[Mini RANT] Crappy Vocational Rehab Counselor Refuses to Approve of me being in Nursing

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Mar 24, 2016

A sonographer is a good choice you are paid as much sometimes more than an RN and you have much better working conditions. You only take care of one patient at a time have a defined job whereas as a nurse you must juggle many patients and are expected to do everybody elses job on top of yours, but no one else can do your job. Frankly I think sonographers have a better quality of life for as good if not better pay. You are hands on can work at doctor offices and have a regular job with weekends and holidays off which is not the case for many nurses! Personally I think you are spared the strain on your back and body from moving people as well.

Could you be a nurse probably, would you be happy as a nurse, that is less likely. Nursing has a high burnout rate with lots of turnover and even nurses who quit nursing entirely due to the high stress and bad working conditions. If I had it to do all over again I would consider being a sonographer. I'm sure many others would agree.

All I've said so far doesn't even bring in your hearing loss. Yes we have a nurse that has hearing problems and uses a special amplified stethoscope to hear. As a floor nurse you need to hear lung, heart and abd sounds. Do you read lips? Do you have a cochlear implant? I don't think being hearing impaired would stop you from being a nurse and others that have quit probably did so over the high stress and poor working conditions.

To get the better nursing jobs you need at least a BSN these days and some acute care experience first. Or perhaps even going back to be come a NP.

My advice be open to other jobs especially sonographer do some research. If you read allnurses regularly you can see for yourself the frustration and angst on all the vent threads. I'm resigned to my situation and am just looking forward to retirement, the younger ones see the reality of bedside nursing and go back for their NP. I don't have the time and money to do that, but I fear one making it to retirement in one piece without injuring my back or body permanently due to the insane lifting requirements without adequate lift equipment when you get patients that can weigh 300 to 500 plus pounds and the foley free environment, plus we have alarms going off non stop, heart alarms, bed alarms and call lights. I don't know if you could hear them, but even if you could I'm sure they are damaging to everybody's hearing and I wonder how many of us are going to end up needing hearing aides from the damage of all the alarms we are subjected to! Really being a nurse is not all that great! You could have a wonderful life, great paycheck and working conditions as a sonographer, just something to consider. I didn't know anything about this wonderful and great paying job when I went into nursing and I wish I had!

PS I went into nursing to help others and use my brain while making a living wage. Yes you can help others and I have some wonderful memories, but I'm not sure that it was worth the toll it has taken and is still taking on my back and body. The constant alarms are well known to raise blood pressure and I am struggling with high blood pressure on several meds to control it, struggle with migraines that the stress of a bad night will almost invariably mean I will have one by the end of the shift! I'm on meds to deal with my stress, anxiety and frustration of the working conditions as well and honestly don't feel I would need to take these meds if I had a regular job! I have seen too many coworkers living in constant back pain from the lifting requirements needing epidurals and sometimes surgery and still having chronic back pain. I've witnessed a few poor souls who ended up on disability from neck and back injuries at work. It is a scary feeling to know that for the grace of God it could just as easily be me! Also a friend got stuck by an overfull needle box and had to take AZT to prevent HIV because their was no way to know who the needle was from and if they had HIV or Hep C and other nurses have been stuck by a needle with someone with Hep C. I even had a Hep C scare of body fluid splash to my eye from a patient dying of liver failure from Hep C. It took a long time to get up the courage to be tested and find out if I had contracted it. Thankfully I'm ok! I honestly don't think this job is worth the toll it takes on your body and the risks you take. There have been nurses in Canada who died taking care of SARS patients without adequate equipment and likewise nurses who have died taking care of EBOLA patients and two in the US who were sickened and may now have ongoing health problems.

Really I think your vocational rehab counselor is doing you a favor by asking you to consider other jobs. You can specialize as a sonagrapher echo for heart, or abd or veins, arteries or baby monitoring. It is a safe, well paying specialty, don't reject it without considering it first!

dishes, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2016

There is an article on AN about nursing students and nurses with hearing loss by Donna Maheady

https://allnurses.com/nurses-with-disabilities/nursing-with-a-1001953.html

OCNRN63, RN · Mar 24, 2016

It's not just the profound hearing loss, either. If you're legally blind, will you be able to see to safely do your job? Would you be able to distinguish subtle changes in the patient's skin color; if the patient is developing a rash from a drug or disease? Would you be able to see to draw up medications accurately? See to start an IV?

You would be needing major accommodations just for your hearing loss. Add to that your vision issues, and I agree with llg: I think you should try to pursue a different avenue of healthcare that wouldn't require so many major adaptations.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Mar 25, 2016

How correctable is your hearing? How correctable is your vision? How profound is your hearing loss? Are you able to speak clearly and have conversations with minimal accommodations?

Do you have the academic background to qualify for nursing school?

dishes, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2016

Check/join the website exceptionalnurse com, the information there may help you prepare for your upcoming meeting with your vocational rehab counselor.

morte, LPN, LVN · Mar 25, 2016

A sonographer is a good choice you are paid as much sometimes more than an RN and you have much better working conditions. You only take care of one patient at a time have a defined job whereas as a nurse you must juggle many patients and are expected to do everybody elses job on top of yours, but no one else can do your job. Frankly I think sonographers have a better quality of life for as good if not better pay. You are hands on can work at doctor offices and have a regular job with weekends and holidays off which is not the case for many nurses! Personally I think you are spared the strain on your back and body from moving people as well.
Could you be a nurse probably, would you be happy as a nurse, that is less likely. Nursing has a high burnout rate with lots of turnover and even nurses who quit nursing entirely due to the high stress and bad working conditions. If I had it to do all over again I would consider being a sonographer. I'm sure many others would agree.
All I've said so far doesn't even bring in your hearing loss. Yes we have a nurse that has hearing problems and uses a special amplified stethoscope to hear. As a floor nurse you need to hear lung, heart and abd sounds. Do you read lips? Do you have a cochlear implant? I don't think being hearing impaired would stop you from being a nurse and others that have quit probably did so over the high stress and poor working conditions.
To get the better nursing jobs you need at least a BSN these days and some acute care experience first. Or perhaps even going back to be come a NP.
My advice be open to other jobs especially sonographer do some research. If you read allnurses regularly you can see for yourself the frustration and angst on all the vent threads. I'm resigned to my situation and am just looking forward to retirement, the younger ones see the reality of bedside nursing and go back for their NP. I don't have the time and money to do that, but I fear one making it to retirement in one piece without injuring my back or body permanently due to the insane lifting requirements without adequate lift equipment when you get patients that can weigh 300 to 500 plus pounds and the foley free environment, plus we have alarms going off non stop, heart alarms, bed alarms and call lights. I don't know if you could hear them, but even if you could I'm sure they are damaging to everybody's hearing and I wonder how many of us are going to end up needing hearing aides from the damage of all the alarms we are subjected to! Really being a nurse is not all that great! You could have a wonderful life, great paycheck and working conditions as a sonographer, just something to consider. I didn't know anything about this wonderful and great paying job when I went into nursing and I wish I had!
PS I went into nursing to help others and use my brain while making a living wage. Yes you can help others and I have some wonderful memories, but I'm not sure that it was worth the toll it has taken and is still taking on my back and body. The constant alarms are well known to raise blood pressure and I am struggling with high blood pressure on several meds to control it, struggle with migraines that the stress of a bad night will almost invariably mean I will have one by the end of the shift! I'm on meds to deal with my stress, anxiety and frustration of the working conditions as well and honestly don't feel I would need to take these meds if I had a regular job! I have seen too many coworkers living in constant back pain from the lifting requirements needing epidurals and sometimes surgery and still having chronic back pain. I've witnessed a few poor souls who ended up on disability from neck and back injuries at work. It is a scary feeling to know that for the grace of God it could just as easily be me! Also a friend got stuck by an overfull needle box and had to take AZT to prevent HIV because their was no way to know who the needle was from and if they had HIV or Hep C and other nurses have been stuck by a needle with someone with Hep C. I even had a Hep C scare of body fluid splash to my eye from a patient dying of liver failure from Hep C. It took a long time to get up the courage to be tested and find out if I had contracted it. Thankfully I'm ok! I honestly don't think this job is worth the toll it takes on your body and the risks you take. There have been nurses in Canada who died taking care of SARS patients without adequate equipment and likewise nurses who have died taking care of EBOLA patients and two in the US who were sickened and may now have ongoing health problems.
Really I think your vocational rehab counselor is doing you a favor by asking you to consider other jobs. You can specialize as a sonagrapher echo for heart, or abd or veins, arteries or baby monitoring. It is a safe, well paying specialty, don't reject it without considering it first!

cochlear implant would not do the OP any good. wrong sort of hearing loss.

tyvin, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2016

DO IT ... just because they said you can't! Good luck to you. You're young and anything is possible if you want it bad enough :yes:

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Mar 25, 2016

I don't have too much to add except that with technology you are able to hear, and I would assume with glasses able to see.

You would also be a protected class.

You won't know unless you try. You need an advocate on an alternate level who can assist. State omsbudsman?

Meanwhile, I would take a medical interpreter course to use your ASL in medical settings. It is a much needed part of medical interpretation, and you would get a sense of the environment.

Best wishes to you!!

CTtoRN, ADN, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2016

Yahoo (I hate google) articles on deaf nursing students who sued because their school discriminated against them. I read about a student who is deaf who passed nursing school and the nclex and is now a nurse working with deaf students at a deaf college. So, it can be done. Do your research. I think there was something on AllNurses (an article?) as well.

typoagain · Mar 25, 2016

I've been an RN for a dozen years now. And I have family member with the type of hearing loss you're talking about.

I hate to say it, but if I was to lose my hearing to that degree that I would be looking for another career the next day.

I'm getting older and half had a very slight degree of hearing loss. Unfortunate that is good electronic stethoscope can overcome my hearing loss. You need to understand, my hearing loss is so slight that you would not notice it in normal conversation. But it is severe enough that I have to use an amplified stethoscope and pay particular attention just to do my job now. I know of way I would be able to provide patient care with a profound hearing loss.

Now there are jobs nurses can do that do not require them to be able to hear at all. But the vast majority of those type of jobs require advanced nursing education along with several years of experience. And then their job is more along the lines of administration with no direct patient care.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Mar 25, 2016

Have you even applied to nursing school yet? Do you meet the entrance requirements? GPA? Start there. Accommodations must be granted if they are reasonable and don't fundamentally alter the program. If you have hearing aids that you can hear reasonably well combined with lip reading it might be a reasonable accommodation to provide an ASL interpreter for clinical in the OR due to face masks but not in respiratory isolation rooms as that would be exposing someone unnecessary to an infectious agent. Have you contacted the office of student disabilities at the school you wish to attend?

If you can't pass a nursing school entrance exam or have a high enough GPA accommodations won't mean a thing if you are not otherwise qualified for admission. First ensue you qualify for admission based on academics and physical requirements (otherwise good health) then go from there.

Hearing loss not always a barrier to going to nursing school. Legal blindness plus profound hearing loss may be but a 1.9 pre-req GPA would trump physical limitations and deny you admission.

Make sure you meet entrance requirements then contact office of disabilities at the college.

Parakeet · Mar 25, 2016

Just as an encouragement, some instructors may be willing to work with you. I have eyesight issues, so seeing PERRLA, skin changes can be difficult, as well as hearing issues with heart and lung sounds.

My instructors were willing to work with me, but I had to do the footwork. I bought myself a non-electronic amplified stethoscope, which works some of the time, but I cannot afford an electronic one now.

If they see that you are willing to work hard and compensate for disability by excelling in other areas, than they may be more understanding.

Best of wishes to you!