cjb19

Background: I graduated with a bachelors degree in Chemistry from SUNY Geneseo with 3.04. Just finishing up my 1st year of ADN with a 3.71. I currently work as a HUC on a neuroscience floor that also receives a lot of regular medicine patients. I know the value of working on a med-surg type of floor as a graduate nurse, and I can see how much I would learn, but I also see the poor staffing (sometimes to the point of it being unsafe), and high amount of stress and turn over that goes on on our floor as well as any other med-surg floor in the hospital. After my first semester of nursing school, I was pretty set on wanting to go on and get my masters as a CNS. I love the role they play, but have also been told how they are the first to get laid off and pay is not that much better. I've been encouraged by lots of seasoned nurses and instructors that going the CRNA route would be best for me and my background. I'm a 23 year old female, unmarried/single and I don't want to have kids until my late 20s. I've enjoyed caring for my patients on the med-surg floors I've had clinical on, but I don't like the idea of having 4-6, sometimes 7 if staffing is bad. We don't get to do a critical care rotation but I'm trying to see if they will do a special elective as they have in the past. Anyways my question is do you think it's ok for a graduate nurse to go straight into an ICU to get that experience before applying to CRNA school? The hospital I work at takes new grads. Part of me just feels like I should get a year of med-surg, but some people have said it doesn't matter and I should just go for it. Also, my GPA is weak from undergrad, I realize. I got a C+ in biochem, B's in orgo, B's in physical chemistry, a C is analytical chem....my program was brutal, and my school is known for chem and physics majors having the lowest GPA's (oh C's in physics as well...I HATED PHYSICS). I still feel very comfortable with math, and its one of my strengths (minus like differential equations). Also, I know I wouldn't like the NP role...I don't like the idea of charting all day long or working in a family practice.

I GOT HIRED!!!!! I put in an application first week of Feb, got a call for an interview that Friday, set up the interview the following Thursday, and heard back the following Tuesday offering me the job. Same hospital I interviewed at, different HR rep, different position. I will be the health unit coordinator saturday and sundays for the neuroscience/neurosurgery floor of our hospital that recently transitioned to that from being just med-surg. I'm part time 16 hrs a week, but I will be able to pick up more shifts and float to other floors! Super excited. Good things come to those who wait I guess! And who knows, this may very well have been a better fit for me than nursing assistant on labor and delivery anyways. I start march 9th :) Thank you everyone for your encouragment.

Update: Things are looking up! Had another interview today, same company, different position (unit health coordinator on weekends on a neuroscience floor). I actually think I will prefer this to being a nursing assistant, since I can get a different view of the hospital and get to know a ton of people as well as many of the providers. I think I would like working on this floor after I graduate nursing school as well at least for the first year. The nurse manager said she thought I would be a great fit and sounded like I had the skills needed for the job due to my previous office and customer service experience. I asked her if she thought it would be a good experience as a nursing student and she actually thought it would be better than being a nursing assistant since you get more exposure to how the hospital works as a team, especially since I get the patient care experience as a student on clinicals. It's 16 hours a week, pay differential for weekends and she said I would be able to pick up shifts/float to other floors as a HUC. I also had to take a medical terminology test that I was SUPER nervous for, but it was incredibly easy, 20 questions took me all of 3-5 minutes after looking over it once and I got a 100. She has to interview a few more students, but I received the email to fill out a form for 4 professional references to fill a survey out. Fingers crossed!

I simply put in an application and they emailed me asking when I was available for a phone interview. I applied in November I believe and so it took about 2 months for them to respond. Still haven't gotten anything else about sending in professional references so I believe they chose not to continue with me. Its pretty frustrating.

I interviewed over the phone today, and it went really well I think. I'll have to answer a questionnaire/essay and submit two reference letters from my instructors via email to them and then they will decide whether or not to bring me in to a formal interview. I asked which hospitals they were contracted with in my area (she wasn't sure, there are 3 in my area and she said several so I'm assuming all of them). She also explained that the plan would be to train us full time over the summer as hemodialysis PCT's to work in the acute/hospital setting. And then during our final year of school we would work part time or per diem. And after that, we would be offered a job and a 5k sign on bonus within 30 days of work. My question is...is there any sort of contract that you must sign? I definitely want to work in the acute care setting, possibly critical care eventually, but I'm not positive about dialysis, especially since I want to work FOR a hospital. I would not mind at all working for them for a year or two, but what would it be like transitioning from that to med-surg or ICU?

Well, from speaking to a friend of my mom's that works in the ICU at the hospital I interviewed at/go to school at she told me that it is the most popular floor with a lot of politics and the job was probably given to an internal applicant or student of a higher level. I have in an application for the float pool nursing assistant that has been at the same status since December when I put it in (the one I interviewed for was applied for in November LOL). She told me to call and ask to speak to the hiring manager for that position. I also just put in an application for peri-operative aide (has no requirements besides HS education and BLS cert) and a nursing assistant in their recovery care center which is the floor for same day admit surgeries. They were both posted literally today, so hopefully I am one of the first names that pops up! If I call about the float pool position, do you all think it is ok to say something along the lines of "Hi, this is so and so and I put in my application Dec 19 for the nursing assistant float pool position. I was wondering if my application had been reviewed yet and wanted to let you know I'm extremely interested in working at *insert hospital name*. I am a second semester nursing student at ____." I know HR departments have quite a slow turn-around on applications, AEB my interview for an application put in November this past Friday lol... I also applied to a HHA position in the meantime that said they would train (I don't see that working out due to my school schedule but who knows). I just really want to work at a hospital. Being in clinical is awesome and I had a great time this week, but I still have paranoia that I'll never get hired. I know the best thing is to just keep trucking, studying hard and applying to any jobs that pop up. I feel like hiring managers get annoyed by phone calls though, but how else do I make it known that hey, I will literally do anything to work for your hospital and will work there after I graduate. I mean, I'd think the fact that I've put in over 10 applications in the past 5 months would say something but...

Thank you for your kind words :) I realize this is 99% the reason barring some random thing they didn't like. Hopefully this will lead them to considering me for a different floor or the float pool.

I got a call about a month and a half after the job I applied to was posted for a nursing assistant on labor and delivery. I just started my second semester of nursing school and due to work had to schedule my interview 12 days out from when I got the call. Everyone around me got my hopes up and said there was no way I wouldn't get it, and my friend at school had just gotten hired on a different floor as well. Its at the same hospital that is connected to the school and I know 2 people that are RN's that are recent graduates and worked as CNA's in their float pool as well. All of my instructors liked me, got great reviews from the clinical instructor, and did well in class (which I know doesn't mean much...). But my patients liked me and all of the nurses I worked with got along with me in clinical. Interview I thought went well, the HR person wasn't insanely friendly or cheery but I nearly aced the competency exam in which we needed a 75% (got 1 wrong). I answered her questions to the best of my ability, and although I have no patient care experience outside of clinical I was humble and explained how much customer service experience I had and how much I enjoyed my clinical and working with patients and that I felt like I had the time management skills and compassion necessary for working as a CNA. I also mentioned my interest in labor and delivery, or women's health in general. She explained what I would be doing (which was kind of different from what the nurse manager and clin. supervisor I met with told me) and let me know if they decided to move forward with me I would receive an email to fill out my professional references and they would complete a background check. She then took me down to the labor and delivery floor and left me with the clinical supervisor who explained to me what I would be doing, how it was atypical of most of the nursing assistant jobs on med-surg floors, and that I would kind of be doing whatever was needed by the nurses and nurse manager, anywhere from paperwork, answering phones, cleaning up after delivery, baby baths, cleaning equipment, setting up the labor rooms, and transporting women to post-partum. She asked me about what I did prior to going, why I wanted to be a nurse, etc and I felt like I answered them as professionally as possible. Met the nurse manager, she told me how it was per diem and depending on how many patients they had at a time I might receive more or less shifts etc but it was really flexible. I can't remember everything I said but I definitely said I was extremely flexible, and although around 20-25 hours would be ideal, I would be willing to work more or less hours. They also asked me about my interest in getting hired on the floor after I graduated, and I let them know that it was something I was extremely interested in but I was still trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do and had interest in the ICU/PACU but I knew what a special and awesome experience it would be since it was a hospital that dealt with over 4000 births a year and many of the high-risk moms in the surrounding 12 counties so they saw a lot of different situations and even had 3 of their own OR rooms. Basically I'm SO worried I said or did something wrong and it sounded like the PERFECT job. I had the interview Friday am at 830 and was emailed at around 430pm with the generic "We enjoyed discussing your career goals, work history and other achievements. We were impressed with your fine record of accomplishment. Although you were an excellent candidate and it was a very difficult decision to make, we regret that we are not able to offer you the position at this time." I'm HOPING this just means they had already made their decision and had to interview me out of formality but the nurse manager/clinical supervisor was insanely nice and excited and gave a tour of the unit and everything :/. I want to get hired at this hospital SO badly and I have another application in for per-diem float pool but I'm afraid that this one rejection means I have no hope for anything else. What if thats the case and I can't get hired as an RN at the hospital I go to school at???? Bawled my eyes out Friday night and now I'm tearing up again I feel so hurt.

You have to take the TEAS before the application deadline. You should get an email about where to sign up, but I signed up on the ATI website and you just look for the dates/times available for Crouse. I took it about 3 weeks before my deadline which was March 1st and got an 82 overall, and did very well on the math and science section, pretty horrid for myself on the english section. So I got "advanced" where as satisfactory is the minimum/passing and exemplary is above advanced. I got my acceptance letter April 1st, so its usually around 1 month after the deadline. Make SURE you get in all your paperwork prior to the deadline especially any transcripts, as well as any AP scores. I'm not sure how hard it was to get accepted, but I was very nervous I would have to try again because the 3 people I know that are in the program/recently graduated had to reapply. I go to SUNY Geneseo and will graduate in a few weeks, and my GPA is a 3.07, however I am a Chemistry major and that has the worst average GPA for all colleges in the US. The only classes I got C's in were physical chemistry and biochemistry and some silly humanities class. I've taken regular bio/labs, every chemistry class you can think of, A&P 1, Nutrition, Ethics, Sociology, Psychology, anthropology etc. I still have to take Microbio/A&P 2 and lifespan development at some point during nursing school or hopefully this summer. All the other nursing "prereqs" I've taken I've gotten A's and B's in. So overall, its pretty surprising I got in with such a low GPA. However, my TEAS score was good, all bio/gen eds and basic chemistry grades were good, and I did very well in high school. I didn't have any previous healthcare experience. So "prereq" grades Gen Chem: B+/A- Bio: B/B+ Psych: A- Sociology: A- Anthro: A Can't say how the overall program is, but my friends love it. Get a TEAS review book, and if you can't buy one look for stuff online/in your local library or ask them to order it for you from another library. Study each section thoroughly, do practice questions, take a practice test, evaluate what sections were the worst for you, and study those sections more. It goes Reading, Math, Science, English. The math is high school level or lower (NO calc) basic addition, subtraction, mult and division of large numbers, decimals, fractions...and some word problem type stuff. Science, some was obvious stuff but other stuff very specific and unless you were in a class recently that had the material its hard to get right. Reading was all about comprehension but its a little obscure what they want sometimes so make sure you study the material they have in the ATI TEAS study guide. Same thing with English, all grammar (which I suck at). Some poeple will be good in some sections but bad in others. I think your overall matters the most, though I'm sure they like to see you can handle science and math material really well. Good luck!!!!!