BlueEyedGuy

I moved out-of-state for the past 10 months to get a new grad job on a Telemetry unit(we're also the step-down unit) at a regional level 2 trauma center in the northern midwest. I'm looking to find a hospital that hires into their ICU(s) with my one year-ish experience (it'll be a year by the time I get hired somewhere, I imagine). And I'd prefer within commute distance from either SF or Sacramento. I have experience with some drips, but not really vents, swans or art lines. Any suggestion on hospitals? Do I need more experience? Should I expect to take a step-down/tele job in CA and transfer to ICU when allowed?

I work at a mid-sized hospital on a 32-bed 'Telemetry' unit, but we are THE step-down unit. We titrate NTG, dopamine, dobutamine, diltiazem, and a few other drips (not levo or epi). We have monitors at bedside that we can wirelessly sync to the Tele box at our own discretion. While sync'd we can import vitals from the monitor to the chart also.The only time I've seen a-lines is when the cardiologist leave the stent in from a Cath and we can hook up a transducer to that, but that's usually only for a few hours until we pull the stent. The only thing we don't really see much is trauma, they're either in the ICU or end up on surgical(ortho or neuro).

We had the Effient reps in last week, and I have the literature in front of me, because I was curious about this too. Effient reaches the therapeutic level of about 75% platelet inhibition in about 2 hours with a loading dose. And since it's an irreversible agent, binding to the platelet for the life of the platelets (around 7 days), it doesn't matter that the half life of the drug is 7 hours, because the effect won't wear off completely for about 5-9 days while inhibited platelets die off. Actually in the first 24 hours, inhibition only drops a few percentage points, which is really good for a once a day drug. I worried if these guy bleed though, all you can do in stop the drug and dump more platelets in them, right? edit: added a little more.

You can fight if off locally, the counties have to allow it individually.

It has been a week since anyone's posted about getting an interview. Anyone getting calls? What unit(s)?

I was wondering if people have gotten calls from other units. We've only heard from Reebles on here so far. I'm really interested in critical care units and emergency.

I read a post of someone who did this, and I was wondering how it worked. Do they orient you like a full time employee and then you just get called off a lot, and obviously no benefits. Is it a good idea? Is it easier to get hired this way? Did you get hired full time by the employer eventually? I'm in a tough job market, and it would be hard for me to move. So, I'm looking at some unconventional ways of getting my career going. If anyone else has some tips on unconventional first jobs, I'd love to hear that also.

Okay, so I found a new grad posting (rare), and the want ACLS (which I have), but also: Basic Cardiac Monitoring Certification and Telemetry Certificate required. Are those easily obtained? How do I do it? Are there online ones? Do I need these if I have ACLS? Are they just trying to hire their monitor techs that went to nursing school?

No one said this yet on here, I think. I talked to someone from nurse recruiting on Tuesday and they said they are hiring 40 new grads, "the most we've ever taken." So, all other things being equal 40/500 x100% = 8% chance of getting a job if you got your application in.

Same here. My school didn't do senior preceptorships, that's why I want a solid nurse residency so badly. I hope that doesn't hurt my chances. I'm also a UC alumnus, I wonder if that helps at all. I didn't see any unit preference form in the application. I thought they were going to include that.

I've read accounts of people getting into training programs with companies out of school, and some companies have hints about these programs on their websites, but no real information It this a state practice act thing? I called one clinic (a Fresenius) and they said they cannot hire New Grads due to a CMS regulation requiring 1 year of experience. It also seems that some companies may get around these requirements by having you work as a "Tech" the first year. Is that how it works? Once again, I'm in California if that helps. I know some people will say going into a specialty like this right off is a bad idea, but it's a tough job market and I want to cast a wide net as I've apply from everything from ER(my passion) to SICU, corrections, mental health, public health, and more.

Stanford is desirable experience for new nurses to get on their resume, but from what I hear they are not the best employer in the area(as far as benefits, salary, etc). It costs tens of thousands of dollars to train new nurses, and these nurses tend to move on after a year or two. So travel nurses will keep their costs down.

That's not how tax brackets work. You don't even hit the 35% bracket if you're making under 90k. Or are you just estimating and adding in state income tax as well?

Everyone feels like they failed, because the nature of the test is to find the limit of how hard the level of questions you can take. If you get a few questions correct in the beginning in a row, then you could get every other question wrong and still pass (as in alternating right/wrong/right). I walked out of the test feeling like I got beat up and possibly failed @75, but I passed on Tuesday; license posted on the state board the next day! Do the peasronvue trick and find out.

Look, your scores are good. You've been out of school for three months. Why wait any longer? Some studies show waiting longer just decreases you chances of passing. I'm the taking it next week and your scores are higher than mine so far.