[Tweety]

Thanks to Daytonite for the following information.

Great links in helping you to decide if nursing is the career for you.

• http://www.learnandbecome.com/nursing_career_quiz/1/ - a quiz to take to find out if nursing is the right career for you
• http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/majors_careers/45263.html - "Ten Questions to Ask Yourself" about any career and if it might be right for you

You also need to learn as much about the profession of nursing that you can. There are several websites that were set up to do just this:

• http://www.discovernursing.com/
• http://www.choosenursing.com/
• http://www.gem-nursing.org/

These are information pages from the U.S. Department of Labor on what an RN and LPN do:

• http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm - about Registered Nursing
• http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos102.htm - about LPN nursing

And, finally, here is an official listing of the RN and LPN schools in your state. Find the ones close to you and contact them for information about their nursing programs. Most of them should have websites where you can also get information.

• http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3143&q=388916 - LPN programs
• http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3143&q=388918 - RN programs

Whatever you decide, good luck to you.

[Ro1184]

Wow!!! Ive been in my bed for the past 3hrs reading on these websites... Its very informative. Thanks for posting this information for everyone to view!

[katgirl761]

I'm thinking of going into an LPN program but have a fear of doing IV's and wonder if that is something that many in this field have felt and have overcome. Thanks.

[♪♫ in my ♥]

Here's another useful link for folks interested in BSN, MSN, or PhD/DNP programs:

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/n.../nep_index.htm - List of Nursing Programs from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing

This site includes lists of baccalaureate and graduate programs. It has separate lists of accelerated programs and also lists LVN->BSN, RN->BSN, and RN->MSN programs.

[Mister Chris]

Wow! tweety you are a gem. I have been away for some time and now though older still enjoy nursing.
I was originally trained as a surveyor in the building industry but circumstances (recession in building) led to down grade of the work available and me so I began looking for something else.
The only job available being an assistant nurse in the local hospital! I took it and was invited to go to the psychiatric hospital and do my 3 year training! A Mental Nurse. Since then I have qualified in many other nursing areas including General and Paediatrics and Aged care. Now I have been nursing for nearly 40 years. So after 3 operations and now over 65 years of age enjoy working with a multidiciplinary rehabilitation team in a medium secure mental health unit. Nursing? It is what you make out of it. You have to give to receive, be a giver!
Hugs, smiles and kisses from Mister Chris.

[mckad4]

Originally Posted by katgirl761

I'm thinking of going into an LPN program but have a fear of doing IV's and wonder if that is something that many in this field have felt and have overcome. Thanks.

DID you ever start this program?? I have the same concern. I have been a secretary for over 20 years now and want to start a new career...and am looking towards a ADN degree....but I have always felt uneasy of needles. Everyone says I can work through it....but THEY aren't nurses! Any comments from anyone out there?? I'd love to hear stories...good or bad. Thanks much.

[Merced]

Originally Posted by katgirl761

I'm thinking of going into an LPN program but have a fear of doing IV's and wonder if that is something that many in this field have felt and have overcome. Thanks.

I relate, so I will share based on my own experience:
I am pretty squeamish, and a partial reason for my going into nursing was to overcome that - which it did, and that was a good thing.

On the other hand, once I learned how to do IVs, after I had mastered that skill, I never did like it. I was not excellent at finding and entering veins, and I had a hard time with conscious patients, who I felt were experiencing pain because I was not as skillful as some others.

I am not one to give up, or acknowledge that I am just not meant to be doing certain things. I finally learned the hard way. I was irrigating a blocked PIC line, which had I not been so nervous (this was a dying AIDS patient, in his home), I should have aspirated. The tubing came apart & splashed blood on me. It took that dramatic event to get me to realize that, for a time at least, I should not do IVs or blood draws.

So, my advice is to be conscious and honest (with yourself at least) that this is something that is not your forte. Try not to let your pride or willingness to pull your weight, go too far.
Honesty & humility may be some keywords for this issue - they certainly were for me.

[MissKitty345]

I was looking into Long Beach City College's program for LVN, but I have some concerns. I want to be a nurse, but I think that somehow I will be infected with AIDS or some STD or herpes or anything. I want to know if any nurses that are retired or have been working a long time, how they avoided catching anything from patients other than the flu. Other than this I really would like to try the LVN program and eventually the LVN-RN program bridge. Any thoughts?

[Merced]

Originally Posted by MissKitty345

I was looking into Long Beach City College's program for LVN, but I have some concerns. I want to be a nurse, but I think that somehow I will be infected with AIDS or some STD or herpes or anything. I want to know if any nurses that are retired or have been working a long time, how they avoided catching anything from patients other than the flu. Other than this I really would like to try the LVN program and eventually the LVN-RN program bridge. Any thoughts?

When your job is taking care of sick people, there are risks related to your own health. Few experienced nurses don't have back problems, for example.
OTOH, our training prepares us to be aware, and "universal precautions" is an excellent principle which didn't exist when I started.

I read once that nursing as an occupation was more dangerous than Construction work, and that the only more dangerous profession was mining

I have been blessed with good health, and didn't go in with that concern, however, I am afraid of radiation, and one time as a nursing student, I was assigned to care for a patient with a radium implant, and everyone was strictly limited to the time they spent with her. I was afraid, and might have tried to get out of it, but the other nurse was pregnant, so I tried to deal with my fear.
When I went in the darkened room to empty the radioactive urine from her Foley, and a few other tasks, my fear left me because she was so quiet, and I just felt it was her & me, and I felt a connection with her, just as a person. I was the nurse, I had a job to do, and I preferred to do it while feeling for her, than just getting out quickly.

Nursing does that for you - it makes you grow, and get to know yourself, the good, bad and ugly. Sort of like life - is it always worth it, to have your main goal as safety? I don't think so.

Now I have a job as a Health Facility evaluator, which I would have thought carried a very low likelihood of being exposed to anything more than the bugs my coworkers carry - but I caught a Norovirus at a facility with an outbreak. Oh well, it gave me a few days off.

[NatashaFromOregon]

Thanks for the GREAT links!