wanting to become a Emergency Nurse

joyful_wanderer · Oct 10, 2014

Well I started in the ER about a year after being a nurse but from what I have seen from others and some personal experience but I would recommend looking for hospitals that offer fellowship or new grad positions. Are you willing to move? If so look into other states or nearby cities that might offer those types of programs. Obviously your main focus now is graduating and passing the NCLEX but when you have a chance to breath again getting your ACLS and PALS would be helpful. Also, I know you have goals and plans but any experience in nursing no matter what area will help build and grow you as a nurse even if it is not your first choice and you have the rest of your life as a nurse to be what you want to be.

brtnee · Oct 10, 2014

thanks. yes, my first priority is NCLEX but I just needed to give my mind a break from studying and i started think about this. thanks for the advice. I have heard about gettinng ACLS and PALS. I am married so kind of tied down and my mom would be angry if i took the grandchild with me :) but I am just going to let the chips fal where they may and if its ER YAY! hahah

psu_213, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2014

I know my ED will only hire new RNs who did their preceptorship or worked as a tech at our ED…in other words, look to do time in school there, or look for a PRN tech position in an ED.

I wish the very best to you!

joyful_wanderer · Oct 11, 2014

Best of luck to you! I hope you get what you want.

tarotale · Oct 12, 2014

My advice is not to work at parkland or Methodist Charlton.

brtnee · Oct 13, 2014

I have heard about methodist charlton haha. i do my clinicals at methodist richardson on bush and renner. I will hapily go anywhere to get my foot in the door buuuuut i will draw the line at some places. Do you have a hopsital you recommend?

brtnee · Oct 13, 2014

Thank you

ER(notso)n00b, ASN, RN · Oct 13, 2014

I got hired into an ER as a new grad after doing my preceptorship there. I discovered ER during second semester and I was hooked. I worked my tail off in nursing school and requested to precept in the ED, and was lucky enough to be the only student in my class to get it. I worked hard while precepting and it paid off because my preceptor put in a word with the Director for me. I think it you're meant to be there, you will find a way. :) Good luck!

tarotale · Oct 13, 2014

I have heard about methodist charlton haha. i do my clinicals at methodist richardson on bush and renner. I will hapily go anywhere to get my foot in the door buuuuut i will draw the line at some places. Do you have a hopsital you recommend?

good question. from the pool of info I could obtain from various experienced ed nurses, it seems pretty evident that in any hospitals in south dallas and downtown dallas, you will frequently encounter filth of human beings; drunks, druggies, narcotic seekers, psychos, ugly behavior, those types. I know some nurses discard the low socioeconomic=nasty behavior theory, but if you work in ed, you will find out most nurses will concur with its consistency; yes there are exceptions, but we are talking about general rule here.

Having that said, I highly recommend EDs in north dallas area. I have never worked in one of them, but my coworkers who do prn report to me that sometimes they will see 5 patients the whole night, and they certainly don't see frequent nastiness in patient population as one would in south/downtown dallas (not sure if they will have internships though). Also UT southwestern seems to avoids many of undesirable types that I described about, but this as well came from another coworker.

If you don't really care about patient types or socioeconomics, any trauma centers in downtown works: bumc, methodist dallas, parkland, childrens. Patient types do matter to me a lot though since I believe it could be one of major factors of ED nurse burn out, along with short staffing and such. One of ED nurses told me here that it's not the clinical kinds of things that makes it hard at ED, not even in the critical patients. It's when you get those non-compliant, lazy fools that just increase your workload: psych pts, people who can get up to the bathroom but keeps taking doo-doo in the bed, hypoxia pt who keeps taking her O2 off, idiot who rips off his 5-leads off when he says he came in for cp... list goes on. What makes ED really awesome is your coworkers. ED nurses are one of funniest people to be around with! Good luck finding your spot!