DialysisRN1973

13 years ago, I entered dialysis after years in med surge then ICU. I started out in an out patient clinic and since I was the only RN for each scheduled day, I was charge. After my 2 months of training I was immediately placed in my charge role in a 12 chair clinic. I hated it at first, I remember being so busy and wondered what kind of bad situation had I put myself in... However, I thought there had been things I disliked about every other nursing job I had ever had and decided to try and stick with it at least a year. Anyway, dialysis paid better then the hospitals. After a year I had acclimated and felt like I really understood dialysis. One thing I liked about dialysis was you had to have the organizational skills of a med surge nurse but still needed the critical thinking from the ICU while providing your daily care. After 13 years, I have gone from outpatient charge, to outpatient clinical mtg for 6 years, and now Acute dialysis where I am credentialed at 4 hospitals. As a clinic Mgr, I have hired many RN's. A percentage of them washed out within a few months. I would say many of the RN's that made it to the year point remained in dialysis. There are many growth opportunities if you grow tired in one setting. Home Therapies, Edited, Management or Education. Also, at least for the time being, Dialysis experience still counts for something when it comes to job promotion vs higher degrees only.

Every company and perhaps regions with the same company may have acute pay set up differently. For example, I work in the pandhandle in Florida. I receive my base pay plus 3 dollars an hour acute differential when doing direct patient care. There also are evening and night differentials. I'm usually on call once weekly but only receive 2 dollars an hour call pay. If I get called in, I get paid my standard Acute wage. Of course, anything over 40 hours is time and a half.

I work for one of the big companies. Just transferred to acutes after 6.5 years of working as a clinic manager of an outpatient clinic. The primary reason you are probably having issues is because these dialysis companies, at least the biggest one, went over to using recruiters to screen qualified candidates. Many times the hiring manager does not even know you applied unless a recruiter notifies them of a potential match. First and foremost, having previous dialysis experience and or critical care experience is what the recruiters are looking for first. In addition would be how far you live from your work location. With all of this being said, the vast majority of the RNs I hired did not have either. However, I found that nuses that did not have at least a Med Surge back ground had poor success rates learning dialysis. Though there are exceptions. I would recommend applying to the specific job and either calling or walking into the location to speak directly with the clinical mgr. Introduce yourself and let them know of your interest and that you have applied to their requisition. If interested, the hiring mgr can request your app from the recruiter and go around them regardless of their pre screening process. Dont give up. It took me 3 interviews over about 6 months to get a job offer in dialysis 10 years ago and I had ICU experience. Good luck and I hope this helps.