janette87

Best to call and ask them I guess, they may very well accept the AIDS training you completed in your BSN program. In my program we had an entire lecture on AIDS (which I thought was pretty thorough) but I took the course anyways to save any hassle. I would recommend it, simply because it got into a lot more detail and you know for sure it will be accepted. I thought it would be mostly review for me but I was surprised to learn as much as I did. I wouldn't bother calling CGFNS. WA dep't of health will be able to tell you if they require a CES report and answer any other questions you have. Trust me, it will save you the frustration of spending 2 hours on hold to speak to a CGFNS rep who can't give you a clear answer:mad: I got that you were already offered a position (congrats btw:D) but WA is not a walk through state ie no temporary licenses. You sound very motivated. Congrats and best of luck:)

My experience was very slow and frustrating unfortunately:uhoh3: Mostly because of CGFNS. I moved here for my family and dont intend on leaving so i got my Green card. Once I got that I applied for CGFNS and sent them my transcripts/license as well as to the Department of Health here in WA. I am not sure if they would require the CES report since you already have a license issued to you.. You will need to take an HIV/AIDS course for your WA license. They have links on their website, I did the 7 hour online course which was very easy and convenientl. Back when I took it they had 4 hour courses advertised as well but the 7 hour one is the requirement. No temporary license as far as I know. I had looked into working as a care aid until I could take the NCLEX and couldn't even do that. The manager at the LTC I went to told me I would love to hire you, but I can't touch you until you have you have your license.

are you a dual citizen or are you coming here on a work visa/green card? I got a green card and came here which took over a year, then tack on another 5 months to get a CGFNS report.. so hopefully it doesn't take you that long! St Joseph's is a really nice hospital. I haven't been in their CCU but I have heard they are expanding and that's the reason for all the open positions. And the residency program is supposed to be excellent, not sure what the pay is like but there seems to be a nice split between theory and practice time before you head out on your own. Perhaps someone here has actually done one of their residencies and can attest. Also, I could be wrong on this, but being as you are a relatively new grad I would expect them to start you in PCU first before moving you over. Hope your process to get here is quick. Best of luck:)

[email protected] thank you very much:)

What book are you using to study? I am in the same boat as you, moved from BC to WA and waiting to take the NCLEX. I have been using the Saunders comprehensive review & Kaplan books as well as going through a bunch of my old notes. I haven't run into any questions like you describe. I'll be guessing if I get any like that:lol2:

my status changed again from ready for final review to "in QA review." How many reviews is there?!! I could not find any information about QA review on their website. Is it some sort of quality assurance? That's all I could think it would be.. Oh well, hopefully it won't be long now Thanks again for your help ladies

Thank you guys for your help. They just changed my status on the website from "ready for review" to "ready for final review." Does anyone know how long the final review takes? Thanks again:)

Hey don't stress! It looks to me like the e-mail was a mistake. CGFNS seems to be a bit off base with their updates. They sent me an e-mail telling me they had received my transcript and then the next day another e-mail saying my account was currently inactive and they were waiting to receive my license validation. I never received an e-mail when they got my license so I have no idea when they received it. And there is 2 different correspondence pages on their website, for me at least. One lists all my documents as being received, and the other lists my account as inactive, yet my status is still ready for review. They can be very confusing! I would call them just to be sure but I think you are alright. Oh and don't count on the 5 weeks that's a LIE! They told me 5 weeks, then it became 8-10. I am now past 11 weeks and still nothing.

Thanks for your reply Silverdragon. I'm just wondering where you got the 4 months from. I guess it shouldn't surprise me. First 4-5 weeks, then 8-10. 4 months would pretty well double it for the third time. I just want to get back to work:mad:

first off, my apologies if this is in the wrong place. I wasn't sure where to put it. I was wondering if anyone here had recent experience with getting a CES report from CGFNS and how long it took to have that done. I applied for it and paid the fee back in mid April and they received all the documents by June 1. Originally, the e-mail they sent stated up to 5 weeks to complete the review. So mid July rolls around and I am wondering where the heck is my report?! Every time I check my status on their website it says "Ready for review." I sent an e-mail and received a generic "do not respond to this e-mail" which said current processing time could be UP TO 8 to 10 weeks. Last week was 10 weeks... I sent another e-mail and I got the exact same reply they sent me before! I guess I should call them, but their call center is only open 08-1200 hrs EST. I am PST and I have a toddler so sitting on the phone all morning is a bit of a problem.. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions for speeding up the process? I'm guessing the odds of that happening are nil but I thought I would ask on the off chance... I'm worried my file is sitting on someone's desk and been forgotten about. A guy called me 2 weeks ago from the Department of Health (Washington state) and said my license application has been sitting on his desk for months now, everything complete except for the CGFNS report & successful NCLEX completion, but he will have to cancel it if I do not get the CGFNS part of it done within 90 days:crying2:

I used the Mosby's book to study and found it really helpful. Be careful when you transfer your answers over to the scantron sheet, especially if you skip over a question. One girl that wrote with us made that mistake early on (skipped #5 but put the #6 answer in its place). It took her until the very end before she realized her mistake; they gave her a new bubble sheet but she was pressed for time trying to re-do the entire sheet. Be prepared to take the full time allowed to finish. Don't get stuck on a question, move on and come back to it if you have time. Better to do that than waste your time trying to figure it out and not have time to finish. Take a good lunch break! Don't try to cram studying into your break. Eat a good lunch and go get some fresh air. Don't discuss your answers with the other test takers. It's too late to make changes and you will only worry about the ones you got wrong.

I moved to Washington state from Canada & applied to the state for my license. since i'm coming from a foreign country I need to have my transcripts evaluated which I expect will be completed within the next several weeks. I am wondering when I need to register with pearson vue for my exam. When I looked on their website it seems like I should be registered prior to the state getting all of my info. but the application package from the department of health looks like I need to be approved by them before I can register. I feel stuck.. I don't want to register and pay my fee only to find out that my transcripts aren't good and lose my registration fee. but on the other hand, I don't want to miss out on writing the exam in the time frame I need to because I waited too long to register. I keep hearing about the "ATT" I understand what it is but not sure who it comes from. My apologies if this is posted elsewhere and i overlooked it. I tried calling the department of health and the lady I spoke to just confused me more. so what should I do? Thank-you in advance

oh i know death notifications are in person. but the wives here have a key caller system, they will call to let you know if something happened in the unit (injury/death of someone not your spouse). but assuming he was injured, he would call me directly (if he was able to)

i am younger, i do carry my cell on me at work (vibrate) during the times my husband is deployed incase something happened to him/his unit and rear D needs to get in touch with me. if hes not deployed i still have my phone at work but keep it on vibrate in the staff room. nothing is that important that it cant wait a few hours until i have a break. i see lots of my co-workers using their phones on the floor, mostly young staff but not always. it looks so unprofessional! I have even seen nurses talking on their phones while they are at the med cart! thats an accident waiting to happen. I know some use it to look up medications, personally i am old fashioned and would rather go grab a book and look in there or on the computer.

to maybe answer your question about the 8 positions open... I work in an ER, staffing was always a bit of an issue but not nearly so bad as it is now. management decided it would be a good idea to hire new grad RNs and train them for the ER using a course they developed instead of requiring the employees to obtain their own ER certification through a school program(how it used to be done). so we had probably 6 new hires, all younger, that came in to work with us. the senior RNs started to get fed up, felt like they were "baby-sitters" and had to monitor the new hires/their patients in addition to their own patient load, without extra compensation. so a few left for positions elsewhere in the hospital and community care. Then some of the new nurses ended up quitting because they were still getting used to the department/routine and now had no one available or willing to mentor them. So things are worse now than they ever were.

We dont measure output on CBI either, I have never seen an order for I&O for a pt with CBI. I can only imagine what a pain that would be, dumping the bucket and hanging new bags is time consuming enough! Plus I wonder how accurate it would really be.. even for an 1000cc IV bag running on a pump there is still a little left over in the bag after 1000 has run through.

I worked as a nursing assistant at a long term care facility after the first year of my BSN program. pay was decent but mostly i was glad to have the experience

thats par for the course. enjoy those quiet times, they dont come often enough:)

chest pain, abd pain, migraines, uti's mostly.

Really you just have to suck it up and deal with it, you are probably going to have to work some nights. I know that sounds harsh but it's true. The nurses with seniority get their pick of shifts, as they should. They started out at the bottom once too and had to pay their dues. We do 12 hr shifts here, our casuals/new grads get all the weekend & night shifts with maybe an occasional weekday shift. You might luck out and find something for 1st or 2nd shift but I wouldn't count on it. You might also try once you get hired to arrange shift swaps with another nurse. For me, I prefer working nights and I will trade shifts with other nurses and work their nights in exchange for my days.

even for my stable pt's its not a bad idea to at least chart the vitals and something short relating to the presenting complaint ie: pain free, awaiting CT etc. Even if theres nothing significant to report it shows that you have at least laid eyes on the patient. Typically I have 5-6 patients and dont have a problem charting for each patient every couple of hours. Of course sometimes you get one patient taking up all of your time so this doesn't always get done but I try my best. Our ER doesnt have a MAR like the wards do so every med we give is written in the nursing notes along with the reason for it ie morphine 5 mg IV for 6/10 pain.

at my hospital the OR had 2 nurses, scrub and circulating. scrub nurse would be with the surgeon handing him supplies/taking things away. circulating nurse would be out of the field, getting supplies to pass over to the scrub nurse and doing the charting on the computer. Usually they would switch each surgery ie: I was scrubbed in last time so I will circulate for this one. Almost always from what I've seen the patient would already have an IV line, either had one put in on the day surgery floor or if they came from the ER they would do it there. if there was no IV line the anaesthesiologist would do it. in my ER the nurses are assigned to a set of beds and look after only those patients. beds 1-5 were cardiac/trauma, beds 6-10 abd/gyne, etc. You do everything for your patients - assessments, IVs, meds.. We also have a float nurse who covers for people when they go on breaks. If there is no one on a break she will come help out where she can, maybe put in the odd IV, Ng tube whatever. personally i find ER much more enjoyable. I like the variety. I hated OR and having to be in the same room pretty much all shift. at least with ER it can be more hectic but Im on the go all day and dont feel so confined. and I enjoy the interaction with the patients that you dont get in the OR

BC Canada here urology/ortho/neuro-surgery: RN and PN together have 10 or so patients on days, about 13 on nights and when i was in ER, assuming it was full (almost always) I'd have 5 dedicated beds to myself and maybe a hallway patient or two

It seems this section is mostly Military nurses so I'm hoping someone can help me. I graduated from a Canadian university in June 2009 (BSN) then had a child and have not worked since graduation. I am married to an American and just finished the Green card process and will be moving to the US shortly. He is active duty military (Army). I am interested in working at the hospital on post (MAMC) mostly because it is close to home and I think they would be more accomodating (hopefully) of his schedule. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm not even sure its possible to work there as a permanent resident. I have tried looking at their website job postings and the info there is very general, says nothing about citizens only, just the specific job requirements. Majority of my experience in school was in ER/surgical and I was also employed as a student in the ER. I would be looking to start in med/surg however. I know I need to write the NCLEX, not too worried about that, at least not yet:lol2: Also hoping someone can give me some insight into possible wage range. I've had trouble finding things online or knowing where a new grad RN would fit into the General schedule. My work is going to be for the money, I already have good benefits through him so getting a job with good benefits is not #1 priority. If the difference in money was great enough I will just drive the extra half hour to some of the other hospitals.