bstullis

I promise there aren't any Ebola patients this week. Besides, they would have had to burn my cloths at the hospital.

I was encouraged to apply for jobs before I graduated, so started applying in October 2009. Graduated from ASU in Dec 2009, licensed April 1st 2010 (had to check 4 times to be sure it wasn't a practical joke), and couldn't find a job in nursing until I went on vacation to eastern Washington in July. I was hired by a local ECF the same day I scheduled an interview at the local level 2 trauma hospital. I gave notice at the ECF that if I was hired at the hospital I would take the job there. They understood that it was a possibility and said they understood but still hired me to work for as long as I could (I should have seen the red flags waving in my face). Long story short, it took me 10 months and nearly 250 applications to find a job where they didn't require 1+ year of experience from a new grad. Good luck to the new grads out there now. Best advice I can give is go to the manager of the floor/unit you want to work on and talk to them directly. A face to face is always better than a resume in the computer any day. Especially if you had clinical rotations there. They know you and you know some of the staff already.

Possibly resurrecting a flatlined thread here, but I just started orientation to CICU and am looking for something that gets me organized at a glance for beginning of the shift prior to seeing the paper flow sheet we have (at least until we finally transition over to Epic). I would like something for 2-3 patients per page that possibly would include a fishbone lab value, space for all gtt's and a place for the MD questions/reminders for EOS report. This will work until either epic straightens out all my kinks (since epic will fix everything wrong with the hospital system as we constantly remind ourselves) or until I know enough to just automatically ask all the questions needed to be a better than successful CICU RN.

Call it what you want (ACA or Obama Care), healthcare is in more turmoil than has been seen in 20+ years. With the Supreme Court upholding the "tax" argument, the government (I don't blame this only on Mr.Obama, but Congress as well) has taken steps that have made every health care facility and insurance company put it's spending practices under a microscope and encouraged shortcuts that strain everyone (short staffing that allows a company to show a profit this quarter only to hire many new staff the next bouncing off those "profits"). Yes, spelling is very important when you are upset/frustrated and calling out for help.

in response to what you learned. . . 1. Advocacy is real, We are the eyes and ears of the Doc. If something is wrong, fix it and move to the next. Critical thinking is the real advocacy. If one thing doesn't work, think of something that will. There are always ego freaks; brains and options (knowing yours and how to use them to your advantage) will go farther than giving up. 2. Experience means everything in the circle of influence where you received that training. Civil experience equates to "civilian" jobs, Military experience means next to nothing in civilian careers. If you want Military experience to mean anything, get the degree equal to the experience (8+ year or DNP) and work with an MD doing what you have experience with. 3. Slander is slander no matter what "church" you belong to. With nothing else to go on but this post, there should be a legal defense that would allow you to combat that particular problem, as long as there is documented evidence that it was that supervisor that made the difference in hiring. In my experience, there are clicks with those on the inside and those on the outside. Again, in my experience, those on the outside are there by their choices and actions more often than not. It is too late in your case, but I left a toxic situation before getting fired (fried) because I wouldn't bow the powers that be (not necessarily upper middle management). Nursing is big enough to for those with experience to get a job and work until their dream job comes along (as long as you keep searching) . . Post Hijack over. . . . . As to the OP, I say Good on Ya' for getting out of the situation with your nursing license intact. You know that the staffing defense would only go so far when the first of many lawsuits is won because the RN didn't advocate for his/her patients and now doesn't have a job but still has school debt for a career they can't use.

Reading and listening to debt control talking heads like Dave Ramsey (I agree with him on nearly everything while in debt) teaches me to keep a small emergency fund ($1000.00 but I prefer more like $1500-2000.00). If your savings is more than $1000 you have enough to cover most (if not all) emergencies (even broken transmission on many older cars) and then you are debt free. Monthly income increases by your monthly payment, if it is 100.00 or more, you will replenish your savings that much faster and be debt free for longer. "Live like no one else now, so you can live like no one else later" keeps you thinking about all those baby boomers who have no retirement but have a Cadillac and can't afford their meds/food for the month. Pay It Off with a baby emergency fund and start working on your full emergency fund (3-6 month income savings). after that, the sky's the limit.

fantastic state of mind. Thanks for the return to sanity here. I work in a 600+ bed level II trauma hospital and haven't seen that kind of day for a while. Great team work, sounds like things run the way they should. keep the stories coming.

I got tired of applying and calling, applying and calling, applying. . . you get the picture. In the end, I went to the unit I wanted to work for, talked to the hiring manager (unit manager) and let them see me for who I am (6'7" able to move most patients with little to no help). Talk to the one that makes decisions, not the middle man (HR) that is educated to look at words on the page before the actual person. Good Luck with your job search. It took me ~250 applications/rejections before I got a job, applying to places while I was on vacation.

.ASU-BSN. . . 2009 graduate NCLEX. . . 125 questions, April 2010 First nursing job. . . SHMC. . August 2010 Applications from graduation to first hire. . . ~250 between entering nursing school (80 students leaving, 80 students starting) the nursing world was turned on it's head. Those leaving ASU in 2007 had between 2-4 job offers by the end of their clinicals (as reported by the students, not statistics). The housing crash, Wall Street theft, and governmental health care scare tactics have created a much tougher nursing market (shortage?) than ever. There are nursing schools (trade techs) still taking the federal government for hundreds of thousands of dollars each year pumping students into the market without a chance of getting a job because (announced today) reassignments and lay off of experienced nurses. The nursing shortage isn't getting better, it is getting worse because of mis-management of money, decreased budgets, and people staying in positions because of fear rather than loyalty. I have been in the same position I was offered over 20 months ago despite being bullied because I had to, I made a commitment to stay a year (or longer if necessary) and will move on, not because of living up to my commitment, but out of need to retain some sanity if I am going to achieve my professional goals. Things like hard work and willingness to put your patients before just about everything else (including family) that were required to graduate from school (with a BSN, ADN, or whatever) should be taken into account in job interviews. I know plenty of "experienced" nurses I wouldn't trust my life or my families lives with, but would put a student nurse with the 5 rights still fresh in their minds over their care. I guess I am sorry that nurse managers are more concerned about the bottom line and pleasing the suits than patient care and fostering the next generation of nurses. The same generation of nurses that will be taking care of them. . . how do they expect to get experience, and GOOD experience

I am living this situation now. I am a relatively new RN, One of the biggest problems is that the unit manager and this particular ANM are extremely buddy/buddy, my direct ANM supervisor informed the unit manager that she felt like I was being targeted and was "blown off". Others opinions (as expressed by other ANM/RN/NAC/support staff) of this particular ANM show she is not well liked outside her realm of influience (day shift). Even the majority of the other ANMs can't understand why she gets away with so much or has much more influence then they have. I don't have the experience but have all the evidence and the backing of both night ANMs that work directly with me nightly, week in, and week out. maybe I just need to suck it up and confront this directly with a visit to HR with a union rep, and the people I work with directly (all of whom feel I have been targeted unfairly) P.S. this particular ANM has already gotten another ANM "released" from the facility. but that is mostly rumor. . . . mostly.