Question about experience

[CMBB]

Hello all & a HUGE thank you for all your tips, tricks & insight. I am "new" to this site, although I've been absorbing from a far. I am planning on applying July 1st to my program of choice, which is only 1! ( that makes me very nervous). But my question is about experience, I have seen the thread about experience but I don't ever see anyone mention charge nurse role. I currently have been a RN for 15yrs, 12 of those in MICU/SICU as well as Hemodialysis. For the past 5yrs I have been in a Team Leader role (essentially charge nurse over 10 bed SICU & 24 bed MICU, run to Rapid Responses, Codes, start difficult IV's house wide etc. So I haven't had specific pt assignments. I would appreciate your thoughts on my chances for admission, as really feel I have 1 shot.

[My_brain_hurts]

That's a really good question. My fairly uneducated oppinion is that some would say no problem, and some would want to have more consistent direct pt care over the last few yrs or months. I would say contact the schools. . .or school you want to apply to and simply tell them your situation and ask what they think. In fact, I would have done it waaaay before I was planning to apply so if the answer was "you need recent direct beside experience" then you could have been working on getting that and it wouldn't put you behind a yr.

I'm sure there are a lot people here who can offer more insight, especially the members are PDs and/or who have participated in interviews. But the best best best answer is the one you get from the school. It may be that you email/call the program director and ask him or her directly. Sometimes the admin office can only tell you what the 'rules' say, what is listed in admission criteria and that might not answer your question fully.

Welcome to the site, and good luck!

[deemo21]

Hello all & a HUGE thank you for all your tips, tricks & insight. I am "new" to this site, although I've been absorbing from a far. I am planning on applying July 1st to my program of choice, which is only 1! ( that makes me very nervous). But my question is about experience, I have seen the thread about experience but I don't ever see anyone mention charge nurse role. I currently have been a RN for 15yrs, 12 of those in MICU/SICU as well as Hemodialysis. For the past 5yrs I have been in a Team Leader role (essentially charge nurse over 10 bed SICU & 24 bed MICU, run to Rapid Responses, Codes, start difficult IV's house wide etc. So I haven't had specific pt assignments. I would appreciate your thoughts on my chances for admission, as really feel I have 1 shot.

While my opinion will not be as valuable as some others on this site, I can say that for the past 2 years I have had similar experience. I was a dedicated RRT nurse at my primary job. It required a lot more independent thinking and advanced assessment skills than the times I was working in the unit. When asked to describe my experience and "explain" things this is what I did. In this role there is a lot of teaching to other nurses and I believe that it made me much more well rounded. Just speak about your role and give strong examples. You should be fine. They should have a way to test your clinical knowledge to verify that you did benefit from your experiences. Good luck!

[CMBB]

University of Cincinnati

[JadamR15]

Hello all & a HUGE thank you for all your tips, tricks & insight. I am "new" to this site, although I've been absorbing from a far. I am planning on applying July 1st to my program of choice, which is only 1! ( that makes me very nervous). But my question is about experience, I have seen the thread about experience but I don't ever see anyone mention charge nurse role. I currently have been a RN for 15yrs, 12 of those in MICU/SICU as well as Hemodialysis. For the past 5yrs I have been in a Team Leader role (essentially charge nurse over 10 bed SICU & 24 bed MICU, run to Rapid Responses, Codes, start difficult IV's house wide etc. So I haven't had specific pt assignments. I would appreciate your thoughts on my chances for admission, as really feel I have 1 shot.

Program?

[CMBB]

Sorry....

University of Cincinnati

[bgcornel]

I'm just jealous you don't have to take a patient assignment, i did charge for 3 icu's and took patients every night.

[Summitk2]

Well there's nothing you can really do now except apply and put your best foot forward. Methinks this is something you probably should've contemplated a while back when you could actually do something to perhaps improve your chances. The issue in general is largely school-dependent. Some LOVE nurses with decades of experience, while others would much prefer the driven, young hot-shots. If you actually show all your cards and admit that you haven't taken a pt assignment in some time, this likely won't be a good thing. If you don't get in, be sure to solicit advice when given your decision, follow it to a T, and reapply the following year.

What are your academics like? How recent are your latest credits? GRE?

[deemo21]

Hello all & a HUGE thank you for all your tips, tricks & insight. I am "new" to this site, although I've been absorbing from a far. I am planning on applying July 1st to my program of choice, which is only 1! ( that makes me very nervous). But my question is about experience, I have seen the thread about experience but I don't ever see anyone mention charge nurse role. I currently have been a RN for 15yrs, 12 of those in MICU/SICU as well as Hemodialysis. For the past 5yrs I have been in a Team Leader role (essentially charge nurse over 10 bed SICU & 24 bed MICU, run to Rapid Responses, Codes, start difficult IV's house wide etc. So I haven't had specific pt assignments. I would appreciate your thoughts on my chances for admission, as really feel I have 1 shot.

What do you do when your on RRT or the code team? Is it a busy job? What is your average day like? What type of patient care do you do on a daily basis?

[PaSSiNG GaS]

What do you do when your on RRT or the code team? Is it a busy job? What is your average day like? What type of patient care do you do on a daily basis?

At my old hospital you would be in charge of the SICU with no patient assignment but anytime a code happened in the hospital or a RR you would go. Some days you'd be real busy and other days not so much.


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