MN-MN

I may be moving to the San Jose area from Minneapolis. How is the current job market for hospital based RNs? What should I expect for a salary? I have a Master of Nursing (RN) degree and about 2.5 years experience on a cardiac tele unit.

If you're serious about getting in, you should meet with someone on the admissions committee. They denied your application, so they should be able to tell you exactly where you need to improve your application.

I am just starting to think about what it will be like when my first peds patient dies. That could come any day now, or it might happen years from now, but it will happen. Just thinking about it for a while today brought me to tears. I'm thinking this is significant. I am a nursing student. I've worked in a business environment my entire career, and making a switch; I have now been working in healthcare for about three years at a Minneapolis hospital as a para-professional. I've known and worked closely with patients who have died. I feel good about how I worked with those people and help them die a dignified death in my own small way. I have yet to see a patient I knew well in any state other than alive. I also have not experienced a child die in front of me. I am afraid of my response to the latter. I know I'll handle it, and it will be difficult. I've been denying that fact. But, it will also drive me to become a great nurse. I'll move on with passion and sense of purpose, but that gift must come at some emotional cost.