Government jobs?

[Medsport, LPN]

I've been an LPN in at a jail for a little over a year. It can get hectic, but I like it better than the nursing home. Problem is I'm still at 80%. A co-worker just got a job at a mental health facility and she said the pay is very good (more like RN pay around here). There may be a chance that I can get her job now and be full-time (as long as I do better this month on probation). But I just did some quick figuring and even with 40 hours a week there and every other Sat. at the nursing home, I'll be coming up a little short when I figure in my student loan payment, which is about as much as some new car payments. I've been deferring it, but I know every time you do that it will raise your payment by a few dollars when you finally do start paying it back. It looks like going back to school is out of the question as I don't think I could do the reg. classes and clinicals and still work FT+. btw, my company will reimburse for that but not for on-line classes like the college network. Anyway that got my thinking about looking into gov. jobs and it looks like they do pay very well and have good benefits. I only found a couple prison postings for LPN's, but they are too far away, a good 3-4 hour drive. My co-worker said the place she just got into is still hiring, but I could'nt find a posting. There are quite a few postings for nurse 1 positions that pay extremely well, but It looks like you must be an RN, but I'm not sure. One of them is about a 2 hour drive away, which may almost be doable, at least until I can move. Any of you have knowledge of how to apply for government jobs? Here is what one of the postings have for qualifications:

Requires current licensure as registered professional nurse in state of Ohio as issued by Board of Nursing per Section 4723.03 of Ohio Revised Code; 6 mos. exp. as registered nurse.

-Or requires current licensure as registered professional nurse in state of Ohio as issued by Board of Nursing per Section 4723.03 of Ohio Revised Code; 6 mos. exp. as licensed practical nurse or certified paramedic.

Pursuant to District 1199 Bargaining Unit Agreement effective June 1, 2003, in order to more effectively recruit Nurse 1's (65512), Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction only & District 1199 agree to waive minimum qualifications for this classification, which calls for employee to have 6 mos. exp. working as a registered nurse.

-Or equivalent of Minimum Class Qualifications for Employment noted above may be substituted for the experience required, but not for the mandated licensure.

What do you guys think? In the last part, it almost sounds like you can get the position if you have the experience needed for that position, but not the licence, but I'm not sure. it does say 6 months exp. as an LPN after the ; from the bargaining unit. Can you guys make sense of it and if it would be worth it to try to apply?

[r0b0tafflicti0n]

I can't answer your original question, but have you looked into consolodating your student loans? Mine were reduced from $450 to $260 by that alone.

Good luck!

[Medsport, LPN]

I already did that before I started paying on them. The bigger gov. loan is in the $250 range and the other one I could'nt include because it was from a private company is only around $60, but both are for around 20 years. It sucks that int. is just over 7% when just a few years ago it was around 2%. It would really help if Obama could lower it and I could refinance them. I guess they are not "that" bad if I could at least get rid of most of the credit card bills. I had planned on paying those down while my loans were in deferment, but I lost my 3rd job a couple months ago and they are'nt allowing any OT at my main job. Plus it looks like it will take several years to pay them down. If I could just make a couple hundred more dollars a month I would be in the black and could at least start to make some headway. I've been looking at ways to cut back too. I guess if I "had" to I could always cancel the cable which is expensive here even for the basic. As a last resort I could also check into refinancing the house, but I've been here 11 years now and hate the thoughts of starting over, plus it usually cost a couple grand in closing costs. I think I would have to include my home equity loan in it and thought about possibly selling the house and then I probably would'nt get enough out of it to cover both loans. Plus the house needs a lot of work, mostly painting, ceiling and roof work. At least the insurance is paying a big chunk of the roof which they are supposed to start tommorrow, but I will have to come up with around $500 to finish it, which is'nt that bad I guess when its 4-5k to do the whole thing.