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Hi Mike, ITA ? I was honored to interview for such high acuity prestigious units, both nurse managers were super sweet and kind. I ultimately did not get the position due to my limited experience. For reference, my background was one year CVICU experience in a small community hospital at the time that I interviewed, we get maybe 30 or so CABG patients a year, 1-2 Swan's a year, no CRRT, no Impella/LVAD's, arterial lines and chest tubes not that common. I don't have CABG training yet. We see more medical and pulmonary patient's than cardiac. I did recently work with a couple individuals who also work in the CTICU at Cedar's and the theme heard from both was very similar - high RN turnover due to the high acuity and steep learning curve, with many nurses failing out of the program there, in addition to the micromanaging culture (but honestly what large facility doesn't micromanage?). It seemed like Cedar's is looking for the well rounded nurse when they hire for experienced positions - CCRN, BSN, patient satisfaction a priority, some type of extracurricular involvement such as a unit quality improvement initiative or member of a committee, etc, and some type of experience with the above equipment. Recruiter mentioned that with my background, I should look into applying to their Cardiac ICU internship program. Hope this helps.

Dear fellow RN's, I was recently invited to interview for the Cardiothoracic Surgical ICU and Cardiovascular ICU positions at Cedar's Sinai. 1) Can any employees provide insight into the types of patient's seen in each unit? Pre-Op/Post-op, valve repair, heart transplant, CABG, intubated/sedated patient's vs walkie talkies, etc. 2) And how often do each of two units utilize/see these - ECMO, CRRT, Impella, VAD'S, A-Lines, Swan Ganz, Chest Tubes, etc. 3) What is the training like for (1 year) experienced nurses? I.e. floor time, classroom time, quality of the training, opportunity to train on advanced skills. All feedback is much appreciated.

My charge is busy saving the unit money by canceling the second US/MT from coming in to work during the busiest shift of the day. At my facility, the official policy is one US/MT for up to 30 patients, and the RN’s do not watch the monitors.

Is that 1 tech for 45 monitored patients? Even in our critical care units which are usually no more than 15 patients each, we have one US/Monitor Tech respomsible for watching monitors and doing US work.

I am the Unit Secretary AND Monitor Tech. I’m the one responsible for watching the tele monitors and alerting the RN’s to any alarms. The RN’s do not have access to the tele monitor displays, they have to leave their hallway and physically come to the nurses station and look at the same monitors I’m watching if they want to see the patient’s rhythm. Our nurses normally hang out in the hallways they have assigned patients in, they never sit at the nurses station, unless one is breaking me.

In my hospital, the unit secretaries double as monitor technicians. I work on a telemetry floor, and I've been more and more frequently feeling like we have been staffing too few unit secretaries/monitor techs for the number of patients on our tele monitors and floor. How many unit secretaries/monitor techs do you guys staff on your units and for how many patients? As an example, I will be working by myself today, its an 8 hour shift, there are 26 patients admitted and 15 on tele monitors, and I already feel like this is going to make for a very unsafe 8 hours. I'm going to be admitting, discharging, calling in consults, helping doctors, assisting visitors, filing, watching tele monitors, preparing ecg strips, reporting dysrhythmias, answering phones, maintaining the tele log, maintaining our whiteboard, maintaining the admission/discharge list, all while praying nothing goes missed on my tele monitors.

Would especially love to see hiring manager's/nurse recruiters input on this, but everyone's input is appreciated........Aside from the basic required certifications (BLS, ACLS, NIHSS, EKG), what else do you look for in new grad nurses you are considering hiring into the ICU? What made them stand out above the applicant pool even before you interviewed them? Not every nursing program is able to provide ICU preceptorships to interested students, how strong of a factor, or not, did an ICU preceptorship play?

After speaking with my community college counselor, I'm more confused than ever as to what my ADN GPA and BSN GPA are made up of. According to her, my ADN GPA will only consist of the nursing courses I took specifically at that college, and does not include any nursing pre-requisite classes I needed to get admitted into the program. Does this sound correct? In the same way, she stated my BSN GPA will only be made up of the classes I take at the four year university (RN-BSN bridge classes), and for the purpose of GPA will not include the GPA of any classes I take at other institutions (i.e. ADN). So if I understand her correctly, my ADN GPA will not be a part of my BSN GPA? This is really confusing me because, then, in the case of grad school admissions, how do institutions fairly compare one BSN GPA to another institutions BSN GPA. What am I misunderstanding here?

Hey everyone! I just recieved my letter in the mail today, looks like it was mailed out on May 6. I'm really sad to find out I was selected as an alternate, but I have yet to take my TEAS exam so that may have played a role, not sure. Now Im wondering what the likelihood is of being admitted after being placed on the alternate list. Also, One very confusing thing is that the letter states TEAS scores must be submitted by May 20, 2016, but the same letter states that the date and time scheduled for me to take the TEAS exam at Cerritos, is May 26, AFTER the deadline. I emailed the Health Occupations office, just waiting to hear back, I'll update once I do. Congratulations in advance to everyone who gets in!

Hey everyone! I just recieved my letter in the mail today, looks like it was mailed out on May 6. I'm really sad to find out I was selected as an alternate, but I have yet to take my TEAS exam so that may have played a role, not sure. Now Im wondering what the likelihood is of being admitted after being placed on the alternate list. Also, One very confusing thing is that the letter states TEAS scores must be submitted by May 20, 2016, but the same letter states that the date and time scheduled for me to take the TEAS exam at Cerritos, is May 26, AFTER the deadline. I emailed the Health Occupations office, just waiting to hear back, I'll update once I do. Congratulations in advance to everyone who gets in!

So as I'm preparing to apply to BSN programs in the Southern California area for Spring 2014 admissions, I recently had an interview with West College's admissions and financial aid reps. So far, West Coast's program was on the bottom of my list because of all the negative information i had heard about the school, teachers, and that horrific price tag we have all seen associated with the school. But i'm so glad i met with the rep and got a lot of these rumors and facts verified because i can now make an informed decision. I wanted to share the details with you guys so you guys can have that opportunity as well......here it goes. Timeframe (Bsn): 3.5 semesters pre-nursing, 4.5 semesters nursing (21.5 months). One academic year at West Coat is made up of 2.5 semesters. Total 8 semesters for the BSN degree. Classes are 10 weeks long and year round. Students are admitted each term so multiple times a year they will accept students into the program. Pre-Requisites: About 16 classes and 3 of them are upper division (pathophysiology, English 2, Cultural Humanities) so those must be completed at West Coast or at a 4 year University. They have sort of an articulation agreement type thing on their website if you want to check and see if classes taken at a local community college transfer over. Cost: Approximate numbers - 16,000 per semester, 2.5 semesters a year so about 37,000 per year. Complete your prerequisites at a community college! Most of that tuition ( what federal and grants won't cover) you pay via 2 options-pay monthly like a car payment or then get a private loan. My thoughts: 45,000 a year for a private school BSN-not as bad as I was thinking, especially if you knock out the prerequisites at a community college. I think Loma Linda has a similar price tag. Someone please clarify if I am wrong. Students are doing clinical at Kaiser and Hoag Hospital, this I know for sure. I asked the west coast rep what the 6 month job placement rate was and his answer "we don't expect our students to come back and tell us"....ummm why aren't other colleges and universities using THAT excuse....SHADY. More like says a lot about the reputation of the program. Admission requirements: getting approved for that private loan, if you have a minimum sat score then you don't have to take the HESI exam, and that's about it actually. No waiting list that I'm aware of but terms did fill up fast. Accreditation: WASC regionally accredited, so state schools and future Masters programs will accept your degree!! Hope this helps, I know it cleared up a lot of the concerns I had because of all the horror stories surrounding this school. If anyone can fill in the missing facts: Teacher/Class Quality, Job placement ( how hospitals are viewing the West Coast nurse, likely to hire?, ease in getting hired), and how well West Coast prepared you to be a nurse, this would be much appreciated by everyone seriously considering their BSN nursing options in SoCal. Best of luck to all the future nurses out there.