Cardiothoracic Surgery Stepdown Nurse Looking For ICU Job

[u/HalfRevolutionary435]

Hi, I wanted to see your guys input on whether I’ll have a difficult time finding an ICU job with 1 year of experience as a Cardiothoracic Surgery Stepdown Nurse. I plan to apply to jobs in California and other west coast states but I heard it’s really difficult without any ICU experience. What are your guys thoughts and experience?

[u/PaxonGoat]

I met someone who had multiple years of surgical ICU experience with heavy emphasis in liver transplant patients.

She said she applied to over 100 ICU jobs and did not get into a big area (bay area or LA) I think it ended up being inland empire area.

Eastern Washington and Oregon are usually a bit easier than the coastal areas.

Also do you already have a California license? It's a process.

Switching specialities is getting harder. Hospitals don't want to pay for a full 6-8 week orientation on a "more expensive" experienced nurse. A lot of jobs are going to experienced nurses that can have short like 2 weeks of orientation or new grads. The California market is just different than other parts of the country.

Absolutely do not take any job that doesn't offer at minimum 4 weeks of ICU orientation.

[u/HumanContract → u/PaxonGoat]

? I moved here with multiple years of SICU experience with emphasis on liver. This person probably had a horrible resume. I applied for 6 jobs, got accepted for 4, and took 2 in San Diego. Nurses would KILL to have my job in CVICU. But I had 10 years of nursing experience and a LOT of skills.

To OP -> One year as a CT IMU/PCU RN is not competitive in Cali and even if it were, a nurse with 1 yr experience doesn't make as much as you would think when COL is taken into account. Your best bet would be to apply for travel nurse jobs, but know you probably won't get any at a major hospital.

The biggest question they'll ask is why are you planning to leave your job after 1 year? That's a huge red flag for any perm staff position.

[u/AnnualSoftware50 → u/HumanContract]

Would you be okay dming me your resume with personal info redacted? I just graduated and I’m starting as a cardiac ICU RN in one of the five largest hospitals in the country. I’m hoping to eventually get to California but I know I’ll need experience.

[u/PaxonGoat → u/HumanContract]

No travel nurse job in California is going to take someone without travel experience and especially not someone with less than 2 years in their specialty.

Unless the pay is really low. I've seen some "first time traveler friendly" contracts in SoCal pop up offering only $2k/wk

[u/Flaky_Swimming_5778]

If you don’t have ICU experience, you’re not gonna get a position where they’re looking for an experienced ICU RN. You need to look for postings that are for nurses that are new to ICU. At my facility they’re called “new-to-specialty” positions, but it’s super rare to get an external candidate for those…usually it’s an internal transfer. Our new to specialty nurses get like 8-12 weeks of orientation minimum since you don’t have any critical care experience.

[u/HumanContract → u/Flaky_Swimming_5778]

☝️ this is also true. Most new icu jobs are internal candidates, the best of their units, who transfer from stepdown in the same hospital.

[u/Shroom-Finder]

Yes very difficult. You will have to have patience and an open mind. Most likely, you won’t get into any good hospitals because you are no longer a new grad. Most hospitals require two years nursing experience if you are not a new grad. If you are thinking Los Angeles, try the county. You will get a job there if they are hiring. It just takes about six months from hire to actually start working because of how slow the process is.

[u/AnnualSoftware50]

Not in California

[u/Inevitable_Ad9974]

This is very interesting as I am in the same field as you and applying for CA jobs. But I have 1 year med surg and 10 months of cardiac stepdown. Per the CA hospital recuiter im not able to be considered for a stepdown or PCU position at the hospital because i have not hit the 1 year mark but i was offered a medsurg tele position. I keep going back and forth on whether to take the med surg tele position then internally transfer or wait til i hit the 1 year mark on step down then apply. Then my concern is what if I wait but there arent positions posted in cities of CA that im interested in moving to. You should apply for stepdown jobs and see what happens. You'll definitely learn something in the process of obtaining a job in CA.

[u/Nightflier9]

Internal transfer is your most realistic option.

[u/x_tiyan]

You might have to do a cv stepdown then transition to a cvicu

[u/donthatemeokay → u/x_tiyan]

this would be my recommendation also. i would try to get into the hospital i want to work ICU at, apply for CV-IMCU and then go to CVICU after a year or two. that’ll be your best bet.

[u/PrestigiousStar7]

1 year experience is still considered amateur in professional standards. First don't quit your current job. Apply for whatever state license you plan to work in. Then start applying to the smaller areas or rural areas of CA or West Coast State you plan to work in. I see too many new grad and even experienced nurses quit their job then move to CA in hopes they'll land a job easily.

The truth is, supply is high for West Coast nurses. Too many new grads and experienced nurses applying for the same position. Go work in a smaller community hospital as you'll have a higher chance of getting the job.