The Washington Hospital Center RN Residency program February 2011

Published

Hi,

I went to the interview today. I inteviewed with a nursing manager from a med/surg unit. Does anyone know about the other managers that were not there? Also, did anyone find out what the starting salary was? I thought that this might be a nice blog to start to share ideas and information about the upcoming program.:p

I don't know why I got picked. I am 33 with very little work history (stay at home mom since 21) and my only medical related work experience was at a vet 10+ years ago and I graduated from an ADN program. It is my first and only interview out of 55+ applications though! :yeah:

I am not sure what their filtering process is regarding inviting people to interview. I will tell you that I totally trumped myself up on my application (everything completely true). It is the one time in life that you have to express how awesome you are even if you are normally humble /shy. I made sure they knew that: I was my senior nursing class president, won first place in a nursing poster contest, was chair of the pinning ceremony, treasurer of the nursing club, scored in the 99th percentile on the exit HESI, had a 3.81 gpa, Phi Theta Kappa and blah blah blah. I also had a personal experience that inspired me to become a nurse that I expressed in my cover letter. I really hopes this works out because we are a single income family and my husband's job of 13 years is in serious trouble! More than anything, I need the health insurance b/c we have a daughter who is a cancer survivor and needs ongoing monitoring and scans. :eek:

I do wish the best of luck to all. In the DC area, as new grads, we certainly need it!

:redbeathe

My resume shows my achievements. I've always been an overachiever, and have never been shy. My father is the reason that I have wanted to be a nurse since I've been a little girl. He's had lung cancer since I was 5, but I don't tell ppl that b/c it is painfull to me. A lot of ppl from my small town think getting a mole cut off gives them a bragging right to call themselves a cancer survivor. They don't know what it's like to see or go through chemo/radiation/loose your hair/be vomiting everyday/ cough up so much blood it saturates the front of your shirt and you hide it from your kids b/c you don't want them to know daddy is sick....even though they know more than you think they do...have lung biopsies/cyberknife/collapsed lungs/ unconsciuos seizures for four days and suffer a stroke/ not be able to clean yourself up/ have you wife or daughter shower/bathe/and wipe your bottom for you/ feed you b/c you can't hold your own fork. Be poked/prodded like a science project. Have them cut off body parts and keep them in jars for future scientists to study. Have the doctors tell your family to say good bye everytime you end up in ICU b/c even the doctors don't have hope.Cry as you have your father/daughter dance and tell your daughter you are so happy b/c the doctors said you'd never make it here. And have that same daughter try to have children so that her father can hold them....never knowing how much longer he's got. All the while not being able to conceive, and just keeping a smile everytime he brings up the idea of grandchildren and how much he can't wait to have some, praying he gets his wish. A lot of my closest friends and even family don't know about a lot of this stuff b/c I don't tell them...I don't talk about it b/c its so painful to me. I've watch my daddy triumph and fall and triumph again. And I wholy believe he has survived and overcome b/c of his love for us. I didn't put why my passion for nursing started in my coverletter b/c I don't want to be chosen out of sympathy.

You are someone who knows exactly what its like. And I will be praying your daughter continues to beat the cancer and her scans are "clean". No one deserves this...especially not someones child.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

cmgg78, Well i live in Arlington, Va, i'm about 10 miles from the hospital but i'll be driving to work because i'm not good with schedules when it comes to buses (i take my time in the morning). Arlington is nice, a lot of young professionals and lots of activities to do, most places are affordable, it all depends how close to the metro you are (more expensive). Personally I wouldn't live next to the hospital, the places around it don't look too safe. I've never lived in Maryland but I have some friends that have and they like Virginia better. if you want to be near a metro in Virginia i would recommend looking on craigslist D.C area northern Virginia around virginia square, claredon, ballston,crystal city, pentagon...they are all metro accessible...hope that helps

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi! If anyone is still looking for housing, myself and another girl who will also be working at WHC are renting a house in Silver Spring MD. We will be renting out the finished basement, which has a private bathroom. Please email me for more information if you are interested!

[email protected]

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVSICU.
I will be on 1C. med/surg! I am sooo EXCITED!

Do you remember the Nurse Manager's last name? She told me her first but not her last and I was so nervous I forgot to ask. I wanted to send her a thank you card. Maybe it will make her forget about the "deer in the headlights" look I gave her during the clinical questions... just kidding (about her forgetting... I really did look that way... :banghead::chair: )

If you don't want to post it on here my email is [email protected]. Thank you!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVSICU.
I will be on 1C. med/surg! I am sooo EXCITED!

Nevermind :) I figured it out. I don't know exactly how to go about sending it though. Do I just address it to the hospital and attn it to her? I'm obviously new at this... haha

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi RNdre3000! thank you so much for the information!! I have a friend that lives in Arlington so def going to look through there... I have also heard that MD is cheaper... which might be best for me right now.. Unfortunately I have to be near a metro because I will be leaving my car in Florida... ahh lol im excited/nervous/etc!

Btw! I got Oncology Unit, did anyone else?! Hope to meet you all soon! take care! =)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Congrats Everyone! Anyone on 4NE (medical-cardiac)?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Don't know how much of this has already been figured out by people, but thought I'd offer a bit of information if anyone still has questions. I started the new grad program back in July and I came from out of state (NYC) so I had to go through all the license transfer, finding a place to live last minute, etc.

1) Getting a DC license isn't that hard or time consuming, but more to the point, you can get a supervised letter of practice just by walking into the office with the proper paperwork and that is sufficient until they process your full license.

2) There's a few nice areas in DC that are sort of affordable. Within DC proper I recommend Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant (CoHi) which is about 1-2 miles west of the hospital and absolutely does not require a car. A lot of people live in Brookland right by the hospital, but it's not a super nice area as I understand it, not nearly as walkable as CoHi. Silver Spring is a good bet for cheap and reasonably convenient, although it's about 45min by transit to the hospital, and be warned transit and roads slow to a crawl at the first hint of adverse weather. Arlington is expensive and fairly far from the hospital, ditto for Alexandria although old town is really nice. There really is no cheap in the DC area, cheapest you'll get is 700 in a group house in silver spring or really far off the subway, otherwise you're looking at 1000+ at least.

3) They've switched up the program a lot from when I took it, but I remember the classes being a reasonable overview/refresher and it was nice to kind of ease into the job and get a chance to meet more new grads. There is far, far too much silly paperwork that makes orientation kind of a pain (best thing about getting off orientation - no more daily paperwork!), but having a reasonable length preceptorship is definitely nice and quite a luxury it seems from skimming this site.

4) There's a lot of turmoil going on at WHC right now - they're bringing in a lot of new grads (of course, yay for us) but at the same time this means the ratio of experienced:new is sometimes a bit iffy, and with all the contract negotiations and breakdown that could push out a lot of experienced nurses as well. Personally, it's nice because they brought in 10 new people on my floor in the last year, and we're all 20-something and get along well. Professionally though, we're all feeling the squeeze and stress from mgmt - decreased staffing of nurses and axillary staff, increased floating to other units, etc - the pay cuts may not affect new grads as much, but those things we all feel.

In total, I am still happy with my job here. I've been there 7 months now, and man, it feels a lot better than as a fresh new grad, having experience under my belt makes everything seem more manageable and is worth a lot - a lot of people I know are still waiting for their dream job somewhere else, meanwhile I'm gaining the experience that will make me more competitive in the future. To each their own, but I'll take the any experience is good experience view. There's a lot of nice things in my floor (Surg onc), scheduling is pretty fair, the staff is generally friendly and cohesive, lots of interesting cases, good continuity of care with pts you see week after week. The bad is not so much specific to my floor, just the afore stated increase (esp in the past weeks) of extremely poor staffing, esp nights and weekends, and a palpable increase in floating even when our census and acuity is high.

Good luck to all! And if anyone is coming to my floor, double welcome!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks CharmedJ7 for your info and warm welcome. It is greatly appreciated. I'm starting on 1C.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Don't know how much of this has already been figured out by people, but thought I'd offer a bit of information if anyone still has questions. I started the new grad program back in July and I came from out of state (NYC) so I had to go through all the license transfer, finding a place to live last minute, etc.

1) Getting a DC license isn't that hard or time consuming, but more to the point, you can get a supervised letter of practice just by walking into the office with the proper paperwork and that is sufficient until they process your full license.

2) There's a few nice areas in DC that are sort of affordable. Within DC proper I recommend Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant (CoHi) which is about 1-2 miles west of the hospital and absolutely does not require a car. A lot of people live in Brookland right by the hospital, but it's not a super nice area as I understand it, not nearly as walkable as CoHi. Silver Spring is a good bet for cheap and reasonably convenient, although it's about 45min by transit to the hospital, and be warned transit and roads slow to a crawl at the first hint of adverse weather. Arlington is expensive and fairly far from the hospital, ditto for Alexandria although old town is really nice. There really is no cheap in the DC area, cheapest you'll get is 700 in a group house in silver spring or really far off the subway, otherwise you're looking at 1000+ at least.

3) They've switched up the program a lot from when I took it, but I remember the classes being a reasonable overview/refresher and it was nice to kind of ease into the job and get a chance to meet more new grads. There is far, far too much silly paperwork that makes orientation kind of a pain (best thing about getting off orientation - no more daily paperwork!), but having a reasonable length preceptorship is definitely nice and quite a luxury it seems from skimming this site.

4) There's a lot of turmoil going on at WHC right now - they're bringing in a lot of new grads (of course, yay for us) but at the same time this means the ratio of experienced:new is sometimes a bit iffy, and with all the contract negotiations and breakdown that could push out a lot of experienced nurses as well. Personally, it's nice because they brought in 10 new people on my floor in the last year, and we're all 20-something and get along well. Professionally though, we're all feeling the squeeze and stress from mgmt - decreased staffing of nurses and axillary staff, increased floating to other units, etc - the pay cuts may not affect new grads as much, but those things we all feel.

In total, I am still happy with my job here. I've been there 7 months now, and man, it feels a lot better than as a fresh new grad, having experience under my belt makes everything seem more manageable and is worth a lot - a lot of people I know are still waiting for their dream job somewhere else, meanwhile I'm gaining the experience that will make me more competitive in the future. To each their own, but I'll take the any experience is good experience view. There's a lot of nice things in my floor (Surg onc), scheduling is pretty fair, the staff is generally friendly and cohesive, lots of interesting cases, good continuity of care with pts you see week after week. The bad is not so much specific to my floor, just the afore stated increase (esp in the past weeks) of extremely poor staffing, esp nights and weekends, and a palpable increase in floating even when our census and acuity is high.

Good luck to all! And if anyone is coming to my floor, double welcome!

Hi CharmedJ7,

If I'm correct with the timing, did you start in the July 2010 Residency program? This is also the program I hope to apply for soon, but of course 2011.

I will be coming in from out of state as well. I take my exit Hesi required by my program in March and hopefully my Boards asap (since most say Hesi prep is harder than NCLEX prep, thus once you pass Hesi and it's still fresh you should take NCLEX asap). Though, I'm most likely going to register for my licensure to be in DC, not in my current PA residence. (Goodbye Philadelphia hopefully) to avoid the transfer process.

I was just wondering if you were apart of the July start date, when did you apply and what was the process like in terms of dates for you and other new grads you started with, etc?

Thank you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi Charmed J7 Im just wondering how the Orientation Schedule works? Is it like Monday through Friday days or you work as 12 hour shifts for 3 days? Thanks!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Im going through orientation now and it is Monday thru Friday, 7am to 3:30 pm. We went thru two full weeks but I it was originally only supposed to be T,W,Th, F of the first week and M, T of the second week. We end up having classes/training that following Wed and Thursday due to the pending strike. As they dis not want us on the unit just yet b/c they were training the replacement nurses at that time.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion