pinkynbd99

I've worked newborn nursery/transition for 6 years! I moved to Texas Children's Hospital about 3 years ago, wanted to go straight to ER but the recruiter informed me I had a better chance to get into TCH with what I already do, plus they were hiring! So I took it. I learned alot more stuff than before. In my other job we transitioned newborns in the nursery, at TCH we actually attend deliveries in L&D and that's a complete different experience! Talk about "I'm NRP certified" yeah, you don't know nothing about NRP until you've done catching newborns right at delivery! It's really expanded my experience with critical babies at birth, calling Neo response team and since it's TCH, I also get to see preemies and all other critical conditions when Neo response team needs to be there (I'm there as an observer and helper, since I know them already!) I think that's really helped me want to move on to ER peds and having had that experience I've had as transitional nurse in L&D has really helped me. So basically I'm moving to ER next month and I'm so nervous and excited all at the same time! I love babies but now I'll be in a Level 1 trauma, big medical center pediatric ER!! also other nurses from my unit have all transferred to other pediatric units within the TCH system, so I'd say look into something like that if you find it difficult to go straight to a peds position.

Hi, I was wondering if I could get any information from current nurses that work and live around the central Florida area? We plan to move to the lakeland-Bartow-Winter Haven area and I'm clueless to where to look for work. I currently work in the Houston Texas Medical Center and do Mother/baby-Newborn nursery and have 5+ years experience and my BSN. Can anyone help know what pay could be? and what Hospitals would be best for me to look into with the area I have experience in? Also whats a good area to live in? I think we're going to be looking into new homes but the schools concern me the most, I have a child in each: elementary-middle-high school! Thanks!

I just tuned into this show last night, so I got the reruns. I thought it was pretty realistic in terms of what happens in a L&D unit. The bad thing about it is, unless you're in nursing you can see the nurses being portrayed as "just sitting" around. Then it gets more ppl saying "oh, I can do that! I should be a nurse!" lol! Anyways, if this hospital is one of the busiest of the country it should have more of the populations as well. I think it may have to do with who allows to be filmed for the TV show. Alot of ppl don't want to have that moment on national TV. I know I wouldn't!

wow! Im just mind-boggled! This is almost exactly what happened to me at my first job! also for a med-error! I was given the same choice after my manager sent me to peer-review. My manager knew everything, no matter how little the problem may have been that goes to peer-review goes to the BON. Even there ppl were like, "oh! she's a new nurse?!" all of them with this face like "o..K.." So instead of just firing me or even just writing me up, she had me go through the peer-review so that I could be reported to the BON and then give me the nice option of "by the way, either you stay and be fired or you can resign." So I resigned, I wasn't going to give her the pleasure. I left and I was there for about 6months, it was an ICU setting, so you can image it's crazier than usual floors with everything! and to make it worse it's all paper,not computerized. But anyways, I think you did the right thing. I also thought I needed to go through all this b/c I was a new grad, but really it's not like that! I didn't think of unemployment, so thank's for that I'll try it out tomorrow and see what happens. And my HR lady told me that by no means do they "disclose" what happend with my incident when someone calls for reference, they just tell them when I was hired, what my position was and since I quit, the day I resigned, instead of Fired! I've gone to a few interviews and just explained that my previous unit was not an adequate learning place for new nurses, and I that Im looking for a better place as a new nurse. And also changing speciality, so that also helps me to say that I realized I should have just gone with what I wanted to do in first place and not the first job I got out of school.

ok, see this is not that helpful either! i live in texas, houston, tx with the "supposed" largest texas medical center of the country. and as a new grad, let me tell you it's not different here than it is in other places! i graduated may 2010 and out of a class of 90 students, only 10 of us had jobs by the time we graduated and some still dont have jobs! you forget that as big as houston, let's say may be. it has 4 bsn nursing programs graduating a class of 50-90 students twice a year, 7-8 adn programs graduating 40-90 students twice a year as well. and hospitals don't hire you as a new grad unless it's with a internship program and most of them have hundreds of applicants but only end up hiring 20 new nurses! so if you do the math, it's alot of competition! and really hard to get a job here as well! i've had friends that graduated before me that have to go to nursing homes b/c they need some income coming in and don't really end up getting a hospital job until a year later! it's just really hard now to get a job as a new rn! plus, not anyone can up and move! we all went to nursing b/c "there's a storage!" yeah, there's a storage of experienced nurses! but for new grads, there really isn't!!

well I think it depends where you work at. Your studying will revolve around that. I started out in ICU and really that was VERY, VERY overwhelming! and im the type to like challenges! At first learning all the policies & procedures of the unit, then hospital P&P, knowing your drugs, drips. having to know procedures that pt get and how as "the nurse" is knowing what you prepare for the Dr and why you'd need it and knowing some preferences of certain Drs. Then Vent settings, sedation titrations! Know the side effects of these sedations & drips! Plus on top of that wanting to know you're pt's disease process and how to plan your care & the nurse's documentation of everything, esp if like on this unit you have NO PCA to help you! I mean, it's ALOT!! time management is really a big issues as a new nurse! But to help me, I would still bring my drug book, a critical care book, etc! And at night after having this patient I would do a care plan like I would have done when I was in school. Like I said, it depends where you go and work! I don't think working in a L&D/Newborn unit you would have to study these things, it would be related to that!

well, I know exaclty how you feel! I also had a very "bad" manager, and that's putting it nicely! And I also had a preceptor who would exaggerate the "uneffectiveness" of my skills as a new nurse! I was in a specialty unit, which was a horrible unit for a new nurse to start off, because they didn't usually hire new grads in the first place, why they decided they would? I still don't know! But in the end I saw my manager creating a paper-trail heading towards me being fired, so I quit. I believe in my case it was worse, b/c my manager caught a med error I made on the paper MAR and basically had me reported to peer review! So for 6 months I tired to "roll with the punches" as I thought it was a all part of the new grad experience. But no, I couldn't handle it anymore and I was pregnant as well, and all the stress created by this manager with a vendeta out to get me was not helpful. So now, Im trying looking for a job but really it may have to wait until after I have my baby to be fair. As for the FB post, that really irritates me! FB is not a place to vent and also keep all your setting to PRIVATE! I have mine that you can't even find my FB page when you search my name on google! But com'on as new nurses we NEED to vent somewhere! All we need is for our jobs to monitor our Allnurses usage and then print those out and say "look what you are saying online!" really? If you don't like what we have to post, then don't take the trouble to look at what we are saying!

That's kinda the same boat Im in now. And I was thinking the same thing you were but really, Mandychelle79's comment is VERY true! It's just not gonna look good to go through that situation and perhaps have a your manager not like you for putting the unit through that either. It would have to be a very nice and understanding manager to be ok with it. But remember, how much longer would you be able to hide the belly from employers, esp during an interview? Im applying now but for the new nurse internships for Sept where I'd already had the baby and can start working. Goodluck though! I know I'll need it!

So Im a new grad, 6months into my orientation. Started in ICU, but orginally went to nursing school to work with babies. During school I really felt like ICU was for me, I enjoyed the fast-paced, critical setting it had. so I persued it and got a job right out of school. but Now I don't know if that's the right thing for me. Since the beginning it's just been drama-to-drama issues, mostly with my manager and her "expectations" of where I should be at" and then with a preceptor who I feel is one of those "New Grads don't belong in the ICU" types of nurses, b/c that's how it worked out for her, so of course her standards of me are less than good. Plus the feeling of being very overwhelmed with the many drips, multi-tasking alot of precedures, different speciality Drs, core measures, etc! AND now to make things worse, I've been placed back with the "difficult" preceptor because there's only 2 that are willing to precept and I've already been with the other one for 12weeks, so my manager feels she needs a "break". So after the first day of being back with the "difficult" preceptor, she tells me I should "reconsider" going to a step-down/tele unit, like she did, b/c this will help me with my "disorganized" thoughts, that I still can't "put the whole picture together" and that I don't have "critical thinking skills necessary for the ICU" and lastly she wasn't too impressed with my progress............ Like I need her to tell me this! Way to precept, thanks alot! It's not like Im not having difficulties enough that I need your down-talking to bring me right back up! I was already considering it anyways, but know I just feel the urge to prove her wrong and "stick-it" to her! But in other things, I did get this post-partum pt to ICU last week, placenta abruptio and fetal demise. I knew exactly what to do like the back of my head! How to assess, what to prepare for, psych as well as physically. I mean, it was fun for me. Which that hasn't happened for a while since I started my orientation with ICU (not to mention all the "support" im getting). Now going to work, I just feel stressed and worried Im not cut out for it. So I don't know what to do. Im on a contract with this hospital, I don't know if I should try another 6 more months and wait how I feel/doing on the ICU unit, or if I should break my contract now (and have to pay them! which I will have to do anyways if I leave before 3yrs after my orientation is done!) and presue a different specialty or what? My plan was to finish my BSN, which I start this summer and be done by 5/12, and by then I'll have 2yrs worth of experience and then try to leave! You know, but in my own terms, not bullied out! Like Im feeling now! But I just don't know.....

SO Im a new grad, 6months into my orientation. Started in ICU, but orginally went to nursing school to work with babies. During school I really thought ICU was for me, so I persued it and got it. but Now I don't know if that's the right thing for me. Feeling very overwhelmed with the many drips, multi-tasking alot of things with just 2 pts! I had a post-partum pt come down to ICU last week, placenta abruptio and fetal demise. I knew exactly what to do like the back of my head! How to assess, what to prepare for, psych as well as physically. I mean, it was fun for me. Which that hasn't happened for a while since I started my orientation with ICU, now I just feel stressed going to work, worried Im not cut for it. So I don't know what to do. Im on a contract with this hospital, I don't know if I should try another 6 more months and wait how I feel, or if I should break my contract now (pay them! which I will have to do anyways if I leave before 3yrs after my orientation is done!) and presue L&D/Nursery. But how would it look to leave now to a potential employer? And should I leave now or later with ICU experience?

Thanks for the advice. I hope things get better, it just really sucks to be a new grad! I never thought it would be this hard after nursing school but I guess ppl were right when they told me all my "REAL" learning will start after nursing school!

well I don't want to leave b/c I know how hard it is to find a job as a new grad. And with my manager, well I've just really felt like my manager as been out there to see me fail. I feel like she says she wants to support me but then again points out all my faults and makes me feel like it's the worst and I shouldn't be there. And with this last incident, well I feel like it's "proven" her right about me. And this is why I feel like I should leave, b/c I don't feel like my manager wants me there and that's something I don't know if I can deal with for another 3 years! Im trying to prove her wrong but it's hard when I feel so much pressure and this expectation of failure.

So I wanted to know, how many out there have felt this way during their first year or what your advice would be to me. Im a new grad, starting out in ICU, have about 6months of orientation. The hosptial I work for is a small community hospital, the pts we see are not traumas, it's mostly MIs, strokes, resp distress, so mostly it's an MICU. The orientation when it was presented to me, during the interview process, consisted of education classes with preceptors, mentors to help me through this "new grad" process, etc. So very excited about the job and even more when I did get the job. Well, all that went down the toilet pretty fast! The suppose "classes" were not "ICU" specific, as a matter of fact all the "ICU" learning was given to me to learn on my own time, I didn't get a hemodynamic class until my 10th week in, I wasn't given a class that goes through the P&P of the ICU unit, just told it's on "a binder somewhere and it says ICU P&P, it would be good to look through them". Couldn't look them up online, but it's not online, and when am I going to have time when Im on the floor taking pts? I wasn't given a class of the different/common drips used on the unit, reg concentrations on them, how to titrate them, nothing! All this I guess they thought I would learn on my own or with my preceptors. So now that I was given a "trial" few weeks on my own, I messed up with medications & drips, having a medication error. So now Im back on orientation and expected to know all the drips like the back of my hand within a few days. To make it worse, I signed a contract with the hospital to stay and work with them for 3yrs after my orientation, b/c of the wonderful program I was starting with them and the cost it would be for them to "train" me. So since the beginning I've just been feeling very unhappy with this whole situation, and now Im really considering leaving the hospital! I don't want to make any decisions while Im feeling like this, so my question is: have any of you out there, as a new grad to the ICU, really HATED where you worked and wanted to leave within the first year? What should I do? This whole situation is making me question my decision to coming in to ICU as a new grad, esp to a hospital not giving it to me right, and Im considering going to pediatrics like I wanted to do at first. But I don't know if this will look bad to other employers, breaking a contract and all? plus I really dont have the experience so it would be like starting all over again. My husband keeps telling me to "bit the bullet" and ride it out with them these next 3 years and then go, but I just don't know if I can! HELP!