megamaam

I strongly advise against OHSU, they throw unsafe patient assignments and have unhelpful charges, had a horrible experience there. Providence St. Vincent is great, Portland Adventist, Kaiser Sunnyside and Legacy Good Sam are the other places I would try for. Good luck!!

Hello, It is looking like I will be having to move to the bay area from Portland, OR in the next year or so to help take care of declining parents. I have a year of ED experience that I still work per diem in as well as 2 years in m/s ICU. I know that jobs are dreadfully scarce in SF and certainly will apply to every ICU/ED job I can, but was hoping to get the opinion of some people who could tell me where to steer to. I do not really care what the specialty is, since I cannot be picky in this economy. Thank you in advance to anyone willing to share!!

Too bad you couldn't get that drip going. If that patient really started to tank and your charge was continuing to behave the way she did and/or another nurse couldn't help with it you could always call for a rapid response...as an ICU nurse I certainly don't mind helping the floor out with getting drips or high risk meds going. That would be sure to get her attention. And if she gives you flack for calling an RRT over that with her behavior, go straight to the manager. Someone who prioritizes phone play over starting a drip on a train wreck definitely does not deserve to be charge, shame on her!

Thank you so much for your help. I will certainly take you up on your offer for more advice down the road. If you happen to know any tidbits of the trauma hospitals in Oregon that would help hehe! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

Thank you for your advice...may I inquire some more? What kind of questions would you ask of your potential candidates? What books besides TNCC would you recommend reading in preparation? Sadly because I work in a small community hospital, CRRT, swans and ICP drains are a no go. We transfer them to a larger hospital if they need more. The extent of my hemodynamic skills are CVPs and art lines. We do use a fair amount of vasoactives, anti-hypertensives, and the occasional paralytic for respiratory purposes. If there is any advice you have I would truly appreciate it. Thank you so, so much!

I was wondering if anyone had some advice for preparing to enter the trauma ICU? I have been a trauma junkie since before nursing school volunteering in the ED. Throughout nursing school I got as much trauma ICU/step down time as I could and know that this is the field for me. Sadly, it is also extremely competitive to get into. I did do ED for a year and a half to get experience with the resuscitation aspect. I now work in med/surg ICU to get my foot in the door for critical care. I am attending as many trauma conferences I can to learn the latest and greatest, have TNCC, and all my elective CEUs have been related to trauma care. I have a year and a half left in my current job before I can leave. What can I do in the mean time to make myself look better on paper so I can land that interview and job? Thanks for your advice!

I was wondering if anyone has had to take the ICU PBDS? I'm getting very nervous as I hear experienced RNs are failing and I see that a large percentage of people resent this exam when I search threads here. I have been an ER nurse for 2 years, and my new nurse manager said that I'm going to be taking the ICU exam to start. I've taken the med/surg one and passed. What concerns me is in our small community ICU there are a lot of things we don't see or do. For example, a pt we had to paralyze to get reoxygenated we transfered, pt with the first signs of an MI or stroke we transfer...very hard to get follow-through with them and see lab trends, how the pt progresses...anyone have any advice on what to study for??

It could mean one of two things...yes, you might not have passed, as this happened to one of my classmates. The other thing is that if your birthday conflicts with your state's renewing policy, you might not have it yet. Two of my classmates did not get their licenses given to them until a certain period of time has elapsed so they would not have to renew their RN license less than a year later. Be patient, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

You can also check your state board of nursing's website to see if you passed. I found out 19 hours after I took my NCLEX by going to Oregon State Board of Nursing's license verification system...saw my RN license right there :)