SuccessDiva

What part of NJ are you moving to? What county?

Hi Ladies, I get on here intermittently! Sorry for the delay. Saint Barnabas in Livingston, NJ is hiring New RNs for Med-Surg positions. UMDNJ in Newark and JFK in Edison, NJ.

No one cares about your GPA or your ability to pass NCLEX on the first try. Externship may be the way to go along with some unique ways of reaching out to managers. I been in your shoes and eventually found my way in. Message me if you want some extensive tips.

Are you ladies interested in externships? If so, send me a message. There are several hospitals in NJ to apply to.

It can be challenging as a new grad to land that hospital position. I would aggressively apply to different hospitals...if you do not get any traction consider LTC and or nursing home. While working in LTC or a nursing home you can continue to apply and utilize those skills learned to get you to the next step(hospital position). Let me know if you need further assistance.

What is your experience? What does your resume look like? I work at Mount Sinai. Your chances of getting a job by just applying on the Mount Sinai website is very low. You have to be creative, think outside the box, come up with a plan and carry it out. That is one of the best ways you will get a your first RN job. Contact me if you need more direction.

1. Take the job under the conditions that they do not have you sign a 2 year contract......( Every job wants their new hires to stay....but some do not make the working conditions good enough to keep their employees.) 2. Continue applying and interviewing for hospital positions....once you get something promising say "bye bye" to the agency position. They will get over it. At the end of the day it is about YOUR career and not THEIRS. Good luck.

10 interviews is great. That means your resume must look good. As far as not getting at least 1 offer...I would say maybe there is something wrong with your interviewing skills and or your presentation. Are you visibly nervous during interviews? Do you ask powerful questions of the interviewer? Do you lack confidence? These are all the things that can impact you getting the job.

I disagree that memorization of medication facts are only good for school. I do know that some organizations are using advanced competency test like than PBDS which requires you to be able to recognize a patients medical condition based on symptoms and lab values. Based on my experience the majority of hospitals that I have been through are using multiple choice competency tests.

Oh I see. Well my dear.....I don't know you or your entire situation....but you might have to reflect on your experiences to see what you could have done differently in both situations. Sometimes when we reflect we realize that we could have done something differently to change the outcome of a situation. For e.g I landed an ER job ( job of my dreams) only to be let go on the 3rd day of orientation because I did not do well on the competency examination. Now....I was ****** because I felt that they should have told me that I would be taking a competency examination so that I could brush up on my information. Once I reflected... I said to myself that I should have known some of the answers on the test knowing that I wanted to work in the ER.....once I was able to accept this I was able to move on....and my takeaway was to review common conditions and medications...that I forgot about b/c I did not have hands on experience. I eventually landed a neuro position...I will re-apply for the ER in the future...this time I will be ready for any competency examination that they have for me. Be persistent with applying for jobs.

Hi GrnTea...I think the issue is with the employers....they make it seem as if it is the end of the world if you don't have the "hands-on skills"....that I feel they can easily teach you. You'll hear things like (you don't have any experience...or why did you wait too long to apply or why didn't you work in med-surg after graduation). Once you get a little experience and you list these hands-on skills on your resume...employers start taking interest...w/o even confirming if you can truly perform these skills. I went through this. I took a case management job after graduation. I started applying for med-surg positions about 1 year later...I was told that I had no experience and that I should have done med surg first by many recruiters. I finally landed a psych position at a small facility...I left that one after 1.5 months for a hospital based psychiatric emergency position....and from there I finally landed a med-surg position.

Hospitals are administering a variety of different medical/surgical and or pharmacology examinations to all new hire (new grad and experienced nurses). These exams are used to assess how competent you are. If you do not perform well on these exams, some hospitals will offer you additional training, give you the opportunity to remediate and take it over or they will TERMINATE your position.... (I know this happens because it happened to me!). Do not get comfortable after you sign the offer letter. You still need to do well on the competency testing! At my leisure...I will provide you all with a series of medications that you should know and understand inside out. It would be helpful if others can chime in and list some important points regarding the meds or conditions that I list. Please make sure that your answer is based on what the books say and not what you actually do in clinical practice. Dilantin- indications for usage, levels, etc Digoxin- therapeutic levels, significance of hypokalemia, antidote Narcotics- what do you need to watch out for? Antidote? Lovenox, Heparin, Warfarin- Which one is used as a prophylaxis tx post opt? Which one is used for DVT? Where are the therapeutic levels? Medication interactions? Treatment for Diabetic Ketoacidosis....What are the treatment needs for the patient? Anemia- what is it and how is it treated? ACEs, CCB, Diuretics- know the general class and side effects Mannitol- what is it used to treat? If a pt has increased ICP, how many degrees should the bed be? Metformin- Indication for usage? Relationship b/t metformin and CT scans Blood compatibility- O, A, B, AB. Which ones are compatible? What makes two blood types incompatible.

Don't call yourself an incompetent nurse...why would you put yourself down like that! You made a mistake and now you can learn from it. Remember, you have tons of resources available to you. You should always look up a medication or a procedure that you are not familiar with......the more you do it....the more information you retain and the easier your work become...hopefully :). I made a mistake as a new grad....I gave the patient more Librium that I was supposed because I was not paying attention.....thankfully nothing happened to the patient.... I was honest about it to my manager...I filled out an incident report and that was it. After that event….I certainly triple checked every medication order before I administered it to the patient.

Issue: Because you are already an RN, even tough you will be working as a PCA, you will be expected to respond to a change in a patients status as an RN...NOT A PCA. If something is going on with the patient and as a PCA you stop to go call the RN and something happens to that patient in the interim....you may be held liable. You cannot use the argument, " but I was hired as a PCA or as a PCA I am not expected to do this or that or that is not a part of my job description." I am not discourging you from accepting...just want to make sure that you understand the risk involved.

Don't feel guilty. It is not your fault that they frequently do not have the staff available to work. If you feel bad saying "No" then just don't answer your phone as the previous member advised.