NICUnLDRN

@riverotter Thank you so much for the info. There are soo many locations to choose from. I'm currently more Upstate NY but I don't mind relocating if needed. Any suggestions on which facilities to choose? I was thinking maybe Attica, Wende, Livingston, green haven, or Sing Sing, or even great meadow but I'm not sure which one out off all of the locations would be best. I don't have an ER background so I'm really big on trying to see lots of different things and responding to emergencies if possible to gain experience. Again with over several different facilities I don't even have a clue on which one's to choose. So I's open to any and all suggested locations. I also saw that due to high demand that a civil service exam is Not needed when looking through the app process?

@riverotter Hi, I'm a nurse with about 1.5 experience and I want to get into correctional nursing. I'm also in NY and any advice or recommendations on which facilities to work at is welcomed. I want something fast paced where I were see everything. Someone told me maybe jail might be better suited oppose to prison? Any recommendations/advice is welcomed.

Hi, I graduated nursing school back in Oct 21 and was working in a level 4 NICU. I thought it was what I wanted to do but I also loved my L&D clinical and fell in love with it. With that being said after 11 months of NICU I left that hospital and landed a job in L&D and I like it so far but just like the NICU I'm not in LOVE with it. Now I'm getting that itch to figure out which area of nursing I love. Lately I've been thinking about the ED or OR nursing. I'm only about a month into my L&D training but did about 4 months of postpartum nursing but did not love that either. I do like some of the patient interaction I have and love seeing babies born but I don't really like the emotional/supportive side of the job, just more so the tasks that needs to be done. With this understanding I was wondering if maybe OR or PACU nursing might be more my style. I still have to communicate with patients but don't need to be there supporting them through labor. I like the idea of minimal convo's with the patients. I also was thinking ED because it's fast paced and I will see and learn a lot but I don't want to get burnt out because I hear horror stories about the ED at my hospital. Any suggestions?

Hi, I've always wanted to become a L&D nurse. I started off as a level 4 NICU nurse and did that for 10 months before landing a job at a different hospital in L&D. I started of on postpartum and from the very beginning the manager and nurse educator kept telling me that they have concerns and don't think L&D would be a good fit for me. The training was for 8 weeks and I requested an extra week and they gave me 10 weeks of training in postpartum. They expected more from me because I had prior experience in nursing and thought that I should have grasped on to things quicker. I felt differently because as a NICU nurse I had 1-3 patients max. If they were not sick babies I had 2 or 3. If they were sick I sometimes only had 1 patient and maybe 2 max. Everything had more of a set schedule whereas with postpartum you had up to 8-10 patients or 4-5 couplets to take care of. Not to mention that sometimes you would get GYN and medical patients since the floor opened up due to Covid. That was a transition and they would have sit downs with me and say that if I can't get the hang of things now then L&D would not be a good job for me in which I told them I did not agree. Fast forward I finished my postpartum training and did that for about 2 months on my own and they finally started my L&D training. I was told it took so long because they wanted 2 other new grads to finish their postpartum trainings then we would all go over together. I'm currently on my 4th week of orientation in L&D and once again they sat me down and said they are concerned and I should be further along by now and that they feel as if I might lack basic nursing skills per my preceptor. There was this occasion in which I found out my close relative was dying minutes before and I was trying to hang an antibiotic for a patient and my mind went blank and I asked my preceptor for help. They felt like I should know how to hang fluids. However, on postpartum and in the NICU I've hung several fluids and antibiotics.... So I know how to do it. (Also I'm a quiet persona and don't like people in my business so I did not tell anyone about my close relative) Another example was when my preceptor grabbed meds and handed me the bottle and told me to do the math off the top of my head in front of everyone at the nurses station. I got nervous and couldn't think so it was like this battle of her telling me to think and do the math and I couldn't under pressure like that. Eventually I calmed myself down and did it but it was completely embarrassing. In all that was another strike against me and to be fair I 1,000 percent understand that I need to know these things and the calculation on these meds as well. (Also my preceptor is nice...she is just very particular and expects a lot which is fair). Mind you throughout my 4 weeks, the first week my main preceptor was out so I was stuck with someone who was nice but didn't explain anything to me and would randomly get up and leave without saying anything so I didn't learn nothing. Second week it was literally dead on the floor and didn't see much of anything in my assignments. I literally sat for 12 hours straight and did trainings because it was no labors and no one in triage. This was also the week where I had those mishaps with my preceptor. My 3rd week that close relative died and I missed like 4 days due to bereavement. Here we are week 4 and I feel like I have learned nothing, but I'm expected to be further along. They get that I had a week off due to a death but feel like its still 3 other weeks that I should have skills to show off for. I feel like they are not looking at the prior 3 weeks in which I learned nothing basically. Not sure what to do. Orientation is only 12 weeks long and I feel so lost and discouraged. They are actively telling me they have BIG concern's and they hope I can prove them wrong but I feel so defeated. I asked my preceptor what I can improve on and she said being more hands on and explaining things to patients and not needing to be told to do something which again is fair. However, how can I explain a procedure I know nothing about. How can I do an intervention if I'm not 100 percent sure on what the strip is reading. I've taken fetal monitoring class but am I expected to know every little thing. I've had two people tell me different things about a single tracing which doesn't help. I need words of encouragement because I feel like just giving up at this point. To constantly here how they have concerns and that I'm lacking basic skills and should maybe look into another field is devasting.

Update: I already found a different job within this same specialty at a different hospital. . I talked with other people and apparently this department is known to do this for people who look a certain way. I dogged a bullet.

Hi, I was just wondering if you have heard any updates about these hopistals. I’m thinking about moving to Texas from NY. I personally follow some nurses from social media who work at Memorial Hermann or even Houston Methodist who seems like they like it.

I rotate between days and nights but I still leave at the same time. On Days I leave around 06:15 and get to work around 6:35-06:45ish depending on traffic. The parking is such a long walk so I need about 10-15 minutes to walk from employee parking all the way to my department so I usually clock in at around 07:00 or 06:55ish. On night same it’s the same story and I leave around 6:15ish and get to the hospital around 6:35ish but I usually sit in the car and gather myself until around 6:50ish before I walk in since overnights we can park in the main garage and the walk isn’t that far.

So applied to a Labor and Delivery job in my hospital about a month ago. We did a pre-interview on Zoom and everything went good so I was offered the chance to shadow on the floor then after do an official interview. However, that's when things took a left. During my shadow the nurse manager who I spoke to on zoom approached me and said later on after the shadow we would do an interview. Once the shadow was over as I am walking towards the managers office I can hear people inside laughing and talking however, upon knocking on the door nobody answers it. I was forced to return back to the nurse recruitments office where I explained to her that I never did my interview. She then emailed the nurse manger and 1 minute later she responded saying she didn't have anything to ask me and was wondering what I thought about the unit. Two weeks later I was told I didn't get the job. Feeling confused since our pre-interview was so good I emailed the nurse manger asking for positive feedback since in the future I would love to still work with them. She responded saying she would provide feedback however, it's been almost 3 weeks and nothing. Am I being crazy or did I truly not have a fair chance? Should I speak with HR or even the director of nursing because I never even got an interview to be denied the position to begin with? Also I do currently work at this hospital and don't want to cause any problems for myself but to be denied a dream job without even a fair interview is kind of unfair and crazy to me. I don't know what I did wrong.

So applied to a Labor and Delivery job in my hospital about a month ago. We did a pre-interview on Zoom and everything went good so I was offered the chance to shadow on the floor then after do an official interview. However, that's when things took a left. During my shadow the nurse manager who I spoke to on zoom approached me and said later on after the shadow we would do an interview. Once the shadow was over as I am walking towards the managers office I can hear people inside laughing and talking however, upon knocking on the door nobody answers it. I was forced to return back to the nurse recruitments office where I explained to her that I never did my interview. She then emailed the nurse manger and 1 minute later she responded saying she didn't have anything to ask me and was wondering what I thought about the unit. Two weeks later I was told I didn't get the job. Feeling confused since our pre-interview was so good I emailed the nurse manger asking for positive feedback since in the future I would love to still work with them. She responded saying she would provide feedback however, it's been almost 3 weeks and nothing. Am I being crazy or did I truly not have a fair chance? Should I speak with HR or even the director of nursing because I never even got an interview to be denied the position to begin with? Also I do currently work at this hospital and don't want to cause any problems for myself but to be denied a dream job without even a fair interview is kind of unfair and crazy to me. I don't know what I did wrong.

Hi, ever since I graduated from nursing school I just knew I wanted to work in the NICU and I got hired as a new graduate nurse. So far I’ve been working in my level lV NICU for about 10 months and I like it but I don’t love it. There are days when I really do love working NICU and other days when I wish I worked in a more fast paced environment. I recently applied to a labor and delivery position within my same hospital and I was thinking about switching. I already interviewed and was offered the position but now I’m not sure. I was told that if you leave or transfer out of a position with less than 1 year of experience that they won’t rehire you. So it’s like what if I leave to do labor and delivery but realize after all that the NICU is for sure where I want to work but now I’m stuck and can’t reapply because I left before my 1 year mark? What if after all I feel like labor and delivery isn’t for me? I would literally be stuck there because I wouldn’t be able to transfer back to my old unit in the NICU. To be clear when I went to nursing school I was torn between NICU and labor and Delivery but I went with NICU. Due to COVID I never did an OB rotation and unless your trying to get a job they don’t let you shadow these type of units in my hospital. I feel torn and I don’t know what to do. Anyone ever been in a similar situation? Also where I live there are no other hospitals that have a NICU. We are the end all for these preemies who need treatment so it’s not like I can go to another hospitals NICU locally.

Hi, ever since I graduated from nursing school I just knew I wanted to work in the NICU and I got hired as a new graduate nurse. So far I’ve been working in my level lV NICU for about 10 months and I like it but I don’t love it. There are days when I really do love working NICU and other days when I wish I worked in a more fast paced environment. I recently applied to a labor and delivery position within my same hospital and I was thinking about switching. I already interviewed and was offered the position but now I’m not sure. I was told that if you leave or transfer out of a position with less than 1 year of experience that they won’t rehire you. So it’s like what if I leave to do labor and delivery but realize after all that the NICU is for sure where I want to work but now I’m stuck and can’t reapply because I left before my 1 year mark? What if after all I feel like labor and delivery isn’t for me? I would literally be stuck there because I wouldn’t be able to transfer back to my old unit in the NICU. To be clear when I went to nursing school I was torn between NICU and labor and Delivery but I went with NICU. Due to COVID I never did an OB rotation and unless your trying to get a job they don’t let you shadow these type of units in my hospital. I feel torn and I don’t know what to do. Anyone ever been in a similar situation? Also where I live there are no other hospitals that have a NICU. We are the end all for these preemies who need treatment so it’s not like I can go to another hospitals NICU locally.

@nicurn96 Nice when you applied were you a local resident or did you apply and have to move from another state? Did you have your senior capstone on the nicu? Unfortunately for me I didn’t get my first pick for NICU so I’m a little bummed. Is there anything I can do to help stand out on my resume? Also did you have to submit letters of recommendation and references? Also any insight on possible interview questions would be nice. Working in the NICU is my dream speciality so any insight would be very helpful.

@RN_Anami_BSN Thank you. How many did you upload? 1-2?

Out of curiosity did anyone send in letters of recommendation? Was it a requirement to have them? I tend to be a quiet student so asking for letters of recommendation is quite scar for me sense I feel like my professors and clinical instructors don’t know anything about me.

Out of curiosity did anyone send in letters of recommendation? If so how many and is it a requirement to have them? I’m more of a shy nursing student so asking for recommendations is a challenge for me because I feel like my professors and clinical instructors don’t know me well enough to write one because I’m so quiet.