millkay

Some weaknesses may include ill preparation, inappropriate dress, arriving late, and verbal negativity regarding your current or past employers. Even if the interview is stressful or confrontational, interviewees must stay calm and beware not to get defensive or argumentative. The employer may be testing your ability to handle difficult situations. Strengths include preparation and positive first impressions. Have some idea how you would answer abstract questions such as "What is one thing that you would like to change about yourself," or "how do you handle conflict." Be positive, especially about your current and previous employers. Have a vision for your future: where do you see yourself in 5 years? and how do plan to get there? Research the company, department, and position so you can ask questions. Dress professionally and be polite. I answer this for you as well and for myself because I am looking forward to an interview for a new position within a company. Remembering some of the basics of interviewing is great way to prepare. Good luck! :wink2:

I always thought you had to be a mature and intelligent adult to make it into med school. That's what I get for thinking!!! these idiots bring shame to the whole lot of them.

Not to keep the antagonizing going on and on and on, but I am with those who believe it is wrong to sleep at work. I'm a night-shifter, too. That having been said, I once took a phenergan before leaving for work, by accident of course. My husband got my 'am' meds ready for me and grabbed the phenergan thinking I probably would need it: pregnancy-related nausea. When I got to work I could not hold my head up to save my life. I started falling asleep standing up in a patient's room and couldn't figure out why. After a little while I fell asleep at the desk and no one bothered me at all! I wish they had-- it was embarrassing when the house sup woke me up and asked if anything was wrong. Boy was I awake then!! But I wasn't fired, although I fully expected to be written up. As an adult I understand my responsibility at work and patient safety is the top priority. When I was a CNA, we had to keep busy most of the shift. Don't be caught standing around when you could be cleaning something, organizing something, etc... We definitely were required to earn our pay. Our nurses would've thrown us out the door for sleeping. So with my work ethic I found it lowered my morale to go into the break-room and find a nurse snoring. I seemed to be ok with everyone else so I blew it off and ate my lunch while she snored and drooled. Granted it wasn't against the law but it definitely was annoying. When you go home go to bed! get some sleep! or while you're here drink some coffee!! Just another control-freak in the house....

I to you Dorimar for finding a way to get out of doing those audits. I also worked in a unit where we were required to do audits, one per month. We filled out a sheet on things that we found that were not up to par and turned it in to the supervisor. One per shift sounds like major overload when you are already busy enough with patient care. For me it was a great learning experience. I learned where we (myself included) were dropping the ball and needing to improve. Granted I didn't always find time in the course of a month to get one done. It could potentially be a good learning tool, if nothing else positive can be said. :doh: However, I fully agree that going back and fixing other people's shortfalls, ie charting is Bad and boarders on fraud. Please tell me you have not beeen asked to do this! This definitely needs to be addressed with the powers that be in your institution, i.e. chain of command. I say with caution: it should not hurt to speak up for yourself.

After 4 years in ICU I still dilute some meds for IVP, especially Ativan, which is incredibly hard to manage while in a oily, pasty state. 5ml doesn't make that great of a fluid volume issue with most adult patients. I could understand if it was to be given to a neonate, but not a 70kg patient. I often find it just as easy to push meds that don't really require dilution if I use a smaller barrel syringe, so that I can gauge the time/vol ratio. My present unit charges for each pre-made NS flush, so it is economical for the patient to push the meds undiluted if possible. You're probably not wrong for diluting the meds in most cases. Think safety! congrats on the new job, career.

This is hilarious! :cheers: I may just use it at home, at work, in my car.....where not only co-workers can walk off with things, but so do my kids and husband. But that's another story.

While we've strayed to the subject, anything the school recommends that you do, you need to do. Otherwise you tell them that your are not willing to do whatever it takes to get into the program. Last year I made a good GRE score, got an interview, but didn't get in. For the next year's application they suggested I take the GRE again to be a better candidate. You can bet that I'll be taking that aweful test again. Whatever they want me to do, I'll do! :monkeydance: The suggestions are made as a courtesy and you should take them seriously. Once again, just my opinion. Good luck with your application process!

I am currently working agency in ICU areas only, and making application to NA schools. At one interview I had last year, I got a little flustered (hopefully not noticeably so) because I had worked in more than one unit and the interviewer viewed it as being restless and not willing to make a commitment. Since then, I've been agency. I will push the adaptability, use of critical thinking skills, and vast learning experience of the travel nurse in my next interview. Having no teaching hospitals in my home area motivated me to travel, and now I have spent time in several large teaching-hospital units. I believe the variety and environment of this type of hospital are worthy of notice on application. Just my opinion, but I'm sticking to it.

I'm not sure how you studied, but the first time I took the GRE, I got the Princeton Review book, which had tips on how to take the test, how to look at and read the questions, and had practice forms for the writing portion. I got a decent score the first time, I know it is mostly credited to reading the how to take the test portion of the book. If you haven't focused on that portion, it may help. I could've done better if I had studied harder, so I'm trying again next month after studying word lists/definitions, which I know was my personal weakpoint. Gotta learn more of those hard words, not used in daily language, (at least where I am from.) Lots of luck to you!!

Thanks for the encouragement. You can bet that I'll keep on trying until someone lets me in. This is what I want to do with my life and I'll make sure the schools know I won't give up.:)

I worked as charge nurse in an ICU and was written up on several occasions 1) for asking the aide to help with a bath, 2) for asking the unit clerk if she would stock syringes, and 3) finally for asking a nurse to help transfer a new patient from the gurney to the bed. Mind you, I asked- did not demand that each of them do any of this. Later on I found out that the Clinical Coordinator, (our supervisor) had been asking people in our critical care areas over the past few months if I had done anything to upset them and encouraged them to write me up if I ever did, apparently looking for a reason to fire me. Eventually I had enough of it and let her have it, verbally, :angryfire although i would love to have given her a thump on the head. So I was fired. Good riddens to that job. I'm Native American and could easily have called this a racial matter. But why? Her being a &!+(# was more closely the reason for the incident. I just wasn't willing to put up with her crap. I know I'm a great nurse. She knows it, too. she also cannot put me through any more hardships. There are too many opportunities out there for great nurses. I'm much happier now.

I'm applying (again) to Newman University and Texas Wesleyan. I'll be sending apps by the end of this week, got the references and other things done. The deadlines aren't until December, but last year I had already interviewed at TWU by then. The best of luck to you.

No, in the end I didn't get in. Getting ready to apply again. Tex Wes makes it faily easy to do. :) I've got one more year of ICU experience and 100+ more CEU's. Maybe this will be my year.

Maybe I'm the only one, or the only one dumb enough to post, but I interviewed at 3 schools this past year after having applied to 4 and didn't get accepted to any of them. So I'm a second-time-arounder. After all the time, effort, and energy I put into applying last year it was very disheartening to not get in. All of my past supervisors, as well as many co-workers and physicians think I'm a great nurse and happily given me great references. I have decent grades and have done everything the schools requested of applicants. For me it came down to interviewing skills. I have a shy personality. Something I have to fight to overcome. Some would say not very out-going although I am focused and goal-oriented. Sound stupid? I'm working on re-applying to my top 2 choices for CRNA school. I've studied like crazy for the interview questions so the answers will flow. Anyone else working on re-apps?

In the days before ICD's and EP labs people got thumped all the time. There have been several cases of patients in my hometown that, from what older nurses have told me, would not have lived their last few years without a good thump from an ICU nurse. Those patients, however, did learn to bear-down and convert themselves after a while to avoid the inevitable thump. I've never done it and don't know that it would come to mind immediately. I's more of a shock 'em nurse, too.

I was still on orientation when we had a patient's heart stop. My preceptor asked the charge nurse to call a code and went to get the cart. I jumped upon this patient, who by the way was on a fluffy air overlay mattress, and started trying to do chest compressions. :uhoh21: The code team came in a couple of minutes later and started bagging the patient, deflated the bed, put pads on him, then started over. :trout: They said they could take over from here. No one ever said anything derogatory to me or even told me I what should've done instead. I knew there was something missing in the ACLS steps. Live and learn, I guess. The next time I was much better prepared to respond.

Sounds like almost everyone that posted has had very good luck. I applied to four schools, interviewed at three of them, didn't get accepted to any of them. This next year going to apply at four other schools, hopefully I will have better luck, with some work on my interviewing skills.

I too have had frustrations re: night baths. I think it's rampant at a lot of hospitals. I have gone to work sometimes and found out that a patient has not had a bath at all during this admission, and it's day 7 or 8. Often I know the nurse that had the patient the night before went out to smoke numerous times, played computer games or read a novel. :angryfire It really looks bad, especially with patients who are awake and alert. Just to let you know NurseEcho, you are not alone.

There are PA's that assist with surgeries, mostly assisting and finishing up with closing. Does anyone know if any advanced practice nurses do this? Would that be similar to what you are asking. Not nearly the same as a CRNA, who has complete autonomy, but being able to get in and do some cutting or sewing. Just wondering, never have worked in surgery.

:balloons: Congrats!!!:balloons: ...and best of luck to you.

Pretty good. Being the work-a-holic that I am, I'm going to work at Wesley's MICU for now and then apply for a part-time at the Neuro or Sugrical ICU at Via Christi in a month or so.

I am also a travel nurse and have been struggling with the same question. I work for two agencies, Aureus Medical and Resolve Staffing which are basically the same. They pay about the same, have approx the same benefits. They try to push me to go to where they want me to go, without regard to my wants. :uhoh21: Bad company (or recruiter). I've applied with INS because the recruiter is nice and not pushy. She started off with where do you want to go, what's important to you, and told if she thought I had a doubt about an assignment she wouldn't consider it. Doesn't work on commission like some do. So far I'm impressed. Are you planning on going on in school? Just a thought, but I was reading yesterday and found that AMN Healthcare is a partner with Drexel University, who offers discounts to those employees. Also they staff at the big hospitals: Mass General, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Vanderbilt... Drexel has an online NP program I am looking into. Find a company the pays well, recruiters are easy to talk to, care what you want, ask about completion bonuses, and which hospitals they staff , in case you had one in mind. I've found that many companies are connected to a corporation, so you could be working for someone like AMN Healthcare, even though you filled out papers and spoke to Nurses Rx or RN Demand. (Soliant is connected to Sunbelt Staffing corp, so offers many of the same assignments). Mostly I've been offered assignments at small to medium-sized hospitals through the companies I work for. That's usually where the greatest needs are. Met some really nice people in Po-dunk, America. Well that's the extent of my experience. A friend of mine works for AMN and loves them. Another feels the same about Aureus. It can vary person to person. Hope I've been a help. Good luck in your travels. millkay

Sometimes it's just a matter of consistently enforcing the rules you do have, with backing from administration. This is on-going in several places I've been. The problem is usually inconsistency of the nursing staff. When a nurse sees it important to enforce visiting hours, they get "talked to" by administration for upsetting a pushy & verbal family member. Nursing judgement should have some weight in this issue. Physicians, luckily not many, have tried to write orders that "the patient can have as many visitors, or overnight visitors if they choose." They too should understand that some critical care patients require a dimly-lit quiet atmosphere or just a quiet atmosphere to get some rest. You are doing great in looking into which scenarios visitors should be allowed, or dis-allowed, but you cannot predict every possible scenario. Again, nursing judgement, and tact, should be put into play. We're professional nurses and should be respected as such. Just one person's opinion....

Wow- in a word. What technology can't come up with. I have used a Bio-Z impedence cardiography for non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring so it's no suprise that they can derive so many parameters without use of a S-G, but this new USCOM does it one-up. Now USCOM uses only a doppler, gives much better readouts & weighs much less. Also it should be mentioned that the S-G cannot give thoracic cavity volume readings, which often are great with chronic CHF population. Thanks for the link to the site. I love learning about new technological advances, especially for the improvement of patient safety. And like many others of you, I like new toys. I do hope to see one in use somewhere soon!

I've encountered a couple of different kinds of bullies in the workplace. I can take the threatening kind. There's a legal recourse against them. I had a clinical coordinator (unit manager) that denied me raises or let me have only the barest minimal amount, while my co-workers got raises with leaps and bounds. She refused every request for vacation I submitted, often months in advance, then she would turn around and given the exact week to two other people. At every eval she told me I was a mediocre nurse. During this time I went back to school for BSN, got CCRN certified, becoming the only nurse in my unit with any certifications, and worked as charge nurse on this unit. Finally, I got upset and called her on her crap. I had requested to move to other departments of the hospital, and was blackballed by her at every step. At then end of every transfer interview, the manager would tell me I was the top candidate, but they needed to speak to my current manager before I could transfer- so I never got to move anywhere. I went to HR and they said there was nothing they could do, she was the boss. Finally I got into a big arguement with her, over her suddenly wanting me to work straight through Christmas, to cover shifts and I told her NO. So she had me fired for my bad attitude. I should've left long before that point. But a weight was lifted off my shoulders after years of stress. Still would like to give her a swift kick if I ever ran into her in public. Anyone else ever have to deal with this kind of stuff?