DuluthMike

You need to be persistent. I have worked with the highest acuity patients in the world. I have worked CV surg/transplant ICU, ran Ecmo, worked level 1 trauma ect. I have multiple degrees. I am published. I have applied to 3 jobs in Hawaii so far. All failures, 0 interviews. Know what I will do next? Apply for my 4th.. my 5th.. my 6th. I will continue until someone sees that I am an asset. Persistence. There is no fair and not fair. We are owed nothing. There is only your persistence. Maybe you need to go off island to get experience under your belt. Maybe you need to talk to someone in person to be able to express your passion for nursing. Work at it and you will achieve it. How bad do you want it?

I recently had a redo sternotomy endocarditis/sepsis. Afib @70's and dwindled to 40's over my shift. SVR 400's. Midlevel who ordered Amio and Norepi. No pacing wires. Freq conversion to Vfib. Awesome fun night.

DVT can occur in any patient with a pulse. Use your SCD's.

Sink a pacing swan and see where you're at.

I work at Mayo and it is by and far the best place to work in the country, period. I am almost always 1 to 1. We have RNs on the unit with no assigned patients who simply help those in need. From the surgeons down to the environmental services it is patient focused. To improve your chances get critical care experence, have a great resume/cover letter, practice your interview and above all else be yourself.

This is not a male patient only phenomenon. I've had female patients ask me to scratch them in in their genital region. No thanks.

Have a strong resume (clinical experiences, gpa, extra curriculars). Be a strong interviewer. Focus on the patient and patient care. Mayo's philosophy is the patient above all else, and they mean it. Mayo is 100% class. They will pay for your travel, lodging, and food while you come here to interview.

You need to find a GREAT reason for having waited so long to take boards. Even with that you need to apply broadly accross the nation to land a job with such a large gap. Take ANYTHING offered. It doesn't matter if its the worst nursing job in the world paying the least possible. You are going to have to pay for the break.

Apples and oranges. If you want to be a nurse, be a nurse. If you want to be a physician, be a physician. NP's are not junior doctors. They practice from a nursing perspective with nursing training.

Floor nursing and ICU are two totally different animals. Skills that make you a good floor nurse can sink you in the ICU and Vice Versa. I do not understand the medsurg first then transfer to ICU mentality. ICU is not above floor nursing, it is simply different. My advice is to go in every day looking to learn. Have an open mind. Work hard. Never stop learning. Unsucessful new grads are either unwilling to learn both on the unit and at home, cannot critically think, or go into the experience thinking they already have the skills required. These are the same mentalities that will make a new grad in any field fail.

We generally culture above 38.5.

Without getting into a ADN vs BSN argument, this is a false assertion. Make sure you are doing some very good research on the two. If for anything else than your opportunity to practice in that bedside only role that you wish to do will be severely limited by not having a BSN. Magnet hospitals need BSN nurses to fill numbers. Your Bachelors in Biology will not help you in that regard.

I had a VA ECMO with a baseline HR of asystole. That was weird.

I have a bachelors in Biology as well as Nursing. For hiring purposes they will be looking for a bachelors in Nursing, specifically. An ADN with a Bachelors in another field is a plus, but it is not equivalent to a BSN. My honest advice is to get the BSN. If you choose to do medical school simply do the pre-req's separately.

I think this is pretty cute. I'd love to take my puppy to see the pet nurse!