brina8615

This post was exactly what I needed this morning. I just got off 3 nights in a row and, after reading this post, spent 20 minutes this morning (before going to sleep) thinking about what I like about my job. It was nice to reflect on the positives, because as we all know, sometimes it's way to easy to get caught up in all of the negatives in life. Beware I'm a new nurse (1 month off orientation), so everything is still shiny and new for me... - social environment, interacting with lots of people from different areas (pharmacy, rt, pt, speech, icu/er/agency, housekeeping, diet, doctors/interns/med students, etc. Etc.) - cute flirty male co-workers (& other hospital personnel) - cute flirty little old male patients, they make me laugh - patients & family members saying thank you; overhearing them talk about how I'm a great nurse - having the money to be independent - the opportunity for overtime, experience, to float to different units (even if floating sucks sometimes) - learning something new every single day - catching mistakes / problems that would have impacted pt care - solving problems / dealing with situations that arise - successful IV starts (hey I'm new so this is still exciting) - drawing blood from picc lines (not sure why I like this but I do) - that "quiet" time late at night when I'm caught up on my charting & it's too late to do any pt care tasks, yet too early to start 4am charting - giving report (I'm probably the only nurse on the planet that likes giving report & I DREADED giving report as a nursing student) - the idea that, if I want to, I can work in Nicu or pediatrics or ltc or hospice or dialysis or ortho or ER or a at clinic or as a travel nursing or in home health or or or... - when you walk into a confused, grouchy pts room and find them a mess, all dirty, crooked in the bed, etc.... I love the feeling you get after you clean them up and straighten them out and tuck the blankets up under their chin and they look at you and they look so comfortable... That right there warms my heart :redpinkhe

I graduated from an accelerated BSN program back in May but have only been working since mid November. I'm about 7 weeks into a 12 week orientation on a busy Med/Tele floor. Most days I feel completely overwhelmed. The environment is chaotic and loud because there are about 4 nurses, 2-3 aides and a secretary at all times; it's attached to the Telemetry unit and the ICU, plus the interns/residents home-base is on that floor, and some of the administrative offices, so it's usually crowded, which adds to the busyness. In comparison... my preceptor and I floated to the Med-surg unit 2 times and it is super small and isolated, so it's really quiet. There is only 2 nurses and 1 aide on the floor, and since it's out of the way of pretty much everything else in the hospital you don't really come in contact with many doctors/other staff often. I actually felt like it was a really good environment for me to learn on because it was somewhat slower paced. However, for some reason this unit is really short staffed and if there is less than 10 patients, they usually try to transfer patients to other floors so that they only need to have 1 nurse staffing the unit at night... sometimes they even close the unit entirely and float the nurse(s) to other floors. My preceptor told me yesterday that she thinks I may be ending up there when I'm done with orientation. I'm kind of relieved in a way because it's less stressful than my floor, but also really nervous about the idea that I could possibly be completely alone at night (with 1 aide... no secretary) on a whole unit as a brand new nurse. I still need to ask lots of questions and still feel like I have so much to learn. I know they say the real learning starts when you're on your own... but it just seems really hard to learn when you have no one around to ask questions of. What if it's a really difficult group of patients? What if someone is coding? Yeah I know I'm still in the hospital and I can call a rapid response / code, but it just seems a lot scary having to face these things without a second opinion. On the other hand... it might be a good opportunity to face my demons. I've always been kind of afraid of being independent and maybe I rely on others too much. I'd certainly have to learn to rely on myself more if I was by myself with 7 patients in the middle of the night. What do you guys think? It is safe to put a new grad on a unit as the only nurse? Am I going to be okay?

Elsa - I graduated from FAU's accelerated program in May of this year. It definitely isn't easy... but it's not impossible, I graduated with very good grades. It's very time consuming, don't expect to have much time to do anything else besides classes/clinicals/studying. However, I didn't think the 1st semester was too difficult (others did, but I guess I was expecting worse than it was), so it's a good transition... 2nd and 3rd semester were extremely busy though. Also, I found it comforting to know that you still get all the normal school breaks, so after summer you get a break, winter break/spring break/etc. Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck!

After finallllly getting a job last week, I now 100% believe the statement "it's all about who you know." It's unfortunate, because I personally like to believe that I got my job based on my own merit and personality, but I also had 2 current employees (one is a charge nurse) put in a good word for me. I also wrote a letter to the Chief Medical Offier, who used to be my primary care doctor a million years ago. To my surprise, he agreed to meet with me the day before my interview, and while I was there in his office, he called HR and put in a good word for me. My advice: Think of anyone and everyone you/your parents/your siblings/friends/etc. know that might be connected to a hospital/doctor's office in some way and find a way to contact them. It's awkward and you'll feel weird, trust me, I know. But, I promise that they won't think it's weird (or at least won't act like it's weird). I hateeeeee calling people and asking favors, but I found that whoever I spoke to was more than happy to find out more info for me / put in a good word for me. So... Does your mom have a good friend who's an RN or a Unit secretary or a X-ray at a hospital? Is your neighbor a doctor/nurse/tech? Does your brother's friend know someone who works on your dream unit? Find out their name/phone number/whatever and call them/facebook message them... do something to contact them... and ask them how they got their job/if they know anyone you should contact/HELP!? Ex. My brother's friend's mother who I've never met before was the most helpful person I've ever spoken to in my life!:redbeathe:heartbeat:redbeathe

I'm a new grad who still doesn't have a job, but I've been on a few of these type of interviews. They are intimidating at first, but I actually found that I felt more comfortable than the 1-on-1 interviews, because you can like look around the room and stuff, not just stare at 1 person the whole time. Every RN interview I've gone on (6 so far...), they ask you situation questions. Mostly the same ones... tell me about a time that a patient was angry/upset and how you handled the situation? Tell me about a situation where you did not have enough information and what you did (I hate this one!)? You find a patient struggling to breathe/turning blue, what do you do? Umm... that's all I can think of right now. They also ask you the typical: Tell us about yourself. Why do you want to work here? Do you want to work day or night shift? why? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What makes you special? Strengths/weaknesses? Etc. Hope that helped. I have an interview on Thursday so it was good for me to start thinking about this stuff again! Good luck!!

I really think that 90% of the time people just THINK IM injections are going to be painful... I don't necessarily think it's technique or needle-related, I think it's just that IM injections aren't nearly as painful as people are fearful of needles and think they are going to be severely painful. Just my observation from my weekend at a flu clinic. (BTW I didn't change needles between drawing and giving, although we were supplied with additional needles that I'm assuming were for that purpose... they just didn't fit on the syringe, oops.)

I've always used half.com. I think you get the most money for your books by far. It takes about 3 weeks to get your money after you make a sale, but it's really easy to use and I've always been able to sell my books really quickly. You can look at what everyone else is selling their books for and then price yours a few $$ less, and they'll sell.

I have a little rubber duckie nurse (she has a nurse's cap w/a heart on it, stethoscope and clipboard) that I stuck on the dashboard of my car with Velcro. I love it, it's so cute! (My clinical instructor gave them to us... she called us her little duckies when we followed her around the hospital on the first day of clinicals) :loveya:

I say go for the LPN! You will definitely be able to work and go to college... most college students work at least a part time job, and this way you'd be making a decent amount of money (I worked at Starbucks getting like $8 an hour during college) and getting amazing experience for the future. You could work 1 day a week at a hospital and work more during the summers or pick up extra shifts during the holidays, etc. I wish I had that opportunity.

lzapata - I'm sorry I don't really have any information for you. I'm not sure how much/little the HESI counts towards admission. You should contact Maureen Brooks, from what I remember when I was applying, she was really good about answering questions via e-mail... or if you're in the area, you might want to stop in and see if you can speak with her. Personally, I think that having an MBA should count for something, but again, I'm not sure. I know it's VERY competitive and getting worse every year... I wish you the best of luck. Are you applying to any other schools?

I just used a big tote bag... and I regretted it everyday as I lugged my 900lb textbooks around. Lots of people in my class had the rolling bags and I think it was a wise choice. Especially if you are going to bring a laptop, textbooks, lunch to school like I did.

As a new grad who dreams of getting a job on L&D... Woohoo! Congrats!

I'm probably going to be moving to Decatur, AL to live with my boyfriend really soon. I'm a new grad RN (May 2010) with no hospital experience. What are my odds of finding a job quickly? I'm trying to figure out all of the hospitals in the surrounding areas to apply to. I'm willing to drive up to about 45 minutes. After doing some research on the internet, I've found... Decatur General, Parkway, Crestwood, Hartselle medical center, Huntsville hospital, athens-limestone, and Cullman regional. I've also applied to North Alabama Regional Hospital, which is a psych facility. Although there aren't any current RN jobs listed at that particular facility, I have a previous degree in psych so I figured that might help me somewhat. Is there such a thing as Lawrence Medical center? They don't seem to have a website, so I just wanted to make sure it was still a functional hospital. Any other hospitals/places to apply in general would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer not to start out in home health or LTC, but I guess if it comes down to it, beggars can't be choosers. Any tips at all about finding a job in that area would be great! Should I just apply online or actually go in and speak with HR at each hospital? One more thing... since I'm coming from out of state, does anyone have any experience with the license by endorsement process? Do you get the temporary license right away? :bow:Thanks!:hug:

It's a 2 year commitment to the hiring unit and then 3 years with the hospital. I don't know for sure, but I believe it's 3 years instead of 2 because I'm getting a sign-on bonus (at least I hope so! I'll find out at the pre-hire meeting on Friday), either way I'm really scared of the contract... it makes me feel like I'm trapped! If I want to leave, I have to give them $10,000. I'm trying to be positive though and hope that I like it there!

I graduated with my BSN in May and was just offered a position on a 41 bed Neuro-tele unit. I was hoping someone on here had some advice for me. I'm really nervous and unsure of what to expect. I tend to lack confidence in myself and make myself more anxious by thinking that I'm not ready to handle this kind of responsibility. But, I am smart and eager to learn. I don't know anything about neuro (or tele actually). Besides stroke patients, what will I see? And since it's not ICU, what kind of things will I be doing with/for the stroke patients? I'm just looking for any advice/tips on being a good neuro-tele nurse and on what to expect. Is there anything I should be reading up on before starting in 3 weeks? It is part of the Versant new grad residency program, so I am going to have 18 weeks of training which includes an EKG course and critical care training. I've always wanted to do pediatrics, but in this economy, I've been told over and over that it's best to just take whatever job you can for now, so that's what I'm doing. Unfortunately, I have to sign a 3-year contract. However, I feel like the training I am going to get and the skills I will acquire here will prepare me well for the rest of my nursing career... and the pay is good! The other thing is this is a night position. Any tips on making the transition to nights easier? I think it will be better to start out on nights because it will be a less chaotic atmosphere (and I don't have a choice)... but I will have 8 patients, so I'm sure it will still be BUSY. Does 8:1 seem realistic/safe to you? It seems like a lot of patients to me! Basically I just want someone to tell me that everything is going to be okay! :hug: