MrPie

@Pinchas, Hey thank you for this tip. The GI Bill certainly got me through undergrad education but it sure did run dry at the end. Everyone loves cheap education!! -A

Based on the job availability for RNs in this area, it may necessary to commute. Napa, Marin, SF counties are close. Here is a list of the hospitals in Sonoma County. Sonoma Valley Hospital — Sonoma Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital — Santa Rosa Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa — Santa Rosa Kaiser Permanente Medical Center Santa Rosa — Santa Rosa Petaluma Valley Hospital — Petaluma Palm Drive Hospital — Sebastopol Healdsburg District Hospital — Heraldsburg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hospitals_in_California#Sonoma_County

Hi nurses, I am a newly graduated (Dec) RN and I have accepted a full-time position with my California bay area-ish regional trauma center in the twenty-something bed general ICU. I have hospital orientation next week and have already signed my contract! So I am super excited and pretty thankful to have a job especially when only about a third of my graduating cohort has jobs. I will have about 40% trauma plus sepsis, hearts and other mixed diagnosis patients. I guess I am just looking for some helpful tips from people who are or were New Grads in a critical care setting. What are your common ICU drugs for a not-large mixed ICU? What are your common diagnoses? I have a strong background in patient care, but not necessarily in optimism and- uggh- I see a lot of other new grads on this forum struggle. Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide, -A