phoenixAsclepius

Ya, I agree about HESI having tricky questions. I always did pretty well on them but the questions would give you ulcers. Uhm....HESI is supposedly super super paranoid about its questions and answers, so paranoid that our teachers weren't allowed to take the tests or view the questions. Of course, this made it a convenient excuse when we complained about the tests, they would just reply that it's a standardized test that everyone is taking.

HESI is a computer based test that they use to test you on different blocs of instruction as well as an overall exit exam. the entrance exam we used is called NET.

Let's put it this way, I only have one kidney, now....

To be honest, this is not the best time to be a new grad nurse. It's been like this for about a year, now and there's no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel. Due to the recession, there are alot of experienced nurses coming back into the field and nursing schools are pumping out waves of new grads to address the supposed "shortage." Hospitals have a plethora of candidates to choose from and they're going with experience, which is a known factor. It is possible, with connections, to get a nursing job right out of school but the vast majority of graduates are going 6 months to a year before finding work. As for one poster's experience in ICU, yeah...ICU nurses eat their young. General rule of thumb, if the main reason someone became a nurse was the "ton of cash" you get, you should avoid those people because those will be your scroogelike burnouts. I suggest shadowing an oncology nurse to see what you'd be getting into because reality isn't always like our dreams.

To be honest? go with your experience first and education second. They're looking for experience so give the that first. make sure you put lines in between your various sections like your objective and education. makes it easier to read.

Put down licenses and certifications like BCLS or ACLS if you have it. I would take off national honors society candidate, no relevant to work experience. I would put your dates of employment on the first line to the right instead of at the end of the paragraph. Might also want to think about bullet points. HR scans a lot of resumes, they want short to the point examples of what you've done, not paragraphs. might also want to take off references available on request. if they want references, they'll ask for them.

Would be a good thing. HESI is garbage. Problems we encountered were Poorly constructed questions, questions that are directly contradicted by the study guide that HESI itself puts out, answers to questions directly contradicted by the explanations or the explanations supporting a wrong answer, the study guide material on the website for questions missed not addressing the question or giving information that contradicts the answer, Case studies were somewhat better but still had major website problems such as disconnections or refusing to acknowledge submittals, content problems such as obviously wrong answers or questions whose answers contradict each other or answer a later question. If you're gonna put out an education product, don't have the questions written by drunken interns. It caused a huge amount of anxiety and confusion in our class.

Same thing is happening in Phoenix, AZ. No one is hiring new grads. In fact, certain hospitals are importing nurses from india and the phillipines by claiming a nursing shortage while refusing to hire new grads (they're contracted for 3 years and have to stay at the hospital who hired them, I believe. Housing is included.) out of 22 or so graduates, 4 have been hired and the next class is fairly close to the finish. Those who were hired by hospitals are reporting PTNs of 7-8:1. So, there is a need for nurses, but due to the financial situation, greed, and short sightedness, I think hospitals are reluctant to hire what they need and the certainly don't want to spend money to train new people if they can get away with it.