I am so upset!

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I know this has nothing to do with nursing, but I figured since you all have clinical and stuff there would be some relevance. I'm so supposed to be graduating in november and I'm about to start my externship sometime in september. School starts back on september 4th and we'll be a few weeks late starting our externship cause we have to wait for a site to be open. Well I found out a quarter or two ago that we don't get to pick our externship site, they pick a name randomly and we have to go wherever they send us. Their sending people to sites out of town, like Xenia, Cincinnati, Middletown, etc. Well at our meeting today I told the director of the surgical tech program that I don't have a car, I catch the bus and I won't be able to go to a site out of town. Basically in so many words she told me I'm out of luck. She asked me do the buses run early in the morning I told her yes and she said what if the bus break down. Well what if your own car breaks down. I've worked many jobs on the busline and was never late, always on time. Where in other cases I've seen people with cars that are always late. Then she asked if I could get someone to drive me. She said that's why they starting screening people to see if they had reliable transportation cause if they didn't have a car they would not have let them in the program. I am so pissed because how are you gonna stop someone from pursuing a degree because they don't have a car. I thought she would have been understanding of my situation. If that was the case, I guess a lot of people wouldn't be allowed in a program cause they have to catch the bus. I didn't go to school for two years, catching two buses across town everyday, taking four classes a night at times, making sacrifices, and paying out $20,000 just to be told to get to the clinical site the best way I can and I shouldn't have been allowed to pursue a degree in this field because I don't have a car. Now I don't know what's gonna happen, if I can't make it to whatever site they give me I will fail the program. I want to complain to someone about this, cause I don't think it's fair, and I think it's discrimination against people with no cars. Also I'm mad cause I let my nursing assistant certification expire thinking I'm be soon working as a scrub. Also I'm wondering should I just had went on I stuck with trying to go to school for nursing.

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Specializes in Trauma, MICU.

Sorry about your school! That sucks!!! I totally understand...when I started nursing school I too had to ride the bus. Very inconvenient, but totally necessary. Don't you just hate transferring??? :uhoh3: I didn't get to pick my site where I was going to do clinicals either. I lived in Centerville (Ohio) at the time, went to school in Kettering and was assigned to a Miamisburg clinical. I had no idea what I was going to do. However I was able to ride with a couple of other girls to the clinical site and on occasion my boyfriend (now hubby) had to take me.

You could always wait it out and see where you are assigned to and then see what you can do.

Where do you go to school at? I actually live in Dayton, Ohio also.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

That is a bad situation to be in. You shouldn't be punished because you don't have a car. Maybe you might have to bump it up the chain of comman and go over this persons head. Or advertsise to your fellow students that you need a ride.

Good luck in whatever happens. Hang in there.

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I go to shool at National College of Business and Technology in Kettering, Oh. Another thing that sucks is only one person can go to a site at a time, so car pooling is out of the question. Yeah I;m thinking about talking to the director of the school, or the clinical coordinator or whoever is over her.

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Now I don't know what's gonna happen, if I can't make it to whatever site they give me I will fail the program. I want to complain to someone about this, cause I don't think it's fair, and I think it's discrimination against people with no cars. Also I'm mad cause I let my nursing assistant certification expire thinking I'm be soon working as a scrub. Also I'm wondering should I just had went on I stuck with trying to go to school for nursing.
I'd be mad too.

By the way, this is most definitely about nursing--nursing school is part of nursing.

And there can be lots of different kinds of "discrimination," but against people without cars is probably not considered to be one of them (race, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, religion....)

I do have a few ideas.

One, you can get your NA certification reinstated--do you have your continuing ed course documentation? It should just be a matter of a late fee if it hasn't been too long.

If you are "poor" (don't be offended please, it's just too early for me to come up with a more PC word), you would be eligible for a kind of federally subsidized grant or scholarship that pays your tuition, books and fees plus a small monthly stipend. You are also guaranteed a job after you graduate--that's the other side of the coin, you do have to work in a hospital that, for whatever reason, has to write off a lot of their services to the poor and uninsured. Pretty much any big city has at least one--Dallas, for example, has four or five such qualifying hospitals.... Google nursing school scholarship and you'll find the site.

Another thing--you can indeed complain! While the school is not obligated to make changes for you, sometimes they will yield to pressure. Go to your Dean of Students. This is probably the most powerful person in the school for something like this.

I am assuming that this is an actual college and not a private "academy" that has been set up. $20,000 seems a lot for a state school (I think), so if I am wrong about it actually being a college or university, forgive me and ignore the last suggestion if they don't actually have a Dean of Students.

Good luck to you--

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Specializes in Neuro.

There's a girl in my class who doesn't know how to drive. Fortunately she has had friends in her clinical groups who have driven has to clinicals. She lives in Greene County, so the bus doesn't go anywhere but the base and WSU. We also start our preceptorship this fall and while I know some people will be at the same hospitals, not everyone will work the same schedule, so she's in a similar predicament.

Hopefully you'll get placed somewhere the bus goes and everything will work out okay. :-/

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Wow..I'm surprised they didn't "warn" students ahead of time that Clinical sites might be X amount of miles from school campus.

When I went for my interview, I was told straight out that clinicals could be as far as a 50 mile radius from campus. We were also told that we cannot request certain sites for clinicals and that if we relied on other students for transportation, they (the powers that be) could not and would not guarentee that we would be sent to the same clinical site as the student that we caught a ride with.

I doubt you could do anything about it saying its discrimination. People without cars don't fall under the catagory of reasons they can't discriminate (race, creed, religion, sexual orientation etc).

The best advice I have is try talking to the person in charge and explain your situation. I wish you the best.

Maybe someone in your class passes by where you go to clinical and can drop you off? Something to consider.

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Specializes in Adult and Pediatric Vascular Access, Paramedic.

sorry to hear you are having trouble, maybe a good reason to get a car/lisence.

Also as a surgical tech you will more than likely have to take some call time, which means you will need your own car.

Sweetooth

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Specializes in RN- Med/surg.

I'm sorry...but I'm going to argue the other point. Why should you get special treatment and get the in town assignment just because you've chosen not to own a car? I had 3 kids - and got through nursing school. We didn't get to pick our assignments...and it sucked paying daycare and driving sometimes 2 hours away for clinicals. But I did it. It was required..and I never got upset that they didn't consider the fact that I had kids when they made assignments.

There are obsticles in school and in life. I started my first RN job a month ago. A week after starting I was sent for mandantory training 3 hours away. I had to borrow money for gas to get there...because I couldn't afford to go before I'd even gotten a paycheck. But I did it. It was what was expected of me.

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Specializes in Urgent Care.
I'm sorry...but I'm going to argue the other point. Why should you get special treatment and get the in town assignment just because you've chosen not to own a car? I had 3 kids - and got through nursing school. We didn't get to pick our assignments...and it sucked paying daycare and driving sometimes 2 hours away for clinicals. But I did it. It was required..and I never got upset that they didn't consider the fact that I had kids when they made assignments.

There are obsticles in school and in life. I started my first RN job a month ago. A week after starting I was sent for mandantory training 3 hours away. I had to borrow money for gas to get there...because I couldn't afford to go before I'd even gotten a paycheck. But I did it. It was what was expected of me.

Unfortunately this is true. Everyone has their own issues about getting to their clinical sites. It would be nice however to be able to list say your top 3 choices of location, and have the instructors TRY to accomodate. We have students from all over, so some may be closer to certain hospitals than others. Also, you don't want to have all of your experiences at one place, you do want variety.

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To me, that is making a decision based on ego and common sense. The college is supposed to be preparing you to be a nurse, not preparing you to deal with all of the political BS that is in their program.

What will happen when you get out into the real world? You'll work at a hospital that is on a bus route.

Therefore, in large cities such as Chicago, and NY they should know that a large number of students may not have car, and there is no way I would buy a car just for the program...especially when public transportation is available.

Maybe the school should have better relationships with hospitals in the city to where they would be able to send more students.

Stick to your guns and go above someone's head. I think this is a REASONABLE accomodation to make...as I am sure there are some students that will get assigned to hospitals on the bus route that don't have a car, and you shouldn't get the short end of the stick b/c you didn't get your name "drawn" at the right time.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
I'm sorry...but I'm going to argue the other point. Why should you get special treatment and get the in town assignment just because you've chosen not to own a car? I had 3 kids - and got through nursing school. We didn't get to pick our assignments...and it sucked paying daycare and driving sometimes 2 hours away for clinicals. But I did it. It was required..and I never got upset that they didn't consider the fact that I had kids when they made assignments.

There are obsticles in school and in life. I started my first RN job a month ago. A week after starting I was sent for mandantory training 3 hours away. I had to borrow money for gas to get there...because I couldn't afford to go before I'd even gotten a paycheck. But I did it. It was what was expected of me.

I don't see what having kids has to do with the OP not having a car.

She isn't asking for special treatment. I don' think it's fair that she should have to drive out of town while others get to stay close to home.

A lot of people don't have cars and why are there busses if they are not a reasonable alternative transportation option?

I think the OP should ask her classmates if one of them would trade with her.

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