cutekittenj

Hey no problem. I work in the Savannah location too. I work nights. It was the hardest decision that I've ever made. I didn't really like the two year commitment and I am not a big fan of long term acute care. I have good days and bad days. For the most part I do like it but sometime think I may not be able to make the two years b/c it is a lot of hard work,paper charting, and not a specialty I would like to stay in. But so far it has been good experience. Hopefully you will enjoy it and have a good experience as well.

At the particular select I work at, we do have a self scheduling.The person who does the schedule after everyone writes it in does a good job letting everyone get what they want or at least very close to it.I got exactly what I asked for last time.

Unfortunately they don't hire LPN's anymore. They are sending the LPN we have back to school for her RN degree. They are paying for it though. The one we have works 12 hours. I'm sorry I couldn't bring better news.

If you don't mind long term acute care it's a great place to work. Especially if you have great coworkers to work around. It's a lot of hard work. Most days you will be busy but some days are not so bad. The benefits are great(it just takes 90 days for them to start which can suck if you have little ones). Hopefully you will like it. I like it on some days and some days I don't like it(but that's with any job). Let me know how your experience goes. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me here or through pm.

Hey there. Honestly, the best shift to work is nights. Days are so crazy. I worked on days for 2 weeks during my orientation and knew nights would be better. U get more patients,5 to 6, as oppose to days, 4 to 5, but days r really crazy. I may be saying this bc I am a new grad but in my honest opinion nights is more laid back.

Yeah it's only 2.50. Is it more at other places?

Okay. I'm glad. I just read my post and I hope I didn't scare you. It's not all bad. Just a lot of hard work. I for the most part enjoy it just get overwhelmed at times. But yes I am willing to answer any questions when you are ready.(If you are thinking about working at the one in Savannah, they are gonna start interviewing new grads in July).

Starting pay for the one in Savannah GA is 22 an hour. The night diff is 2.50. If you work on Sat or Sun, you will get an extra 10 dollars added to your base pay. I hope this helps.

Hey. I hope I'm not too late. I currently work at the one in Savannah,GA. I'm a new grad(I graduated in December 2010) and I'll let you know my perspective. so far it is really overwhelming b/c it is so much to learn. As a new hire, we take a lot of online classes that are taught in a webinar format(we call in and listen to the instructor and we have notes we look at on the computer and we have a test). Not too bad but can be annoying. As far as what a day of select specialty is like will vary from what shift you work. On day shift you will typically have 5 patients. On nights 5 and sometimes 6. We sometimes get patients from the critical care unit who they were unable to ween from the vent. What we do is help them ween off the vent in 3 weeks. We also get a lot patients who have osteomylitis in an affected area and we do extened antibiotic care and wound care. Even though these are the main reasons they are here, they have a ton of other stuff wrong with them(uncontrolled DM, paraplegic in a motor vehicle accident,End Stage Renal Disease plus them needing dialysis, stroke victims, COPD, malnutrition, Congestive Heart Failure, etc.). With this being said, we stay very busy. Day shift is really crazy. So many doctors are there, so many procedures going, just so many people in general there. With all that and on top of your very sick patients, that can be very overwhelming. I couldn't handle it. I work nights which is much better in that I only have to talk to one doc and not so many procedures happening however I am still busy. We do all of our charting on paper. We don't use a computer to any charting. I honestly don't like paper charting but am learning how to deal with it. We have a med tech system(which is a computer system) to dispense medications. As far as working here as a new grad, I feel very overwhelmed b/c I am still learning how to be a nurse and the patients are really sick and I just feel like I don't have enough knowledge. Like I have to go back to school again.(This could be a new grad thing). I'm still learning how to give off report. I'm not even good at that. The turn over rate here is high and I can think of a few reason. One the patients are really sick and it is hard to move most of them but you really don't have the staff to help out(short handed a lot). People do it for so long and then they just stop showing up to work. Some people don't like the strict call in policy. For any reason if you call in(whether you're sick, your child is sick, you get in a car accident, or forgot to that you were scheduled to work that day) it counts against you. If you get 10 of those for any reason, you are fired. Some people have ran into that problem and have been fired. As far as being a new grad, like I mentioned above I feel overwhelmed and really stressed out. It seems like a really easy place to get burnt out at because of the acuity of the patients. But it's great experience if you can stick with it. You can learn a lot of nursing skills. The pay is decent. Is it worth it? I'll be honest, not all the time. I hope I was the least bit helpful. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask.

Opps. Sorry for responding so late. I hope I am not too late. Effingham County hospital are not hiring any new grads right now. The human resources said it is due to the fact that it is a small hospital that they need their nurses to be up and running quickly. Liberty Regional in Hinesville,GA are only hiring new graduate nurses who did their clinicals at their site. I never got a chance to do clinicals at their site so I wasn't eligible for consideration. I'm sorry I had to bring back bad news. But if you considering this area still, Memorial Hospital said they are posting up a new graduate position April 1. They plan on interviewing 40 people and hiring 15-20 people.

I thought about doing that. The only reason I'm a little nervous about doing that is from what I have heard, it is hard to transfer from being an E-4 to a nurse. I really want to use my nursing degree to the full for my all patient but then again I really want to join a form of uniform service and am tempted to do that. Thanks for your suggestion cuz I was really thinking along those lines.

Hey ma'am. You are not too old to join. I believe the national guard requirement is 47 and reserves is 41 or 42. I'm trying to join myself cuz I've always wanted to. I'm ready for the challenge. I'm not afraid of deployments and hard work. Good luck to you.

Hey there. I actually am not going to be taking the position at this time anymore due to time and unforeseen occurrences. But if I decide to go that route, I will keep you posted.

Thanks for that. It was just so discouraging to hear that from my friend who can't get out of the mental health field b/c the hospitals around here don't consider that real nursing skills. I hope their perception changes.

Hey there. Sorry for all those typos in my previous post. Yikes 2,000. That is a lot of applicants. If you do want to try and apply to Savannah there will be some openings at Memorial University Medical Center in March or April.(I'll make sure I PM you the link on how to apply so you won't have to do that much searching;the job be available to apply for until those months I mentioned). St. Joseph/Candler Hospital will have some spots in April. Now the select specialty hospital in Savannah is hiring late February,early March. However they are only going to hire five people and you have to obtain a GA license before you can apply. However the recruiter is accepting resumes via email. Her name is Michelle Sellers. Her email is [email protected]. Waycross is not on the coast but it is an hour west from Brunswick,GA which is on the coast. Brunswick,GA hospital is not accepting anymore new graduates b/c they said they cost them too much money. However if you don't mind driving an hour to visit the coast then that may be a great place. You can also try to apply to Hilton Head Regional Medical Center. You have to have a SC license before you can apply. If you get this license, you can practice in 24 other states. CA is not one of them unfortunately nor is GA. But if you do decide to move in the area you can hit me up through pm. Good luck on your searches.