crmathew

I am planning a similar move from NY to Cali by july! I saw that Sutter, UC Davis and Kaiser Roseville had NICUs. I am coming from a level IV NICU and want to go to a high-acuity unit so I won't be bored! Just wondering where you ended up and if you like it?

This was a very concise/informative way to explain the day of a NICU nurse! I would also like to add that usually our "touch" times can vary from Q2-Q6 hours. That is depending on hospital policies or the stability of the infant, you will be taking vitals etc Q2H or Q3H or Q4H or Q6H.

This is so interesting. I have never heard of this before. We do MRSA swabs for babies that are coming in from an outside hospital or during a complete sepsis workup or with any other indicators like oozing etc. We were doing the same at my old hospital. The only other time we did them were when we suspected an outbreak because we had a few positive MRSA cultures. Weekly MRSA cultures sound like a waste of time and money to me.

Hey! I am not so sure about all of Manhattan but I used to work in the Bellevue NICU. It was kind of crazy but i heard their staffing got a lot better in the last couple of months and that they are hiring a lot of people. It is a city hospital so I don't think the pay is that great. I currently work at Montefiore. We have been hiring a lot of travel nurses recently as well to cover our staffing for when we GO Live! for EPIC. That is something you might want to consider (travel/agency/per diem) nursing so you can check a few places out before you start full-time of just to get your foot in the door. There are a lot of agencies with really good pay out there (not as great as california pay but still) lol Or at least thats what I hear! I hope you get through this tough time! Good luck

So I started my nursing journey in 2013 January (phew! its been three years already!) I didn't start my first job till December 2013 as a NICU nurse and I have been loving every minute of it. But even before all of this my passion has been teaching and I am itching to get back into it. I love every opportunity I get to teach and cherish it. I walk away proud when I have taught something and when someone says to me "that made a lot of sense." I digress. Now I have been doing my fair bit of research about what path to take next to advance my career. I love my job and the clinical aspect of nursing. I know I want to teach. And I know I want to practice nursing as well. I am leaning towards pediatric primary care more and more because I believe kids are the most impressionable group in our population and them being our future and all maybe I can use my teaching skills to develop a healthier younger generation. I also am dying to teach in a classroom setting, probably something like pathophysiology or pediatric nursing. So my question is, with all the different degrees out there, what should I be taking to pursue all this? I am hearing more and more that Nurse Practitioner jobs are going to require having a DNP. I am also hearing that a pHD is preferable when it comes to classroom teaching. Believe me, if I could, I would do both (I am one of those weirdos who love school/academics) Unfortunately I don't get paid to go to school and it is quite the opposite as you all know. So I am looking for any ideas you wonderful ladies and gentlemen have to throw at me! PS: I think this site is awesome and I have just been lurking around in the shadows till now looking at posts and thoughts but I plan to be more active from now on :)

Heyy so here's my situation..I had an interview at a hospital in June. At the time they said they were just interviewing me to have it on file as they didn't have any open positions at the moment. I only had two other real interviews after that...no one else were calling me back from the online applications- what i have learned is that you really need someone on the inside who could pass your resume to someone orrrr the backup is that you constantly follow up with each application (follow up as in stalk the nurse managers, email them, call them up etc) Anyways, this said hospital called me back in august and asked me if I'm still interested and they had me fill out a bunch of paperwork and it took them about 6-7 weeks to get back to me after that..apparently they were doing some background check before they forwarded it to HR. And then HR received all my stuff after 6-7 weeks and took another 3 weeks or so to call me and have me come in with a bunch more paperwork and do a physical, drug test, fingerprinting etc and they told me I'm still not technically hired until they complete their own background check but if I clear everything my start date would be in November. But then now, they called me today to say that they are still working on calling my references and that my start date is pushed back to December because the November orientation group is already full. And this is all only confirmed after the background checks are complete and I have yet to sign an offer letter or whatever it is that one does to be "officially hired." So right now I am just praying to be official and to just finally start in December. I am frustrated and losing my patience but just trying to find comfort in the fact that it might still happen and I might still get a job? lol I don't know anymore. But yeah, it is not your fault- you are not doing anything wrong- its just this thing that no one wants to hire new grads because it costs a lot of money to train them but I think if you're in NYC your best bet is to go with a city hospital (NYCHHC) as they are more lenient towards new grads and are more open to them. The hospital I am hopefully going to is a city hospital as well. Private hospitals prefer experienced nurses. The fact that you already have a job is good! Make some connections with anyy RN's who could pass your resume along to their nurse managers or someone. I hope you find something you love soon! Sorry for venting the whole story to get to the point lol

I do have my BSN degree! When I said ABSN I just meant accelerated BSN..which I was able to do because I already had a bachelors...If you don't mind could you provide more details of your fellowship program? I was trying to find something like that as well...

Thanks! I appreciate the encouraging words! What area are you looking at? I've so far applied in Montefiore, NSLIJ, NY Methodist, Most HHC hospitals, Westchester Medical Center, White Plains Hospital, St. Johns Riverside Hospital, Stony Brook University Hospital Center, NYU Langone, NYP, Weill Cornell, Good Samaritan Hospital and Lawrence Medical Center

Hi all! So I graduated an ABSN program in Dec '12, got my license in March and have been applying to jobs since May! I lost count of the applications after about 100...I have been trying every way possible- my mother is a nurse and I utilized her connections, called up several people, e-mailed nurse managers, posted my resume on Linkedin...I have no experience outside of clinical experience but I can't wait to get out there and start working! I am even willing to work without pay if thats what it takes to prove that I am cut out for the job because all I need is someone to give me a chance or an interview at least! I had a very good interview with Bellevue hospital but the last I heard they were having a budget crisis since Sandy so they don't have any open positions anymore! I am not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if I'm not doing enough. I have signed up for ACLS despite being broke and I am considering just volunteering somewhere just so my brain won't rot. I will take any tips or advice I can get! If you know someone who is hiring or any other tactics to get my foot in the door! Thanks all!!

Heyyy I'm on the same boat as you!! I joined the fb group for our class which is http://www.facebook.com/groups/253992241283068/..and everyone's been really helpful! I'm on auto-mode just trying to get everything done now..don't even know whats happening anymore!! lol

SO I finalllyyyy got the acceptance letter today for Fall 2011! Thank you to everyone who replied to my posts and put a lot of information on this message boards!! Cannot wait to start classes next week!! Still have a lot to do and trying to get everything done one by one..

Ah Thank you again! That definitely did put my mind at ease! I called again (yea I'm OCD too ) to ask when exactly I will get an e-mail and he said I should receive one by tomorrow! Fingers crossed!! Thank you so much again for taking your time to reply to the post! :) You have a great day!

Thank you so much for replying!! I have been calling like crazy too and the last time they just told me to be patient so I gave it a week hoping I would hear from them soon. From what I heard the orientation was today and not having received anything by now I had lost all hope but the guy asking me if I was okay with classes starting in September has given me some hope again but I really don't want to jump into any conclusions...I really want to be in this program so badly!

Hi everyone..so I still havent heard from the admissions people and I have been calling all day to find out whats going on..I finally got someone on the phone and he said that a decision is available but he could not disclose it over the phone. But he asked me whether starting school on the first week of september would be a problem for me. And said that he has to find out whether he can e-mail me. I am just really impatient right now and was wondering if this happened to anyone while trying to hear a decision??

Thank you Son14! I was contacted again today by them asking for another course syllabus..and they said they are just submitting it for review...has this ever happened to anyone who got accepted? I really want to get into the program! and it would've been nice to know by now so I could look for apartments or something around there but this waiting is killing me