flightriskRN

This became a "thing" at the hospital where I had my guest nursing job back in 2011. I worked on a busy ortho floor. Fortunately, I left shortly after. But I remember thinking it was absolutely ridiculous.

Thank you for your reply! I have quite a few friends from Chicago and a sister who lives in the area, but I am hesitant to use their address as I think it would get tricky when I need to arrange interviews because I would need to fly and then I would have to be honest anyway about the fact that I still live in MN :)

Hi all! I am a BSN prepared nurse with 3+ years experience (one year ortho, two years gen med/surg). I currently live and work in Minnesota at a very well known medical center. I am interested in moving back to Chicago (originally from suburbs), and was hoping to get some information on the job market in the city. I have read a few threads that state it takes months to find a job....does this still apply when a few years of experience is involved? I am hoping to begin applying in August and would be hoping to find a job and move before winter - is this realistic? Would it increase my chances of being hired if I moved back to IL first then began searching? I do have several months of living expenses saved. Finally (sorry for all the questions) how much can I expect to make hourly in the city? Currently I make low 30s/hour and work a 0.8 FTE...so to make about the same amount of money I think I would need to make at least $28ish hourly and work a 0.9. Thanks for reading and I appreciate any insight!

You guys are going to love Summer III! I was a Summer III in 2010, came back to work at Mayo as an RN and am now a clinical coach. Maybe I'll be working with some of you this summer. We are excited for you to get here!

Hello! As another poster mentioned, if you have good time management skills, you will easily be able to maintain a social life while in nursing school. I graduated in 2011 magna cum laude, and all four years of nursing school I worked 20-24 hours/week as a CNA, went out almost every weekend with friends, ran or exercised 3-4 days per week, and maintained a relationship with my boyfriend at the time. I used student loans to pay for my books and tuition and worked to pay bills and to have cash for spending. Of course there were weeks I felt overwhelmed, but they were few and far between since I had good time management. You will find the same to be true once you graduate and are working as an RN...time management is key. Good luck in your endeavors!

I adopted a seven week old lab mix puppy my senior year of nursing school. Looking back, I realize that if was probably not the best decision for her sake since I was very busy with school and I also worked 16 to 20 hrs per week. I was fortunate to have a roommate who helped let her out when I was gone for more than four hours. However, trying to train her while also keeping up with school work was very tough. But we got through it and now three years later she is a wonderful, well trained dog and she's been a great companion for me when I was living alone my first two years out of college.

I have not heard of any floors that utilize travel or agency nurses at Mayo Rochester. None of the ones I have worked on at least...they might on the closed units such as OB but I'm not sure.

1. Minnesota 2. 2.5 years experience 3. Med/Surg, large hospital 4. $32 base pay, $1.90 eve diff, unsure of night shift. $2.00 weekend diff 5. No OP.. I have to agree with your user name :)

Sounds good.

I moved out of IL almost a year ago, but was making a little over $22/hr working on a surgical floor in a hospital in central IL. So your rate of pay sounds about right for a new grad.

I am not a new grad (one year experience), but will be moving there at the end of August to start work Sept 10 at St. Mary's :). I'm moving from Illinois. I did the Summer III program at Mayo in summer 2010, so am somewhat familiar with the area. Send me a message if you want, it would be nice to get to know a few people!

I work 3-11... water bottle (no coffee or I won't be able to sleep when I get home!), black and red pens, yellow highlighter, black sharpie, alcohol swabs, bandage scissors, and my chapstick.

I just started seeing a chiropractor this week for neck/back pain that has persisted despite pain pills, muscle relaxers, and heat/ice therapy. Hopefully chiropractic will work for me! As far as insurance goes, my insurance does not cover 1 cent of chiropractic, so the first visit was very expensive (Xrays, scans, etc), but the maintenance visits are something I can afford, if I believe that it will work for me. I have been to a chiropractor before a few years ago in highschool/college (before I was an RN(, and I remember it helping a great deal. I hope it works for you!

I just graduated from nursing school in May, and now have students assigned to me. It is very different from the other side of the fence, being the nurse instead of the student. I am just off orientation, and still working on my time management, and when I have students I have to try and factor them into the equation as well. And when there are 7-8 students on the floor and 1 instructor to check their meds, it is very frustrating because sometimes my medications/treatments are late when I could have done them myself and been done. However, since I was a student so recently, I understand the need to learn the basics, which I am more than happy to teach when I have the time. I am also grateful during the times when I am overloaded and the students are there to carry some of the load. The students on our floor are very helpful, and therefore are appreciated and treated well by the RN's. If the students would have had a bad attitude/been sitting around and not willing to help, the situation would be very different. Perhaps if you go into your clinical time with a different attitude, you will be better recieved.

Since I am not married and have no kids, but insurance is very affordable. It is about $120/month for health,vision, and dental, which I think is a very good deal. I still have to pay a small copay for office visits and for prescriptions, but it is worth it. I do not use a flex spend account.