thth21

I work at Community Regional Medical Center and love it. We're a level 1 trauma center so we get all of the serious traumas from the central valley + we have a brand new neuro ICU and some new neuro surgeons! Lots of neuro pts. I work in Medical & Neuro ICU and really enjoy it. We're a teaching hospital, so if you're not really interested in the sometimes headache-inducing job of collaborating with fresh out of med-school residents, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. St Agnes/Kaiser pay better, but I have not worked at either so I can't really tell you if they're that great. With your experience, at CRMC you'd probably start at around $33-35/hr plus time and a half after 8 hrs. Kaiser/St Agnes pay more as they are private hospitals. Community Behavioral Health is a good psych hospital in the area.

I work in a MICU at a large trauma center. We usually have a designated break nurse to break everyone/take pts on runs for CT's/MRI's/whatnots. The break nurse will also help with new admits/unstable pts on the unit. I think it's a much safer option, especially if there are a lot of high acuity pts on the unit.

Very, very difficult to get jobs in California even in inland areas. I work in Fresno, Ca (one of the "undesireable" areas of California as mentioned above), and basically only got my job because I had already worked per diem as a PCA at the hospital over winter/summer breaks. I attended a well known BSN program in the SF, graduated in May 2012, and probably half of those I graduated with are unemployed or working jobs that don't really involve nurse-to-patient care outside of the hospital. I really recommend getting some real hospital experience as a RN before trying to relocate to California. I am not sure if the gamble is worth it.

An EKG class will go over more specific heart rhythm stuff that you will need to know on a tele unit. ACLS mainly reviews rhythms that need an immediate intervention. My EKG course was pretty heavy on pacemaker stuff, including reading pacer strips. In my opinion both are pretty important.

Hi Katie, I definitely agree with everything that has already been said here. I'm a new grad from a BSN program and was hired into Cardiac ICU in the Central Valley, but I was an internal. The only new grads that the hospital that I worked hired at were internals (externs, PCA's). I have seen my hospital post some new grad positions, but I've heard that landing a position as an external is pretty competitive, sometimes taking up to 6 months. It's not even bad here compared to the Bay Area, where I did my BSN. Most of the nursing students I graduated were set on staying in the Bay Area, and out of 90 students, only about 4-5 of us have landed jobs since May. No one has been hired by a Bay Area hospital, and two were relocating out of state. I'd definitely try to get experience elsewhere before making the move to California. It's just too competitive now as a new grad.

I'm an undergrad at USF. Our MSN program is pretty competitive to get in to. Someone I know tried to apply into the MSN program and already had a bachelors in biology from UCLA and wasn't accepted. I think her cumulative GPA was around a 3.2 (possibly higher). She ended up going to John Hopkin's and getting a second bachelors in nursing because she couldn't get into any MSN for non-nurse programs. This might be a good route to go if you can't get in to a MSN program. If you want to work in the Bay Area as an RN definitely get at least a BSN. It's so incredibly competitive right now for new grads. Who knows when the job market will change? I'm really glad that I went for my BSN.