UPSgirl

Call it superstition, but take a moment to think about this. I don't have the faintest clue what hospital you work at or what department you are in, but I can guarantee you (if you work in a department with more than 13 rooms) there isn't a room #13. It skips from 12 to 14. It's not just superstition!

They have hired the maximum amount of new grads the hospital will allow. JPRN2013, don't get discouraged, it sucks I know, I've been through it myself, and I'm not a new grad! I guess I never had a chance to experience the new grad dilemma because I graduated nursing school during its hayday, when they were still offering sign on bonuses and all that great stuff. The nursing field has changed so much since then that even the most experienced nurses are lucky to get an interview. A lady from HR asked me if I knew any RN's with ER experience that are looking for a job. Unfortunately they won't even consider you for the ER unless you have at least a years experience in an acute care setting. Do you live in the Plattsburgh area? There are hospitals around the area that are smaller but "new grad friendly". You only learn about 10% of what you need to know about nursing in nursing school. The other 90% you get through experience. The system is terrible and unfair, but if you were a nurse manager who would you hire first? A nurse who has worked the ER for the past seven years and loves it and is good at it, or a nurse who just graduated nursing school and thinks she wants to work in the ER? It costs a lot of money to train a new grad, and if 3 months down the road they decide it's not for them and they quit, that's a huge loss. Look into the smaller hospitals, they actually take the time to train you at your own pace, get that experience you need.

NY is a beast, without a doubt. I honestly don't know if they're still hiring or not. I don't start until Monday, I can ask one of the ladies in HR and get back to you.

It shouldn't be. Like I said once you test positive for any drug the initial immunoassay will be followed up with a more precise assay - usually GC-MS. This assay will be able to differentiate between codeine/morphine, and poppy seeds.

Yeah I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news but if it's been 3 weeks I would look elsewhere. If they intended to hire you they would have called you back within days, because they don't want you to look elsewhere. Personally I would let it go. Nursing isn't what it used to be, employers are very picky. I can't even count the amount of interviews I've gone to and even though I thought they went well, I didn't get the job. Ironically, I thought the last interview I went on didn't go so well, but I did get the job. As for applying for a position in the same hospital but a different unit, my opinion is as follows: I have experience, credentials, and a huge amount of experience, so they didn't not hire me because I'm underqualified. So why didn't they hire me? Maybe they didn't like the color of my lipstick or my perfume. Maybe they didn't like the color of my pants or brand of shoes. If they didn't hire me based on something as juvenile as that then I really don't want to work for them.

I've never heard of Sudafed causing a false positive, but it may cause a false positive for amphetamines. When your urine tests positive for anything, they are able to break the urine down even further to see if it actually is the substance that you tested positive for. This causes an added delay. Hope everything works out for you!

The drug test takes the most amount of time, simply due to the fact that that the urine is sent out to a private company to be tested. It took the last facility I worked for almost 3 weeks to get the results back. I know this because I have bulging discs in my spine that I take Lortab (prescribed to me by a doctor) for. Three weeks into the job HR called me and told me I need to call the facility that performed my drug test. I called them and they told me the findings, and asked if I had a prescription, to which I replied yes, and I gave them the phone number of my pharmacy to verify. Background checks and credit reports don't take very long.

I agree. I've never felt a scarier feeling in all my life than stepping out of Port Authority into downtown Manhattan. Tourists, people riding bikes, people asking you for change or if you have a cigarette...just crowds of people and taxis. Huge skyscrapers and lights. It makes Albany look like a small country town. Definitely too fast paced for me.

Problem is, they don't need you at all. The nursing shortage became obsolete in 2008 when the recession scared people out of retirement. Nowadays, it's a buyers market, and no longer are nurses the buyers. Back in the day hospitals used to bend over backwards to hire a nurse, today the nurses have to bend over backwards for the job. Take my situation as an example. I graduated nursing school in 2007 and worked cardiac ICU for 2 years. After 2 years I became a traveler, and I worked at almost every trauma center in the state of NY. In 2010, the traveling agency I worked for went bankrupt and I had no job. I spent 6 months on unemployment looking for a job in NY and applied to at least 100 different places. Nothing. I got a job offer in Oklahoma that offered a $10,000 sign on bonus, I took it and relocated to Oklahoma, I worked there for 4 years. I recently moved back due to family problems, I spent 2 months looking for a job. Still nothing. I finally landed a job 2 hours from where I live, and I have to relocate. And it's not because I don't have experience, I've worked cardiac ICU, CVICU, neurological ICU, neurosurgical ICI, MICU, SICU and ER. Need us they don't!

Yeah I remember them telling me that they don't have a neurosurgeon so all of the intracranial bleeds are sent "across the lake".

It's very easy to land a job in the Midwest, in fact I had to take a job in Oklahoma and relocate for 3 years back in 2010. The market is extremely competitive, so much that I just accepted a job 2 hours from where I live, and I've been a nurse since 2006 and am very proficient in more than one area of nursing. I hear it's actually harder to find a job in California than it is in New York, and trust me it's pretty flipping impossible here so I can only imagine.

To give you a ballpark figure, nurses who are employed by NYS department of health, the starting salary is $55,000 a year, and that's for a 9-5, Monday-Friday, desk nursing job. I highly doubt NYS pays their hospital nurses who work 12 hour shifts and have to put up with 10 times the amount of bullcrap, less than they pay office nurses. If you're thinking about moving that way, SUNY upstate is the way to go.

It really all boils down to how much experience you have, but seeing as it's a SUNY hospital the nurses are state employees and they are unionized through CSEA. I know for a fact they are paid well, whoever told you $45,000 a year was way off. They pay more than any of the hospitals in the Albany area and you have the state benefits. I've never worked in NYC, but I know that you guys are paid well, but then again the cost of living is so darn high I've heard nurses tell me they are paying $1500 for a studio apartment, while in Syracuse you would only be paying $600 a month for a comparable apartment. The cost of living in Albany is ridiculous as well, but not anywhere near as bad as NYC.

It boggles my mind too! It was actually one of the first places I applied to, I went to the website and saw 4 job openings on 8E for the night shift. They didn't even call me. When I was contracted I was primarily on 8E, but I floated to 8F, 9E, 9F, burn ICU, MICU, and SICU. So I have experience working at just about every ICU in that hospital. I don't get it.

I did apply to SUNY Upstate because I did 4 months of contracts there back in 2009-2010 and I really liked it (especially the 24 hour Tim Horton's and coldstone creamery in the treehouse LOL). Unfortunately, like every hospital I applied to in the Albany area, they probably saw the A.A.S after my name and immediately put my application in the shredder. At least CVPH is giving me a chance, with the stipulation that I enroll in school to obtain my BSN.