Yunikat

Yeah I would say staying home is safer than going to work in these days. I agree with your mom. Be safe! And wish you luck on everything!

Yes... I am sorry for hear that. It is true that it is a hard time for everyone. I am also a new nurse and OR is my first career for being a nurse. It seems very tough for me too. My hospital can' really teach new nurses a lot due to many surgeries got cancelled. Therefore; I have not been in surgeries over 2 weeks. Thankfully, I am able to come to work but there is nothing I can really help for them or floor since I am a baby nurse. It is really hard for everyone this time. I really hope this covid situation pass by us very soon....

look it up the nursing behavioral interview ? Those questions are mostly I got for my interview! And CONGRATS!! ? wish you luck!

Hello! I think hospitals have different policies, so I cannot really tell you the right answer. It might be different in other states, but I am living in Texas and some hospitals would hire ADN and some hospitals are only required for BSN. But what I know is many states are having a transition for BSN. I worked as a patient care tech in one of the texas hospitals before and they hired ADN. However, they require ADN people to get BSN while they are working. I am not sure if this helps but I will tell you about my story how I got my job in OR as a newly graduated nurse. I was a CNA and worked in the nursing home for 6 months in the hospital for about 4 years as a tech and a secretary while I was taking prerequisites and while I was a nursing school for getting BSN. I love doing patient care as well, but I started burning out being a tech. I physically exhausted and I was very fatigued. I do not know when it really started, but I was very overwhelmed and thinking about I am already struggling with being tech and "WHAT IF" nursing is not for me? Can I even be a nurse? like those negative thoughts slowly eat me and I cried a lot those days. It was very hard for me because I was pursuing a BSN only because it was the only passion I had in my life. I really wanted to be a nurse and I really work hard for it. But those burnouts and started doubting self was totally ruining my mentality until I had OR clinical in nursing school. I fell in OR immediately so I understand what you mean. Ever since the clinical rotation, my days were bright again and got my passion back about nursing. I really wanted to be an OR nurse and nothing else. but I heard it was really hard to get a job in OR and is very competitive. So I was proactively looking for a job in the hospital where I can get a job nearby OR. I applied a job nurse tech in OR which was a job that was only for Summer that my school only offered through the hospital and the spot was very competitive and limited. Also, I am horrible at having an interview through the computer ( as you need to record a video yourself and send it to them). So I knew I bombed the interview, and they never called me back :'( The fact that OR does not have any patient care tech, therefore they don't hire patient care tech. So what I did was looking for a patient care tech job in PACU. The only thing I was worried about applying for a tech job in PACU was in my last semester of nursing school. So I was worried if they would not want to hire me since I would only stay for six months as last. But I had to try. During the interview, I told the manager the truth that I want to work as an OR nurse after graduate nursing school and that is my passion. Because OR does not hire a tech, I want to work here to learn more about the surgical unit. And the recruiter called me I was hired a couple of hours later after the interview. PACU team was amazing so I thought about applying for a RN position after graduation but I followed my heart for OR. While I was a tech, I talked to many CRNA people and get to know around people there too. I asked them what they do, how to be an OR nurse, etc. And I applied for an OR position during my last semester and I was hired. I cried when I got the job offer email ( I still get watery eyes when I think about that time). So.. I would recommend if there is any open position, such as PACU patient care tech or anything Pre-admission surgery tech position.....ABSOLUTELY GET THEM!! If a recruiter asks what unit you want... or just ask the recruiter if there is any surgical unit open for a tech job ( if that is allowed to). The key is actively looking at the career webpage if there is an open position for that surgical unit. Hopefully, my story answers your questions in some way.... ?

Not yet ! I am still a PCT in PACU ? My hospital just opened the nurse residency in this week, and I applied to OR and PACU units for my interest fields. I know OR was my passion but now I am observing PACU nurses while I am working with them, I realized they do a lot of critical thinking. I talked to coworkers, and they love PACU and it will give me a lot of knowledge, which I love it because I want to improve my critical thinking. But some nurses told me they like OR and OR would give me more experience than PACU I only went to OR just for clinical. So I do not know about OR much .... So I was curious which unit I can keep your nursing school and get more experience... but everyone gives me different answers. Therefore, I posted a topic to get to know more information ?

I asked this questions because my unit, PACU where I work, hires new graduate nurses :)

Thank you so much for your feedback ?

Hello! I am back!!! ( Of course, no one knows me anymore!) I am a nursing student at the University of Texas at Arlington and I will finish my last year of nursing school in December 2019. I can't believe my nursing journey is ALMOST OVER. I have posted so many questions on this website before I get in nursing school & program. Time really flies! Just to give you a brief background about myself: Becoming an RN has been my dream job in my early 20s, so I started preparing to get into the nursing school from 2012. I got CNA certification and finished my prerequisites classes from Community College in Austin. Once I got accepted in UTA in 2016 as a transfer student (not nursing school yet), I worked at Nursing home for about 4 months and then I started working at THR (Texas Health Resource) in PCU cardiac floor as a PCT about 3 years. I finally got accepted in UTA Nursing program in January 2018. It was the BEST day of my life. 50 percent of my dream comes true. Okay, my story does not end here! Nursing school has been really tough!!! There was a time that I cried a lot due to high stress and overwhelming, especially in my first year of nursing school. I also learned a lot about the reality of nursing while I am working as PCT as well. I realized my passion was fading. But I did not want to give up nursing. I mean, I could not give up. Nursing is the only career I've always been dreaming about and with passion. I did not even know what I want to do for my life without nursing because that is the only thing I am highly interested in and wanted it for so long time. So from this time, I sought out to find the specialty where I have a passion and highly interested in. In my Senior 1 semester, I had a chance to go to observe in the Operating Room during clinical, and I fell in love in OR like a first love. I was thrilled. My clinical site was a teaching hospital (UT Southwestern), so it was even more interesting that the Surgeon was teaching medical students during surgery. I think it was the most memorable clinical day throughout nursing school so far for me. Therefore, I realized Operating Room is my passion for a nursing career, so I applied for a PCT job in UT Southwestern in PACU where it is close to OR (because OR do not hire PCT). Now I am working at PACU in UT Southwestern as a PCT and I really enjoy working here! Now my nurse residency opens soon and now I am curious about 2 things. Question 1: which unit ( OR/ PACU) would be good to start as a new graduate RN to gain and learn a nursing skill for a long term? I love learning and I like face-paced setting. I am 98% sure that I am going back to school to get MSN, but I do not know what specialty I want to do yet. If I can, I would definitely get the specialty with surgical. Question 2: What are the MSN options for OR or PACU? Thank you for your time and reading my long post (haha..) I appreciate your feedback ?

I thought I was a visual learner for 100%. But VARK shows up I have "very strong" kinesthetic learning preference. I am shocked!

Hey!! How are you? I am wondering your status!! I am now on campus J1 UTA nursing student!! >_ Did you start nursing school in UTA for Spring 2018 as well?

I apologize I did not reply to your questions. So your major would show as undecided when you are accepted to UTA if you are a transfer student. Once you got into nursing program, then your major status will change as "Nursing". I mostly took all my prerequisite classes from Austin Community College (Austin was my original site), and I took pre nursing courses and upper division elective courses from UTA. Once I finished all classes, I took my admission HESI and applied to UTA nursing school. However now UTA changed their system to TEAS instead of HESI ( or both. I am not quite sure) . So if you apply to UTA nursing, make sure if you can still take HESI or it only has to be TEAS. Wish you luck and hope this helps! :))

Haha I wrote this topic long time ago. I got accepted to UTA as a transfer student in Fall 2016, And I took pre nursing courses and some upper division courses from UTA for a year. And then I applied to UTA on-campus nursing and I took off school in Fall 2017. And I got accepted to UTA nursing school for Spring 2018, So I am J1 nursing student in UTA now :)

No, I don't mind you are asking questions! ( I am willing to help!) I decided to pursue a nursing career first, and then I decided to get CNA to qualify to work at the hospital. I was also a volunteer at the hopsital (not the hopsital where I am working now, but the different hospital). While I was volunteering, I tried to write down all names of devicies and tools that I restocked, and then searched all devices and tools once I get home . And guess what, those knowledge helped me when I started working at the hopsital lol But It was hard to get hired in the hopsital at first ( I got so many rejected emails) so I actually worked at Nursing home for few months to make a strong resume. To be honest, I realized making a professional resume is very very important! Once one of my nursing friends helped me to remake resume in a professional way, I got 3 hospital jobs offered! I even had 2 interviews on the same day lol I was so happy my phone was busy for getting interview calls cause I have never experienced lol So put some effort on your resume! It will make your life change lol

haha. I am glad it was helpful :) CNA and PCT are the same. Hospital would call PCT (Patient Care Tech), which is CNA. But PCT do not need to do total care by themselves because the nurse would help them.

Oh I see. I applied for both programs (online and on-campus) just in case If I don't get into the on-campus program. I got 2 emails in one day: I was waitlisted for online program and then I received I accepted into on-campus program few minutes later, so I took the on-campus offer right away without hesitation because the on-campus was what I wanted to do all these years. I think online program requires more from students, such as you are working in the parner hospital when you are applying to program . I am currently working at the hospital and heard my hospital was a partner with UTA few years before, but now they aren't. So when I was applying for the online program, I had to say "I am not working at the partner hospital". I can't really give you any information about online nursing program in UTA because I have not searched much about UTA online nursing program. I hope this helps :)