zephryn

I find it interesting that this seems to be an ongoing process. I wonder how many they're hiring... I'm a new grad and applied in December and have just recently received my exam date.

As a new-grad myself, I've been looking into hospitals that have RN residency training programs. From what I found, they usually last from 18-22 weeks depending on the unit and involves both in-class and on-floor training. They're also very limited and a hospital only has them 1-2x a year... if at all. With the crappy economy, a lot of hospitals have been canceling their programs or not having them as often. As re-payment for the training, you'd probably be required to sign a contract to stay with the hospital for 1-2 years. One program I looked into told me specifically that I would be getting about 2 8 hour class time and 2 12 hour floor time a week, with increasing floor time as the program continues. The lecture/ training classes would either be with all new-grads or only new-grads training for a specific unit. You'll be evaluated based on participation and skill practice (another program I looked into said that they have weekly tests that you can't fail unless you want to get kicked out). They would also float you to other floors to familiarize you with various areas in the hospital. Additionally, you get both a preceptor and a mentor - one helping you with your training on the unit and another to help guide you with your professional training/ advancement (a mentor would not necessarily be someone from the unit and is someone with more experience than just being on the floor- something akin to an advisor). From my clinical rotations as a student, I found that hospitals with new-grad residency programs are a lot more receptive and helpful in general. Nurses are generally more approachable and willing to take the time to teach and help when you find yourself lost and confused. This, of course, is just my opinion based on personal experience.

I used ExamCram as my primary review book for about a month and studied it extensively, then I switched over to the Kaplan Course book (not the strategy book) two weeks before my exam and found that ExamCram didn't help as much as I thought it had, but had at least given me the general idea so I wasn't drawing a blank when reading about the various diagnoses. Anyway, if anything, I found that ExamCram's Exam Force CD was useful in getting me used to the number of questions I would be answering for NCLEX. By the time I was done, I could easily sit through 300 questions without a problem (fortunately, I only needed to answer about 120 in the actual exam). It also helped in determining which areas I needed to work more on, though the questions (of course) weren't nearly as difficult as those in the actual exam.

Thanks, but I'm still waiting to see how my interview went (crosses fingers). I'm supposed to get call sometime this week to see if they're going to hire me. That being said I don't know for sure that they're only hiring BSN graduates.

Yes. RN-BSN... no prior work experience in healthcare though. Northridge is working on getting a Magnet designation so they're looking to hire mostly those with a BSN.

Cardiovascular Unit (CVU, Telemetry, I think). There were only 2 people there to interview me - the Versant Program director and a Unit Manager. They take turns asking questions and are very pleasant. You might want to ask how many people they're going to hire for the unit you're applying for (there will only be 2 for CVU).

I was told 19 people for their Versant program when I interviewed last week. (Keeping my fingers crossed that I didn't totally fail my interview).