my husband gets a job out there? We can't afford to live in the Bay Area without 2 incomes, and I really don't want to stay behind and job hunt from CT. I guess I just figured I could find a job relatively easily given the number of hospitals. Unlike others, I am not willing to work in LTC or med/surg, I only want critical care and would prefer to move into the ICU RN role.

This is amazing to me. We are looking at relocating to the Bay Area from CT, and I make $28/hr with 18 months experience. I know the COL is high in the Bay Area, but holy cow. $51/hr??

Hey guess what - the Master's in Nursing is back! I figured, in typical UConn fashion that they would eventually realize they were shooting themselves in the foot and losing revenue if they got rid of it. Hope you all made it through the program and have the jobs of your dreams now!

which companies have you worked for pay for relocation and vehicle? My husband is unemployed and although he has been apply for 5-7 jobs per week, nothing yet. His unemployment benefits run out in December, so we are seriously considering the travel nurse thing to help us make ends meet and go live in someplace we like better than where we are now.

you're welcome. #3 - don't take anything personally. Most of the time - it ain't about you. I had a nursing prof who used to say "even if your patient kills you - don't take it personally."

2 things: 1.) Why don't you give your preceptor some feedback? Why don't you tell her/him this? S/he gives you feedback all the time, and it's important to let people know how you learn. What is beneficial, what is not. Let her/him know your rationale for your internal prioritization. You can learn some valuable stuff, and s/he'll know you are actually thinking about it instead of just doing things willy-nilly. It might just be a bonding experience. 2.) it's your third week. Chill. No one expects you to be an expert. They expect that you will suck and be barely competent at basic tasks. That's the definitions of "being green." It's very clear to me that you take this very seriously. Tasks are tasks - they take practice. You could probably train a monkey to start a line. If you put equally as much thought into your initial assessments and interventions, you will save lives. Eventually - you'll be able to start lines and put in foleys with your eyes closed. But being able to think on your feet and assess patients accurately, quickly, and get the orders the patient needs is what nursing is about. This is all from someone who is now 18 months into the job and has been in your shoes. I don't work in the ED now - I did before I graduated. But every nursing job has it's own tasks. And never forget they are just tasks. I've never learned to start an IV and I'm already an advanced beginner/competent nurse. If you weren't required to read it nursing school or haven't been reminded of it in your orientation, definitely check out Benner's Stages of Clinical Competence. Walk before you run.

I think you can also respond with "If I encountered a problem I didn't know how to address, I would make sure that I utilize the resources of my co-workers and ancillary staff to appropriately intervene." Pain is pain. The meds you give might be different, but the assessment skills of a human being (i.e. a NURSE) are the same and irreplacable. In every situation, there might be nuances you are not familiar with, but your process is still the same, even if the details are different. Every new job is new by definition. There is a learning curve. Acknowledging that you might not know the answer but have the skills and the resourcefulness to discern the appropriate interventions shows that you can be calm, cool, and collected when responding to patient needs. The saying is "you don't know what you don't know." Identifying that you don't know is just as beneficial as knowing. In an interview, asking about what kinds of resources nurses utilize in that same scenario will give you valuable information about how the floor is run and whether you want to be a part of that team. Remember - you are interviewing them just as thoroughly as they are interviewing you. You will be trained for your job. Don't forget that. Ask how you are trained and show your commitment to the process in the interview. Ask to shadow. Ask to shadow twice. Ask to be connected with a nurse who is relatively new and ask that nurse what her/his experience was like as an orientee. Hope that helps.

In general, I think it would a good idea to come up with a response as to how you handle stress. Working in critical care is stressful, and if you don't handle stress well it's likely not the place for you. I don't handle stress particularly well, I internalize a lot of stuff. I'm working on changing that. I wanted critical care, but didn't realize that I have a tough time managing my own stress level. The patients never see me sweat, my co-workers think I'm a gift during a code because I am calm, think critically, communicate and get **** done, but it all takes it toll on me. So think about how you would respond to a question about managing stress. In general, I think asking questions about the culture of the floor is a good idea. It shows that you are a team player and aren't some kind of ******, negative nurse who goes around spreading negativity. Ask about committees and shared governance and how much nurses get to participate in the way their unit is run. Ask about educational opportunities. By asking questions about bettering yourself, you show the manager that you can be more than just a staff nurse. That you want to be the best nurse you can be and participate in making your unit a better place for patients and nurses.

My first job out of nursing school was on a cardiac stepdown floor. My hospital had a nurse residency program and trained us well. We took AACN's ECCO, and did tons of classroom stuff in addition to our hours on the floor with our preceptor. After 5 months, I was on my own with an assignment. Nothing can really prepare you for the stress and sometimes palpable fear involved in managing your own assignment as a new nurse. I was so exhausted by the end of everyday for the first year that I couldn't have read a book if you paid me to. Nursing is physically and mentally exhausting. The best preparation is to engage with doctors, other nurses and your educators and ask questions. Ask away. Think critically. Get involved with helping other nurses who have critical patients who are tanking. Be the first person to show up when a patient codes. Get your hands dirty. Experience counts. You can read books all day long, but until you're standing at the bedside watching your patient go into flash pulmonary edema, you won't know what to do. Good luck!