Shane505

UCLA is very strict on overtime. But every November through mid January administration opens up overtime for all RNs at UCLA. You can work as much overtime as you want during this period. They also give extra shift bonus of $300 of every overtime shift after you worked two more than your required FTE. So if your FTE is 90% you are required to work 3 days a week. You will get the $300 bonus after working your 5th shift.

Thanks for the responses. I did get the job offer 3 weeks after the interview. I found out my director who interviewed me was playing games lol. The director called me an hour after my interview and said I'm golden and she called HR to give me a job offer. I called HR one week after the interview and they said no offer can be made because it is up to the director to give the nod for the job offer. So after 2 weeks of hearing nothing from HR, I left a follow up voice message on the director's cell phone which she gave me after the interview. She called me back and told me at least 3 times "I'm very glad you called me." She was testing if I was serious about the position because I was from out of state. That same day I got the job offer from HR. The take away from this is if the director/manager gives you their personal cell number after an interview, it's an invitation to use and probably a test if you are serious about the position.

For those of you that got hired by UCLA as an experienced RN. How long did it take for them to contact you with the official job offer after completing the 5 reference Skill Survey? Is the Skill Survey reference check the final step before the official offer or does UCLA conduct a full background check before extending the official offer?

Wow Thanks. I thought UCLA did 8 hr shifts because the pay chart posted showed $3 differential for evening and $6 for nights. So when you clock in at 6:45 pm your differential is $3 and when the clock strikes midnight your differential jumps to $6? That's nice.

Wow it must be competitive to get into UCLA. According to their pay chart 5 yrs experience RN II is $53. That sounds good to me. But I don't like 8 hr shifts í ½í¸. Are Resource per diem RNs at UCLA different from each other or do they all have to be tele and ICU qualified? I'm resource right now at my hospital and they have 3 tiers for resource RNs; med surg, tele, and ICU. Of course ICU gets paid the most.

How many beds does the hospital have that gave you the new grad position at $44/hr? Is that Kaiser? That sounds high. I thought L.A hospitals starts at $39/hr.

What city is this giving you 7 patients in Med Surg. I started as a new grad with 7 patients fresh off orientation which wasn't safe at all. I thought that's how Texas rolls with no union. I was naive and new to the profession and didn't know how much power RNs actually have in the healthcare system. RNs have the MOST POWER in the hospital I learned even without a union and I will explain. We talked to other new grads that got hired at other branch hospitals in the city and their max was 6 patients on Med Surg. We were shocked and upset cause we had 7 patients everyday and never got a proper 30 min lunch because you can't with 7 patients. We found out we were the only hospital going up to 7. So we kept telling management 7 was too much at every meeting but they kept saying it's not in the budget to hire more RNs. Our hospital was owned by a billion dollar corporation but they can't allocate funds to hire more nurses? Oh really? We'll see how that goes with the employees that are over worked and risking their license. So a year went by with tense relations with staff and management cause they never listened to us because "it wasn't in the budget." So one day the tipping point came when they gave a day shift nurse 8 patients and the nurse filed for safe harbor to the Texas Board of Nursing. When word got out they gave that nurse 8 patients, we had 8 nurses quit in the same month. Our manager and director had to come in and work the floor for a month cuz they couldn't find enough scab travel nurses or agency nurses to fill the empty needs. After a month of our director working the floor the CEO of the hospital had a meeting with all the RNs on our floor and asked us what we wanted to keep us working there. We all had our arms crossed and told him we can't go up to 7 patients anymore. The limit has to be 6. The CEO promised us we will never go up to 7 patients again and our nurses never take more than 6 ever since. You see it's the RNs that keep the lights on in the hospital and keep the shareholders fat. 1 night inpatient stay in a hospital on a general floor is at least $4k a night. If just 2 nurses don't show up to work that's tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue in empty beds especially if there was a scheduled surgery. Everytime a RN calls in sick and they can't find a replacement that is tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue for the hospital. That is why agency nurses get paid well. You fill in and save the hospital tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. So whenever your work conditions are not safe and management is not listening to staff remember as RNs you hold all the cards in the hospital. Even without a union if you all talk and band together if management still refuses to listen and meet your demands have enough of you threaten to quit in 2 weeks and management or administration will negotiate with you. RNs keep the lights on in the hospital not doctors remember that!

What part of TX are you from? Everything you said is true. BUT... now that I'm living and working in TX I realize how dirt cheap it is to live here compared to Cali. So even if the pay is low, it is still comfortable relative to the cost of living here. I use to think it's about how much you make but you have to factor in cost of living. A new grad nurse in Socal can't afford a house in a good area on their salary alone. A new grad nurse in San Antonio or Houston can within a year. The only nurses that are making a killing compared to everyone else are staff nurses in Sacramento and the Bay Area. I'm still trying to figure out that one.

If you are coming from the Philippines then disregard everything I said about not having experience. I was referring to those who were educated here in the states. They may have more requirements for international nurses.

Just stay away from "low acuity" units like obgyn, med surg, orthopedics, etc. 6-7 patients per nurse is not uncommon on those units.

Do L.A hospitals use a lot of travelers? I'm currently a med surg nurse in Texas. I'm planning on becoming a med surg/tele traveler in two years with two years experience and want to work at a hospital in L.A/Burbank area. I plan on chasing my music dreams and shopping my demo on my days off. No student loans and no car payment.

I work at Methodist. If you have a license and a pulse, you will get hired at Baptist or Methodist. Experience not needed. But they do work you like a slave and it is San Antonio. That is why they have a hard time retaining nurses.

You're right. I talked to HR about it. It's to make sure they have everything on file if they don't already or lost it.

So I just had my yearly evaluation and I had a good evaluation. It was my first evaluation after being on the job for 6 months. At the end of my evaluation my manager made me sign a document allowing my employer to do a reverification of my educational background. I asked her why do I have to have my credentials rechecked if they did this before I got hired. She said it is protocol for all new workers after their first evaluation. I didn't think anything of it and signed the paper. When I got home I started thinking about how odd it is for a hospital who has a professional HR team that does a thorough background check on every single employee before they hire them to spend additional money rechecking their background again. Maybe I'm looking too deep into this but I find it insulting. It feels as if they are questioning my credibility as a RN. I got my BSN the traditional route at a public university. Did anybody else have their educational background rechecked after getting hired?

I'm an american born Filipino nurse working at a San Antonio hospital. I'm one of a dozen Filipino RNs in the entire hospital. The reputation of Filipino nurses will precede you even in Texas. I remember having a rough day during my new grad orientation and a nurse told me "if all else fails, at least you got the Filipino thing going for you...you have that automatic credibility as a Filipino nurse." I laughed so hard.