RUmedic

If you feel that nursing is what you really want to do, it would then make sense to go back in to hospital and start again as CNA, so that hospital would help cover nursing school tuition when you enroll. This way you would emerge as an RN and practically debt free. Having piles of educational loan debt at mid-age is not something I would want to bear. There's a surplus of nurses nationwide and finding employment is far from easy.

I would approach this from a different angle and speak with nurse recruiter before coming in for an interview. Often than not, department managers would have a set of certain requirements in mind well before they begin interviewing candidates. A nurse recruiter would be well informed about this and would tell you ahead of time if you'd be a good fit or not. That would save you time and frustration.

A while ago I had found myself in a similar situation with a job offer retraction. In my case the nurse recruiter did not even offer to send my info to other departments for consideration. She simply stated that the offer was rescinded and I'd be better off looking for an opportunity at another hospital. End of story. A paperwork, background check and physical were not even initiated and no reason for retraction was ever given. As others commented, even a signed job offer can be vacated by the facility unless there's a clause and contractual obligations expressly written. Accept it as a loss on their part and not yours. A better opportunity will present itself if you just keep looking. A uniform can be returned unless it was worn or had embroidery.

Have you decided between the units? I am curious because I was offered a trauma PCU position and it is a night shift as well.

It is not easy to find a hospital based employment in Central Florida either. Miami is likely worse. My advice would be to look out for opportunities at Regional community hospitals that are NOT corporate based. There are not too many, but they are out there. Corporations are scourge and they employ armies of recruiter grunts to turn applicants away. Once you trained your sights on a hospital, call their number and ask to speak with a nurse recruiter. Do not apply before you speak with the nurse recruiter, who can be a wealth of information and a great guide to steer you around some proverbial underwater rocks. After you spoke to a nurse recruiter, apply for 1-2 positions only! Do not apply to multiple ones as that would throw up a red flag to HR and they would make assumption you don't care which specialty it is you want to be in and turn you down before you even have your chance to sit down with a nurse manager. Good luck!

Congratulations on passing the boards and best of luck to you in finding a good residency position!

I have a neighbor who works as an IT Admin at Moffitt. He says it is a good place for oncology nurses, although I had a hard time even pushing my applications through their HR department. Being that they are a Magnet hospital, they only want the best of the best, i.e. BSN, Oncology certification, tons of experience, good credit, etc. I detested their application process and after a few attempts simply gave up on them. Your mileage might vary. If I were to choose between TGH and Moffitt, I'd go to Tampa General. Their pay and culture are better and they have less arrogance and such. There's a couple of positions that I saw which call for Infusion nurse w/Chemotherapy certification. That pays nicely. If you have chemotherapy cert, look into Florida Medical Clinic's listings. Lastly, whatever you earn in Va is going to be invariably more than what most Tampa hospitals pay. You trade dollars in for sunshine, humidity and no state income tax :) Good luck!

Are you still in AZ? If so their BON accepts transcript evaluations from ERES, which is a FAR better organization as opposed to CGFNS. ERES is in California and would get your transcripts evaluations done right and quickly for the board. I am not sure why they'd request 6 months for the refresher course but as far as shadowing is concerned, you can make an arrangement with an educator at a local hospital and they'll let you do it. You would observe but would not touch a patient. A refresher course in FLA is 90 days by comparison. I have done one since my graduation was in the 90-s. It may not be as bad as you project it to be. You are not too old to go back to nursing!

I hear you... It would then be my recommendation to look at Baycare and Tampa General Hospital. These two pay the most in the entire Tampa Bay area. Remarkably, neither one offers start bonuses. Both have great ED positions available (I assume you are an ER nurse). TGH is level I Trauma hospital and the only one level I trauma in Central FLA. Baycare is a great place to work at - I worked there.

I second that opinion about the Baycare being of of the best places to work at. If you are to apply at Baycare, I'd also recommend Morton Plant in Clearwater. It has a strong L&D and CV base. They do pay generously for certifications and CE. Stay away from Mease Countryside though - they have some management and organizational issues. I would not recommend Florida Hospital in North Pinellas (Tarpon Springs). It used to be called Hellen Ellis before it was bought by Adventist. It was plagued by problems upon problems and poor delivery of care. Not much changed after it was bought out. I did my clinical rotation at St. Joseph Hospital North and it is a part of Baycare. I would strongly recommend this hospital for all the reasons stated above.

That's a tough question, however the pay range is definitely going to be lower than everywhere else. Where you are going to compensate is start bonus. In Tampa we have Adventist Healthcare and HCA that offer large bonuses to very experienced nurse. The other day I saw an ICU position with $20,000 start bonus.

Although I don't work at ED, I would however recommend to start reading up on emergency medicine books such as "Tintinalli's emergency medicine guide". I own 6th edition and it is a heavy volume of about 1,000 pages. I think it is in its 7th edition now. This will be your "go-to" reference manual. It is very much a standard for ED physicians and nurses. Then, you might also benefit from numerous blogs and podcasts out there. There's one that readily comes to mind and is my favorite: EMCrit Blog - Emergency Department Critical Care & Resuscitation It is very rare that new graduate be allowed into ED internship without prior floor experience. Good luck with NCLEX and ED position!

Here is one: Require U.S. Congressmen and U.S. Senators as well as other Gov't workers to buy the same insurance plans as general populace, where as they would have to pay: * Deductibles * Co-pays * Co-insurance Take the free ride privilege away from them. That in itself will humble public servants and remind them that they are just that, not better and not worse than the rest of us. Take part of the money that they pay into the system and invest into medical research and health care grants for the needy and disadvantaged

Thank you all once again for replying to the post! Today I have received an offer from NLCEX Mastery which I'd like to share with others - 50% off. The link is below. It looks like it might work for a some time. Once again, I have no financial or otherwise interest associated with promotion of any NCLEX prep materials. I will say however that NCLEX Mastery helped me to pass. You be the judge: https://checkout.shopify.com/6933485/checkouts/56bf5937cacb591cffb204b74723904f?mc_cid=0f54839f76&mc_eid=0c85c1b844

You went for subclavian vein for a central cath placement? I mean this is a blind approach and is done with with good deal of experience. Are you CRNI and PICC trained? Kudos for keeping a cool head!

I am Tampa area and have been here for about 10 years. There's not much I can say about Orlando except that it's crowded and too touristy to my taste. In Tampa we have four major employers: Baycare, Adventist Health, HCA and Tampa General Hospital. It would be likely easier for you to get into Adventist Health (Florida Hospitals), which also has branch hospitals in Orlando. Other hospitals are more difficult to get into without sizable experience. Don't know much about pay difference but I suspect it'd be the same in either city, but overall lower than in most states due to no FL state or local income tax.

Sure thing, will PM the notes to you. Please tell your friend not to give up. I know the feeling..

Just saw a post someplace else on here about NY nurse moving to South Florida. I guess that is an indication of what this is like to be upstate. By contrast, I get lots of emails about jobs in AZ and WV that remain unfilled. It's an odd market. Then there's a nursingjobcafe.com that has lots of leads for all states.

Wow, I find it difficult to understand that experience and master's degree alone won't get you a job. If you were in Florida, you'd be hired on the spot! Where I am, which is Tampa Bay area, hospitals predominantly hire experienced RN's. We have a full assortment, ED, PCU, ICU, Cath Lab, Med/Surg, neuro, cardiac, ortho, etc. I am on the opposite side of the spectrum - little experience and newly licensed, and I can hardly get any interviews due to the limitation. Knowing someone inside did not help me to get hired so far. Lots of out of state nurses working down here. I am sure the wages are not as high as NY but there's no State or local tax either. So, if you are mobile, come on over!

You can't get a Green card without first obtaining a work visa, becoming investor or becoming sponsored by first line family member through marriage, i.e. spouse, parent. Employers don't have the ability to produce green cards without petitioning USICS through some sort of loop holes like L-type visa, a company's employee that is overseas and is moving here, or H-1 visa through labor department, which is hard, or some kind of religious worker, etc. This is so convoluted, you are just really going to confuse this girl in UK. Let's face it, no employer will do it unless there's a tremendous interest in a candidate such as academia, research, stuff like that. If you're it, there is chance. If not, it's tough, will take a lot of work, money, resources and no guarantees. Besides we have plenty of U.S. candidates that don't require sponsorship. I don't mean to sound harsh, but that's the reality.

Very simply: One cannot apply at Social Security Administration for SSN unless they possess a valid work visa, Green card, refugee visa, F-1 visa (education) or exchange program visa, etc. There are other types that are mostly related to diplomatic stuff. One CAN apply for ITIN if they anticipate to make more than $600 per year while in U.S. and plan on filing - Uncle Sam always wants his cut. Some organizations will take ITIN. FL BON may or may be one of them. FL BON will issue temporary 30-day permit to work in lieu of license only to fresh graduates who are U.S. citizens and alien residents. These graduates must pass NLCEX and get licensed if they want to continue working. This does not apply to non-immigrant visitors. It really boils down to flying to the states, taking the test and then leaving with a license (hopefully), while seeking and finding employer willing to sponsor H-1 visa.

I am in Tampa, Florida and there's absolutely and positively no shortage of nurses here. That being put aside, there are numerous opportunities for nurses that have over 1 year of bedside nursing experience in a specialty area. Your challenge will be mostly with finding employer who would be willing to sponsor your H-1 visa, which is long and very protracted process that may take 2-3 years as there are strict annual work visa quotas. You will find such employer faster if you gain some experience as a nurse specialist and obtain one internationally recognized certification. One such certification readily comes to mind - CRNI (certified registered nurse infusions). Once you have that marketability, you would then need to concern yourself with finding the right employer willing to sponsor you. Also, for the purpose of taking and passing NCLEX you might want to ask FL BON if they would be willing to accept ITIN (individual taxpayer identification number - issued by IRS) in lieu of SSN. You'll need your FL RN license before you apply for employment that requires work visa sponsorship, or else no one will talk to you. Lastly, Florida overall has fewer opportunities than other states that may be underserved. I just got an offer to interview for med/surg in West Virginia, where they pay for nurse to re-locate to that state. That is something to consider. There is another one I got asking if I'd be interested to move to Arizona, the whole package paid plus $62K per year to start. You got to go where there's need and it's not Florida :)

I find it difficult to get hired at the hospital. I am in West Florida, Tampa Bay area. Plenty of hospitals and one Level I Trauma center but I think we have a huge surplus. Why did you pick South FLA? Did you look at Orlando area? It has more opportunities.

I am in Tampa Bay area and I have no idea what Shands Hospitals is, let alone their uniform. Did you call UF Health to ask?

Hi Dorota, I know the feeling, but don't despair! Practice makes perfect and that being said, all you want to do is practice trainer questions. After I realize that Kaplan was no good (except for decision tree, Maslow and priority) and frankly a waste of extra money I did not have, I turned to Nclex Mastery. Alternating between resources was tempting but I decided to stay put with one and knock out all Nclex Mastery questions, taking the notes along the way. If I am in any position to make recommendation, it would be as such: Set everything aside except for one resource (Nclex Mastery or other - you take a pick); Do most of their questions, about 30-50 every day. At such rate, it will take you month and a half to do about 1300 - 1600 questions. Do not over-study! Take frequent breaks - I did play video games in between questions :) Review and come back to review those questions you answered incorrectly - it'll cement the knowledge. The 1-2 days before NCLEX do NOT study - you need time to unwind. This was a good advice by my clinical preceptor. I'll PM the link to the notes. Best of luck!