nuwbee25

I am thinking about moving to CO...I have 1 year of experience on a step down surgical unit and 6 months of psychiatric home care experience. My cousin who is also a nurse considering moving has about 2.5 years of oncology and a stepdown medical floor. It seems to be difficult for new grads to get jobs everywhere ( we live in Boston now..new grads cannot get jobs AT ALL!) But since we are not new grads but not exactly seasoned nurses. Just wondering! Thanks in advance!

Hi there, you should probably try to complete some school before considering moving, as the job market in NYC will surely be different by then (in a good way!). What you can do for now is study hard and get a part time job at a hospital as a patient care assistant, do volunteer work, and maybe even join a group at school that shows interest in the community. Also most employers will either do a phone interview or have you fly down for an interview. Also try to get your feet wet in the ER to see if you may like it, and try to stay open to all aspects of nursing. Good luck with school.

I unfortunately at this time cannot be that picky with job opportunites due to the gridlock on jobs where I am. I have been working for the last year on a surgical intermediate floor which was extremely intense. We did have some patients wtith psych issues, (restraints, suicide precautions, etc) but I would not say I had psych experience in the sense you are talking about. I guess after reading what people have said 37 visits does seem to be a lot so it seems its not so good to be true after all haha! Bottom line is I have always been interested in psych nursing and bills do need to be paid around here! I will be calling the company tommorow with some additional questions. Thank you all for your input!!!

Wow...those are some important things to take into consideration. I guess the way the clinical mangers made it seem were as though these patients were pretty stable mentally but that they did need assistance with certain things. I am aware of the danger that home visits can create but that would not hinder me from doing that kind of job. I would just like potential employers to be honest, and it stinks not knowing the truth until you actually start working at a certain place.

Hmmm thank you for replying! Why would you say a psych case loads should be fewer? It seems as though medical cases would take longer for dressing changes, finger sticks, lab work......I guess it seemed to me that the psych cases were usually just taking vital signs and setting up medications and that is was a lot more case management. The clinical manager also said that most of the RNs are finished by Wednesday. I saw a few of the staff walk in and out of the office, all seeming happy, by no means did anyone appear over worked haha! I did not have a chance to speak with anyone of them directly. I plan on calling on Monday just to ask a few more questions...do you recommend any questions for me to ask that may help me determine if that is an unfair workload? Also one of the schools I interviewed for was a year round school with only a couple of weeks off for the summer.....thank you for your input!

I had an interview today with a Home health angency that specializes in psychiatric visits while still addressing the medical needs of pts as well.....the salary is $1100 dollars a week in order to be considered full time you must do 37 visits a week. The office was clean, friendly atmosphere with the nicest clinical managers! Also health and dental benefits along with 25 days PTO a year.....I am waiting to hear back from an interview for a school nurse position this coming week and I also have an interview Monday for another school nurse position. I think both types of position seem good in their own way....I am just unsure if I will get tried of driving around especially in the winter and It would be great to have summers off but I know for sure I will not have that kind of pay nor that kind of flexibilty....what am I to do??? PS both interviews went great.....not sure how Monday will go!

Awww I think "Nurse Jessica" is cute....my problem is I have a hard first name and an even harder last name haha I guess I should just wait to see if I get the job before worrying about it too much!

I am just curious what do the students at the school call the school nurse? I think that children should respect their "elders" aka Mrs./Ms/Mr. but what about the 20 something year old nurses?? I am a nurse on a surgical floor now and I am trying to get into school nursing, and then it hit me! Will someone be calling me Ms. (last name)?? It's funny to think about :)

So you are saying that the reason why hundreds of new nurses don't have jobs is because they aren't trying hard enough? You are very arrogant and have no clue what youre talking about. Why dont you wait until you're actually a nurse WORKING before you start making rude comments about others.

I do not want to be negative butttt I graduated last December and I had to move to a state that was 700 miles away from my family and friends for a nursing job. I am happy for you CW1978 that you haven't even graduated yet and you already have job offers but that is just not the reality for hundreds of new grads. In fact I am moving back home without a job because hospitals are still asking for years of experience and I only have 10 months experience on a surgical intermediate floor with cardiac monitoring and all. Like I said..it's not negativity it is just honesty and I wish someone would have told me while I was in school that there is no job security...period.

i feel the same way!!! last week was my 4th week on orientation on a surgical intermediate floor...i have 4 patients in my pod, 1 of whom requires my constant attention as in a vent, blood transfusions, labs, restraints, bradying down to 24!!! and it seems like everytime my preceptor would come check on me she would dsitract me and throw me off......"did you do this? did you do that? how is your charting? how are your meds? what is that patients finger stick?" okkkk i am a new freakin nurse and i cannot do everything as fast as you can so please stop asking me every 5 minutes if i have done everything that needs to be done in the entire shift. i have never replied her in a "are you crazy???" tone but i want to say no ma'am i havent finished everything because one patient is being discharged, one morphine pca is screaming at me because its empty and nobody is around to waste, and one pt is disoriented so it takes 10 freakin minutes to give him one pill on top of everything else going on. i am actually more relaxed when she is not around because i feel a comfortable amount of stress and pressure but with her i feel like i am gonna rip my hair out. don't get me wrong she is a great preceptor and a nice person but she is just stressing me out! i start fumbling, looking dishoveled and then when i do need her for a question she is on the phone!!!!!!! ughhh neways i'm just always terrified of making a mistake and when i get home i relive the whole day trying to make sure i did not make a mistake or i did not leave anything undone. does it get better? i feel like i will have a heart attack at the ripe old age of 24 if things dont settle down and i am not always running around like a mad woman!!!! i also just moved to a different state by myself so i think it makes it harder to not be able to vent to someone when i come home. it is nice to know that i am not the only one feeling stressed. thanks for the post and comments guys.

They will most likely ask you some of the following: 1. why did you choose nursing? 2. why are you in interested in this particular unit? 3. what are some of your strengths? 4. tell us about a conflict that you came across during one of your clinicals and how did you handle the situation? 5. what is your greatest weakness (I hate this question so mcuhhh!!!) 6. If I were to call up one of your clinical instructors what would they say about you? 7. what are your your career goals or where do you see yourself in 5 years? 8. how would yoiu handle a difficult patient or a coworker that you have been having some issues with? 9. why should we hire you over someone else? 10. ****one nurse manager asked me to design my ideal unit!!!!**** That is all I can think of this early in the am so there may be a few more that are asked frequently. Speak clearly and calmly but be personable and likeable. Make sure you have some questions that you would like answered....they love it because it shows you are very interested in the job and you care about your prospective working conditions. Good luck!!!

To be honest...you sound confused. Why don't you try shadowing an OB nurse, pedi, or nicu nurse. You said you start your senior year of high school next year? I understand that when in high school many people are unsure of what they would like to pursue after graduation. You seem to have two completely different ideas of what you want to do but are trying to incorporate them both into one? One good thing is that you are a CNA..you will get great insight into nursing and hopefully you will be able to see both LPNs and RNs in action. I suggest that if you are going to become an RN you should get your BSN because having your bachelors will allow you to pursue a different career such as lawyer much more easily than having your ASN. I am trying to understand your post as I have read it over several times to get a grasp of what you want but I am having difficulty so please forgive me if I have made incorrect assumptions!

That happened to me and my classmates with our patho professor. She was terribllleeeeeeee, homework due every class that had to be a picture of an pathologoical process yet she graded it like we were in preschool (ie coloring or messy) her lectures made no sense and she ended up babbling about how smart she was and all of her "success" stories throughout her career. Soon the dean and the assistant dean caught on to her ridiculous teaching methods and she was replaced. It did leave a bad taste in our mouths but we didn't drop out of the program and we all eventually moved passed that issue and graduated. I am sure this instructor of yours will not last long because a poor professor will catch up with a college when it comes to NCLEX rates and HESI scores. Her poor methods will reflect on the college and when they have less and less people applying and they have less money coming in because of a poor reputation, maybe they will take it more seriously. However she has probably been able to get away with certain things because nursing teaching faculty is very hard to come by. I think you should try to stick it out if you can because she will not be your instructor forever!!! Worst comes to worst I would start considering other nursing schools as you mentioned. Also about nurses hating their jobs I think it depends who you talk to. Some people love their jobs and some people are just burned out. You said you enjoy clinicals and are doing well in class...why not find out for yourself if nursing is right or wrong for you? Confidence comes with time and experience! You will always wonder what if.....

I had to write a paper for my senior practicum about the unit I was on which happened to be in the ER. We had to focus on a reoccuring issue seen in the ER. I chose to write about barriers to communication primarily language as a barrier. Communication barriers may lead to a poor assessment (past medical history, symptoms, current medications), a poor understanding of the discharge instructions etc.....I focused on different programs used by idfferent health care providers such as medical translators, their availability and their reliability. Are these types of programs worth investing in versus increased mortality due to the various issues revolving around communication barriers.

I will be working on a surgical intermediate unit with a ratio of 4 to 1. This may be a silly, obvious question but I am still going to ask!!! Does this count for the critical care requirement? I really do not want to offend anybody by asking this or have someone think I am trying to debate what the requirement should be...so please nobody get mad?!

Wow congrats on getting into MGH...such an accomplishment. Before you invest 3 years and 200k into this I think you should make sure it is right for you since you are new to nursing all together. What field are you in now if you don't mind my asking? While I was at umass boston, i had their health insurance and I would use the school clinic as my primary care. It is run by about 6 NPs and 1 MD. The NPs def have autonomy from what I saw and some people prefer them over MDs because they feel they have a stronger sense of compassion for their patients...however I am sure that depends on the person!

TB tests have always made me nervous...I coulda sworn that a person is supposed to have a wait period in between PPDs. Pleas emake sure you check before you do...that place seems to have their priorities mixed up. How could they not give you follow up instructions? They mustve assumed everybody knows....NOT COOL.

I agree. RR is extremely important especially with post op patients. The CNA should not have changed the value you gave to her unless she went in and rechecked the vitals herself because whatever she was writing in the patient's chart she wanted to be sure of it herself. Usually someone will recheck vitals if they are abnormal and want to make sure they were accurate and will then notify the nurse who may or may not notify the doctor depending on the severity of the decline in stability. I personally consider 16-20 the norm and 14 if the patient is in no obvious distress as Sharrie posted earlier. I would reccommend speaking with your clinical instructor, you can choose to keep the person annomyous if you do not want to get anyone in trouble but I am sure the clinical instructor will want to know if a CNA is changing values because that is just not safe practice. I think it is good that you are so determined to get to the bottom of the this situation, it shows you care very much!

Haha funny you say the IT sector, my brother has a degree in computer science and works in the IT department for a company.....actually he has always been able to find a job no problem and he has switched jobs 3 times in the past 4 months..well into the recession. The field of IT has very limited qualified candidiates with more job openings, it is much easier for them to get hired than new graduate nurses. My uncle is a doctor at the hospital I work at as a CNA and my aunt and her daughter are both nurses there as well. Did I mention I had my resume professionally written? Thanks for your suggestions but it is nothing that has not been said so many times to us new grads and to say you got ONLY 3 offers as though that is not such an amazing accomplishment. Most people I know can't even get HR to call them back let alone interview them.

Sorry kiddo.....I graduated in December 08 in Boston. Tell me why I am moving to North Carolina in 2 weeks? YUP...a job! Boston is the last place to get a new graduate position even with PCA experience and connections. I suggest being flexible with not only the unit but the location as well. I am leaving family and friends to pursue my career. Not all bad though.....the city I am moving to is beautiful and the position is a great one so I am thankful to at least have a job. Good luck!!!!

I am an RN and I am a naturally private person similar to quiet.....it is tough sometimes because the environment calls for a lot of COMMUNICATION and INTERACTION not just with patients but other nurses, doctors, techs, and other departments. I have seen many types of personalities in the medical field and I personally think the more friendly, outgoing, and approachable nurses/students do well in the field. Now not saying being quiet automatically cancels these other traits but it certainly doesen't help. I feel it is most important to be professional, compassionate, and safe and if you are those things you will be fine regardless! Just remember nursing is a team effort and in order for a team to be successful, everyone has to be involved! Good luck on your education and future career!!!!!:)

Welllll I just found out I got the job. I was offered the position and accepted today. So I am sure you will get an offer very soon. What specifically was that event that may delay the decision? I got that from one of the HR ppl because another unit I interviewed for had put me on a wait list because I am a new grad and they were waiting to see if anyone ahead of me declined. But it seems that you got 3 interviews....thats great! They would not meet with you so many times if they were not interested in you. I think only something out of the managers control would affect you getting hired such as budget cuts or hiring freezes. Good luck!!! I am sure you'll get it!!!!

WildCat....looks like we are going to be coworkers!!!!! I GOT THE JOB!!!! SIU all the way :)

Just a side note it's "sating" not "stating" as in o2 saturation. Just so you know :wink2: