NorthBay

Hey all! Long time no talk! Well, I went into the CEN today with zero preparation. I signed up for the exam back in December, completely forgot about it, then got a reminder e-mail yesterday while at work and went "o crap!" I literally studied nothing. Needless to say, I didn't pass, but I only missed it by ONE QUESTION! 104 correct! Ugh. I totally bombed the section on environmental hazards and poisonings. Cyanide overdose treatment? Mass casualty field triaging? (I was easily able to eliminate the already dead 40 year old, but the other 3 options all seemed pretty urgent, and the ABCs were no help) Does anyone have some good review sites/books that focus on this area of the test? The other sections were fine - 13/15, 18/20, so on and so forth, but environmental hazards and poisoning was something like 1/9. FAIL. Thanks for your help y'all! xo

Accepted! *phew* That's a relief :) My online status has not been updated, yet - I found out via e-mail. Acceptance letters (at least mine) were sent out yesterday!

^ Exactly. The "fibromyalgia" patients that I see in my ER tend to be our completely drug-addicted, often homeless, frequent fliers who happen to show up when it rains outside and claim they "lost" the oxy prescription for 60 pills that we gave them two weeks ago (but they did fill it, according to the records). They are the ones who used to have "chronic back pain" and "a pinched nerve". They happen to be allergic to Vicodin, Percocet, Morphine, Toradol... but not Dilaudid or Demerol. They don't have a PCP (so how did this "fibro" get diagnosed?) and no doctor, including the one who supposedly diagnosed them with fibro, will refer them to a pain specialist. As a matter of fact, they have NO desire to work with a pain specialist ("just give me Dilaudid/Demerol and I'll be good to go"). When you have patients like that time after time, it's hard to not raise an eyebrow at someone who comes to the ER with a chief complaint of fibro flair up. Do I believe it really exists? Sure. Absolutely. Do I think people who actually suffer from fibromyalgia come to the ER weekly demanding the most extreme narcotics on the face of the earth? Nope. Not for a moment. And that, my friends, is why fibro has a bad name in the ER circuit. On a side note, I did have a patient last week who had fibro in her history (though she wasn't there for a fibro-related-complaint). Did she want narcs? Nope. She controlled it with anti-inflamatories, light exercise, plenty of rest, eating healthy, and the occasional muscle relaxant. This thread encouraged me to sit down and talk with her about her fibro. I'm 100% certain she actually had true fibromyalgia.

Nothing on my end, either. *sigh* I'm not a fan of the waiting game!

I applied to one of the MSN programs at UCLA and have not heard back yet. When I emailed regarding the time line back in January, I was told decisions would be made in late March, even for those who made the priority deadline. The wait is killing me! Good luck to you all! :)

My department (ER) did end up hiring two new grads - they start on the next schedule, which begins February 19th :)

They do not reimburse for interviews or physicals, nothing except the DAY that you move. I had come down to look at apartments and to get my TB test/physical/urine test (this was obviously after I was hired and was required before I started work) and they did not reimburse for that at all-flights, hotels, and rental car were all out of pocket. They reimbursed me for a) UHaul b) hotel for one night the night before I moved in c) gas to get to LA only on the day that I officially relocated... and I think that's it?

Regarding ER and ICU... Both hired a large handful of both new grads and experienced nurses last time around. As far as I know, ICU kept all but one new grad and ER kept all of theirs through orientation. It's bloody expensive to train new grads, especially in highly specialized areas such as ICU and ER — med surg/telemetry/geriatrics/peds/oncology were off of orientation months before ER and ICU. The application for you guys applying right now opened well before either ER or ICU were off of orientation from the August/September cohort. Chances are the directors and recruiters had no idea what their new grad need would or would not be come February. That said, I have no idea if either are interviewing new grads at this time. I haven't heard anything one way or the other.

UCLA is hiring over 90 new grads this time around. Got the info today from the primary nurse educator herself. Best of luck to all you guys who are waiting! :)

There were 71 hired last round, but there were way more than 800 applicants :/ It's not impossible, though—A bunch of people on allnurses were hired! I'd say definitely DON'T send a hard copy. Absolutely not. The UCLA Health System and especially HR are very aware of the environment and wasting paper. I brought a hard copy of my resume to my first interview and was told to keep it because it's a waste to have two copies.

Yep, navy blue with "UCLA Medical Center (Health Services?) Registered Nurse" in white embroidered printing on the left chest. I'm going to start a campaign to make the "UCLA" in gold script-so much prettier!

The paperwork and physical at HR is easy and can be done in a couple hours-the problem lies in the TB testing. UCLA does two TB tests: you get a TB test, it's read 7 days later, then you get another TB test that's read 3 days later. If you have had a TB test within the last year, you only have to do the 3 day TB test. That's going to be your holdup. I'm sorry you're going through this! I'd recommend calling the SM Employee Health office and seeing what they recommend-the young lady at the front desk has been amazingly helpful to me in regards to health clearance, paperwork, parking, everything!

LingLing786-What unit were you hired to and at which location? The orientations vary by unit and RR vs. SM.

^ EEEEE!!!!! Congratulations! See, all you needed to do was give it a little more time :) I'm so happy for you!

teenychristinie (RR NICU) angeRN09 (RR PICU) peachsnapple (RR PICU) theviv (SM oncology) ya0707 (SM oncology) soRcalN (SM ICU) janbug (SM Geriatric step down) jxRN (SM Cardiac step down) blueflyRN (SM Cardiac step down) ...and me! Did I miss anyone? :) When do all you other Santa Monicans start? I start in a week! So nervous! But in a good way