St Cloud area

[junegrad06]

I am a student nurse preparing to graduate in June then move to MN. My husband was born and raised there then the Navy brought him to Calif where he was lucky enough to meet me. LOL Anyhow- I have visited several times (all winter visits but one) and LOVE it! I truly cannot wait to move and begin a new life and have a family friendly place to live to raise our daughter. I have read the posts on taxes, crime etc and believe me Calif is no place to live or raise a child these days. 10 years ago I would have done it but not now. Things just keep getting worse.

So, I would love to hear anything you have to share about the St Cloud area, particularly St Cloud hospital. I put my app in last week there cuz I don't know many other hospitals in the area. I don't want to drive far in the winter and want a good education system for my daughter.

Well, thanks for any responses- I look forward to reading and sharing more.

[SanskeetRN]

Congratulations on the new job! How exciting. I'm just curious, what program did you graduate from and do you have any prior medical experience? I'm not trying to be nosy, but I graduate from North Hennepin in May and have been a SAHM for 10 years, so I'm kind of nervous about getting a job! My dream is to get a job at St. Cloud Hospital, so any info I can get ahead of time to plan is so appreciated. Once again, congratulations and best of luck (maybe I will bump into you this fall, we do our clinicals on the med/surg floor just not sure which wing, and in that hospital, there are a lot of wings LOL)

[catjricern]

I graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN--- we've got a BA program in Nursing. The only prior experience that I had was that I worked as a Nurse Aide at a hospital in Fargo and I worked as a Home Health Aide (basically a glorified NA) at a senior community. It was absolutely my dream to have a job in St. Cloud too- I had heard so many great things about the hospital (and they have Magnet Recognition--- only St. Cloud and the Mayo have it in MN). I guess the one thing that they looked for was an internship experience or a preceptorship experience. I myself did not do an internship, but our school provided a preceptorship experience for all of us, and I did mine in Med/Surg. Other than that... apply sooner rather than later! I think their applications start in like November? I didn't apply until like... March or April? Although they do hire like 60-70-some each year for the New Grad program, I really wanted to be in the ICU, and they had already filled all of their positions in the ICU. Oh well, I do love Med/Surg too :) So yup, if you're ever on the Med 2 unit, you'll probably see me running around like I'm going crazy! Good luck to you :)

[SanskeetRN]

Hey there...I dug up this 'old' thread to see how everyone is doing. I also wanted to ask Catjricern how you liked the new grad program? I just hired for the new grad position on ortho/neuro and was curious if you felt that new grad program was beneficial in the transition for you.