Took my Florida education up North and...

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

I was wondering if any other new grads did what I did. I graduated from a community college program in South Florida. I had done my clinicals at local hospitals like West Boca, Boca Community and my senior practicum in CTICU at Delray. I did very well clinically and was offered a new grad position in Delray's CTICU which was plum. But I had plans to move immediately upon graduation to Pittsburgh to work in their regional trauma center teaching hospital with 9 ICUs.

My Florida education left me unprepared for the level of care demanded of me. Instead of 10 beds in their CTICU, there were 20 plus. My first few minutes on my new assignment as a new grad, I was at the head of the bed assisting with a bedside reduction of a cranial hematoma. The pace was bucco fast. I thought all the new grads (local) were as blown out of the water as I was. I was wrong. They had done their clinicals on these units. I was so ill prepared for the experience. Our 4-6 hours of clinical a week just didn't cut this mustard. I learned the difference between a "community hospital" and a major "teaching hospital". Night and Day. The thing is, they're all major teaching institutions up here.

That was two years ago. I stuck with my critical care job for a year and didn't kill anyone, then went into community health. The patients here are hospitable and I see a lot of the rural displaced mining and steel worker community. But I digress.

Have any of you had similar experiences with your Florida education? It's true that our educations are designed with the local populations and health care centers in mind. Comments?

It's cold up here!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I think the problem wasn't your education in Florida, but just going to an unfamiliar place. New grads everywhere experience stories such as yours. Most of our prepration comes from on the job training. I also moved after graduation and stumbled through my first year, and then moved to Florida and stumbled around like an incompetent fool all over again. It's the new grad experience that we all share.

[MB37]

And while I haven't graduated, I'm doing all of my clinicals at a major teaching hospital in FL. It's where I'd also like to work after I graduate (I think) so I expect to be prepared. It might just be where you went to school, or just the fact that they were two totally different environments - one isn't necessarily a better learning environment than the other, but maybe I'd be lost if I went to a community hospital and maybe there weren't physicians around 24/7.

[weezyljm]

See - you should have stayed in Delray - and you could have learned at a more reasonable pace. Nursing school for Rn's simply does not prepare RN's for the real world. LPN school does. However, it is all "REALITY SHOCK" after nursing school - no matter where you go. Clinicals are done at local hospitals, as you found out... teaching hospitals are always NUTS - and demand more from their staff. It is really not a reflection of the school you attended or where you did your clinicals...especially hospital has their own population of patients and their own management style, nurse/patient ratio, etc.... THAT is what makes each situation different.

In LPN School we rotated our clinicals at ALL the hospitals in the Southeast Florida area - except for Miami-Jackson. And, we rotated through ALL the units. Slave labor disguised as clinicals.

Such is the wide-awful world of nursing.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Trust me, Weezljm,

No one should torture themselves by staying as a nurse in the WPB area. Many of the pts are among the rudest in the states. Out of 17 facilities, my experience there was the worst. And this sentiment is echoed by many other agency nurses.

The OP also will not learn as much. Other than making patients and MDs "happy" is much more important than healthy, to upper management. The patients are generally not that sick and are really entitled, compared to most other areas in this state and this nation.

(In orientation, they spent less than one hour on the clinical book of several hundred pages. They spent 90 minutes on customer service and the grave importance of the "5 for 5" customer care program. If you get two yellow slips (complaints), they will free up your future (direct quote from orientation by an employee of the year)

They don't call Delray ...Deathray or Hellray...for nothing.

To the OP...I think that you are getting some reality shock as well as shock to adjusting to a very different place and role in life. Yes, staying in Florida, would be easier but I don't think that education is the main issue. I have a Florida education and do okay. But you have had several major adjustments, and it will take time.

[weezyljm]

I worked in SE FLorida for years - and yes, WP and the surrounding area and it's population demographics encompass some VERY RUDE and VERY DEMANDING elderly patients - with $$ - and they can treat you like dirt and worse than the "hired help"...but I have also had patients in the same area that could not have been more gracious to me - it just depends. But I will admit, the nice ones were far and few between.

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

Looking back, I can see where I put myself into total shock once I graduated. I left flat hot Florida for mountainous cold landlocked Pennsylvania. I left a community hospital population and mentality for a teaching hospital population and mentality. Believe me, it is different. Not only does one have to watch their own backs, but every few weeks there's a new rotation of fresh medical residents to break in. The attending physician is king. Arguing with medical residents is a way of life.

It may be more a question of type of facilities than locations. At the teaching hospital, I was told by my NMs not to be afraid to let the patients know that this was not a hotel. "Customer Service" were two words never heard.

Enough rambling on my part. I was just reflecting.