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.

Hey there.What part of GA do you want to relocate to? I live in Savannah,Ga and let me tell you, this is not a great place for new graduate nurses. Memorial University Medical Center has a peds unit but they only accept 20 new grads out of 500 applications. I was one of the ones not offered a job. I'm found a job in Waycross,GA which is a really small town in GA. The job opportunity for new grads is pretty in Waycross.

YAY! You got a job! I've heard horror stories of people getting into a mental health job and not being able to get out b/c most places don't consider that "real" nursing skills.Hopefully that won't happen to you. About going back for your BSN, I would see if your employer will pay for it for you so you won't have to get any loans. You can do it part time since you are a nurse now. My friend is doing that and will graduate with her BSN in May of this year. :)

Hey calm down relax. She didn't ask to be criticize or be told she is in the wrong field. Now to your question. It can happen. My friend from nursing school got an 8-5 job mon-fri no holiday's no weekend's. She is a new grad. Depending on the area is going to determine how likely you'll find a job with those kind of hours. The area where I am at and which is were my friend is at, the new grad nursing job market is horrible but she managed to find a job with a good schedule. So again it is possible. However if there is not, nights isn't that bad. I would honestly prefer to work nights b/c it is quieter and you have more time to chart and you'll gain good experience. Hang in there! If the first job isn't the one you want, all isn't lost!

I do see what you are saying. Working for whoever you want to is great so you won't be tide down, however if a person has a lot of student loan debt, then that may have to be put on hold. It sucks when you have to be tide down however, it's better to spend the required amount of time tide down then not being able to pay your loans because your passion is getting into the way and you may end up defaulting on them. But then again that's me but once again

YAY! Congrats on how you passed. I'm going to suggest this to some of my colleagues! You are so awesome!

You have an awesome goal. I'm between travel nurse and military nurse. I just hate that Savannah is one of your choices and they suck as far as job offers but I'll keep you in formed about this hospital that hires new grads cuz they will have an opening mid march early april.(Memorial University Medical Center is the name of the hospital)

This is definitely a sensitive topic because of all the different views and you bring out good points. However it really is a shame to say that JW's can't be nurses b/c they are great nurses. I honestly don't agree with a lot of the comments saying they need to choice a different profession because nursing isn't all about blood transfusions. I love people really do care about their patients but I'm sure a JW would too they just don't want to transfuse blood. It really isn't that big of a deal to find someone else(especially in a CCU) to help out with that. The reason I say this because CCU is all about team work or at least on my floor. We help each other out. Hasn't been a problem on our floor with the JW not administering blood. Since we are all aware of that we make adjustments. We help her out and when we need something she helps us out. I do understand how you feel but I understand where the person who came up with this thread is coming from.

From my understanding it would be like your supporting blood transfusions. So in turn that would make one a hypocrite. It'll be like "So you won't spike the bag but you'll sign off on it?" See what I'm saying. In order for them to be total against blood transfusion it has to be the whole nine yards. Can't be in between. Like a person who wants people to quit smoking however when a friend ask them to go to the store and buy cigarettes. Now the two individuals know that he is against smoking however people from the outside would be like "what in the world.....i thought he didn't want people to smoke? What kind of example of that"? Even though it is a different situation I believe the same principle applies in that it would make the person seem like a hypocrite. (At least this is how it was explained to me)

Hey thanks for the question. It actually happened to me first hand. They asked if I wanted a blood transfusion and I refused because I hate receiving blood that is not my own. They told me I would die if I didn't get one and I was like you can just use fluids. And when I needed one they gave me fluids to expand my blood it worked out really well because I didn't die like they said I would. Now on a sad note I had a cousin who received blood(said he would die without one) and he was allergic to it and died even though he had one. So I do see your point and understand why people my feel uncomfy about the whole thing but my I think you whatever a person believe in should not go against their religion. I do understand both sides of it and your point but for someone to say that a person will die without one is unreasonable and it is unreasonable for someone not to work at a certain place for what they believe in and for people to encourage them to something contrary to what they believe is right. Kinda see where I'm going?(And not knocking what you said in no way because I do see where you are coming from but just having real life experience on the exact opposite on a blood transfusion not working for my cousin has me thinking how good are the blood transfusions really)

I understand you. When you have a religion, you stick by it regardless of what anyone thinks. If someone doesn't agree with you, they will get over it. Patients are important and deserve the best care but if you don't feel comfortable because of religious belief you shouldn't have to do it or be rejected because of that. Now to answer your question, are all hospitals like that? No they are not. The hospital I work at loves Jehovah's Witness because they are hard workers, never late, and do as their told. They are some of the nicest people ever. In fact there are a few on my critical care floor and they work with them. I honestly think that's horrible that people are giving JW's flack because they can't preform something for religious beliefs. But don't give up. There will be a CCU floor that will you because of your good work ethic and great beside manor.