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 After seeing a few nursing threads around here with people asking about the job and school itself, I figured we should have our own thread. I myself am still finishing up clinicals, but my sister is a nurse, and my two closest friends are nurses so I've got quite a bit of experience in the actual field, plus clinicals have put me right in the action for a few years now. I know a good bit about what you can expect in this field, but of course, anyone with experience is encouraged to join in. We could use your perspective! I'll put a brief FAQ here and try to add to it as time allows. What does it take to be a nurse? The two most common routes are an ADN, or BSN. You will more or less make the same amount of money (at least at first) for both degrees, but a BSN opens up more opportunity later on down the road. Bear in mind, a lot of people think 'oh wow, I can get an associates degree and make 60K?' but in reality, there are a lot of prerequisite class required, and most are very difficult. It's not a degree you can just 'get'. You have to finish your prereqs with a very good GPA, take some sort of entrance exam, and prove you are, more or less, not an idiot. (some do still get through) Only after all that, will you even start the 2 year program. Plan accordingly. What different types of nurses are there? Mostly you will see LVN's(or LPN's in some states) and RN's. The above mentioned degree plans are for the RN program. LPN's a are lesser educated 'tier' of nurses whose tasks are often delegated to them by the RN's. Most LPN programs require only a year of school, with no prereqs. The pay difference is pretty substantial, and you may get bored quickly as an LPN. Of course, everyone is different, and all levels of patient care staff are critical to a smooth environment. Are any guys nurses? Sure, lots! Men are very much needed in the nursing field, and you'd be a welcome addition to any staff. Areas of particular need are ER and mental health. Nursing School isn't really that hard. People just say that because nurses don't know any better... I went to nursing school with a previous degree in bacteriology from probably the most renowned public university in the field. Before that, I switched out of mechanical engineering because I thought it was too easy and I was getting bored. In micro bio we did all that lovely O-chem and genetics work that everyone enjoys so much. It wasn't that hard, but it wasn't something you could just wing either. A few years later I went to nursing school. It was the hardest thing I've ever done academically. The courses were brutal - they involved more hours both in and out of the classroom than any program I'd been in before. The expectations were higher and more immediate. You had to know lungs by Tuesday, and you had to know the physiologic effects of the antidysrhythmics by Thursday. Classmates dropped like flies, and those who stuck around were as bright a group of people as I've ever been around. That's not to scare anyone away - if you work hard and want it, you can do it. I'm just amazed that people are meh about my nursing degree and wowza about my infinitely easier BS in a hard science. It's like being in the marine corps and having people gloss over that to swoon over your collection of boy scout badges. Nursing school is as hard as any hard science, and it tops that off by also demanding practicality and an ability to adapt. You don't get to walk away from things with a fuzzy understanding of them. A fuzzy understanding of anaerobes will screw up your experiments. A fuzzy understanding of the effects of ACE inhibitors can cripple or kill a fetus. But your job sucks! You just do what the doctors tell you! In a word, no. I can't speak for all, but I'm in ICU. We have a close working relationship with the doctors because we're at the bedside and they aren't. Our patients are in critical and often declining states, and if the MDs didn't trust us, they'd be in every fifteen minutes to fiddle around with things. When I see a troubling cluster of new symptoms, I page some poor bastard and explain what I see and what I want to do about it. The poor bastard gives me his code and either backs me up on what I want to do or decides to go with something different. So far my "yeah what you just said" rate is about 99% and I get overruled about 1% of the time. The job of the MDs in the hospital setting is to devise a plan. They diagnose and establish a list of meds to use regularly and a list of meds to use if the situation arises. My job is to get the patient through my shift. If the plan is good, my job is easy. If something comes up and the plan is no longer good, it's my job to recognize that and act accordingly. That may mean bending the rules a little bit, or it may mean going the direct route and paging some poor guy at 3am and telling him I now need a central line and an order for pressors. Things are very different from the TV shows. Our medical system has its eyes focused squarely on the dollar sign, and MDs appallingly high salaries mean they are rushed through absolutely everything they do. The good news for nurses is that it means we get a lot more autonomy than we probably did before. The bad news is that with that autonomy comes a lot more responsibility. But I could never do that, it's ICKY! Hah, I remember when things used to disgust me. Those were happy days. To be honest, you get desensitized quickly. The human mind adapts wonderfully, and whatever you might think holds you back from entering health care isn't nearly as important as you might think. I've seen vaginas that would drive legions of heterosexual men straight into frenzied buggery. I've seen mucus, blood, feces and vomit, and as many as three of those at the same time. They aren't the fun part of my job, but they're a small price to pay for the cool things we get to do. thanks, hugemanatee! ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Any more questions? Again I'd just like to keep this thread a positive place for people to ask questions and get information on what I think is a pretty cool field. If there are any questions I myself cannot answer, I will ask any of the RN's I know already to help us out. Sir Fontlebottom fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Nov 26, 2008 |
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Nostalgia4Dogges fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Nov 24, 2008 07:06
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goku chewbacca fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Nov 24, 2008 16:10
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If only this thread had existed before I started law school.
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Nov 24, 2008 23:03
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I've been wanting to go to school for nursing for a while. My uncle, aunts and granny all did and they make good cash and seem happy doing what they do. I'm 23 right now and just made a move and trying to get settled down with a good job and stuff first, but I'd like to get in school. The only time I tried college was when I was 18 directly after high school, and it didn't work out very well, but mainly because I was really young wanting to gently caress off, and I also had some other life distractions so to speak. I'm a bit nervous of failing and just wasting money/racking up debt, but I gotta do something with my life.
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Nov 24, 2008 23:08
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I've justs finished my RN degree and although getting the 3 years out of the way is awesome I'm really making GBS threads myself about my new grad next year. Its gonna be fun times. For those wondering whether or not nursing is for them the fact that you're asking yourself that is a good indicator. On paper its something that isn't very desirable, bodily fluids, bitchy docs, long hours, usually subpar pay compared to amount of effort you'd puit in any other field. The thing is that you're always around, at the very least, interesting people and you'll be on your feet pretty much all your day. And you'll get some loving hilarious stories.
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Nov 25, 2008 01:30
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I'm a male nurse, work in an ICU, and graduated from an accelerated program. If you guys don't mind, I'll answer whatever I can.
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Nov 25, 2008 02:36
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Love the title. Those poor, poor law students. I'm not sure the detoxing alcoholic I had hogtied last week will love me forever though. Anyway, thought I'd tackle some negative myths. Nursing School isn't really that hard. People just say that because nurses don't know any better... I went to nursing school with a previous degree in bacteriology from probably the most renowned public university in the field. Before that, I switched out of mechanical engineering because I thought it was too easy and I was getting bored. In micro bio we did all that lovely O-chem and genetics work that everyone enjoys so much. It wasn't that hard, but it wasn't something you could just wing either. A few years later I went to nursing school. It was the hardest thing I've ever done academically. The courses were brutal - they involved more hours both in and out of the classroom than any program I'd been in before. The expectations were higher and more immediate. You had to know lungs by Tuesday, and you had to know the physiologic effects of the antidysrhythmics by Thursday. Classmates dropped like flies, and those who stuck around were as bright a group of people as I've ever been around. That's not to scare anyone away - if you work hard and want it, you can do it. I'm just amazed that people are meh about my nursing degree and wowza about my infinitely easier BS in a hard science. It's like being in the marine corps and having people gloss over that to swoon over your collection of boy scout badges. Nursing school is as hard as any hard science, and it tops that off by also demanding practicality and an ability to adapt. You don't get to walk away from things with a fuzzy understanding of them. A fuzzy understanding of anaerobes will screw up your experiments. A fuzzy understanding of the effects of ACE inhibitors can cripple or kill a fetus. But your job sucks! You just do what the doctors tell you! In a word, no. I can't speak for all, but I'm in ICU. We have a close working relationship with the doctors because we're at the bedside and they aren't. Our patients are in critical and often declining states, and if the MDs didn't trust us, they'd be in every fifteen minutes to fiddle around with things. When I see a troubling cluster of new symptoms, I page some poor bastard and explain what I see and what I want to do about it. The poor bastard gives me his code and either backs me up on what I want to do or decides to go with something different. So far my "yeah what you just said" rate is about 99% and I get overruled about 1% of the time. The job of the MDs in the hospital setting is to devise a plan. They diagnose and establish a list of meds to use regularly and a list of meds to use if the situation arises. My job is to get the patient through my shift. If the plan is good, my job is easy. If something comes up and the plan is no longer good, it's my job to recognize that and act accordingly. That may mean bending the rules a little bit, or it may mean going the direct route and paging some poor guy at 3am and telling him I now need a central line and an order for pressors. Things are very different from the TV shows. Our medical system has its eyes focused squarely on the dollar sign, and MDs appallingly high salaries mean they are rushed through absolutely everything they do. The good news for nurses is that it means we get a lot more autonomy than we probably did before. The bad news is that with that autonomy comes a lot more responsibility. But I could never do that, it's ICKY! Hah, I remember when things used to disgust me. Those were happy days. To be honest, you get desensitized quickly. The human mind adapts wonderfully, and whatever you might think holds you back from entering health care isn't nearly as important as you might think. I've seen vaginas that would drive legions of heterosexual men straight into frenzied buggery. I've seen mucus, blood, feces and vomit, and as many as three of those at the same time. They aren't the fun part of my job, but they're a small price to pay for the cool things we get to do. Ohthehugemanatee fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Nov 25, 2008 |
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Nov 25, 2008 03:43
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sewersider posted:On paper its something that isn't very desirable, bodily fluids, bitchy docs, long hours, usually subpar pay compared to amount of effort you'd puit in any other field. Bodily fluids don't bother me much, my doctors aren't bitchy and I started as a new grad at $34/hour with essentially free health care, a pension plan (ha, like that will last) and a 401k. Overtime pay is always available. If I was truly desperate for money, I could hop over to legal consulting or one of the other sub specialties where you can make $100/hr or so. We do work hard, but the era of nurses working insane hours for chump change is dying.
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Nov 25, 2008 04:10
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Lost Downtown posted:I'm a male nurse, work in an ICU, and graduated from an accelerated program. If you guys don't mind, I'll answer whatever I can. Awesome, thanks! quote:I've seen vaginas that would drive legions of heterosexual men straight into frenzied buggery. This is true, and why it cracks me up when a patient is bothered by having a male/female nurse. We're medical professionals, trust me...we don't even see the usual "sexy" stuff as sexy in a clinical setting. quote:Nursing School isn't really that hard. People just say that because nurses don't know any better... Yeah I can't believe anyone ever thinks this. It's probably the most complete combination of rote memorization, practical application, and critical thinking of just about any job out there.
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Nov 26, 2008 00:41
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Hi, I'm currently in my second year in Nursing School in the Philippines. This is my story. I heard of the waiting lists, and my grades back home (in the states) weren't so hot, so I gave nursing school in the Philippines a shot. I passed the entrance exam, and made it into their BSN program. I have a free room at my one of my Uncle's houses, near the College that I go to. It was a huge pain in the rear end, because I couldn't really speak the local dialect, there was so much culture shock, and I had to take so many stupid prequisites like P.E., and English. Not to mention how insanely conservative everyone is (it is a Catholic school in a province...when I told people I'm not religious/agnostic, they gave me funny looks). But, somehow I survived, now I'm in my second year, second semester. I've been exposed to Hospital Duty, and it's a blast. It took me a year to learn the local dialect. It's the only way I can communicate with teachers, my classmates, and my patients..about that.. Today I was tasked with taking vital signs of an assigned patient. He was an old guy with a kidney stone, he looked lonely, and so we talked. He asked me where I'm from, and I told him that my family is from a town nearby. He then asked me if both of my parents are Filipinos, and I responded "yes." Then, afterwards, he gave me a quizzical look of disbelief. I can't blame him though, I am kind of big, have fair/pale skin, and my American accent mixed in with their dialect sounds a bit off. I had all sorts of funny reactions from patients, thinking they had a foreign nurse. Some panic because they think I'm unable to speak the dialect. Anyway, I have 2 more years to go before I finish my BSN. After that, I take my diploma, and go back to California, and take the NCLEX. I'm a dual citizen (Filipino/American) so it's easy to do. I'm hoping it'll be easy to find a job after I pass the NCLEX, with me having a BSN degree from a foreign country, I mean. One of the main reasons I chose going to school abroad (besides avoiding the godawful waiting list, and prequisites) was that I was told that I can skip the Filipino local boards, and go directly back home to the States, take the NCLEX, pass it, then work afterwards. I hope I can still get to do that after I graduate. I also, hope that if I do land a job as a BSN Nurse, that I'll be able to branch out to different fields of my choosing like ER, or Psychiatric, and not be locked into basic nursing work without the ability to verge to a different specialty since I have a foreign BSN nursing degree.
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Nov 26, 2008 13:35
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oddkoiout posted:I also, hope that if I do land a job as a BSN Nurse, that I'll be able to branch out to different fields of my choosing like ER, or Psychiatric, and not be locked into basic nursing work without the ability to verge to a different specialty since I have a foreign BSN nursing degree. If you sit for the NCLEX and pass, you're a nurse and no one gives a crap about what kind of degree you have. You can almost certainly get a psych job (mostly because none of the rest of us want them...) and while ER is competitive for new grads, your BSN will put you slightly ahead of RNs when it comes to interviews. Internships and your final clinical rotations will be what really set you up to walk into a certain branch of nursing. Worst case scenario you get stuck in med-surg for a year until you've got enough experience and your hospital's ER will let you transfer in.
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Nov 26, 2008 15:08
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:
From what I understand this is pretty common almost regardless of whatever else happens. I've come to think that it's a good thing, at least for a little while. It's tough to start out there, but you really will learn a whole lot, and in the end be better for it. Also, hope you don't mind but I put some of what you said in the OP. It was very helpful!
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Nov 26, 2008 18:28
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I'm in nursing school now. Getting my ASN. I'm an older student, and the 2 year school has a better NCLEX pass rate (second highest in the state) and is cheaper, and since I am in Phi Theta Kappa, I get a tuition reduction in many schools if I transfer. I was thinking of going for the NP at some point, and due to recent medical issues, I noticed my community had a lack of support for psychiatry -- someone in town who could give meds, particularly to kids. And there is a lack of support for people with developmental disorders. (In other words, I'm in the midst of dealing with some issues with my kid, and now see what is missing, especially after talking to a number of people in the community.) Anyone doing this? I know a few clinics here who would probably hire me in a heartbeat, that work with children, and are missing that component. Is it a particularly complex and frustrating branch of nursing? Could I go into an NP program for that even if my RN experience is more broad, or entirely different? (Like if my experience before applying is in a nursing home, or med-surg or something.) How much experience in your specialty does an NP program want?
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Nov 26, 2008 19:20
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Nostalgia4Dogges fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jul 19, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2008 20:01
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Christoff posted:Have made up my mind. Either want to get my Associates or Bachelors in nursing. Leaning towards my BSN. I'd like to go to University of Hawaii or Portland State for it. Assuming I can get in. Plus I'll be doing Air Force ROTC most likely. Usually you can only jump into BSN as a junior if you have a previous degree. That's what I did. Perhaps some of the prerequisites you've taken will allow you to skip a semester or two. One option you could consider is getting your ADN and then going somewhere for an RN->BSN program. They tend to take a year or two with about one class a semester and they're usually designed for people who are working at the time. The extra courses aren't very clinical in nature so they aren't really that bad.
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Nov 27, 2008 03:40
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Nostalgia4Dogges fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jul 19, 2016 |
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Nov 27, 2008 03:46
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My BSN came after 6 semesters, preceded by a year of pre-reqs; 1 + 3 = 4 year degree. My SO is finishing her BSN next week; she completed an 11 month "2nd degree program" after graduating Summa cum Laude with her BS in Bio. Both of our starting salaries are/were exactly the same salary as a community college graduate with an ADN. I don't know of a single institution that actually pays a GN more for having a BSN; that said, the BSN does tend to open some doors in community health and clinics. I'd give anyone the same advice I just gave my sis-in-law: go to whatever school will offer you the earliest completion/graduation date for reasonable costs, and worry about BSN/ADN/NP/whatever after you're already making $55k for working 3 days per week. Also, get a job as a butt-wiper; the job experience is invaluable, and fills in many gaps that you wouldn't even know existed if your entire healthcare experience was clinicals alone. In my experience, colleges of nursing tend to be separate feifdoms within the kingdoms of university, and have pretty strict rules on auditing, repeating and pre-reqs & co-reqs. Only the US Department of State has bureaucracy to rival nursing school. Ohthehugemanatee posted:The job of the MDs in the hospital setting is to devise a plan. They diagnose and establish a list of meds to use regularly and a list of meds to use if the situation arises. My job is to get the patient through my shift. If the plan is good, my job is easy. If something comes up and the plan is no longer good, it's my job to recognize that and act accordingly. That may mean bending the rules a little bit, or it may mean going the direct route and paging some poor guy at 3am and telling him I now need a central line and an order for pressors. Well put.
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Nov 27, 2008 05:33
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Nostalgia4Dogges fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Jul 19, 2016 |
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Nov 27, 2008 08:03
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I graduated from nursing school this June (BSN) and passed my NCLEX-RN in late august. Since September I have been looking for work, and its almost the end of November now and I have not gotten any hits. This is New York City, almost every hospital is not hiring because of the financial crisis (plus some medicare restructuring), I've seen one or two part time positions, I'm currently on a wait list at one large hospital for OR nursing, but its tough. I hope its better in other parts of the country because NYC is very stagnant now, hospitals need nurses but don't have the money to make more positions or to train new-grads.
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Nov 27, 2008 20:35
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Christoff posted:Have made up my mind. Either want to get my Associates or Bachelors in nursing. Leaning towards my BSN. I'd like to go to University of Hawaii or Portland State for it. Assuming I can get in. Plus I'll be doing Air Force ROTC most likely. Portland State - I'm assuming in Oregon? As far as I know PSU doesn't have a nursing program. There are a few others in the city, though (Linfield, OHSU, Portland Community College)
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Nov 28, 2008 05:28
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Nostalgia4Dogges fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Jul 19, 2016 |
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Nov 28, 2008 06:35
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Christoff posted:Sorry, realized they only offer the pre-reqs to get into a BSN program. Uh... you mean like all universities and most community colleges do I guess? I'm pretty sure they don't have a pre-nursing submajor but I might be wrong.
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Nov 28, 2008 07:48
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Thanks for making this thread OP. I got into nursing as a second career and it was the best decision I've ever made. I used to be the worlds biggest needlephobe and the thought of someone else's blood/poop/whatever on my dainty delicate flower of a self made me queasy. Nursing was not for me - until I spent 5+ years in a hospital doing a job (IT) I hated (actually I liked the job, it was the people I worked with that made it suck) and realized that maybe I could work on the medical side after all. Part of the appeal of nursing is that the possibilities for jobs are almost endless. Home health care, palliative care, case management, psychiatry, dialysis, ER, OB/pedes, geriatric, ICU/CCU, general medicine, nurse practitioner (general, psych, OB/pedes), CRNA, surgery, pre-op, post-op (I'm leaving so many out...) and my personal 'gee, that'd be awesome to try someday' - working abroad as a civilian in the military. If you enter into nursing as a second career, you can use skills from your first career. There is a LOT of teaching that goes on in nursing - patients, staff, and students. Social work skills are great for case management. I know of nurses that are back in the IT field assisting developing software for hospitals. No education is ever wasted. It's going to take at least 2 years before you are considered for acceptance into a program. If you are on the fence about it, find out what the prereqs are for the nursing program you are interested in and work those into your class schedule. If you want a more hands-on approach, get certified as a CNA. And if it turns out it's not what you're looking for, what's the worst thing that can happen? You now know it's not for you, you have a few college credits filled, and you now have funny/gross stories* to tell at parties**. *Thanksgiving dinner conversation with three nurses and a paramedic present is not for the faint of heart. Luckily, the parents and in-laws are used to it by now. The sister in law? Not so much. Heh. **Provided you keep confidentiality, of course.
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Nov 28, 2008 10:02
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I'm going to nursing school this spring for a second degree BSN (well, third degree after masters...) It looks like I made a good decision. One minor thing: Why do the guys refer to themselves as male nurses? It seems strange and a little sexist. Do you refer to black nurses? Female doctors?
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Nov 28, 2008 10:43
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Personally, I prefer refer to them as "man nurses," and "woman doctors." No you dork, nursing has always been a female-dominated field. Although there are a lot more male nurses today than there have been in the past, it's still a profession largely held by women and many people continue to see it as a female role and assume if you say "X is a nurse" that X is also a woman.
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Nov 28, 2008 11:35
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I'm trying to get my sister into nursing, but she fails at the internet and doesn't know how to look poo poo up. I'd like to know what the educational path is, specifically: -How involved is an ADN program? Credit-wise, course load, number of semesters to complete? -Summer internships? I had no idea they even had these for nursing. Are they paid? Are they arranged like other internships; the best ones being apportioned based on academic performance? -Suppose she wanted to be a Nurse Anesthesiologist. Starting with an ADN, what would be the best way for her to go afterwards (barring the Army)? -Speaking of the military or psuedo-military organizations; are there any sort of tuition repayment programs offered by the Federal government for, say, working in rural/disadvantaged areas and such? I specifically had the Public Health Service in mind, but could not find any details about such offerings.
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Nov 28, 2008 22:11
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dividebyzero posted:I'm trying to get my sister into nursing, but she fails at the internet and doesn't know how to look poo poo up. My older sister did nursing, is one of the smartest people I've encountered, and had to sacrifice her social life for 4 years to do this. If your sister won't even look up the educational path on the internet, and if you need to "get her into" an educational path and do her research for her, I think she should look into something else. I hear Wal Mart has openings....?
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Nov 28, 2008 23:08
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Lasek posted:If your sister won't even look up the educational path on the internet, and if you need to "get her into" an educational path and do her research for her, I think she should look into something else. I hear Wal Mart has openings....? Despite the unkind attitude, this is right on. If your sister isn't capable of finding the simplest of information for herself, she has an extremely high likelihood of failing to get in to nursing school, let alone graduating. Summer internships exist, but are far fewer in number than part-time positions in acute care hospitals. FWIW, mine was called an Externship, was 10 weeks, 36 hrs/wk, paid $16.48, and was nearly identical to the precepted orientation that any newly hired GN/RN gets at their first hospital job. There were 15 externs hired out of ~300 applicants, in an 1100 bed hospital. I stayed on at that hospital for the next 9 months while I finished school, as a Nurse Tech; wiping butts, changing bed linens, starting IVs, drawing labs, inserting/removing foleys and rectal tubes, changing dressings, performing admission assessments and shift assessments, wrapping corpses, and sitting for the mentally damaged. Both positions were great experiences to have prior to graduation, each for different reasons.
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Nov 29, 2008 01:02
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dividebyzero posted:I'm trying to get my sister into nursing, but she fails at the internet and doesn't know how to look poo poo up. My ADN program is 6 semesters, minimum. It's a ladder and goes CNA/LPN/RN. Full time, the prereqs determine your courseload, and of course your college. Also, if you plan on getting a BSN later, you may want to take more courses at the CC level, since it is cheaper (usually), and you might be on a wait list so at least your additional courses will go towards your second degree. The CRNA thing is a Master's. So she'd need that BSN, most likely. I've heard of, but haven't seen myself, programs that go RN--> to a Masters (I guess you get your BSN in between/with it). There are a number of tuition repayment programs on the fed and often the state level. Google nurse loan repayment. Stuff comes up. Some hospitals may do the same, or have tuition reimbursement for getting your BSN. Really ASN + nursing + her state should give you plenty to start with. And she is going to have to learn how to use a computer to get into school. If you can't look stuff up, you're going to have a really hard time with school. Nursing, despite requiring 'just' an ASN (or even 'just' a diploma in some cases) is not easy. It's competitive, and a heavy courseload, and hard. Looking up a school for nursing is not rocket science, nor is calling a hospital or local colleges to see what they offer. Even without the internet, just access to the yellow pages would do the trick.
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Nov 29, 2008 03:55
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Kibbles posted:My ADN program is 6 semesters, minimum. It's a ladder and goes CNA/LPN/RN. Good god that seems ridiculous. Can you give a breakdown of how that works? It just makes no sense to me to jump through so many hoops just for an associate's (in nursing or otherwise)
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Dec 3, 2008 03:49
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I just want to let you know how helpful these nursing threads have been to me. Thanks for all the information, guys; it's really reassuring to know what I should be expecting. If there's anyone with experience in the Canadian system, I'd love to hear their input.
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Dec 3, 2008 04:59
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My sister's a CRNA- its an incredible job. Great job security, 100k + starting, and she works about 48 hours a week. With 1.5x overtime pay. If I could do everything over again, I probably would do that.
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Dec 3, 2008 05:20
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semihippie posted:My sister's a CRNA- its an incredible job. Great job security, 100k + starting, and she works about 48 hours a week. With 1.5x overtime pay. If I could do everything over again, I probably would do that. My best friend's Dad growing up was a CRNA; most chill human being I've ever known and he was just filthy with money. Sounded like a cool job, too. As I write this post from law school, I'm seriously wishing I'd just done that instead. SprintingOnIce posted:Good god that seems ridiculous. Can you give a breakdown of how that works? It just makes no sense to me to jump through so many hoops just for an associate's (in nursing or otherwise) Seconded...this seems a bit long, although if it's a part-time program, it may make a bit more sense. thread posted:Stupid sister Normally, I'd be inclined to agree...but even her internet-savvy brother has had to resort to threads like these to figure these things out, as opposed to getting lost in spam-ladden "GET YU0R NURZING DEGREE ONL1NE" websites. So I don't entirely blame her, but thanks for the advice nonetheless! I hadn't even heard of a "CNA" before; just a matter of being completely removed from and ignorant of the nursing field.
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Dec 4, 2008 00:50
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Cool thread so far. I've known quite a few nurses myself. Three nurse friends I know of off the top of my head even graduated from the same college I did. One of those friends has been interested in travel nursing for a bit. Any thoughts about this? Where would you even begin to look for jobs in that kind of field?
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Dec 4, 2008 01:17
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Nursing student (well, almost) here. I finished my prereqs four years ago and have gotten dicked in my school's yearly lottery ever since, though I am 99% certain that I get automatically waitlisted this year if I'm not actually picked. Before people start asking why I haven't applied to other (much farther away) schools and poo poo like that, I've been at a good job that has allowed me to save up enough money so I don't have to worry about working for the two years I'll be learning the ropes of registered nursing. Waiting sucks though.  Is anyone else here working/interested in correctional nursing?
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Dec 4, 2008 01:56
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Nostalgia4Dogges fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Jul 19, 2016 |
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Dec 4, 2008 03:40
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Christoff posted:This might be a silly question. But once you get into a BSN program after busting out all your pre-reqs. How much schooling is it after that? 2 years? Bachelors has me thinking 4. But then that would be plus your pre-reqs as well. Because it seems ADN and BSN have almost the same requirements. Maybe BSN has just a bit more. How much school is the ADN program once you get accepted? For BSN almost all programs are six semesters, so three years, but some schools offer summer classes so you can get it done in two. That is just talking about the nursing classes themselves. For BSN you still have to do whatever lower/upper division requirements the university requires. I really think that most people's questions in this thread would be answered by going into google and typing in, "local university/community college name nursing program", they will all have FAQ and application information. freshmex fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Dec 5, 2008 |
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Dec 5, 2008 21:04
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I'm currently a nursing student(woo!) but I was wondering what jobs would be good for me to get on nights/weekends/etc while I have the time(my spring semester classes are pretty easy, and I need to earn some money in the new year). I figure that experience in a hospital setting will be useful down the line over working at Starbucks. What can I do in a hospital considering I don't have a degree in anything, and am basically the same as a high school graduate? Any idea? I figure nurse technician or a secretary? I have no idea really. (I'm in Boston if that helps any.)
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Dec 5, 2008 22:32
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BeeZee142 posted:I'm currently a nursing student(woo!) but I was wondering what jobs would be good for me to get on nights/weekends/etc while I have the time(my spring semester classes are pretty easy, and I need to earn some money in the new year). I figure that experience in a hospital setting will be useful down the line over working at Starbucks. What can I do in a hospital considering I don't have a degree in anything, and am basically the same as a high school graduate? Nurse's aide is traditional. The downside is that it really isn't much at all like real nursing. You'll get a chance to see interesting things and ask questions, but it's not the same. Everyone should work as a lifter/asswiper for a bit so that you have respect for those who do it every day, but you'll probably get enough of that in the beginning of nursing school anyway. I'd personally hold off and wait for an externship. It's better paying and more interesting. Another consideration is that health care tends to overwhelm people's lives. When I went to school I made a point of finding a job that had nothing to do with nursing. It meant that 20 hours a week I didn't deal with sick people. It was wonderful. I think if my life had been school, clinicals and working in a hospital I would have gone insane. I just tutored high school kids, made twice as much as I would have made as an aide and had an absolute blast.
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Dec 6, 2008 00:05
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