Where to go?

OK, I don't admit this too often because of my "attitude", but I was scared to death when I first came out of nursing school and that was 30 years ago! My first hospital job was on a plain old medical unit. We got everything from soup to nuts that wasn't a surgery or heart patient. At that time it was a nice pace, but remember that back in 1975 people were admitted to the hospital for tests and stayed for 3 or 4 days. That doesn't happen anymore. Another unit of hospitals that is not as intense is their rehab units. Now, I also happen to think that surgical units (not the OR) are a good place to start too. They have very routine things going on, so while there may be busy days they aren't usually having admissions with goofy, wayout diagnoses that can tend to show up on medical units. Oncology and ortho units are places where you tend to get into a routine. So, those are some choices recommended to you by someone who knows where you're coming from as far as being scared and nervous about your first job.

Nursing and RN magazine publish a special yearly career directory. Each yearly issue has sample resumes for RNs and an article about how to put your own resume together. They also give advice on preparing for your job interviews. The remainder of them are lists of hospitals looking for nurses. You need to hunt these career directories down and look at the information in them.

I remember those days well. Patients that had their gall bladder removed actually stayed in the hospital for about ten days........4 days for a lady partsl delivery, and at least one week for a C-section.

Cataract surgery patients needed to be kept flat on their backs with sandbags on each side of the head, just like C-spine fractures.

The good old days.....................