nicolegrow

Yes being prior helps, not only does it mean you are familiar with the military, but it speaks to your character. It is hard to switch specialties, especially if your assigned unit needs you. If you come in as a Med-Surg (new grad) you will most likely be stuck there for 4yrs. However if you are interested in a specialty work in it for a year as a civilian and then apply to the Air Force. You can skip Med-Surg altogether coming in fully qualified in a speciality (critical care, OR, L&D). It all depends on what you are passionate about.

I am a current USAF RN. You really need to talk to a recruiter who does health care fields. You can come in as a 2nd Lt with your BSN and no experience. You would attend Commisioned Officer Training for 5 weeks in Alabama then go to a 12 week Nurse Transition Program in Texas. All this information is on the Air Force website. The application is process is extremely competitive. You will need a high GPA, excellent references, and you will have to interview as well. Your application goes before a nursing board. The application process takes a lot of time. If you contact a USAF health fields recruiter they can let you know what you need for an application. I got in touch with my recruiter through the USAF website. I was a civilian nurse for 5 yrs prior to joining the USAF Nurse Corps and I love it. It was the best career decision I ever made.

Just finished application for OR nurse, CNI done, MEPS on Friday. Anyone know how many slots are for OR?

"i would love to know what method you used to get your job at ccf? i applied online to several jobs and get the same automatic response you did. any tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks!!!!" persistance! i also replied to my rejection e-mails politely. called the nurse recruiters. the market here is very competitive right now. i also adjusted my resume. i actually got interviews after i adjusted my resume. the one that i had made in school didn't cut it, wasn't modern enough. most important i kept my positive attitude. i pretty sure that is what got me a job, the stubborn positivity.

I finally got a position! J5-6 CVICU. I'm so excited! I have a start date, August 24th, but now I'm worried that I will not have my ATT in time. The Ohio Board of Nursing says there is a 45 business day wait from the time they recieved your application! Plus another 10 -14 for to recieve the ATT. My application was sent the first week of June, so if it takes them all 59 possible days I will not have my ATT by August 24! It is so frustrating to work so hard for your dreams and have things out of your control step on them!

Still waiting for my name to come up at the Ohio Board of Nursing. I have a job offer that I must have my ATT for and the OBN is moving in slow motion. Congrats to all you new grads who are passing your boards and starting your first jobs.

I interviewed for a LTC/SNF recently and their ratio was 30:1 LTC and 12:1 for the skilled section. I was told that as you master your time management skils the stable patients won't seem like too much. Give it time.

So how many sticks is OK? If you can't get it by the second try, something different needs to be done. The nurse may not have listened to her patient, but she should recoginize when help is needed. I have seen in the ER a physician use portable ultrasound to ensure finding a good vein to spare the patient any more unnecessary sticks.

No, it is not like that everywhere. The facility you work at is putting patient safety on the line. You should never do anything that you are not comfortable with! If you stay at this facility you must speak up. Have you talked to your Nurse Manager about the Nurse Aid not giving you vitals? It is your responsibility not only to konw the vitals, but also to report a Nurse Aid who is not following delegated tasks. You need some open comunication lines. The situation that you have described is unethical. Whatever you decide remember to keep a cool head and be professional, no matter how frustrating it may be.

Yes the job market is not as good as it has been in the past. You will get a job it is just going to take a little longer than it did a few years ago. Keep positive so you can give off good vibes during interviews.

Please do not give on finding your dream job. I know that Peds. is really hard to get, but OB might be attainable. I have met quite a few RNs that got hired into OB as new grads. The timing just might not be right. If you have to spend a year on a different floor you can always keep applying.

It is A because you do not wait 10min. It takes 3 to 5 min for a drop to absorb. Yes you want to give the drop first. Answer A doesn't give any wrong information, the other choices do.

I graduated just this May and I have been applying since March. I was very discouraged, but just kept applying. I finally got a job offer for CV-ICU at the Cleveland Clinic. I am from Cleveland and I did my clinical work at their main campus. You must be persistant and confident. I do think it is harder to find a job right now. If you are confident and and persistant I am sure you will find an opportunity that will allow you to grow as a new RN.

So I read all the threads and came to a conclusion. You can't focus on skills. Lots of people in the healthcare field can peform skills. What makes nursing different is the critical thinking. To pass the NCLEX-RN that is what you need to master. Not skills.

I attended Cuyahoga Community College. It is a two year program that earns an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing and I am transfering to Cleveland State to obtain my BSN in a one year bridge program. No patho class. All the courses are integrated, you learn everthing together as you go. 1st semester is assessment, 2nd med/surg, 3rd ob/peds/psych, 4th critical care. I obtained alll the other related courses beforehand (A&P, microbiology, ect..) The schedule is very full. 2 days of lecture, 2 days of clinical, and 1 lab day every week. I would have preferred to go to CSU or CASE to begin with, but they don't have an evening/weekend program for BSN. However the bridge program is mostly online and requires only one day of class per week. I have 3 children(6yr, 3yr, 10 months) so the timing of the classes makes a big difference.

Expect to need to study. Recommended is at the least 4hrs. per day. Yes every day. Split this up. If your tired stop studying and sleep. Do not skip on sleeping. Record lectures and listen to them while you are doing other things. Record yourself reading your notes and listen while you are doing other things. You can't just memorize nursing you need to learn the process. Each disease has it's own process. Make a large notecard for each one you cover in lecture/reading so you can look at it as a whole. If you can understand what a disease is doing you will be able to figure out what the nurse will do. Do not get caught up in other classmates negativity. Do not worry about exams. If you truly study enough you should not need to worry. Stay positive! Nursing school is very demanding and it is easy to become discouraged, but when you waste your energy on negativity your scores will suffer. Buy an NCLEX prep book and start it now. If you become friends with classmates you can all buy different ones and trade every semester. Do the CDROM pratice questions. Learn how to eliminate wrong answers on exams, a good NCLEX book will teach you this. Focus on yourself. You need to be your best. If you have free time do something that makes you feel great. I quit working and took a student loan to cover expenses while I was in school. I felt it was worth it. I have 3 children 6, 3, and 10 months., and a supportive husband, that was the only way I had time for school, them and me. There will be at least one course that was meant to weed out weak students. Schools do this so that they have a high NCLEX pass rate. It can't be avoided. Find out which class this will be and expect it to be demanding. Do not whine about it, defeat it. Don't wait to ask for help. If you need help tell your professor you want a one-on-one. If your family/friends bug you because you aren't around, tell them, and tell them only once, that you are pursuing your future and they are included when you get there, so their support is best given by letting you study. Best of luck to you!

You don't prepare for the HESI. It is to test what you already know, and let you know your weak points. This way you can know what to focus on when studying for your NCLEX.

I didn't take patho as a seperate class. We learned dx pathos as we went along. Why do you have to take it as a seperate class?

Med/Surg was my least enjoyable rotation. I loved my clinical instructor, got along well with my class, and kept my grades up. I don't feel that there is really enough time for your patients. Nursing is supposed to be for the whole person, and when I have been on Med/Surg floors most of the time the nurse is too busy for her many patients. They get their meds, cleaned, dsgs changed, and turned. If one of the 8 or so patients has a need beyond that all the other patients get even less of the nurse's time. Documenting on that many patients is also very time consuming. Yes it can be done, and RNs are capable of making it work, I just never felt that it is in the patient's best interest for one RN to responsible for 8(give or take)people. In psych, peds, OB, and now in Critical Care I feel patients are able to recieve more from their nurses. I feel good about my patient experiences in these areas because I was able to give them everything I could as a student nurse and in a couple weeks when I get my RN that is how I want to continue to feel about my patient care.

When I write a care plan I just want it to be over. Most of it comes from a care plan book not my personal thought process. I can't tell you anything about the many care plans that I have written. I can tell you about the patient care I have given. You learn interventions in lecture, and with patient experience. APA is important to know especially if you desire to further your career. Every student should easily be able to construct a paper following guidelines, this is why composition is a requirement for any degree. Pre and Post conferences at clinicals are a nice way to discuss specific individualized care plans that you anticipated after reviewing your patient assignment and evaluate afterwards. A written care plan is just a boring and long way of doing the same thing. I also wonder if making students write out care plans has been proven by research to be the best way to learn the process. I personally know that I learn from experiences and hands on activites(stimulation).

Don't just view it as studying for an exam. Your goal should be to understand the material, all of it. This takes alot of time. Nursing is a process with rationale for every intervention. You need to spend 4hrs plus a day working with the material is various ways(suggested in the previous posts). I also like to break things down in lay terms, like if you were trying to explain it to a patient.

Dose calculations are taken very seriously and you will be failed. Ask your professor for a one on one review of the concepts you missed. They should be there to help you. If no remediation/review is offered after failing an exam of any kind seek an authority. It is unfair testing if you are not in some way made aware of your weak areas. The staff does not have to show you your exam, but they still should discuss what concept you are missing. Ask your professor to supply practice problems with detailed answers. If you can do a practice exam, you can do the math. My school has math competency exams twice a semester, each becomes more involved with new material presented. I only had to repeat a math exam once, and it was because I was nervous. I let the students around me get my nerves going. Now for every exam I take I avoid all classmates the day of an exam, so I can keep mojo.

Not sure which class you are taking a final in, but it does start the first day. There is no replacement for being a dedicated student. Reading your notes is ok, but other things you can do are: record yourself reading them and then play it back, play it back while you are performing an activity(it helps reinforce memory from short to long), play it while you are sleeping if you can tolerate it, do Q&A with classmates like a jeopardy game to improve recall, and anything you just can't grasp go back to your text. If you have time an NCLEX review is always nice because it helps you think about the integrated nursing process. Even if your not sure what the question is asking you can always eliminate wrong answers with your basic nursing knowledge of patient safety and ABC's (airway, breathing, circulation). Good luck.

I will be graduating in May 2009 and have begun applying for positions. Does anyone have advice on how to get hired? My areas of interest are Pediatric, Critical Care, ICU, and ED. Most of my applicatons have been through the Cleveland Clinic website and all my responses are little automated messages about how they have reviewed my info and aren't hiring me. It is all very impersonal. If I was rejected in person I could ask why I was overlooked as a candidate. I know that it would not be realistic to speak with everyone who has applied, but I don't know what I am doing wrong. Any suggestions about finding a job?

I am in an ADN program in Cleveland Ohio and will graduate in May 2009. I have been applying like crazy with no luck. My friends who have graduated in the past couple of years didn't have this much trouble finding a position. I have no interest in a Med/Surg or LTC position, but if I have to start applying for them I guess I'll just have to deal with it. It just seems like defeat to put so much effort into becoming an RN and not being able to find a position, let alone one that you are actually interested in. I want to further my career and become a PNP, so it is rather important to me to find a Pediatric Nursing position. You mentioned something about a weekend visit program. How do I go about that? From what I understand the Clinic hired a lot of new grads from December's grad class, so right now they have positions for experienced Nurses. The positions rotate, new grads then experienced nurses, so that the floors have a good mix. It would not be good if any floor had too many new grads, because there wouldn't be anyone with experience to ask for help. As a new grad you will need help. The Nurse Managers that I have talked to said that positions will be available soon. I don't know if that will be alot, just soon.