mfrancisco

Hi everyone, I have tried to search this specific topic, and haven't found the information that I am looking for, so I am looking for some advice from this great community. I started as a new grad RN on a very busy Pediatric Med-Surg floor in a large, urban teaching hospital. We have recently added a transitional care unit, so I have been working there as well, too. I have been working there for three years now as of September. I've always been interested in ER nursing, but started in Peds because I was a Unit Clerk there and it was a great opportunity considering the job market back then. I think I am ready to move on now, but every job opening I see requires at least a year of experience in the ED. Any advice on how to make myself marketable? I have PALS already. Thanks so much, Melissa

Thank you so much for your responses!! My initial feeling was to put down the clinicals. I got a bit confused after reading all of the different opinions. I also feel like my resume is going to be too long with all of that on there. I like the idea of putting the experiences that are relevant to the job I will be applying for. I also read somewhere that it may be a good idea to enclose a separate page with all of the clinical experiences listed out. I have completed my resume, and I feel like it looks good, but this is so important that I am still thinking about having it professionally done. I just finished my last clinical rotation, and am now going to be starting preceptorship in a couple of weeks, so I have a some time to work on all of this. The problem is I want to use a service that specifically does resumes for new grad nurses. I'll have to do some research, and I will post any info that I find. Again, thanks for your responses. It makes sense to put the clinical experiences. We spent a whole semester in a very busy teaching hospital, so I wouldn't want to leave that out. Thanks!!!

Thanks for the response! I have been thinking about having a resume writer do mine. Did you find one online? I have found some, but want someone with nursing resume experience specifically. Did you use someone online, and do you mind sending me a private message with the company you used? Thank you so much!

Hi everyone, I've been searching various threads about this topic, and I just wanted to get some opinions. I couldn't come up with a definitive answer. I'm working on my resume (new grad this upcoming May), and don't know if I should be listing my clinical rotations, hours, hospitals, etc. Someone had a good point when they said that every nursing school has similar rotations, so the person that you are sending your resume to already knows what the clinical hours generally consist of. What do you think? Should I just omit them, and list work experience and volunteer experience. Also, do we list GPA? Thanks! My resume is pretty much ready to go except for the clinicals/GPA questions. Thanks!!!

Thank you for the responses! I will be doing my preceptorship where I work on the Peds Med-Surg floor. I really do think that Peds Onc would be mainly observational as mentioned above, so I do think that Med-Surg would be best. I also talked to several nurses at work who pointed out that it will help me to be more prepared if I get a job on the floor when I graduate. I really would like to specialize later on, but do believe that I should have the Med-Surg experience. I am not sure yet exactly what I would want to do in the future. I keep thinking that eventually critical care would be fascinating, so I would like to start off in Med-Surg for the experience. Thank you so much for your replies!!

Hi everyone, I have a dilemna, and have been searching through the threads for answers to my question, but can't find anything exactly like my situation. I'm hoping to get some of your opinions!! Here is the situation: I currently work as a Unit Clerk at a large teaching hospital on the Pediatric Med-Surg floor. I will be changing to a CNA role in the next couple of months. I am graduating from nursing school in May, and am in the process of picking my preceptorship for the last semester. Here's the problem. I had already asked the Nurse Manager on the floor where I work if I could do my preceptorship on the floor. She said yes, and to just let her know when I submitted my name to the Education person. We were asked by our school to submit our preference of specialty and location. I went to talk to the teacher in charge of preceptorship placement, and she said that the school has a placement in Peds Oncology (at a Children's Hospital) that would be a great experience. She is willing to place me at my job, but thinks that doing the Peds Onc preceptorship will still look great for getting a job as an RN where I work. She said to check with my boss and see what she thinks. My dilemma is that I am wondering if it is better to do the Peds Med-Surg preceptorship at my job, or the Peds Onc preceptorship at the other hospital. With the way the economy is, I am guessing my only hope at getting a job is where I currently work. As far as my interests go, I would love to do Peds Onc as my interest in Onc was the main reason why I am going into nursing. However, I definitely need a job when I get out, and don't want to ruin my chances at work. Also, is it smarter to start off in Peds Med-Surg anyway? If you've read this far, thank you so much. Any and all opinions are much, much appreciated!! Thank you!!

My iphone helps a lot. I have my davis drug guide on my iphone. I also have the epocrates app and the micromedex app, too. I'm sure there are tons more apps out there, so it would be great to hear from others, as well.

I agree with JBmommy. That is exactly what I would focus on, if anything at all. I felt the same way you did. Fortunately, (I thought it was unfortunate at the time) we did not get our reading list until a week before the semester. I am so glad, because I probably would have wasted a lot of time reading what was not on the tests. I am going into my third semester of nursing school, and it is really hard for me to hold back from pre-reading for my next class (L&D). It's just not worth it. I may read, and it may not make a difference. However, if you do want to prepare, definitely start learning about head to toe assessments and vital signs to begin with (read about it, watch videos (hawknurse on youtube is great). Like JBMommy said, nursing diagnosis and F&E. Those subjects will arise again and again throughout nursing school, so it would be beneficial to get a grasp on these subjects from the start. If you are going to be using ATI, I would definitely review the ATI fundamentals book. It's very concise, but covers the fundamentals topics well. Also, it would be wise to invest in a book called "The Fundamentals of Success" (part of the Davis Success Series). It gives practice NCLEX questions, and rationales for the answers. I truly believe that the ATI books and doing practice NCLEX questions helped me to do really, really well the first year of NS. Good luck to you, and congrats on getting in! Don't worry about being a huge nerd. I love being a nerd! HA HA

I hear you, because I had some misconceptions about nursing as well. I had my own doubts prior to taking the plunge. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I really think you just don't know until you see what nurses really do all day. What are you basing your opinion of the functions of a nurse on? Have you actually been able to be in a hospital shadowing a nurse? If you haven't, it might be a good idea to do that a few times. I also may have a different perspective. My clinical rotation is currently at a large teaching hospital, and I also work there on the weekends. The nurses are constantly learning, and there is a lot of collaborative care going on in this environment. Good luck in your career choice. Not everyone can or should be a nurse or a lawyer, so it's great that we all make different choices.

I'm INTJ as well. I'm wrapping up my first year of nursing school. I may not be a nurse yet, but I can tell you that you use analytical skills, creative thinking, and intuition as a bedside nurse. Nursing is challenging, and nurses are always learning. This is what drew me to nursing. I thought about law school before, but really liked the sciences and the medical field. My dream is to be a Neuro Nurse. Good luck to you.

Again, this solidifies why I chose to go the ADN route. I already have a BA, and the ADN made much more sense to me. In my second semester, and loving it so far. Not to mention, I won't be in debt when I graduate. I also work as a Unit Clerk 16 hours a week, and probably would not have been able to do that in an MSN program due to the extra classes and classes being year round. I know where you are coming from. i was really torn at first, but got good advice from nurse friends. Good luck to you!

I am almost done with my second semester of nursing school, and I have learned so, so much, and I credit the nurses that I have had during clinicals with this. Sure, everyone has different personalities, and some nurses are not warm and fuzzy, but who cares? As long as I am learning something, it's fine. Every nurse I have had has been willing to teach, and has thanked me for all of my help at the end of the shift. I probably am sticking my foot in my mouth, and will have a bad experience this week. (Hopefully not, ha ha) My first semester I was in a rehab hospital, and the nurses were a bit less willing to teach, but I never had anyone blatantly mistreat me. These nurses were SUPER busy, and had some really acute patients with TONS of meds. As students, we have to remember that it's not all about us. A nurse may not be in a good mood due to other things or may just be plain busy. I will never forget the time that I had a nurse that I felt was annoyed right away in the morning when she saw that she had a student. At the end of the day she asked me why I had to leave and was very thankful for all of my help. She was really overwhelmed that day. She had a patient that was really going downhill (that patient died by the time I was back the following week), and all of her patients were on trachs, multiple IVS, etc., so it wasn't me. She just didn't need one added thing (such as a student). I made sure to just do what I needed to do to help, and not bother her with unnecessary questions. etc. I could also see why we were a bit of a burden at first since we couldn't administer meds until the last few weeks of the semester, or do anything else really except for ADLs, hygeine, and vitals. I guess what I am trying to say is that I hear what everyone is saying. I have heard from others in my class that they haven't had such great experiences. My clinical group has happened to have gotten lucky, I guess, with our placements. However, I also do agree that some students do questions nurses in front of patients (why would you do that?), and ask a ton of questions that are either irrelevant or not appropriate at that point in time. Also, please, please, when a nurse asks you to perform a skill, say YES, even though you may be scared. How else can we learn. Thank you to all of the nurses out there who are willing to teach us students. I appreciate you taking the time out during your busy day to give me information.

You can't change people. Nobody will ever REALLY get what we are going through. That's why I love my nursing school classmates so much. They're the only ones that truly get it. My husband is very understanding and so are my parents, but I do feel like they think I am dramatic. Believe me, there are others in my class who really stress. I am usually a pretty laid back person, so I think they know it must be pretty time consuming. Just let go trying to convince everyone that it's hard and time consuming. You just have to learn to say no to a lot of events. it's hard, but I just say no to pretty much everything now. Looking forward to summer.

I'm a unit secretary. I am in my second semester of nursing school. I work Saturdays and Sundays for a total of 16 hours a week. It's a great way to get your foot in the door at a hospital, especially if you are interested in possibly working there after graduation. I transcribe orders from the charts, help with admitting and discharges, answer the phone, answer the call light phone from the patient, call/fax x-ray and ultrasound requests, page the nurses when they are needed by patients, docs, pharmacy, the lab, etc. Basically, you are there to assist in making sure the unit runs smoothly. A great unit secretary is really appreciated. You work side by side with the charge nurse. I work in a busy unit, and the day goes by fast. It can get crazy at times, but you really get to hear a lot by being at the front desk. You may not be in patient's rooms like a CNA, but you can hear a lot of conversations going on between the nurses and doctors, the nurses with other nurses, etc. You also get to see a lot in the charts. It really helps to know how a hospital unit runs. I also started noticing that I can identify with a lot of examples that my instructors give in class because I witness it at work. It is hard to work on weekends because it cuts into my study time. However, in this economy, the first people to get jobs out of nursing school are the ones who already work in a hospital. Good luck.

I applying to SSU for a second bachelor's. Good luck!