RN_true12

Why isn’t your school providing preceptors for you? Local CSUs in the Bay Area charge a fraction of what Samuel Merritt charges in tuition and provide their students placement. Let your school know you pay tuition for a reason.

I work at Stanford and will hit my four year mark in about 3.5 months. I get paid $80.14 per hour day shift. Night shift differential is 18%. I will be getting a $3 raise + an extra 1% by next May. Our contract was just negotiated with out union in May. We do 12 hour shifts so no PM shift differential. Only the 18% for nights. Hope I helped!

Definitely secure a job here before you move. And before that, endorse your out-of-state license - CA is notoroious for talking several months to endorse applicatns licences from another state. The coastal areas of CA as well as at and near Sacramento have a tough job market even for BSN grads and for those that live in the area. I would suggest you look into Central CA (Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton) and inland desert areas (Palm Springs) if you really want a chance at working in CA. These arent the most desirable areas to live in long-term, but they will give you a good chance of landing a job. In your case, the easiest thing to do would be to get a years expeirence in acture care where you currently are and apply to the desirable areas of CA (Bay Area, Southern CA), but even for those areas a BSN is highly recommended (but still not required). Ideally, do not move to CA with the hopes of landing a job after you get here. Source: Myself (I graduated with a BSN in the Bay area in Dec 2014 and started a new grad program a few months later at a major teaching hospital in the Bay Area. I'm still working there)

You're right. There's a reason Sacramento is cheaper; it's not a desirable area to live in, I've been there many times. You get what you pay for in terms of housing/environment :)

You're right. There's a reason Sacramento is cheaper; it's not a desirable area to live in, I've been there many times. You get what you pay for in terms of housing/environment :)

I make $63/HR on day shift as a full time RN. I started at the hospital/unit almost a year ago as a new grad. Night shift differential is 18% more. With your experience you'll start of at $70 an hour at least at my hospital and in the surrounding areas. I'm at a major teaching hospital in the peninsula/South Bay Area

I'm hoping I get a call too! I only applied for the adult positions (no peds). Has anyone heard back from the adult units? My status still says "applied" I'm wondering if the online status is even updated to reflect any changes.

Yayyy! Congratss pizza 24! The same thing happened to me when I got a call on Tuesday. She didn't reach me at first, but left me a voicemail. It was so early in the morning (around 7:30ish, and I was asleep), but I callled her back when I woke up a couple hours later and she didn't answer. I called like 3X and left a message. But she called me back the next day The interview dates are July 21, 22, and 23rd.

xx_remix, BSN Mine said "in review" since the day I submitted the app. But the date changed to 6/15 then I got a call. I don't think mine ever said "in process." I didn't check too often, maybe like 3x a week.

I just got a call this morning! I was told the interviews start in July 22nd. The lady called me at 8am, and I was asleep so she left a voicemail, and called back 2x after that. I'm still trying to reach her. But my status date changed yesterday. It was in review with a date of 5/18, and changed to 6/15 yesterday

I haven't heard anything back either. My application online still says in review. I'm interested in ICU, step-down, and med-surg. :)

Hi everyone! I am a very new grad and just passed my nclex a few weeks ago! WooHoo!!! I just got called for an interview in a week in my dream hospital! It is a Level I Trauma, teaching hospital. The interview will be for a short stay/observation unit, although that is not the unit I applied for. The manager had told me they are not going to be hiring new grads for the unit I applied but called me to see if I was interested in this unit instead. And of course, I said yes! She didn't tell me much else and told me to just come to a quick interview. This major hospital tends to really like graduates from the school I graduated from and usually hires from our school. What kind of questions can I prepare for? I have already prepared for behavioral types of questions (tell me about yourself, how do you handle conflict, etc), but I want to know what is typical to be asked for a new grad interviewing in this unit. I know short stay/observation units (from what Ive read on all nurses, and google, have a lot of r/o MI, patients after cardiac procedures, and patients straight from ED that need to be observed for less than 24 hours to decide if they should be admitted or not). I have heard it is a hectic unit, with a lot of critical patients because of the fact that it is a huge hospital and its a county hospital. Can you please help me figure out how I should prepare and what questions I should prepare for? Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone! I am a very new grad and just passed my nclex a few weeks ago! WooHoo!!! I just got called for an interview in a week in my dream hospital! It is a Level I Trauma, teaching hospital. The interview will be for a short stay/observation unit, although that is not the unit I applied for. The manager had told me they are not going to be hiring new grads for the unit I applied but called me to see if I was interested in this unit instead. And of course, I said yes! She didn't tell me much else and told me to just come to a quick interview. This major hospital tends to really like graduates from the school I graduated from and usually hires from our school. What kind of questions can I prepare for? I have already prepared for behavioral types of questions (tell me about yourself, how do you handle conflict, etc), but I want to know what is typical to be asked for a new grad interviewing in this unit. I know short stay/observation units (from what Ive read on all nurses, and google, have a lot of r/o MI, patients after cardiac procedures, and patients straight from ED that need to be observed for less than 24 hours to decide if they should be admitted or not). I have heard it is a hectic unit, with a lot of critical patients because of the fact that it is a huge hospital and its a county hospital. Can you please help me figure out how I should prepare and what questions I should prepare for? Thank you in advance!

I was totally like that too in the beginning! Taking notes just takes way too long! I stopped taking notes and began to focus on just reviewing the rationales after every quiz (both right and wrong). If there was a super important topic I had to write down, I would in a notebook, but not for every question. Trust me, you don't have to write it to really remember it. It'll stick in your head. I did Kaplan for 3 weeks. I just did the trainers and qbank, as well as the session videos where the lady goes over the questions (except for session 8, which was just going over the readiness exam so I didn't think I had to listen to her since i reviewed the rationales on my own). Honestly 3 weeks was more than enough. A couple of days before my exam, I had already finished all of Kaplan by that point, I just read the 35 pg guide with great facts and mnemonics that I found on all nurses, as well as the nclex cram sheet. These two documents were great and just had good facts to know before the exam (most of them being from Kaplan). I did this for two days before my exam. Then the day before I didn't study anything (only a tad bit of lab values from the cram sheet I had already reviewed but just wanted to refresh again). I made sure that the day before I wasn't trying to learn any new info as I knew that would freak me out and make me even more nervous than I already was. Also, two days before I visited the Pearson testing center, walked into the building and talked to the receptionist at the front desk. She was so sweet and told me to bring snacks and water, and answered any questions I had. I felt that this put me at ease so much as I already knew what the place looked like and I wasn't going to be lost or surprised the day of my exam. On the day of my nclex (my exam was at 10:45) I reviewed the cram sheet one last time in my car in the parking lot. A lot of people say don't review anything the day of or even a day before your exam and I was just really temped haha. Just don't review or look over any new info! I tried my best to calm myself down before my exam, I took a few deep breaths, said a prayer and just told myself I will try my best (that's all you could ever do). My test shut off at 75 and I just sat there in shock. I didn't really know what to think. I'm not sure how I even got home because I don't remember what happened after that LOL. Two days later I found out I passed via the CA BRN website. Best feeling ever.

I think you are going to be fine. However, make sure to do at least 90% of the question bank before your exam. I believe that helped me out so much! My question trainer scores were not that great...I scored mainly in the 50s, some 60s. My readiness was 52% THen, I got serious and started doing the question bank, really understanding the rationales for each question (right or wrong), and began to google topics I consistently got wrong, or used Saunders. I did not read a lot of Saunders. Maybe like 25% (or even less), just on areas I kept getting wrong over and over on Kaplan. My scores began to improve dramatically on the question bank. I was consistently scoring over 65+, and I got a few in the 70s and EVEN 80s! I was like WHAAAATTT! haha I made sure to do as much question bank questions after I finished the trainers and also the 35pg study guide I found on all nurses, plus the nuclex cram sheet I found on google. I did those about 2-3 days before my exam. The day before, I just briefly went over the cram sheet again, but did not do any studying or read any new material or any questions for that matter. The day of my exam, I ate a good breakfast, took some snacks with me to the test center (that I actually never got to eating). I passed in 75q! I thought the exam was SOOO similar to Kaplan, even a bit easier. I told myself after the first 100 questions I would go eat my snack and go use the restroom, but I never got to that point. Best of luck to you on your exam! Remember to take each question one at a time! Don't read too much into it, and after you select your answer, go back, read the question and your answer choice again and make sure it makes sense. Sometimes, after reading the numerous choices over and over, it's easy to lose the topic of the question. This approach helped me out tremendously. Don't over-think and ask "what if." Do NOT change your answer what-so-ever unless you are 110% sure you misread the first time around. Your first answer is usually the right one! Good luck dear