TraumaRN1983

I just started the CRNA program at Westminster and there is a married couple in my class. We are just in the didactic portion right now so we are all taking classes together, but when we rotate to clinical sites next year they may not be able to go to the same sites at the same time. In fact, many sites only have 1 student at a time, so it would be impossible for them to have all their clinical sites together. However, at least they get to go to the same school and have a lot of things together, so it could be worse.

I work in an SICU. For our cardiothoracic patients there are 3 acute care NP's who round with the CT surgeons in the morning, answer questions regarding floor patients and ICU patients. 2 of the NP's just work nights and there are often the first ones we turn to when our CT patients aren't doing well. They were both ICU nurses for many years before becoming NP's and they are usually very good. Some of the other surgery services including our Trauma service also uses acute care NP's to hel round on patients, write notes, go to traumas down in the ED, help discharge patients, help with clinic appointments.

I am currently working in an SICU at a level one Trauma Center, where we also have an MICU that I have floated to a couple times. Brett already pointed out a lot of differences, which I would agree with. In my SICU we see a lot of cardiothoracic patients so we get a lot of pt's with swans and on multiple vasopressors, which I don't think the MICU sees quite as many of. The MICU patients tend to be more chronic. At my hospital you cannot get a job in any of our ICU's as a new grad. We have a great ICU internship program, which I think turns out some pretty great nurses. I myself started this job with just over 2 years of intermediate care experience and it was still pretty hard to adjust to the ICU setting. If you have any ICU internships in your area, I would highly advise them. Without that extra experience I think it would be very hard to start out in the ICU, especially SICU, as a brand new grad.

I currently attend Westminster and I have one classmate out of 18 who has only PICU experience. In my interview they said they preferred adult, but like nike0777 said, you'll be way ahead when it comes to pediatric rotations! Having only PICU experience makes it harder to get in, but if you have great grades, GRE, etc. you should hopefully get in somewhere.

I would take the SICU position. First of all, SICU is usually considered the best kind of ICU experience for many CRNA programs. Also, an SICU at a large teaching hospital is one of the best kinds of experience. I know this because I worked in an SICU at a university hospital for about a year and a half before applying to CRNA school and was offered a spot at the end of my interview at the only program I applied to. SICU is so great because (if the SICU you are considering is anything like mine) you get to take care of lots of cardiac surgery patients who are on multiple vasoactive drips, plus you get to take care of super sick general surgery patients and trauma patients. As my manager told me when I interview years back, it's like the Disneyworld of ICU's! Anyway that's just my two cents! Good luck with your decision.

I have worked at OHSU for almost a year and a half now and during that time my fiance and I have lived in Marquam Village, which is an apartment complex about a 5-minute walk from OHSU. It's not the best-looking apartment complex but is it very convenient to work, almost always quiet, and we have a great manager. I am pretty sure they have apartments available right now. Hope this helps.

I work at OHSU and I agree that it is fairly difficult to get into our ED department as a new grad. There is an ED internship program here but it is pretty competitive. You can inquire about the internship program well in advance of graduation and find out what you need to do to apply. If that doesn't work out, I would recommend starting on a floor like mine, which is Trauma/Emergency General Surgery. It is an intermediate care unit, we usually have 3 patients and we are one of the only acute care floors that take vented patients. It is a great starting point if you want to to ER, as many employees from my unit have gone on to either do ER or ICU. In fact, one of my co-workers got the ER internship after she had been working on my floor for a little over a year. I also think that Legacy Emmanuel has a unit very similar to ours called the TRACU, you could look into that as well. I can tell you that I started at OHSU last year as a new grad and I have loved working here. The experience you get at a Level 1 Trauma academic hospital is incredible, you see everything here. I would highly recommend it. Hope this helps!

I have been living in Portland since Jan. 2007 and I work at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) up on the hill. If you are looking to work for a very large, academic hospital, OHSU is great. We get some of the sickest most interesting patients and I personally find that fascinating. There are a lot of job opportunities here. We have some great ICU's including a Trauma ICU, Neuro ICU, Cardiac-Surgical ICU, etc. I have heard some great things about our Cardiac-Surgical ICU (8CSI). Pay rates are good here and there is a $6.00 per hour shift differential for night shift. As far as negative things about OHSU, parking here is an absolute nightmare if you can even find a spot you usually pay about $10 each day that you park up here. I would highly encourage using public transportation or biking and living as close as possible. Also, we get an awful lot of patients of low socio-economic status with no insurance, and we get train wrecks that other hospitals don't want to deal with. Overall though, I have loved working at OHSU and we do hire a lot of travelers, especially in the summer. Hope this helps!

I graduated in December 2006 and started my first job on a very fast-paced intermediate care Trauma/Emergency General Surgery floor in January of 2007. I had two different preceptors, neither of which were good matches for me and left me feeling incompetent and afraid to ask questions. There was a time, probably exactly around 1 year ago, when I was really struggling and considering quitting my job. Just one year later, I cannot imagine leaving this job. I just started precepting a new grad 3 weeks ago, after I am done precepting my manager wants me to do start doing charge, and I absolutely love most of the people I work with. Last year, if someone had told me I would be doing all this and actually having fun at my job, I would never have believed it. The difference that even 6 months and then 1 year at the same job makes is amazing. Please don't give up just yet, give yourself a little more time before you make any decisions about leaving your current job. Starting in the ICU as a new grad is a huge learning curve but I have personally known many new grads who have done it and loved it. You can get through it!

I had a 16 year old male patient who had just had a hemicolectomy. My unit secretary tells me that my patient just called and asked to have his "surgical socks" taken off. As I am walking toward my patient's room I realize that he is probably talking about his SCD's. So I go into the room and ask my patient "Did you want help taking off your SCD's?" He gets this terrified look on his face (oh by the way, his mom is also in the room) and says "What are you talking about? I don't have any STD's!" I explain to him that I was talking about his sequential compression devices aka SCD's, to which he replies "Oh yeah, I wanted those taken off." I managed to keep a straight face in the room but practically fell on the floor laughing once I got out into the hallway! So funny!

I live in Portland, Oregon and as a BSN I started at 27.09 (I believe the starting rate for ADN's is 25.09). I work at a large teaching hospital and the evening shift differential is $2 and the night shift differential is $6. We also have what we call CNI (critical need incentive) shifts and on the unit I work in we have been having them quite frequently. During these shifts we get paid our base pay plus $10 more per hour.

I live in Portland, Oregon and as a BSN I started at 27.09 (I believe the starting rate for ADN's is 25.09). I work at a large teaching hospital and the evening shift differential is $2 and the night shift differential is $6. We also have what we call CNI (critical need incentive) shifts and on the unit I work in we have been having them quite frequently. During these shifts we get paid our base pay plus $10 more per hour.

This email is for all nurses within their 1st year of practice.. I am writing a paper for my nursing issues class (I graduate in May) and I need your prospective.. Please give me your honest opinion! 1. Why did you enter the nursing profession? Once I took Anatomy and Physiology my second year of college, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare. My college had a great nursing program and I wanted to be able to understand and administer medications, have a good understanding of pathophysiology and be at the bedside caring for patients. 2. What do you like about being a nurse? I love seeing patients recover, especially when I take care of them when they first come to the floor and then I take care of them at the end of their stay and see how far they have come in their recovery. 3. What do you not like about being a nurse? It seems as though we are short-staffed far too often and when that happens we end up taking more patients than we can (I believe) safely handle. I feel that patient care is compromised when nurses end up taking too many patients. 4. Do you think you get paid what you deserve? I think the pay is pretty good, could maybe be a little better, but overtime pay and weekend pay are very good in the state I live in because of our union. 5. Do you think that nurses are respected by the doctors you work with? For the most part yes. I work at a teaching hospital where most of our interactions are with residents and interns and they often ask us for advice when they write orders! 6. What do you wish you would have learned in school to help you in the real world? That nursing is a demanding job and you have to truly love what you do or you won't make it. 7. What is the worst situation you have ever been in? I had a patient who was 650 pounds with a trach and was helping her get to her bedside commode. Before I could react, she had turned around really fast and fell down right onto the bedside commode, hitting her trach on the way down. I had to hit the staff emeergency button and it took 5 nurses plus our lift team to get her o2 sats up and get her back into bed, it was a nightmare. 8. What is the most rewarding thing about being a nurse? 9. Do you think new-grads should start in the ER? Only if they participate in a really great orientation program where they are on orientation for several months, otherwise I think you should have a couple years of acute care experience before you consider a job as demanding and stressful as ER. 10. Are you thinking about leaving nursing? No, I have only been working for a little over 2 months and have definetly had some pretty rough shifts, but I learn a lot every day and have had some very memorable patients. Please also include your sex, age, what department you work in, and your type of degree (ASN or BSN)? I am a 23-year old female and I work in a Trauma/Emergency General Surgery unit. I have my BSN.

I work in a Trauma/Emergency General Surgery unit and on day shift we usually only have 3 patients. Sometimes we become short-staffed at 1500 when 8-hour day shifters leave and we often have to pick up one additional patient. On nights, our nurses are more likely to have 4 patients. I can't imagine having 8-9 patients at a time, sometimes 3 patients on our floor gets overwhelming, I am amazed at those of you who can handle so many patients!

I just graduated in December and I am currently on my 6th week of orientation and I still feel like I am missing "the big picture." I too feel so focused on tasks that I often miss important things and it scares me. I think that being a new grad is incredibly hard and there is such a focus on time management and organization that is easy to get good at those things and forget about the entire clinical picture. What I believe though, is that those skills will come with time. Since you are only your 2nd week I wouldn't worry about it too much, you really do sound like you are doing well! Good luck!