help for my student

Nurses Career Support

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I am a special education teacher in an inner city school district. I have a student who has her heart set on being a nurse but she is going to graduate on IEP goals instead of course credits and this limits her options as far as getting into a college. What I have did in the past in these situations is talked with the student about what exactly is appealing about the career and then based on this I try to find something similar. I am careful not to crush any dreams and I am hoping to come up with an alternative that she will still be excited about but that won't require college. She wants to be a nurse because she wants to help people and she wants to work in the medical field. Can anyone help me come up with related careers for her to research? Thank you

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There are all sorts of allied health careers out there. My hospital that I worked at had a special program for high school students to come in and volunteer. That way they got to see all the parts of the hospital, work on different tasks, and get a feel for what is available out there. She could try to get a job as a Patient Care Tech (sometime called a nursing assistant). I would recommend what I did.... go to community college where the pressure is much less and it gave me time to sort out what I wanted to do while I took my core requirements.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

What about becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant?

Do vocational technical schools take those students. Some voc.tech schools have LPN programs, after which she can move up to RN and on and on.

But the CNA might be a good place to start. Some programs don't even require a high school diploma.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

How cool that you are helping this young lady. I also think a CNA would be a great place to start and some nursing programs even require that before they will accept someone. Most hospitals and nursing homes offer good benefits also. If she can get online there is a nursing assistant board here that she might enjoy. Wish her our very best and let us know if we can help.

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In addition to CNA (the obvious first thought), what about phlebotomist?

There are also lots of "tech" jobs in hospitals that don't involve direct client care or much education, but are still vital to the process of "helping people" -- dietary, equipment sterilization/processing, etc.

Kudos to her, and to you, for going "above and beyond" to be supportive of your students!! :balloons:

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Specializes in ER/ICU, CCL, EP.

Let me first state that you are a terrific teacher. My son is a 14 year old IEP student, and I wish you were his teacher :)

Having said that, she can get a job as a patient care tech. Most community colleges have 'remedial' classes that can get her up to speed to go to nursing school. If she has the ability, the community college route will get her there.

Good luck, and keep up the awesome work.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

I second the comments about her going and trying for nursing assistance training. In my state, North Carolina, it is not a requirement to have a high school diploma.

That said, they do have to pass an entrance reading test - for comprehension. A nursing assistant is a critical part of the health care team and they have to be able to function at a certain levels emotionally, physically and intellectually.

It never hurts to try!

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Specializes in critical care and LTC.

I think you have to take in her maximal potential and how far she is able to push herself. Nursing school is hard but that doesn't mean she cannot do it. There are lots of different health care area's she could go into. LPN programs are really hands on and that may be very good for her but you still need to know the book stuff too. But C students pass boards and make excellent nurses also. Maybe she could job shadow an LPN or a medical assistant or phlebotomist. Good luck to your student!

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Thank you so much for the posts. Today we sat down and looked at job descriptions for both a CNA and a Phlebotomist. She was very interested in both and she was taking notes on them. I could tell it breathed new life into her to see options.

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