meesa214

I'm a new nurse (graduated last Dec) and I started out in the PICU right off the bat. My unit has a very good orientation. 16 weeks for new grad, includes didactic and bedside time with a preceptor. It's also a large teaching hospital with lots of resources, which makes me more comfortable. I don't know that starting out on a different unit would have prepared me for this. Being on this unit, I KNOW that these kids are really sick and we always have a bunch of docs that I can bring to the bedside at any hour if I even have a feeling that something might be going on. And I have a lot of support from coworkers. My personal opinion is that ER is not the place to start out in. In the PICU you sort of know what you're getting into when you get report. There are certain things that you may be able to anticipate happening based on the previous shifts. You don't have that luxury in the ER. Generally you don't know the pts as they come in, you don't know what's wrong with them, and you really need to know your stuff which I think comes from experience not from books. A peds floor will definitely give you experience in (sometimes) a more slower paced environment than a PICU. But I take comfort in the fact that I have all my resources right here. There's nothing we can't handle b/c we're at the top of the chain. We HAVE to handle it. Other PICUs in the area send their pts to us when things go bad! And I feel like it's safer here than on the floor. I'm always watching my pts. If I have to leave, my roomie is watching. I'd be afraid that if I was on the floor, something would happen to the pt when I wasn't there. Or that I would get lax thinking "Oh the kid is fine, he's going home tomorrow" and miss something. I love the 'taskyness' of the PICU. I like art lines and titrating drips and ICP monitors. But if you're into teaching, our unit's not the place. I feel parents get very little teaching b/c we're so focused on keeping the kid stable. The floors do the teaching...diabetes, trach suctioning, etc.

If you wait until you start a new job, consider planning it so that you won't be delivering until after your 1st year in that position. That way you will qualify for FMLA and be allowed 12 weeks off from work rather than just the 6-8 weeks you will get otherwise.

I just interviewed for a PICU position on Friday. The questions I got asked were "Tell me about you, how you ended up in nursing, why you chose the school that you did. Where do you see yourself in 3-5years, 5-10years. How would your friends/co-workers describe you. Name 1 thing you liked about your last job (as a nursing student). Name 1 thing you would change." Before you take PALS, find out if the facility offers that to you. I was told don't even bother taking it now because things will make so much more sense after you've been working in PICU for 9-12 months. I can take a course the hospital offers free of charge when the time comes.

Kaiser was absolutely awesome. Hope you are enjoying his class. I think the Catonsville program is awesome. Of course, I have no experience in other nursing programs. I like the way our program is set up compared to the BSN programs around here. What is the TEAS? I don't remember having to take a test to get in.

UMBC doesn't have a BSN program. They have something like "pre-nursing" and then you transfer over to U of M Baltimore. College of Notre Dame is known for their RN to BSN program, but I think it's kind of pricey.

I used to work there...but in HR, not patient care. It's a nice small hospital with the majority of patients on the rehab side (CVA, TBI, SCU, and CMR).

One of my coworkers worked at both JHH and UMD. She liked UMD but felt like she had to relearn everything after leaving there whereas JHH teaches things more "by the book" and was very meticulous. Just her opinion.

St. Agnes is near Catonsville, GBMC & St. Joe's are in Towson. Although I'm sure plenty of people commute across town (people in Towson go to St. Agnes, etc.) We have SO MANY hospitals in just the Baltimore area. I highly doubt JHH gives sign on bonuses. They rely on their reputation to recruit staff.

I took Micro online and loved it. I went on campus twice a week (or was it once?) for lab, and I had to go in for the exams also. Quizzes were completed at the end of lab for us online students. My teacher had everything planned out very well, was very organized, and the same info he gave in class was right there on the website. It worked for me.

But there is some sort of difference. Couldn't tell you what it is but according to my school's director of nursing, my college had to jump through a lot of different hoops to get that ASN recognition as opposed to the ADN. Just thought I'd share since this may be a little known fact.:)

That's what I've been thinking as I read through this thread. I just couldn't think of a polite way to state it. I have a question for the co-sleepers. How did it affect your relationship with your husband? I would think it would be impossible to maintain a healthy spontaneous sexual relationship when you always have a child in the bed with you.

WOW! Admitting a baby (doing everything you just mentioned) takes us an hour...1.5 hours max unless the baby is really cold. 4 hours just doesn't seem right.

I personally would never take a job an hour away. I had a job that took me 45 minutes in rush hour traffic, and it was absolutely excrutiating. Now I work 15 minutes away and I love it. When I work 12.5 hours, I don't want to turn that day into 14.5 hours!

OORRRR she's talking about the nursing students who are there doing their clinicals. I did a rotation at Hopkins for school.

Maybe this tech was enrolled at at Johns Hopkins University? RN training through a hospital would be considered a diploma program, and I don't think Maryland has any of those anymore.