pullingallnighter

I'm feeling very depressed. I was able to get a job on a general medicine floor at a large teaching hospital and I was very grateful to have a job since I've heard it can be tough for new grads right now. But it's been very rough. My new grad orientation consisted of two days of hospital orientation followed by five shifts of unit orientation. After that, I was on my own. I was juggling 4-5 patients with only 5 orientation shifts under my belt. I was titrating heparin drips, ordering PTT labs, passing meds, taking admissions, doing wound dressings, and a whole slew of tasks that I feel woefully unprepared for. Most days I don't eat lunch. There are no secretaries on my unit and call lights are hooked up directly to the nurse's phone so I'm constantly getting calls as I running around like a mad woman. The end result is that I already feel burned out and it's only been my second week alone. I worked as a nurse's aid for two years at a different hospital and thought nursing was my calling, but now that I'm at this new hospital, I just hate it so much. I spend my off days depressed and anxious about the next shift. It's frustrating because I received a longer orientation as a nurse's aid than as a nurse. I don't know what I got myself into. I keep fantasizing about leaving nursing all together and doing something else with my life that's less stressful, gives me the ability to sit down for 30 minutes to eat, and let's me have enough time to drink and go to the bathroom. Thanks for reading my vent. Depressed New Grad

I'm in the same boat. I just started on a medsurg floor and during the second day of orientation I wanted to curl in a ball in the medroom and cry. I only get get five shifts of orientation in my hospital and between med passes, drawing labs, getting calls every 10 minutes from needy patients, I thought, "What the hell... I'd rather be selling t shirts at the Gap and make less money than being continually stressed for 12 hours elbow deep in poop and running around like a mad man." I was told that it gets better in time and to just hang in there but it's just awful. I never thought I'd say this but I miss nursing school.

Ya my mentor will have his or her own patient load. The mentor is the same person who I'm shadowing during orientation and they want want that teaching relationship to continue. But I'm wondering when my mentor actually have time to help orient me when she has her own patients as well. Oy vey!

So I just accepted a job at what I thought was a great teaching hospital. I haven't taken the NCLEX yet and they have a spot waiting for me once I get my license. So that's pretty exciting. However, the orientation period where I'm paired with a nurse and learn how to work as a RN in a hospital is... one week. It seems a bit short. I've worked as a CNA for a few years, and I was a nurse extern at that hospital over the summer. However, during my nurse externship they wouldn't let me pass meds, program IVs or anything invasive -- just assessing and charting. After my week of orientation, they have online teaching modules and I'm assigned a "mentor" that I can "turn to if I have any questions" but I just don't know if it'll be enough. I'm grateful I found a job because I know that it's hard right now for new grads. But I'm just nervous because even though they told me have a lot of "hospital experience" I've never worked or had the responsibilities of an actual nurse and honestly, I'm just afraid of accidently making a mistake, potentially losing my license, and harming a patient. Does anyone have any advice or some words of encouragement for a new grad with a very short orientation program?

They do hire new grads in ICU, at least in the medical ICU. The phone interview is usually just a screening interview. I had two phone interviews and then had an in person interview with the nursing managers. For the second phone interview, just be prepared to answer typical interview questions like why this floor, tell us a time when you've advocated for a patient, etc. etc. HR does the phone interviews. Just a heads up though, NMH just had a bunch of layoffs and everyone's a bit sore b/c they had all these senior nurses laid off and yet they sent out a mass email to employees talking about how they're going to build a new research building in downtown Chicago that will replace the old Prentice Women's Hospital. Also, the orientation process at NMH is drastically shorter than at other institutions. And there's an odd nursing hierarchy with multiple nursing managers managing multiple floors. Good luck on the interview!

When do the postings go up for the RN residency program? I graduate in December and would love to apply for the spring program.

I attend North Park University (graduating this December! Finally!) and my adjusted individual total score was 87.1% with my percentile rank at 90. If I remember correctly, the TEAS cut off for my year was 73%, but I just heard that they lowered the minimum threshold. You just have to remember that TEAS is only one part of your application. If you have a good GPA and good recommendations, then that should help balance out a low TEAS score. I know that my school goes through each and every candidate and looks at all factors. Hope that helps!

thanks for the info corazondeoro! really helps out a lot. it sucks that they require us to fly out there for an interview... it's like $400-$500 to fly out there from chicago. :/ i was looking at wages too and it says that for experienced nurses the range is $4598/mo - $8273/mo. and thanks for link to the seiu199nw union tokmom!

I graduate from a nursing school in Chicago, IL this December. I've known for a while that I wanted to live in a different state after graduation, and after a few months of research and thought I'm pretty sure Seattle is a best place for me. I know there are a bunch of threads about Harborview Medical Center on this site, but they're a few years old. I was looking for an updated opinion -- how receptive is Harborview to new grads, particularly out-of-state new grads? And, because I'm still unfamiliar with applying to an out-of-state job, could I just do a phone interview or does Harborview want me to fly in to do an in-person interview? Any info would be great! Thanks! :)

Hey @spectacular17! I took the TEAS a few months ago and did really well (ranked 95th percentile in the nation and 90th in my BSN program). Here are a few of my recommendations: Buy "Study Manual for the Test of Essential Academic Skills" which is the official study manual for the TEAS. It's pretty pricey (~$40), but it's extremely thorough and really gets you ready for the type of questions asked on the test. Next, before you do any studying, take a practice test. Get a feel for which sections you need to focus on and which sections you don't really need to spend too much time on. I scored my practice test and put in order which sections I needed to focus on. For me it was: English (worst scoring), Science, Reading, and Math (best scoring). Then, figure out what type of questions you had difficulty on. If you're having trouble with percentages, brush up on percentages. If you're having trouble with noun verb agreement, brush up on that. Look at each question you got wrong on that practice test and figure out which concepts you're having trouble with. Finally: go ahead and study those concepts! And practice, practice, practice. The reason I recommend this way is because the TEAS is a content-based exam, and there's way too much content for you to study the book cover to cover. It's also super inefficient if you tried to study every single possible thing the TEAS could cover. So I suggest that you just figure out the topics you're struggling with and focus on those. I gave myself about a month and a half to really prepare for the exam. Finally: good luck! Remember: what counts is not how smart you are but how persistent you are. :)