Sandman2855

Hey Melissa. Your best bet might be an internal transfer to your own hospital's ED. Any contacts you can make down there will help a lot. Do you ever go down to start IV's? I know we ask Peds to come down every now and then. Do some research and learn who's who (Unit director, etc) and make friends and make it known that you're interested. We had a Peds nurse start in our ER and she's great. Honestly, it's a great resource to have in the ED because we are not all super comfortable with peds. Anyway, have hope and know that you will be welcomed into the ED, just need to get your foot in the door. Good luck!

USF doesn't require GRE

For anyone working at UCLA-RR looking for places to live, check out the Palms neighborhood. It is safe, relatively cheap, and convenient to UCLA by car or bus. I went to nursing school at UCLA and lived in Palms the whole time and it was great.

The first time I gave this medication, it was for a non-coding hyperkalemic patient. I asked a colleague if there was anything special I needed to know about the administration of these medications (also giving sodium bicarb, insulin, dextrose). She said "nope, just push em". Immediately after pushing my meds, the patient started freaking out and saying she she felt "funny" and had shortness of breath. Her vitals were stable and her rhythm were fine, but I wont "just push" these meds again. Seeing this thread, I am guessing it was the calcium gluconate. Side note: An ED doc explained to me the difference between calcium chloride and calcium gluconate. He said you give calcium chloride to a coding patient because it is more effective but is a stronger vesicant and coding patients dont care. Calcium gluconate hurts less but needs to make a liver pass before becoming activated, which means it is less effective in coding patients with their... questionable... circulatory status..

Thanks to all of you on this thread for all the support/advice/information. I was just offered a position in the ER at UCLA-SM. Good luck to everyone!

Congrats on your job offers :)

Hey everyone. I just received the phone interview a couple hours ago, so they are still doing them! Hang in there everyone who hasn't heard anything :)

I just finished my interview. My manager was like 40 minutes late. We came in and were asked to answer 2 questions in writing before the interview to act as an "ice breaker" for the interview and they collected our CPR card photocopies. You then just wait for them to come get you. The interviews are 20 minutes. My interview was held in a large conference room and there were other interviews for other units going on in the same room which was a little distracting. It depended on the unit though, some seemed more private. It was just my manager but some units had multiple interviewers. The recruiter told us that some managers do multiple interviews, in which case you may have to come interview again, and some decide after one. My questions at least were not too bad, basic interview questions. I didn't get any clinical scenarios or "tell me about a time you displayed leadership" type questions but I'm guessing it just depends on the manager. Good luck to everyone who has yet to interview!

Check your spam folder alelij

Hey freetibet. It is true that the nurse recruiter has said that they won't consider you for ICU without a clinical practicum in ICU. However I have heard from multiple people, including nurses working in UCLA ICUs that this is not a strict rule. I agree that they would not have given you an interview if you don't meet the criteria. As you can see from this message board plenty of great applicants did not get an interview, so there would be no reason for them to do that. That being said, you may be competing with people who do have this experience so I would recommend having a really good answer ready for why they should pick you over those people. For instance, patients often go from ICU to step down or vice versa and your experience gives you perspective into the continuum of care and will help you relate to the issues facing nurses on other units. They are giving you a chance to sell yourself so spin, spin spin... thats my advice :)

Same thing Ped.. Did clinicals there.

Just got called for an interview at SM-UCLA ER!!!! Was starting to get worried. She asked whether or not I already had an interview set up in another unit. I said no and she scheduled me for SM ER. She said she will follow up with an email with details. April 12th am :) Good luck all and don't give up hope

To those applying to ER, I spoke with the unit director today and she said she has not sent out interview notifications yet so don't worry. I also spoke with recruitment and asked what "routed to interview supervisor" actually means. She told me it just means they have been routed to the unit directors of the individual units. Recruitment did not give me a clear answer on whether this status means you will definitely get an interview, sounded like its up to the unit directors now.. Long story short, notifications are going out as unit directors get to them and it is not over yet!

What unit csoo? You are making want to call tomorrow morning!

Just as in when?? 8pm?? Congrats!