BraeRN

I did my senior practicum in Community Health and I still got hired into Med/Surg after graduating. I learned so much and I absolutely loved it. It felt so nice to sit down with the people coming in and having non rushed conversations with them and getting to know them. I missed it very much when I got to the hospital. I have since learned that I don't like Med/Surg. So if you can't change it, then go with the flow and make the best of it. You're so close to graduating so you can do it!

Young lady in her 20s admitted for tonsillitis and she had a dilaudid PCA.

What part of Kansas are you in? I'm in NE Kansas at a small hospital, getting $20 an hour on a med-surg/tele unit with $3 shift diff for nights and $2 shift diff for weekends.

I was thinking I remember this from my last shift! Very sad now that I think about it.

This is oddly familiar.......

I was giving scheduled IV Ativan to a very confused older patient. As I was pushing the medication, he looked up at me and said "I need you to do something for me. Open your shirt and show me the light." Another time I was getting ready to discharge an elderly patient back to the nursing home and he kept trying to get a hold on me. All of a sudden he said "You know what? You need to be spanked!" Then he tried to grab my butt. He had already touched the breast of another nurse. I think he had also told another nurse about things they should uh..do together. Then last Friday there was another very confused patient who kept putting her call light on to tell us she was dying and didn't know what she would do if that happened. Well at about 3am I answered her call light again and she said "I am gone now. Life moves on but I just wanted to let you know that I'm gone."

Friday and Saturday at my hospital.

We do self scheduling at my facility so we pretty much get what we want unless there aren't enough nurses scheduled for a particular night. Your schedule sounds exhausting! I absolutely love nights though and never want to go back to days.

We had the ATI tests in my RN program too. We were required to pass the tests and if we didn't reach the required level on the test (usually it was Level 2) then we had to retake it. We also had to take a comprehensive predictor during the last semester and if we didn't pass that at 74% (I think), we had to take this review course called Virtual ATI which went through EVERYTHING all over again. We had to review the modules and take a pre-test, then take a post-test and if we didn't pass the post-test, we had to take it again. I got 73% on the predictor and had to go through the entire review course, which took up a considerable amount of time, bleh! I wouldn't call the tests themselves difficult, you just need to study for them like you study for your other tests. The good thing about them is that they go along with your classes so study your class notes and study the accompanying ATI book and you'll do fine. I hope you don't have to do the Virtual ATI, that thing was a monster. It probably helped tremendously with prepping me for NCLEX but...Sheesh. Good luck!!! :redbeathe

I work nights in a small hospital too. Our med/surg floor is also the telemetry and peds floor and I think we have around 32 beds on the unit. At night we can get up to 7 patients per nurse. If it isn't too full we may start out with 4 or 5 and those of us who do get those low numbers will be the first ones to get an admission. If the census is still "low" by 2300 then we will downsize and send a nurse home, "splitting up" their patient load among the remaining nurses. We usually have a unit secretary and 2 CNAs but if the census drops really low then the secretary and one of the CNAs will be sent home. I miss the unit I was on for my second med/surg clinical rotation..Only 4 patients for each nurse.

I go by Brae and have it on my name tag since my full name is apparently too difficult for people to pronounce correctly. (I've had to deal with that all my life! :) I guess Brae is hard too because some of the nurses call me "Bree" but oh well, no harm done!) However, when I'm signing something I use my legal name. It just seems easier for patients/doctors/nurses to remember my shortened name. Just check with your employer on what's acceptable!

I have absolutely no idea how to respond to this. "How come nurses either failed to be admitted to medical school or didn’t try?" Excuse me? This is so offensive and sad. I'd like to see a doctor who has this offensive view to be in our shoes on the floor for a day or more. I would love for people who are not even in the medical field and have this view to do the same.

If I had accumulated that much debt in student loans, I certainly wouldn't buy a brand new car. How very irresponsible of her. I agree with lovelylpn, I'm not sure if this plan can work with a new grad salary. If she is getting paid that much money to be able to afford this plan, then I would LOVE to get hired at the facility she is working at!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far! And thank you nicole for the link! :)

Hi everyone! I'm starting orientation next week for my first nursing job (yay!) and I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on what will be included on the med test. I would also appreciate any links to websites where I can brush up on my dosage calculation skills. During nursing school, we were required to pass med tests at 100% for our first three semesters before we could do our clinicals. We didn't have any med tests during our fourth semester and my capstone was in public health so I haven't done drug calculations since about May of last year, yikes. I will definitely ask during orientation to be on the safe side but until then, I would still like to prepare. Thanks!

I remember going to a plasma donation center when I first started going to college. Just like in your situation, it was in a bad area and the people in the waiting room looked pretty...interesting. It was even down the street from one of the hospitals. Anyway, once I FINALLY got situated and had the needle in my arm, a nurse comes by and puts a bucket in my lap. She said to me "Sorry, the roof is leaking and this should catch the water so it doesn't drip on ya." I NEVER went back after that!

Practice practice practice! Another thing you can do is be confident! I had an interview last week that went really well because I came into that room with the confidence of someone who had worked 20 years as a nurse, and I'm just a lowly new grad with no experience. There were 4 people there and I was so nervous before the interview but everything came into place. They knew my experience was minimal but I think my confidence and determination impressed them because I was offered a job yesterday. If you did a great job on the first, then I'm sure you'll do another great job on the second. I have no idea what your second interview will include but it sounds like you have it right with critical thinking and personality questions. What kind of questions did they ask during the first interview?

Thank you! It's a really tough time so I'm sending out good vibes for everyone!

Another thing you have to do is just keep applying. I didn't have any hospital experience besides clinicals too and I graduated in December and started looking for positions since January with absolutely no luck! I applied to a lot of positions, some of which didn't mention experience and some of which did. A few weeks ago I applied for a position in a city an hour away that said "Experience preferred but will hire new grads" and I jumped on it. I didn't think they would hire me since I figured they had enough new grads from their own nursing school to sort through and I didn't have the experience but a week later they called for an interview and today they offered me a position. You WILL find a job, it's just going to take time and patience. I've shed quite a few tears looking for work so it's not easy but it will happen! Definitely follow through with the advice already given and just be persistent.

Oh my gosh, you wouldn't want my cover letter, it's so general that it's a joke! That's not annoying at all by the way! :) I cringe at the thought that I actually sent it with my applications! But if you would still like to see it, I'll certainly send it along.

Thank you for your reply! I GOT THE JOB! I'm so happy I could cry! I thought it would be another "interview" but the woman I spoke to just sat me down, said "This is the position we're offering, would you like to take the job?" I said yes of course! The 7p - 7a shift on their combined med/surg & telemetry unit. I start on the 27th!

Hey everyone! I'm getting so excited right now! I had an interview with a hospital last Friday and it went really well. I was in a room with 3 nursing directors from units with open positions and a clinical nurse specialist. I thought I would be nervous as heck with 4 people asking me so many questions but I actually felt very comfortable. Anyway, my references were contacted on Monday and today a woman from HR called me in for a second interview tomorrow. I'm a little curious as to what will go on if anyone has been through this process? I had an interview at another hospital in January and it was the complete opposite. I interviewed with someone in HR and they told me they would forward my application/info to the nursing directors on the units I applied for and they would be the ones who would do a second interview if they were interested. (Needless to say, they were not. ) The woman I spoke to said something like "Depending on what you say and what I say, you could be here for hours." She also said she couldn't give a job offer over the phone for various reasons and told me to bring my driver's license, SS card, CPR card, any immunizations I had for nursing school, etc. Any ideas what this interview might be about? I probably should have asked but I was so shocked and excited that I couldn't think straight. I'm hoping I'll get a job offer tomorrow! I graduated in December, passed NCLEX at the end of that month, and have been applying everywhere since January. I've had only one other interview, as mentioned above, and that didn't go well at all but I think everything happens for a reason. Any input would be most appreciated!

Congrats!! That is a fantastic cover letter by the way, thank you for sharing. I'm sure it will be very helpful to those still struggling with writing them. The cover letter seems to make the best impression sometimes. It's often the first thing the recruiter/hiring manager sees and if it's not very good, you can bet they won't be very interested in you. That's not true all the time but it happens often enough that one should be mindful of what they put in there. Good luck and congrats again!

Congrats!!! Amid all the stories of new grads not finding jobs, it's still awesome to see people landing jobs! I wish you the best of luck and I'll keep trudging ahead because there is a position waiting out there for me and I'm gonna find it! :)

Thank you so much, I do hope it's good luck! :)