CCRNdude

Sounds like a good problem to have until you're actually paying ~ 2500/month a back for your education.

Working in a rural area sounds good in theory until you're actually living in a rural area. Anyways, good luck everyone.

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39 months @ 138k not including cost of living. What's the appeal with this school? Why would anybody want to go here if they weren't geographically tied down to a location?

If you want to work in ICU, I would go with hospital #2. I work with a couple of former Hoag employees (one of them being an ex-nurse manager), and neither had great things to say, other than that it's in an awesome location. As a new grad, I had 2 offers as well. One was for tele and one was for ED at a teaching hospital. I ended up choosing tele since it was at a hospital that I already worked at, and it paid more. I figured the transition to the RN role would go smoother since I knew everybody. My plan was to transfer to ICU or ER after a couple of years. However, there wasn't much room for growth at the hospital I ended up working at. Two years later I regretted the decision. I was stuck in telemetry and couldn't transfer to the ED or ICU. They wanted people with previous critical care experience, which I didn't have. My former classmates were all going onto bigger and better things like trauma, flight, NP, CRNA school, travel nursing, education, etc. I was stuck. I ended up taking a pay cut to work in an ICU at a busy teaching hospital/trauma center. It was the best move I ever made, and it would have been easier to start out at a lower wage as a new grad than was to take a pay cut 3 years into working. Luckily, I was able to get my ICU experience, and was able to get into CRNA school. However, had I started out at the teaching hospital in the ED (which allows movement from unit to unit and cross trains nurses in ICU if they desire), I would probably be finishing up grad school rather than just now beginning it. You will be fine either place you go, but because of my experience as a new grad, I am now a firm believer that new grads should follow experience, not pay. In the long run, more experience in one's desired specialty leads to a happier and higher paid employee.

Barry posted outcomes for the graduating class of 2016. There was a 24 percent attrition rate for the class. I'm coming from out of state, so I don't really know anybody who has graduated from the program. I know most of you guys are from FL, so some of you may know people who matriculated or are currently matriculating at Barry. Any specific reason for this attrition rate? Is it chemistry? Is it the demands of juggling clinical with the didactic portion? Failure is not an option for me, and I just want to do my best to prepare myself in order to avoid being a statistic.

Same!

....tired of checking my email, haha.

The interview was quick and easy. It almost seems like not enough time to sell yourself, but overall I got good vibes from the faculty. They were all nice, and they do their best to make you comfortable, which I liked. Even during the interview they talked about how difficult the next 28 months of my life will be if I'm accepted though. They also said it will be worth it, and they all had to do it, and it's just part of the process of entering a fulfilling career. ...but yeah...the student put the fear in everybody, haha. I think that they specifically chose the student since they were let back in the program after getting 3 Cs in order to convey that yes they are difficult, but they aren't out to fail you and ban you from the program.

I asked how many spots they have left in the program and was told 25-30. Maybe some spots opened up because other people accepted offers from other schools? I recently shadowed again and spoke with the director of the program at the place I shadowed. He stated he usually accepts 10-20% more than their intended class size because a lot of people forfeit their spot for whatever reason (going to a different school, finances, or whatever else), and then 10% usually fail out on top of that. Not sure how Barry does it though, haha. Anyways, I'm just happy to have an interview. Good luck everyone.

Also, a couple of salary sites state that ICU/critical care salaries are 5-7% higher than the average RN salary. Why is this? Are individuals who have worked both the floors and ICU the only ones that are able to deliver an unbiased response to the OP's question?

I just enjoy debate for the sake of debating. I honestly don't care either way. I don't mean to offend anyone. I'll be the first to say that med/surg is hard work. However, we're all entitled to an opinion. To the individual who asked if ICU housekeepers deserve more pay, I would have to respond by saying...touche. Additional training and certifications are not required by ICU housekeepers though, so I would say no. ICU housekeepers do not deserve more pay. One thing I would like to poing out is that intensivists earn a higher salary than internists. Sadly, I think that your post reticently illustrates exactly how administration views both nursing and housekeeping: as an expense that can be cut. Here is my rebuttal to all of your comments: 1) Who would come to the critical care section of a forum (an area of the site that critical care nurses obviously frequent) and expect critical care nurses to not state that they should get more pay? I'm sure if we went to the corrections/prison section of this website and asked them if they deserved to get paid more, they would more than likely say yes. I'm sure plenty of med/surg nurses feel that they're entitled to more pay, which I think is reasonable. If we asked ED nurses if they deserved to be paid more than ICU and med/surg nurses, the ED nurses that I know would respond with a resounding "YES!!" 2) I never implied that med/surg nurses weren't with their patients 24/7. Pointing out that med/surg nurses are with their patients 24/7 is pretty much stating the obvious. 3) There are obviously a lot of different variables that affect profit and loss. At my hospital, ICU does bring in quite a bit of revenue. Likely because our boss rides us about not being wasteful with resources. Also, our physicians do a good job of justifying ICU level of care to medicare, transferring patients to subacute rehabs ASAP, downgrading asap and/or convincing the family that palliative care is the best option. No family? Ethics consult is put in QUICK to evaluate quality of life. Our intensivist pay is affected by our unit's revenue. No revenue? No bonus. 4) If a patient's crashing, who does the med/surg nurse call for a higher level of care? Me. The ICU/RRT nurse to evaluate and see if the patient meets ICU criteria. Patient needs an IV and nobody else can get it? Call ICU. Patient's about to code? Call ICU. Patient codes? We need ICU. Patient is VIP and the family is too high maintenance? Put them in the ICU. 5) I've worked med/surg. It's hard work that requires good time management and a lot of patience. I'm glad there are nurses that enjoy it. I got burned out by it, so I went from med/surg--> tele--> intermediate care --> ICU. It's not like I've only worked ICU and I'm claiming that ICU nurses should get paid more. The floors are very stressful. While I'm not as physically exhausted working in ICU, the stress is at a different level since there are different stressors, in my opinion. Out of curiosity, why do you guys/gals think so many hospitals pay ICU and ER nurses a critical care differential?

I think you missed the point of the post.

I guess I misspoke, sorry. I was told 25-30 spots opened up. I assumed incorrectly.

I've worked both the floor and the ICU. Considering that hospitals charge an arm and a leg for ICU care, and the ICU nurses are with the patient 24/7, I do think that ICU nurses should be paid a least a little more. I base this opinion on hospital revenue alone. Higher revenue = higher salary. The problem is that administrators and corporations bank top dollar $$$$(millions) while nurses get defensive and argue over an additional $2 dollars and hour. I'm one of those California RNs that you hear about who makes 100k/year, and I still don't think any nurses are paid what they're worth. People come to hospitals for NURSING care. If that that weren't so, physicians would make rounds at home like the old days. Hospitals can't function without nurses. Period. All nurses deserve more pay. This is why I support nursing unions, regardless of my political beliefs. I've worked at both unionized and non-unionized hospitals, and there's always a noticeable difference in working conditions and pay (in California at least)...