brujacakes

I would take the call center job in a heartbeat. Less risk to you and your future child & less stressful than running around like a chicken w/ your head cut off on these hospital floors. Where do you find call center type jobs?

I too am in my first year of nursing & working my first job as a new grad in LTC, 7 months in. I can say I am as miserable as you sound and think about calling off everyday I have t go into work. 46:1 patient ratio w/ 2 CNA's on nightshift, as the only RN on nights, I am also responsible for the other 45 patients downstairs under the care of an LPN should anything change in a resident's condition. I have experienced every emotion under the sun in the course of one shift, been written up multiple times for making mistakes on things I was never trained to do (ex. chart checks), been called at home on my day off a million times demanding I work extra, to scream at or to involve me in yet another investigation of some sort of incident which happened. I have survived 7 months of hell, learned a ton about covering my own azz, prioritization, triage, time management and am grateful for the knowledge & the full-time paycheck & know that I am paying some serious dues as a new grad. BUT, I am transferring into a med/surg position within the hospital we are attached to hopefully by the end of the month. Bottom line, I can not remain THIS unhappy and stressed out indefinitely, I will have a heart-attack or need to check myself into the behavioral health unit before I make it a year, lol. And, more importantly, I feel my license that I have worked so hard for and spent a lot of money on is seriously at risk. I know the grass is not always greener on the other side but when one door closes.......and I am slamming this one shut and blocking it out at risk of suffering some serious PTSD.....in order to allow a new door to open. My point is, you are NOT ALONE. I am convinced the only jobs available to new grads are the absolute worst ones, worst shifts, and that is "paying your dues", it will improve/ change when new opportunities become available to you, changing jobs is always an option but be clear on why (my license is at risk/ for me) and never look back. The advice given here is some very good advice but changing jobs (not quitting) is always an option which is a really nice thing about nursing. I felt my license was at risk at this facility from the first shift I worked by myself and in hindsight, which is always 20/20, I should have got out while the going was good. Life is too short to be miserable :-)

Well said bigmamma. There are many good reasons why 80% of new grads quit their first job within 6 months, lol.....a stat from an old, crotchety nursing instructor meant to warn us about what lay ahead for the graduates. I'm transferring now after putting in my 6 months.

I NEVER answer my phone anymore, ringer off permanently, I am not a good person to call in an emergency, lol

Oh, I forgot the staffing issues.....I am called constantly to come in early, stay late, work another shift....all for STRAIGHT time, they will offset your overtime by having you work half your regular shift on a day when it is convenient for them before the pay period ends in order to avoid paying you overtime and they can not for the life of them understand why nobody answers their phone, Lol Sounds like we are living parallel lives, Lol

I share your pain, I too am a recent grad (May 2014) and accepted a full-time 11-7 position in a LTC facility because simply I needed to work asap when I finished school. My orientation was 2 weeks of watching videos from the 1970's about very few things that directly apply to my job. I am now expected to care for PICC's, IV's, feeding tubes and worst of all psych patients with their psych meds d/c'd due to facility policy....by myself, 1:45 nurse : patient ratio......no training on these topics, OTJ....figure it out yourself. I am overwhelmed, untrained, stressed, gaining weight, cry a lot, and all around miserable from the experience. I forgot to mention the work schedule, 2 days off once every 2 weeks...ughhh! Then to add salt to the wound, "educated" yesterday on acquiring too much incremental overtime because I am 15min late in getting my work done..... narcs count for 2 med carts, report done for the entire floor, BM protocol complete, what feels like a million FBS cks, a med pass for the entire floor and unnecessary, redundant charting for 45 people. Of course there is also the assisting CNA's since there are only 2 on night shift, toileting people, answering an insane amount of bed alarms and chart checks which are a mess since it is inexperienced people writing MD orders. I too, am looking for another job but I fear this is nursing and it will not be any better anywhere else. I feel so defeated that I invested 5 years in school and 30k in debt to land the worst job of my life. It makes my worst bartending jobs (which got me through school) look like Shangri-La. I wish for a vacation everyday.....a permanent one. I am not a negative person but having a very negative week, hoping one day off in 8 days will allow me to find some positive in life and venting truly helps.

Got the good pop-up and passed.

Congrats, mission accomplished....this one anyway:-) I took mine yesterday and am waiting painfully for my name to show up on the state's site. Pure torture.

When I first began nursing school, I was in a panic over med math. Practice a lot, use formulas that work for YOU and make sense to YOU, not everyone else and once you get med math down, you will learn to love it when you see it on exams because there is only ONE right answer to those questions ;-)

I just tested yesterday, still waiting for results. In my opinion, just focus on subject matter in your own personal weakest areas.....I am sure grades on exams in school pointed these areas out. Review that content, practice SATA questions so you feel comfortable with them and rest a lot a few days b4 the exam...no studying, let your brain re-set itself.

Interesting the job market can be so different just a couple of towns away. End result: I applied to my first hospital mid-January (I graduate 5/14/14) for a GN position and was called within a week by a nurse recruiter who is guiding me through choosing an area of specialty with a tentative start date of the first week in June. This particular hospital requires a temp practice permit upon graduation and will start you immediately. I then have 90 days to pass the NCLEX. Glad I went with my gut and just applied :-)

Sometimes it just takes an adjustment of perspective. Thank you for sharing. -Fellow third semester miserable student

Glad to hear I am on the same page with thinking about Nov for applying. As per first poster, yes, I do know I need to pass NCLEX, I think we are ALL painfully aware after multiple semesters of nursing instructors beating us up with NCLEX style questions. It is only a test. Upon speaking with previous grads from our program, a lot of them were hired on as "Graduate Nurses" until they passed their NCLEX and others received offers on condition of successful NCLEX results. One lady I talked to applied for a GN position in the summer before her senior year and ended up with a very good job as a result. Thank you for your responses and good luck to you all :)

I am in my third semester of nursing school, graduating in May. My tidbits of advice: Do a little bit ALL the time, cramming does not work, too much info. to try and cram it in last minute. Ace the easy stuff: professionalism points for punctuality, turning in assignments on time, uniform rules followed to a "T". Those few points might make you or brake you if your grade is borderline at the end of the semester. Treat clinicals as if they were a job interview, do as much as you can, stay busy, ask questions, listen, be interested. The only people who have problems in clinicals are ones who try to "get away" with doing very little, or try & hide all day. Surround yourself with positive influences, classmates doing well, classmates with a good attitude. It will help by osmosis ;-) Focus on the concepts you do not understand and nail them, ex...ABG's, EKG's, Med Math. You will see them over & over again, might as well get it the first time and not let them haunt you. Google is your best friend. Terms you do not know, nursing careplans, Tutorials on concepts u donot understand, just Google it. Good luck & you can do it. Many people have and many more will. :-)

I am a nursing student with a graduation date of 5/2014 and was just wondering if there were some schools of thought on when I should begin applying for jobs. The job market in NE Pennsylvania is pretty decent but I have heard there may be some hoops to jump through in order to land your first job right out of school such as: shadowing, volunteering, unpaid residencies etc. I would truly like to have a start date by the end of 5/2014 so I can stop living like a plebe as a student in debt, living alone, barely meeting my financial obligations. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I am an "OWL" also in my senior year of nursing school & I totally empathize with your sentiments. What I do for motivation is focusing on the end result, I began a "pinterest" board of grad gifts to myself, I have the pic of my orange full size jeep wrangler as my screen saver, constantly browse RN jobs at area hospitals and have begun to inquire about interesting areas of specialty, I have multiple countdowns started along with a list of ways I would like to "give back" to family and other struggling students running in my head. In corporate America sales training, we offset the depression of the "leg work" (ie...customers hanging up on us, doors getting slammed in our faces) with what they called a "dream board". Focusing on the positive makes the negative a little less negative. Of course what works for me may not exactly work for you but maybe it will produce a few new ideas for how to get yourself motivated. Good luck, we got this & failure is not an option. :-)

The well hidden fact is it takes 4 years to acquire the ADN, and that is if you are lucky enough to get ALL your pre-req's completed in that amount of time- yes, A&P 1 &2, Micro, etc....all the same classes a BSN takes the first 2 yrs of their schooling. We are NOT less schooled, just less in debt because we opted for a more cost effective version of the same darn license- RN, same NCLEX exam, same pay scale as the BSN at least in PA. From a debt/income perspective, I would only invest in an MSN, not a BSN. Just a perspective from an ADN student with a long term financial plan in regards to debt & her education.

In my first couple of weeks of nursing school we were warned of the legal liabilities once we identify ourselves as a nurse. Our legal instructor warned us more than once about giving unsolicited and/or solicited advice to relatives, friends, strangers. Speaking only for myself, I would give great thought to responding in an "off the clock, non-workman's comp" situation unless it was a life or death situation/ emergency.

If you can mulitiply, divide and move a decimal point, you are capable of succeeding with nursing math ;-) When learning nursing math, seek to understand, not memorize and it will all come together just fine.

I spent that time creating my back-up plan, knowing what I was going to do if I did not get accepted into nursing school alleviated some of the stress of waiting.

Last year at this time, I was just starting nursing school and I have to say the "horror stories" really were just that.....stories!! Like a giant whisper down the lane that at the end has no truth whatsoever. As a second year ADN student, my best advice to new students is to believe in yourself, that is how you got into nursing school in the first place and always do a little bit ALL the time....eventually that little bit amounts to a passing semester. One other tidbit I discovered, determine early if you are truly committed to a career in nursing. If you find out a couple of weeks or months into your first semester that nursing just might not be for you.....get out while minimal torture has occurred, it is not torture if you love what you are doing. Most of our 1st semester non-returns were for exactly this reason, people realize that nursing was a bad choice, for them. Good Luck, and if you are doing what you love, you are loving your life.