havemercy21

i am applying to hospitals and LTC facilities. Aps: >100. Follow up by phone: check. Willing to travel 40 miles each way. Yes I have 7-8 years of healthcare experience. BSN grad. NCLEX within 1 month after grad.

We barely have any residency programs in chicago. Seems like new grads partake in these often--I was totally oblivious to this. Can you guys tell me more about the res programs?

SAME HERE. This is so unfortunate and discouraging. I had enough and broke down. I absolutely despise waking up to rejection emails and no call backs or interviews. Wishing I went another route or lived in a small city.

I have done the exact same and have applied to about 100 positions. I've been turned down for more than half. This is definitely discouraging. How are we to get experience if no one will hire us new grads?!? Totally wish we had a nurse residency program like med students do.

Start by volunteering if there are no tech positions open. generally, after youve completed the first semester of nursing school (fundamentals, etc), that cancels your need to get certified as a nursing assistant. volunteer..start school...be on the managers good side and let them know how interested you are....and take it one step at a time. you learn on the job for sure. you need to get precepted by another technician for a specified number of hours before you can go work on your own. each ER is different so a lot varies in terms of who theyll hire, how youll be precepted, etc.

I have noticed that being the happy and bubbly one does not always work so well in the ER. I get looks all the time for being enthusiastic and optimistic--i wouldnt be this way if i didnt love my job. I am sorry for having a heart and actually feeling sorry for certain people. Every time i take even 1 extra minute to listen to a pt vent to me and confide, the nurses with 5 years experience will roll their eyes and comment to me saying "thats not gonna last too long". And god forbid i give people a piece of my mind instead of being the smiley, bubbly girl that i am, everyone's eyebrows raise and eyes pop out. Its okay for them to comment whatever way they choose, but if the newbie does, its the end of the world. i choose to want to work in the emergency dept but that doesnt mean that i am gonna change my positive personality and turn into a heartless b just to fit in with the rest of the crowd.

Practice questions (100ish) 5 days a week. Make sure to understand all the rationales.

my program was 16 months. I wish that I managed my time better because my experience wouldve been so much better. I felt like the fast-paced program was great because it instilled the basics and all but while studying for nclex, i felt that there was so much content that i forgot or never covered. i procrastinated a lot (i did well) but obviously right now, as a new grad, i need to go over a lot before i jump into the workforce. The biggest advice I can give is to start prepping for NCLEX well in advance. Do the kaplan course the semester before you graduate (maybe even sooner because then you can get into the habit of answering nclex style questions--which is how you will be tested throughout nursing school) and buy the yellow Saunders book and use that to supplement your studying. I think the content is concise but touches on the important and pertinent topics. I wish i had done that from the start--i started doing that in my last semester and it helped me a ton on exams and gaining knowledge.

Congrats!!!! You must be so relieved!

Thanks!!! But I cant sit still until i have it in written on the pearson site lol

I dont know how anyone can study EKGs along with all the other content that needs to be reviewed during nclex prep. In regards to the saunders book--use that for things that u have trouble with. when u take the practice tests, youll see what stuf you remember and what stuff u dont. thats how i did it. i didnt read the entire book i just covered topics that i had the most difficulty with. hope that helps!

Yes they give you both Celsius and Fahrenheit

For my study regimen: I used the Saunders (yellow) book for content review. It was great for content review. It comes with a CD of questions and i started by practicing those questions first. After officially getting my test date confirmed, I had only 3 weeks from the time i signed up till today to study for the test. I decided to sign up for Kaplan's Q-Bank. The questions were extremely similar. All the content that was covered in the Q Bank was pretty much tested on on the actual exam so I feel like it was money well spent (esp if i truly DO end up passing lol). I did all ~1300 questions from the Qbank within 2 weeks. I would highly recommend it. Know all your lab values and s/sx of electrolyte imbalance, know what the RN/LPN/CNA can do in their scope of practice, know how to prioritize (who you will see first), know EKGs because i had ~6 questions and although I do EKGs at work all the time, I never thought of actually leaning to read it. When do you take it?

I tried it and I got the good popup. Thank god for that but i am still super skeptical until i see the unofficial result after paying the $8 in 2 days. Today has been the longest day of my life...and the next 2 days will be challenging. Ahh!!