future_RN17

I am a disabled vet and served for 8 years in the Air Force as a medic. I was chosen as one of the 8 VALORS for my VA hospital out of almost 40 that applied. I have an extensive background in healthcare and interview well. They advised us veterans don't have preference in Valor interviews. It's all about how you answer the questions; we had a lot of situational and critical thinking questions, if you don't have much healthcare experience or aren't very quick thinking with these type of questions you may not have been chosen because you didn't have what they were looking for. Typically VALORS are considered the "best of the best" and they are very picky. To be chosen over someone soley because you are a veteran is not really what the program is about. It's nice to be a veteran and work at the VA but you can always use your preference once you graduate to become a nurse there also.

My personal experience. My son is 5 and we weren't getting any younger so we decided to plan for our second child in the last year of nursing school. Got pregnant in September so baby would be due in early June (graduation in May). Everything has been great so far. Only downside is you will be applying for jobs noticeably pregnant which has proven to be a definite stressor and burden for me. I didn't get a job that I was fully qualified for and had spent over $600 to interview for (was out of state) and the only thing I could pin it to was the pregnancy. In any case, I felt it would work out the best with during maternity leave before I started my new job while studying to take NCLEX and putting my baby in daycare at the 6 week mark post partum to start my new nursing job. Good luck!

The resume builder on USAjobs is adequate it has all the information that you need to put on it. I would also Google "federal resume" and type up one in a doc format and upload that with your package as well.

Congrats! I graduate in May and ANYTHING would be helpful. I plan to get UWORLD to start working on those type questions. [email protected] >>>if anyone doesn't mind sending the study guide. Thank you!

Thank you!!!! [emoji16] I'm remaining hopeful! My recruiter has been out of the office since YESTERDAY! So my two weeks is slowly approaching and haven't heard a word! But no news isn't necessarily bad news I guess! I don't graduate until May & won't begin work officially until after NCLEX in July so they probably assume there's no rush for me [emoji23]

I drove through Cary, went to the Super Target in Apex, traveled around Chapel Hill, and saw some of the Briarcreek areas and I THOUGHT I liked Cary and Chapel Hill the best but now I'm torn between both of them. Chapel Hill had a nice back way into Duke where you can avoid all the traffic on the freeway but I wonder if it'll make that big of a difference with nurses who go in before traffic @ 530am and leave after traffic around 630p or 7. 🤔

That's AWESOME! I see a lot of people interviewing on here for neuro ICU! Make sure you do your research on behavioral interview based questions. I was very over prepared but I hear SICU asks a lot more difficult questions. Some questions I got were: Where do you see yourself in 5 years Why do you want to work with pediatrics (interviewed in a pediatric ICU, but I can see this as being a why do you want to work in the intensive care unit also) Who is a person (mentor/clinical instructor/someone you look up to) and why? Tell me about something you've had to change to better yourself? (I also see this as what is your biggest weakness/worst trait and how did you overcome it) And there were a couple others that I just went completely blank on lol! I was all ready to answer scenarios and "tell me a time when" type questions because you never know! Good luck!

UAMS is a 2 year program and have about the same amount of pre-reqs as UCA or any other BSN program. Of course more pre reqs because you're getting your bachelors degree

No. You literally just shadow your nurse. You don't need to bring anything but yourself. I know, I went to a peds floor, and put on gloves to help my nurse change a diaper and she told me that I didn't need to. It was more of a "let me show you the unit, the types of patients we have, things specific to the unit, and do you have any questions?" I asked the nurse a lot of unit specific questions about scheduling, orientation for new grads, etc. So when I got to the manager, I really emphasized how resourceful and helpful the nurses were about answering all my questions and only had one or two general questions for her. Where are you interviewing? Good luck!

I called HR and they said there was no one I could be forwarded to! That I would just have to wait to hear back from my recruiter [emoji58]

So now my recruiter is out until next week! Just my luck! But my job submission status still says "forwarded to the hiring manager" anyone else's change?

Nothing yet! Waiting is the absolute worst [emoji31] it will be a week tomorrow. I'm praying this recruiter says something soon!

Hey everyone! I interviewed on a Friday (today is Thursday!) and so it's almost been a whole week since interviewing and shadowing. How long do they usually take to get back to you with an offer? My recruiter was out Friday and Monday but the manager I interviewed with said it shouldn't take longer than a week to hear back....Any feedback??

Congrats!!!! [emoji322] I'm still waiting! My recruiter was out Friday and Monday [emoji30] but I'm hoping I'll hear something soon!

How did you like PCICU and ICN? That's awesome, congrats! Did you get offers from both? I would love to work at either as long as it's critical care