Refresher course starts tomorrow

Nurses Retired

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Hello every one! I am new to the site. I graduated from nursing school many years ago, took state boards and then stayed home to raise my kids. I have decided to reactivate my RN liscence and the class starts tomorrow. I go back and forth between excited :wink2:and scared to death:confused:! I am glad I found this site and I am encourage to see I am not the only one returning to school!

Specializes in L&D,surgery,med/surg,ER,alzheimers.

Oh...one more thing. Is there any way to get financial aid? Do any hospitals foot the bill for refresher courses as a sign-on bonus type thing? I do not have money for uniforms or shoes or anything.

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Oh...one more thing. Is there any way to get financial aid? Do any hospitals foot the bill for refresher courses as a sign-on bonus type thing? I do not have money for uniforms or shoes or anything.

what happened to you? I am not sure that you do not have money for uniforms or shoes or anything.

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Specializes in L&D,surgery,med/surg,ER,alzheimers.

I am not used to having to defend myself here....but I am disabled and live on a tiny SSDI check each month. It is small because I was a stay at home mom for more years than I was in the workforce so I did not have enough "points" to get a full SSDI check when I was disabled with Bipolar Disorder. I have 4 kids and 4 grandkids and in this economy, some of them need help. I have 2 daughters who are ill with BD. I am doing better now and want to go back to work.

So, dear, you may rest assured that I am quite poor. I guess you live in a world where everyone can buy anything they need. How nice that must be for you.

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Hi Phlox:

Shoes and uniforms are not that expensive. But you would also have to get (about $80 per year) and I had to pay for a physical and all of my immunization titers (which was the largest of the expense) In a better economy (even a couple of years ago), hospitals would contract with refresher programs and pay at least a portion of tuition, but I don't think that will happen in this economy. Jobs are very hard to come by and employers simply don't need to do that in order to find employees.

Perhaps there are scholarships that you could apply for, and since you are disabled, there might be benefits through social security???

Don't give up hope. Life is simply too short.

Good luck to you. (For the record, I took a huge gamble paying for my refresher course and related expenses, but I have never been sorry)

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Specializes in L&D,surgery,med/surg,ER,alzheimers.

Thanks JustKaren2. I'm in Texas and I am going to check and see what the Houston Med Center (which is a large group well-known Hospitals located together in Houston) has to offer in the way of sign ons, perhaps paying for the classes. In the 90s, they had $10,000-20,000. sign on bonus plus all the other benefits and perks, the hospitals courted the nurses...those were the days. There are still jobs here (I hear). So I am going to investigate. I will look for scholarshops, strange ones even.

I will get my ducks in a row.

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That is really good news that you live in Texas. I'm in California. I was told by recruiters, that if I would be willing to move to Texas, they would be able to find me a job. Luckily, I found a very good job here in So. California (definitely God's work), so a move was not necessary....

The whole process was very scary (I had been out for 15 years), but definitely, definitely worth facing my fears.

You can do this if you want it badly enough. It won't be easy, but you can do it!!!

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.

phlox, take a few goats to market/or auction, buy your uniforms from scrubsdepot.com or shopmedvet.com, they have some for 3.99...... honest..look on ebay, some good gently used scrubs etc....... look into nurse internships, at some of the larger hospitals, Memorial Baptist system has them....call phes.com refresher course folks, if you did not have displ. action against your lis. you can do most of the didactic by corespondance dvds, post test etc....there is a way.... by the way I had 2 farms and a ton on animals, raising paint gaited horses goats, and the whole "sh'bang" You can do it.... look into LTC a lot going on there with us aging baby boomers......... soc.security may have funding to facilitate back to work efforts "grants etc." give them a call... I did it, you can to !!!!:yeah:

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Does anyone know any good refresher courses in Los Angeles and also IV Certification classes?

Thanks!

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Specializes in L&D,surgery,med/surg,ER,alzheimers.
phlox, take a few goats to market/or auction, buy your uniforms from scrubsdepot.com or shopmedvet.com, they have some for 3.99...... honest..look on ebay, some good gently used scrubs etc....... look into nurse internships, at some of the larger hospitals, Memorial Baptist system has them....call phes.com refresher course folks, if you did not have displ. action against your lis. you can do most of the didactic by corespondance dvds, post test etc....there is a way.... by the way I had 2 farms and a ton on animals, raising paint gaited horses goats, and the whole "sh'bang" You can do it.... look into LTC a lot going on there with us aging baby boomers......... soc.security may have funding to facilitate back to work efforts "grants etc." give them a call... I did it, you can to !!!!:yeah:

Thanks, Sally, for the detailed answer. I am presently ready to sell most of the livestock and free myself up. I am looking into turning our Ag Exemption to a Wildlife Exemption. I need to get my Texas ID and then try to renew my Drivers license. I also have epilepsy but have not had seizures in years so I can renew. I have not driven in over 10 years.

I do not have any disaplinary action against my license, I simply voluntarily quit working when I was diagnosed with bipolar and Left Temporal Lobe Epilespsy from a closed head injury. I am well controlled on meds which I always take as ordered.

I was already so stressed and so depressed and then overwhelmed with the diagnoses 14 years ago that I just caved in and could not go on.

I have to be sure now that this isn't mania kicking me into gear and that this is really me ready and able to do this (re-enter nursing). I did join this forum long enough ago though to know that I really want to do this. It is not some wild hair unless I get this same wild hair periodically and over the space of some time. Bipolar gives your such altered realities that it is hard to tell which is the real one.

So I have to take time to be sure.

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Finished my clinical hours this week at a local hospital. Met some awesome nurses and they were very encouraging. I only have praise for the re-entry program that I attended though the local community college. Just have to file all my paperwork and then the hard part---finding a job. :D:D:D

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Oh my goodness! A local hospital just hired me today! I cannot believe it! They actually hired me!

Now I'm scared to death! I finished my refresher program in November and I already feel like I forgot everything that I 'refreshed'

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.

heehee, I just love progress........ girlie, when you start working, the routine, will reinforce what you "refreshed" which is what you know anyway......... CONGRATS>!!!!!!! welcome back:yeah:

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