rmariee

Hi, I am currently a Cardiothroacic stepdown nurse in new york city with 1.5 years experience. My patient load ranges from 3-5 patients to 1 nurse. I get patients from outside hospitals, home admits, pacu, icu, cath lab, and ed. I also take VAD patients. I am used to running around like a crazy person, between admits/DC's, meds, vitals, bedside procedures, emergencies, and radiology/testing. I also have an insane amount of charting to do (my hospital is very repetitive with the charting.) I work 3-4 days a week and I do lots of overtime. (I am required to do a 4 day week once a month, the rest are 3 days weeks. All of my shifts are full-time 7:15 am to 8 pm.) My floor is high stress between being chronically understaffed, on our 2nd manager in the last 1.5 years, dealing with unhappy NPs & surgeons, and having a patient population of adults who think they are VIPs who aren't. I have an upcoming interview with Ambulatory Surgery/PACU - Days. From what HR told me so far my hours would be 4 days a week. Three of those days would be 11am to 10pm and one of those days would be 11:30am to 8pm. I was told no weekends or holidays. I think this would be a good fit for me. I am looking to move to a unit that is less stressful. I spent a lot of time reading the threads "day in the life of pacu RN" and I did find that some pacus are very busy... I don't have an issue with being busy. I work on a floor that is non-stop busy for 12 hours straight. Some of my questions though are.... Do you think my experience will help me or hurt me in the pacu? Do you think that after 1.5yrs in a critical care area will I be ready for pacu? Do you think that I am wrong to think the pacu may be less stressful? What kinds of questions should I ask at my interview? Will ambulatory pacu be different from regular pacu or does it just depend on my hospital? (my hospital is a 1,000 bed hospital in nyc) Thanks in advance!

In my hospital the nurses rotate between the labs and the holding area.

You're right. I currently work on a busy unit that is extremely understaffed. We are currently down 10 nurses. We've gone through two managers in the past year. The turnover rate on my floor is extremely high and I fear that I may end up on another unit that is like this or worse. I've heard horror stories of nurses in the ICU at my hospital being "thrown to the wolves" and struggling while on and off orientation. I've floated to the CTICU and CCU, both of my days I was left on my own with 2-3 critical patients. Luckily, I was able to think for myself and notify providers when I felt uncomfortable with certian vital signs. I had a patient on NO without being trained on it at all. I understand how rigorous the schooling is. My question is as a stepdown nurse, where should I go from here? Going straight into the icu from stepdown is not easy at my hospital.

I agree. The best thing you can do is apply to lots of positions and at interviews show a passion and willingness to learn. I think a medical/inpatient psych unit is a great place to start.

I saw this job position posted online... "Pre Admission / Testing - Ambulatory Surgery" Does anyone know what this job would be like? Could someone tell me what a typical day would be like? Thanks! Staff Nurse - RN - Pre Admission / Testing - Ambulatory SurgeryStaff Nurse - RN - Pre Admission / Testing - Ambulatory Surgery

Hi, I am currently a Cardiothoracic Stepdown RN in a New York City Hospital. I eventually would like to go back to school to be a CRNA. I've only been an RN for 1.5 years, but I like to prepare for things so what would be the best way to become a CRNA? I know schools require ICU experience, but where should I go from here? I applied to and was interviewed for SICU & NICU, but they both told me I would be on night shift for at least 2+ YEARS. I did 4 months of night shift and HATED it. It was hard for my body, schedule, and relationship. I've been told that Cath lab is a great place... Is this true? Would it help me or hurt me in my journey to becoming a CRNA? I know I still need to take Chem II, Orgo Chem I & II, but I think I would like to wait until I am closer to going back to school as chemistry has never been my strong point. Any tips or suggestions? Staying on my floor is really not that much of a choice at this point. I have been trying to stick it out. I would love to go to an ICU, but not my hospitals Cardiothoracic ICU as I have heard nothing but horrible things. I even floated there and had a bad experience.

Hi, I am currently a Ct stepdown nurse and I am looking to know more about what it would be like to be a cath lab nurse. Can someone tell me what a typical day is like for a cath lab nurse. My hospital does do ecmo, vads, tavr, and lots of cath lab hybrid or surgeries. It is a teaching hospital or New York. I know our cath lab nurses do have to do on call sometimes. Please let me know!

Hi, i am currently a cardiothoracic stepdown nurse and I have a nicu interview coming up. I am very nervous. I have 1.5 years of experience. During nursing school I loved peds and did my internship in pediatric inpatient intensive rehab. I floated to nicu , picu, and peds Med surg with the nurse I followed. I currently am back and forth between satisfaction and disappointment in my current position. My floor has an insanely high turnover rate which caused me to switch to day shift after working 4 months on night shift. More than half of our staff has quit in the 1.5 yrs I've been here. We have gone through two managers our staffing is a major issue. I don't feel appreciated and our patients can be very difficult. Im interested in going to nicu, but I am worried about the patients as I have no nicu experience and no newborn experience. The nicu my interview is at is the highest level nicu they have babies on ecmo. It's also a 50 bed nicu so I think they will have a good range of patient acuity. My question is what hat is a typical day in the nicu like? If someone could give me an hour by hour description. Also, if someone could tell me what a typical assignment would be like off orientation and a year after orientation. What types of questions should I ask at my interview? other than the basic staffing/training questions. my fear is that I will end up on a unit worse than where I am now. Babies do scare me in the sense that they can't tell me what is wrong and that I don't have much experience with them. Any advice is appreciated.

I don't think I had a 3.0 I don't remember putting in my gpa anywhere on the application. If you have experience in the field you definitely have a chance. I was on my schools nsna, I volunteered a lot in the emergency room/medical mission trips, and I had my cna license and all of those things helped me get the job.

You absolutely do not need a study group to do well. Study groups were never my thing. It commonly lead to lots of talking and being off topic and never getting much actual studying done. I preferred to study alone. Do what works best for you. You are getting good grades so far.. Stick with what you are doing!

I take it on this Friday so I guess I will have to wait until Monday to find out :c did you find out from pearson vue or the state website?

Did you take it on friday or saturday?

once you login click on the update profile and there should be an area that says resume and it should let you upload one..

Before and after the event I got an email saying I was a top new grad. If you login to check your status on the dashboard you can still upload your resume even after you've applied if you didn't upload a resume at the beginning of the application.

I graduated December 2015... I take nclex this week. Yes they will take you seriously if you are still in school and meet all the requirements. I don't know anyone who works at that hospital other than my boyfriends roommate is a occupational therapist there but she didn't help me at all and she doesn't know any nurses or anyone in administration. I just submitted my resume, filled out the application, and went to the interview event and then on a private interview with a unit.