avhoney

Congratulations!

I believe that if you are doing everything that you are doing then maybe the right position for you hasn't been available. I believe that in time, it will happen! Keep contacting the recruiters but give yourself two week breaks in between leaving messages. Leave a message with the nurse HR recruiters. After two weeks, call them back, be polite and enthusiastic, and tell them you are interested in nursing position. All you can do at this point is keep volunteering and applying for jobs. Also, if a nurse recruiter or nurse manager is rude to you and doesn't explain why they are busy or ask you to talk to them at a specific date or time, you have to ask yourself do you really want to work for someone who treats potential employees like that? The best advice I was ever given about job hunting is to never act desperate if you are. You want to come off persistent and enthusiastic. You sound highly qualified and a catch. Just, remember that you are! Good luck; Good things will come with all this hardwork! :)

Hi, It is definitely hard to get past the computer application BUT you should call and talk to the recruiters of the hospital! First apply online to all the jobs that you are interested in. Then do not wait around for them to call you. Call them! If you do not know the number, call the operator of the hospital and tell them that you want to talk to a nurse recruiter. Talking to the nurse recruiter is your way in to the nurse managers! You might be getting rejected for jobs that you qualify for over the internet by marking something wrong or not marking something. Also, the nurse recruiters know what the nurse managers are looking for. Sometimes, there are jobs that are not posted that only a nurse recruiter knows about. Ask the nurse recruiter what job positions can you apply for as a new grad. Some units are not hiring new grads and others are. My friend in Cali and is working PRN. But I am in the midwest, at one hospital I interviewed, they were not even hiring new grads for a PRN position. Another hospital in the same region was hiring new grads only fulltime. Some places it is only nights for new grads. Or like me, I interviewed for a night position and the nurse manager created a day position for me! You just never know! Apply for everything! Build a relationship with the nurse recruiters of the hospitals or nursing homes in your area. If there is not a job now, then there might be one perfect for you later! Also, how are your licenses like CPR, PALS, ACLS? If you work on these, this will help you stand out. Sometimes, recruiters are given incentives to recruit nurses who already have these. Also, look into volunteering like for camps or to give shots at flu season. Or you can volunteer at Red Cross. This will help give you experience while you are looking for a job. Good luck! Stick in there!

No matter what school you go to, make sure to do an internship or externship! I did this plus worked as a nurse tech and this made me stand out as an applicant. I know other nurses who did this and were able to get employment quickly after school! Good luck!

Honestly, there is always a risk with newly accredited places. When I was interviewing for jobs, I asked the hiring manager why they had openings on their unit. The person told me that they had to let go of two of their nurses. The two nurse's had worked as student nurse techs and were in nursing school and sat and took the NCLEX and passed with a RN license. They were going to work on the unit but a month after they graduated their school lost their accrediation. The boards revoked their license and their degrees were useless. When it comes to nursing, take the safer route and go to the school with a history of a long accrediation; I guess in this case go to the University.

I started nursing school when I was 18 and I graduated with my BSN when I was 22. Although I do not have any children, I had colleagues who were married and had children. You are never to old to start after your dreams! If you want to be a nurse, you can totally do it! Like anything, it takes hard work and dedication! :)

Good luck!

A555, I kept a list of my scores from Saunders CD rom practice tests and Kaplan qbanks questions. I constantly kept track of strengths and weaknesses and renumbered them. As I was studying, I kinda knew what stuff I was missing or skipping over. It is hard to say how many hours a day I studied. Honestly, I don't think that if you set 5 hours a day that you are definitley going to pass. It is more about the quality time spent. Instead, I set goals of doing 100-150 questions a day. Normally, in a week, I did questions 5 days a week and took two days off. Sometimes, to get through the 100-150 questions it would take me 1.5 hours and other days it would take me 5 hours (if I was not focused). Read the rationales. Don't freak out if you get the same questions. This is good practice. I just did Kaplan q bank and Mosby flash cards the month before my exam. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Thank you to everyone who posted! Thank you for sharing your stories! :)

Good luck anneontherocks! If you were near passing, you were so close! Good luck! Stay focused! I wish you the best!

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations!!!

Hi everyone! I love being a nurse! However, I am that nurse who did not dream of becoming a nurse as a child. Even when I worked in the nursing home (a job that I loved), I swore that I would never be a nurse! It was not until I was older in college that I met a nurse that inspired me through her nursing philosophy of life that I knew that this was the career for me! She was absolutely right! Nursing has become my adult dream! :) What I would like to know is your story or the reasons why you knew you wanted to be a nurse from a young age? I do not want to know that you wanted to do it for the money or that there were good adult benefits or anything like that. I hear this too often. I also hear too often from people like me who found the calling later in life or while in school. I am very curious to know how people knew from a young age their dreams. This is really fascinating to me. I want to hear from people who are not like me.I want to hear the stories from the people who knew at a very young age that it was their goal to be a nurse. I am really interested in hearing your stories. Please share, my ears are open...

Hi mnh03! Where to start studying? That is a really good and hard question to answer. I would say first make two list that prioritizes your weakness to strengths. Put in order these.... 1. Psych 2. Adult/geriatric Medical Surgery 3. Pediatric Medical Surgery 4. Fundamentals 5. Pharmacology 6. Maternity 7. Safety 8. Management of Care or Delegation/ Prioritizing Pts The first list is the order that you think that you are weak in. The second list are the nursing grades that you got in these categories. That way you can see, compare, and confirm or realize that you have weaknesses in areas that you are overlooking or only focus studying using your strengths. Then take the practice assessment test that Saunders has in the CD-rom. This will give you a study guide on what to take first. Use it as a guide to take to finish the CD rom questions in saunders. Set goals for yourself. For example, it could be like... I give myself four days to finish 323 questions on safety. Then I will dedicate the next week to pediatrics questions. Questions that you miss read the rationale on the correct answer. If you really do not understand look up in book. Do not read Saunders cover to cover. This resource will not help you in this way. Practicing questions is the only way to get your mind on track for taking the NCLEX. Seriously, use the CD-rom to get you content ready for Kaplan course. It has 4000 questions and it is time consuming but you start to realize what is most important for you to know about that topic. Also, MOST IMPORTANT, know your lab values. By doing the saunders content cd rom questions, you will start picking up lab values. Take notes of the ones you constantly miss and make a quizlet on it. For example, if you have a med surg question about a renal failure pt, you are going to need to know the BUN and cr levels OR you have a pt with diabetes mellitus then you will want to know blood sugar levels. After saunders, do the delegation book. The reason is that after content based you will start to realize what disease processes are most important. At times, it all is important but the delegation will really help you break it down so you will know what the most important things to look for in certain diseases. After a while, some things will always take priority over others. For the longest time, I denied to myself that I needed to use the Saunders Cd-rom to get content ready. I honestly believe if you do the 4000 questions, before Kaplan, I believe that you will succeed with Kaplan! Also, I would suggest to push the kaplan review course to give you about a month or two -three weeks to get content ready with Saunders. This is my reasoning, I think that you might get overwhelmed during the Kaplan prep course. They teach you how to prioritize which is great if you are ready to sit and take the exam. The reason I say this is becauseI would hate for you to go and feel that you are not learning anything from the course because it may be hard to apply what they teach you. However, if you decide that this is the path for you. I want you to know that Kaplan is very helpful. If you find yourself overwhelemed. Stick it through! Take notes that will help you test. Some of their tactics seem silly but in the end it is helpful. Just make sure that you practice what they tell you to do. I hope that this helps. I hope to not confuse you or anything like that. If something is unclear please feel free to message me again. I wish you the best! Good luck! Do not give up! You can do this!

If they are not a nurse or did not go through nursing school, they don't know what they are talking about. It is their best way to be able to relate to you. I cannot tell you how many times family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers have given me more than their two cents about nursing. I deal with this issue by honestly just letting them vent and not add to the fire. I am respectful in listening to them but you have to accept that they are not you and they are not a nurse so they cannot understand. If you meet someone who is a nurse or was in the health field annoying you about it, remember its your life and this career is not for every one. If you like it and enjoy it, its the career for you. In regards to them giving you advice on where to work and what to do. You can redirect the conversation by sharing what you do like or you know that is not for you or share your dream job situations. Usually, when I start talking the person stops the conversation after this.