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Hey, Congratulations! I'm going to private message you. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hey! Thanks alot for your response! Your post eased my nerves and gave me some material to think about & how I would answer it. Thanksss

I feel your pain jitterbug. I've had my RN license for almost a year now. No job yet. The search continues....so frustrating.

Hey all, Wondering if anyone can offer any insight into the RN job interview process. Do they ask you pretty general questions? or are they specific and/or clinical questions? For example: what would you do if a patient comes in displaying the following symptoms..... etc. Something along those lines...you get the point, right. Can anyone (especially new grads) share some experiences you've had at job interviews? Thanks in advance!

Hey, Yeah I've been doing just that. I applied at Reston and just received an e-mail pretty much telling me to 'have a nice day' lol I've applied to INOVA too. Lets see.... *SIGH* the search continues....

Hey, yeah unfortunately Spotsylvania is really far from me.

Hey! thanks for the input! I checked Reston and applied to a couple positions....but catch 22: you need experience to get the job except how are you supposed to get the experience without getting the job first. Its really frustrating! Ugh!! Anyway thanks for your response I will keep trying.

Hey all, Does anyone know who is hiring in Northern Virginia? Anywhere around Fairfax, Chantilly, Reston, Arlington, McLean....you get the gist. I'm so tired of job searching & hearing nothing back.

Congratulations!!! I'm in the same exact position that your husband was in. Graduated 2009 and I have yet to find a job.... Its very disheartening and I feel like I'm loosing all my skills like venipuncture, sterile technique and other manual dexterity kind of things. I know it will come back to me when I'm at the job but as of now job searching is sucking all the life out of me. Don't even know what to do at this point.... I guess I can take solace in the fact that I'm not alone.

Thank you for your input. Appreciate your prompt response :)

Well because its only valid for a certain time period (about 2 years). Don't you have to be working in the field to file for renewal? I'm confused because I keep hearing new things about this from different people.

That means that once the license expires you HAVE to renew by retaking the NCLEX?

Hey all, I am wondering if anyone can offer information regarding RN license renewal. I took the NCLEX last year and got my license but have not been able to find any jobs in this field. My license is valid for 1 more year. This means that if I don't find an RN position within the year and start working I'll have to go back and re-take the NCLEX. My question is this: once hired, what kind of training or continued education hours would one have to do to make sure that RN license stays valid? Is there a certain amount of hours that must be completed? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

@Misyhun: congrats! that's awesome...I've been looking/talking to a couple nurse recruiters but haven't heard anything back. I'm really frustrated with this job situation. I feel like I'm loosing my skills being out of practice for so long. Do you mind sharing how you went about it? I mean did you apply online or talk to recruiters or attend any job fairs/events to get the position? What unit did you get hired for? Oh, isn't the new-grad contract for 18 months? you can private message me if you prefer. Thanks alot in advance.... would love to hear from you.

Hey all, Does anyone know of any hospital/facility that is hiring right now in northern Virginia? I graduated a year ago and I'm soooooo frustrated. I can't find anything. anywhere. Anyone know of any job fairs that are to occur in this area anytime soon? My first preference would be to work for the INOVA system. please help.

Hey all, Wondering if anyone can offer me insight about the INOVA Fairfax Hospital. I am a new grad and I am interested in working there but I have a few questions. I'll appreciate any information you can offer. 1. Do new grads have to sign a contract? If so, what is the general length of time? 2. What is the RN salary? (now in 2010 with the recession) 3. What is the work environment like in terms of nurse-patient ratios? 4. And is the training good in your opinion? 5. What unit would be the best to work at? Thanks in advance:jester:

Congrats on the job! I can totally relate to your case in some ways. I graduated a year ago and I still haven't found a job yet. I thought there would be a lot available to me but mannnn was I wrong. Its frustrating because another day not working means rusting clinical skills. I think its ok for you to be nervous. I know I will be too after this hiatus. You should be fine. Just make great working relationships with the staff on your unit, look things up, and never be hesitant to say you don't know something. Good luck!

Hey all! Just wondering what is your strategy for getting SATA questions right? Somehow I always seem to miss one of them

@ Starkyss: Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate all your help. I'll definitely try to take your advice and relax a bit. Hopefully all will be well! One last question for you. Once you've taken the exam, do you just wait a couple days to do a 'license lookup' on your state board of nursing's website? My state doesn't have quick results. And I believe the official results get mailed out. So the 'license lookup' is the nonofficial way of checking right? @ winsome08: I can totally relate. We will all be much happier people after we pass this exam!

@ Starkyss: Congratulations on passing! and thanks a lot for your encouragement. Truly needed a heaping spoonful of that! I usually try to recall and think through the questions before even looking at the answer choices to get an answer. If I have no idea about the topic of the question (as in the case of meds I've never heard of) I just make the best possible guess. I find this to be the easiest for Saunders Comprehensive Review CD because I think it gives pretty unrelated answer choices. ATI and Kaplan have very close answers My exam is sooo soon & I haven't done much content review. Just questions. When I don't know something I look it up. Got any helpful tips for last couple days before taking the test?

That is what I learned. But I've gotten this question wrong several times from various review books for not utilizing the Homan's sign. Eh...

@ caliotter3: Thank you for your response. I'm reviewing concepts that I've consistently been getting wrong. However, its unrealistic to think that'll I'll be able to cover every disease and procedure that I would need to know. With some questions you just have to rely on making a guess. I find with Saunders that answer choices are pretty unrelated so its pretty easy to narrow down the answer. With Kaplan they'll throw in 2 very close, very high priority things with obviously one being the right answer.

Hey all, So I've been using the Saunders CD (4th edition) for doing questions and I find most of them to be pretty easy. Can anyone comment on the difficulty level of the questions and how well it correlates with the real NCLEX-RN? And also what's a good score to be getting on these questions? I find Kaplan questions to be harder than Saunders. But I've only used the Kaplan Review books and not their Q-bank. Running out of resources to use at this point!! Any help would be appreciated

@ chellexlalani: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! How was your testing experience. Any helpful tips? @ Emily: Thanks a bunch for your words of encouragement. My test is soooo soon & because of some family reasons this past week I barely got any studying done. Most of my time went to driving to and from the airport. I'm so so nervous. I've done about 2500 questions collectively but I still don't feel ready enough.

Hey everyone, So I'm really confused with this Homan's sign for DVT/thrombophlebitis. Some books tell me to pick that as an answer choice if given. Other books totally restrict doing this assessment because new research has proven it to be ineffective. What does NCLEX want us to pick!!!? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. This is just one thing...there are so many inconsistencies with different books. Don't even get me started on the lab values