KelKelRN

I'm not an ER nurse, but I have, on occasion, floated to the ER. From what my coworkers (who are former ER nurses) tell me, you get quite a bit of psych experience just working in the ER. I'm not sure if that is helpful...but my question would be, can you not apply to another ER in your area?? (Or do you work at the only one?).....

Though I am not in your shoes, I would opt for the one that is closer to home in the L&D unit. Commuting even an hour after a 12+ (I say 12+ because sometimes you are so busy providing patient care that you don't have time to chart until after the next shift comes in). Plus, if you don't plan on going in a direction that would look on ER experience as a necessity, it really isn't worth your time and effort. I only live 4.5 miles away from the hospital I work at, and often times I'm driving home after a 14+ hour shift (due to a wide variety of mandatory staff/educational meetings). Though I know how being a new grad goes, and it is so hard to find a job... So I know that should you only be offered the position that is two hours away you will most likely have to take it. I just can't imagine all of the juggling you will have to do to make this work. Good luck!!

Hello Everyone, I need some suggestions and pointers... I'm currently an ICU nurse in a combined medical-surgical-cardiac ICU, and I'm looking at grad school program options. I really love bedside nursing, but I have a desire to continue my education...now the hard part, I am interested in so many different areas that I can't decide on the best route to take in order to give me employment flexibility in the future (i.e. I'm not married and don't have children yet, but I'm not sure I want to commit to hospital 12-hr schedule forever)... Everyone I work with is telling me to do an FNP program, BUT, I have absolutely no interest in working with the pediatric population in this fashion...So I applied for an Adult NP program, but now I'm wondering if I'm not really considering all of my options. I've also considered the Adult Acute Care NP option and I'd like to hear from everyone out there...If you do the Adult Acute Care NP program can you only work in a hospital, or does anyone with this background work outside of the hospital? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the ICU, I just don't know what the future holds and would like to be somewhat flexible. I've also considered CRNA, but the general impression I had after looking into a few programs is that I would have to completely stop working for the duration of these programs, and I'm not sure that, that will work for me financially... Thoughts and opinions please!!! Thank You!

I'm wondering what people think about my current predicament. I went to nursing school in one area of the country, and am now working in another area of the country. I was taught to consider cosigning as a nursing commandment (thou shalt always get a cosigner for insulin, heparin, narcotic wasting, etc)... I foolishly assumed that these rules were followed everywhere, but now that I'm working as a nurse, I realize that is not the case everywhere. When I went to administer insulin for the first time I asked my preceptor to cosign and was told, "No one does that here", and that though your're supposed to, no one does. After talking with several other people in my new grad class, I've found that this is a hospital wide problem. SO, people don't want to "bother" cosigning for insulin injections, but I'm also frequently doing insulin drips where I'm changing the rate of infusion every hour on multiple patients, and even the charge nurses are telling me you don't need a cosigner for that, which honestly makes no sense to me. I know I'm not going to mistakenly administer the wrong amount, but I am more concerned with the fact that even when you administer the correct amount that bad things can happen (i.e. hypoglycemia)... I'm working in an environment as a new nurse where I thought my preceptor was supposed to have my back..and I'm honestly feeling more that I have to watch my own back double-time due to the flagrant disregard for general nursing standards. I've addressed this issue in my new grad class, but the attitude I get from the nursing educators (most of whom are fairly young) is that it's my responsibility to go to my department educator and inform them of what's going on, but I also feel like they're trying to make a hospital wide problem way before I arrived my responsibility.....when I feel like this is something that needs to be corrected from the top down, and not the bottom up.... What do I do??? Thoughts please!!

Hello Everyone, I'm a new grad, and starting an ICU job in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if anyone can suggest a recent critical care text that I should begin familiarizing myself with?!? Thank You!

I would strongly suggest that you reconsider the idea of getting a full sleeve tat until you are more firmly cemented in your career. During my clinical rotations (10 hospitals in all), only ONE seemed to allow a more liberal work environment (i.e. non-natural hair colors, gauges, and visible tattoos), and the others were very conservative in their rules of appearance. I guess you could wear long-sleeved shirts under your scrubs if that is allowed where you work/plan to work... But just seems like a pain to deal with, and a bit of a gamble. Just a thought.

Congratulations!! I agree that there is no question that you need to keep moving onward and upward in your career. Employment applications always ask if they can contact this employer, you could say "No". Or there is the more creative option of having a friend call and see what they will say about you in regards to your status. Anymore, most employers don't want to give a bad reference, as it can create legal issues.

Generally people want hard copies of these things, so e-mail is more than sufficient. If I were you, I would contact the scheduler via e-mail or phone (if you have the number), and let her know the situation. I would think she would know where you need to send it, as she does work within the confines of the office ;-)

It almost seems like it depends on the area.... The people I know who found jobs the easiest/quickest were the result of having a connection. The rest of us had to pound the pavement by ourselves until someone noticed us. Keep your head up, RNJamie12!!

I originally thought I would start out applying ONLY to my coveted position (NICU), and then branch out to all other units after I had exhausted these applications. HOWEVER, what became abundantly clear to me very early on in the application process was the amount of time that it takes to create a profile just to apply to hospital A would be wasted if I did not also apply to ANY and ALL other units that I could at the same time before moving on to hospital B. Just my two cents!!

I don't believe tweaking your previous employment is necessary to land a job....And most hospitals do actually call your previous employers, so I'm not sure how useful "tweaking" would be. I submitted 60-70 applications without so much as a call back before I spent an entire day re-doing (i.e. reformatting) my resume with a resume builder on the internet. You should also consider submitting other documentation. For every application, I submit a resume, cover letter, scanned copy of my transcripts from nursing school, scanned copy of my certifications, and copies of my reference letters. I also made a nice "portfolio" of these documents that I brought to my interviews. You definitely need to be able to sell yourself once you get the interview, and become comfortable telling them why they should hire you over the other 10+ applicants for your position! Also, they want to know you're committed to working in their hospital for the long-haul. Just my two cents!

I agree with the other posters. If I were you, I would definitely go for the full-time med-surg position. In this job market for new grads, you want to choose the option that will provide you with the best training and opportunities for future advancement.

db2xs: I hope you have some connections at hospitals in Cali. I was born and raised in northern Cali, and a long-time resident of socal before I uprooted for 15 months for a BSN program. I thought the faster I got everything done the faster I could return to my life in Cali, but things have definitely not panned out that way! Every clinical experience should be used as a means to get a job. Almost all of my classmates were from other states, and nearly all of them have returned to the hospitals where we did clinicals to find jobs. I missed the band-wagon to a certain extent, because I always planned to return to Cali, so I had little to no interest in working in any of the hospitals where we did rotations, and thus I didn't utilize any of the opportunities to make connections in order to get a job...And I applied for my license in Cali rather than endorsing into Cali. I have since procured a job, but it is not in California!! I knew finding a job as a new grad would be "hard" but I honestly had no idea how difficult it would be. I thought having a BSN and getting certifications in ACLS, PALS, NRP, etc... would be helpful, but it didn't make a bit of difference for any of my applications in Cali. Then when you start applying out of state it becomes a difficult financial question of which state will you apply to first for an additional license so you will be taken seriously rather than flushed out of the application pool. I definitely wish you the best in your job search in Cali!!

Okay, so I'm curious what people think...I've been looking HIGH and LOW for a job that will consider a new grad...After doing three telephone interviews, I was offered an IMC/Med-Surg position at one hospital, and the CCU unit at another hospital wants me to appear in the flesh for an interview...I am thrilled to death to be offered the IMC/Med-Surg position, but I do want to see what will happen with the second interview. Would they bother wasting my time or theirs if they weren't seriously considering me?!? Comments, thoughts, two cents please!! ;-)

I got the same e-mail..... Sorry....

Your bitterness doesn't really change a critical fact in this situation, which you overlooked... There are numerous studies which show that the a higher level of education in nursing staff equates to better patient outcomes. I'm not disagreeing that ADNs do the same job and pass the same licensing exam, but I don't really think denegrating those who opted to go the extra mile for the BSN really helps your argument.

I have two classmates (just that I know of) that passed with 88 and 90 questions. The actual number of questions means nothing. I was told if you surpass 75 it means you're close to passing, and then it shuts off when you move above the minimum standard or below. I wouldn't read too much into it, but I WOULD (if I were you) try to register for the exam again (the so-called "trick to see if you passed"), supposedly if you failed it lets you pay for the exam again, if not an error message pops up. Everyone in my class who tried it (me included) said it works. It's totally normal to walk out of it thinking you failed. I wanted to throw up for two days, until my name popped up on the BON website. Chin up!! ;-)

I also attended. I was surprised to see sooooo many people there, but I really don't know what I was expecting. Any news yet?

I guess I should introduce myself. Hello my name is KelKelRN License type: BSN GPA: 4.0 Time out of school: Nearly 4 months # of positions applied to date: I didn't start applying until after I took the NCLEX (December 2012), and I am approaching 120 Dream RN position: NICU/ ICU/ CCU/IMC Hospital experience: No. Where do you live: Central Coast, CA What are you doing now: I try to apply to at least 10 positions a day, but have missed quite a few days between traveling up and down the state to attend random/unproductive job fairs, and spend many hours talking to my nursing school classmates everyday...plotting and planning our job searches. I've applied all over the state, and get rejection after rejection, or the ever-so-nice no response at all. The quickest rejection I received was less than two hours (and I'll admit, I was impressed). Favorite color: Pink How you cope with unemployment: I tend to cook moreso than bake.....I started taking a sewing class....But the only thing that will make me feel better is the day I have a signed contract in my hands. I had one phone interview today and two lined up for tomorrow, as they are all out of state. From reading all of your introductions, I can say that I have the same sentiments....I can't sit around for much longer without a job or I will probably go crazy!!!

From what I've seen, it would be more difficult to come out of school with an entry-level MSN (i.e. you didn't work as a nurse before getting your MSN). Hospitals already tend to pay BSN's "slightly" more than ADN's...and out of all of my job searches in the continental US...I have seen very few job postings for MSN/APN type candidates...But obviously a plethora of jobs for "experienced" RNs. Which makes me feel lucky that I didn't get into any of the entry-level MSN programs I applied to.

I understand the dilemma, and it is a big decision....So you really should do some research before you decide. If you have a choice of hospital AND the unit, then call the HR Department at the hospital and feel them out (i.e. does the NICU/ICU/Peds ever hire new grads, or do they have a new grad program for the NICU/ICU/Peds?). MANY hospitals have "nondescript" new grad opportunities where they don't have an actual new grad class, but new grads are precepted on the hiring unit. It would be great to have the pediatric experience if you really want peds/NICU, but ICU would definitely open up more doors. Just my two cents.

Katielynn10: It is INCREDIBLY difficult to find a job as a new grad in California, and this is only compounded by the fact that you don't have personal connections in the area. I'm a long-time socal resident who opted to attend nursing school in Nevada for my BSN. Having returned to Cali after completing my BSN I have applied to hospitals up and down the state, without getting so much as a call-back for an interview. Most of my classmates who returned to their home states are currently returning to Nevada to pursue opportunities at hospitals where they did clinical rotations. What everyone should be told when they start nursing school is the reality of the situation-- it will be SOOOO much easier to land your first job by networking with the nurses on the units you work in as a student nurse. You should pull up a list of hospitals in California (Wikipedia has a good list), and research all of them in the area you'd like to live, so you know what your best option(s) will be if you wish to move to California. Call the HR departments if you can't find information about how/when they hire new grads, because every hospital has their own rules. And you should definitely begin your search before you graduate. Some websites say you can apply up to three months before you graduate, others don't specify, don't hesitate to reach out to the HR departments and ask to speak with their Nurse Recruiter. I finally have several offers on the table, but they are all out of state, and I'm happily packing my bags!! Best of luck to you!