[mom2ethan]

Hi,

I'm just starting to embarq on a second career in nursing. I'm currently taking pre-reqs for the ADN program at FTCC and will apply in January and have some questions for those of you who are currently working in Fayetteville. I'm just going to type them all out in hopes that someone can help!

1. What specialty do you suggest and why?

2. Do you prefer working in the hospital, DR's office, home health and why?

3. Is it hard to get hired on with Cape Fear?

4. What kind of shifts do you usually work and do you have much control?-like do you work 3 days a week, 4, etc?

5. My biggest concern...what do you do with your children after school during a 12 hour shift? My son will start Kindergarten soon so I'm a little concerned about after school care when my husband is not home or deployed. Do you just make arrangements with a friend, sitter, etc? Can you adjust your schedule during that time to 8 hours? I know my stress is premature but I'm taking a leap here by going back to school (my Master's degree in Fayetteville has been worthless--sad to say I can make more and have more career progression as an RN) and I just want to be sure I know what I'm getting into.

Thats all I can think of now! Thanks in advance to anyone who responds!

[Sebastiansmom09]

Hi mom2ethan! I don't live in Fayetteville any longer, but I grew up in a nearby community and also went to FTCC (for radiography) some years ago. I am however a nursing student and can try to answer some of your questions...

1. I really don't suggest any specialty of nursing, because I think you will find out which area of nursing is for you when you either rotate through your clinicals or if you are predisposed to a particular area of interest. Ex: Me personally, I love women's health. I've always loved women's health since I was a kid. I may find my niche to be OB or working for a GYN. I don't know for sure because I have yet to rotate through my OB clinicals. I have gone through one clinical rotation at the nursing home and two med-surg. clinicals. I have since realized that geriatrics is NOT my specialty, but I highly enjoy med-surg.

2. So far, I prefer the hospital. I like the pace of the hospital and the different kinds of patient problems I come across in the hospital. I know I am not interested in home health care because I don't want to go to different people's homes and not to mention the clientele for home health care is largely geriatric. As a nursing student, we will not get to rotate through a doctor's office as a clinical. I can't say I would be interested in working at a doctor's office because I think I would get really bored, really fast, (unless it was plastic surgery and I got to observe surgical procedures or something ).

3. I'm not sure if it would be hard to get hired at Cape Fear. When I was a radiography student, we had clinicals at Cape Fear, Highsmith-Rainey (downtown Fayetteville, I think they merged with Cape Fear and are called something else now), and the VA Hospital. From what I understand, it would not be too extremely difficult to get hired at any of the area hospital's upon graduation and getting your license. It may help to get letters of recommendation from your nursing instructors to submit to the hospital with your resume. It may also help in the hiring process if you worked there as a nurse's aide (PCA, or Nurse Tech) while in school?

4. I'm not working yet, but the hospital I am doing clinical's at is very flexible as far as scheduling. Schedule's are done monthly and there are always nurses willing to switch days with other nurses if they have a scheduling situation. Ex: the nurse that let me know this, works 2 12hr shifts and 2 8hr shifts a week this month. She doesn't have young children anymore but she said she enjoys working at this facility because of the scheduling flexibility.

5. My answer to this question is sorta tied into my answer to question #4.

I'm sorry to hear your degree is not lucrative in little ol'e Fayetteville. I can tell you once I get my degree I plan to move back to NC. If not in Fayetteville somewhere close, like Fuquay or a smaller city/town outside of Charlotte. My parents are still in Spring Lake on the Harnett County side, and everytime come home I hate leaving.

All the best to you and I hope my post helps. I'm sorry it's not all first hand info. I check the NC nurses forum every now and then and it's nice to see someone ask about Fayetteville instead of Raleigh and Charlotte.

[mom2ethan]

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I'm really looking forward to starting this new career path. The more I think about it the more excited I get. I've come to learn there are SO many possibilities and opportunites out there with nursing.

Thanks again!!

[aguirre]

Hi there,

I can relate to you, I also have a small child and worry about after school care if you are working a 12 hr shift.

I am told that Cape Fear has a daycare that opens at 6a.m. and closes around 9p.m.
They also have weekend care that is a seperate cost. I believe it is $40 a day. I know that if you are working the weekend they ask for a copy of your schedule. Just to verify that it is true. (I suppose in the past people would drop kids off just to have a free day)

I believe most of the floors have self scheduling and will probably work with you.

Lots of Luck.

[mom2ethan]

I'll have to check into that. I stress way too easy and worry way too much! I'm sure plenty of nurses have children and it all works out.
Childcare wouldn't even be an issue if it weren't for the military. Unfortunately, I can never depend on my husband's schedule. I'm sure everything will work out!

Thanks for the info!

[LFAYE98]

Hello!

I am also in Fayetteville and a military wife. I am also applying to FTCC in January - looks like we are competition I have finished up my pre-reqs except for micro, which I am taking this Fall. I am also retaking A&P I to boost up my GPA a little. Maybe we will see each other around!

Best of luck to the both of us! I just hate having to wait until Fall 2009 to start - if I get in, of course.

[mom2ethan]

Hi! Nice to meet you!

I am taking Micro right now and so far it's been pretty easy...Much easier than A&P I. I'm taking CIS113 this Fall (which is still because I know a great deal about computers) but I need the points for admission so I'm goin to "suck it up" and take it anyway. I need to take A&P II but they aren't offering it in the fall so I will likely take it in the spring and it won't even count then. Hopefully I will have enough points to get in, we shall see!

I really hate to have to wait around to start to but it will actually probably be better for me. My son will start Kindergarten next August so daycare will be one less expense I would have. Do you have children? I work full-time and am taking night classes but once nursing school starts I'll be quitting me job I can't wait!!

Casey

Originally Posted by LFAYE98

Hello!

I am also in Fayetteville and a military wife. I am also applying to FTCC in January - looks like we are competition I have finished up my pre-reqs except for micro, which I am taking this Fall. I am also retaking A&P I to boost up my GPA a little. Maybe we will see each other around!

Best of luck to the both of us! I just hate having to wait until Fall 2009 to start - if I get in, of course.

[LFAYE98]

Hi Casey,

Nice to meet you too!

You know, I think that the A&P II will count as long as you are taking it during the application period. The counselor I talked to at Bragg said that the classes could be counted on the application, but I don't know how they could determine the points???

I am a mom and working full time too. I have three kids, and my smallest started Kindergarten last year. I still don't know how I will manage nursing classes and clinicals with my husband's unpredictable schedule, but will make it work somehow. BTW, I hear Womack just made an agreement with FTCC to be a clinical site for students! I would much rather travel to Bragg than like Cape Fear, so I am excited to hear that!

I can't wait to stop working too! I know the feeling Have you guys been here at Bragg for long? We just PCS'd here in May from Fort Lewis in WA and am trying to adjust!

Take care!

Lisa

[mom2ethan]

What I was told was that they would notate that you're enrolled in it but you cannot get any points towards admissions because it's not complete. All you get points for are the classes (on the list) completed prior to applying for admission.

I know how you feel about the hubby's schedule. I'm not terribly concerned about clinicals because they should all be during the day and my son will just have to do prime time if I cant pick him up. IF they run later I will have to figure something out. I'm determined to do this so I figure I'll find a way to make it work.

I hadn't heard about doing clinicals at Womack. I dont know which would actually be closer to me. I live up Raeford Rd so it's probably actually a better drive to Womack than to Cape Fear so that will be interesting to find out about.

Where do you work? I work on post now at the Soldier Support Center. I have two other degrees but am not happy with my job or my salary so I've decided to go back to pursue nursing. I cant wait and wish I'd have done that right from the get go.

We've been here for about 4 1/2 years. We were here back in 1999 and then left to go overseas. It's not my ideal place to live (we're from Atlanta) but we're pretty use to it. I like Fort Bragg (notice I didn't say Fayetteville) and have kinda just gotten use to being here. I figure it could be worse!!

Casey

[mrsgibson]

Originally Posted by mom2ethan

Hi,

I'm just starting to embarq on a second career in nursing. I'm currently taking pre-reqs for the ADN program at FTCC and will apply in January and have some questions for those of you who are currently working in Fayetteville. I'm just going to type them all out in hopes that someone can help!

1. What specialty do you suggest and why?

2. Do you prefer working in the hospital, DR's office, home health and why?

3. Is it hard to get hired on with Cape Fear?

4. What kind of shifts do you usually work and do you have much control?-like do you work 3 days a week, 4, etc?

5. My biggest concern...what do you do with your children after school during a 12 hour shift? My son will start Kindergarten soon so I'm a little concerned about after school care when my husband is not home or deployed. Do you just make arrangements with a friend, sitter, etc? Can you adjust your schedule during that time to 8 hours? I know my stress is premature but I'm taking a leap here by going back to school (my Master's degree in Fayetteville has been worthless--sad to say I can make more and have more career progression as an RN) and I just want to be sure I know what I'm getting into.

Thats all I can think of now! Thanks in advance to anyone who responds!

Hey, I'm fairly new to Fayetteville. We got here in March. I hope to answer some of your questions.
1) I think you could better figure this out once you start school and get into clinicals. I thought I would love peds and it turns out that I really didn't enjoy that too much!

2) I've only worked in a hospital and assisted living. I prefer the hospital just because I think you get the best experience there. I was told to do the hospital for at least one year just to get experience and then if you want to try something else after that, then go for it.

3) About a month after we got here, I started putting in applications. I put in my application with Cape Fear on a Sunday and they called me the next day to schedule an interview and then I had my interview that Thursday and was officially hired less than a week later. They are in high demand for anything patient care related. So I'd say I don't think it's that hard. And I don't even have that much experience. As soon as we knew we were coming here, I knew that was where I wanted to work and I was happy to get there. I've heard a lot of negative things about the place (and I've seen some not so great things) but you'll have that anywhere.

4) I work 12 hour shifts. And at Cape Fear ppl usually do a track schedule so it's the same thing every two weeks. You work Monday and Tuesday, then off Wed. and Thursday, then work Fri, Sat and Sun. Then the next week you're off Mon. and Tues., work Wed. and Thurs. and off Fri. Sat and Sun. But they also have a weekend program where you just work Sat. and Sunday and that's still considered full time. That's the program that I'm going to be working.

5) That was my main concern. As someone else said, Cape Fear has it's own childcare center. I don't use them but I hear that they are great. I found a really good babysitter that's understanding of my job and my husband's (Army). I'd suggest asking your co-workers what they do for childcare. I actually found my babysitter on Craigslist but I definitely made sure she had good references, etc. I know that some managers may be willing to adjust your schedule but that' something you'd have to talk to them about.

Hope I helped