Suggestions after graduation

[cancsur]

I am a new graduate RN student. What suggestions do you have for starting out, or what do you wish you might have done differently.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Moved to the General Nursing Discussion forum for more responses. Good luck to you!

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I am a new graduate RN student. What suggestions do you have for starting out, or what do you wish you might have done differently.

*** My suggestion is that you try to get a job in a hospital that offers a new grad residency program and that you get into a specialiety like ICU, CCU, ER, PACU, NICU, PICU, L&D ect. Be willing to go anyplace you have to get get such a job.

[NewNurseCA]

I hope others will post to this discussion! Please?

ditto: I've always heard from RN's to get out of the area and go for the sexy new-grad job at a teaching hospital, ideally. There are many new grads locally who can't move out of area, and they are squabbling for any hospital job. Many have settled for SNFs, which is probably a good choice for them to get started. As someone who can relocate, I feel obligated to do so and open more local jobs up for those who need them.

Does anyone have any advice regarding starting at a SNF and then hoping for that hospital job afterward? I've heard you can get stuck at SNF level, and I've heard it's a worthy springboard.

[Blackheartednurse]

I hope others will post to this discussion! Please?

ditto: I've always heard from RN's to get out of the area and go for the sexy new-grad job at a teaching hospital, ideally. There are many new grads locally who can't move out of area, and they are squabbling for any hospital job. Many have settled for SNFs, which is probably a good choice for them to get started. As someone who can relocate, I feel obligated to do so and open more local jobs up for those who need them.

Does anyone have any advice regarding starting at a SNF and then hoping for that hospital job afterward? I've heard you can get stuck at SNF level, and I've heard it's a worthy springboard.

I guess that depends if SNF is affiliated with a certain hospital system.I know for a fact that some of the hospital systems in our area run several of the nursing homes and once you worked for their facility they wil consider your request for tranfer to the hospital.Of course there are some other hospital that wont take your nursing home experience under consideration at all.Make sure to look for nursing posions at the large hospitals systems.Also I have heard stories about people getting used to the less acute atmosphere of a nursing home and then having hard time transitioning to the much more acute,fast paced hospital envinronment and they end up going back to working at a nursing home.But also some people enjoy the lesser nurse to patient ratio at a hospitals and they are happy with their transitions so I guess it greatly depends on the individual experience.