bethp2

Hi J.O., Congratulations on passing NCLEX and getting your first job as an RN! I am also a new RN and started at a post-acute rehab facility about 6 weeks ago. The work is hard but you will learn a lot and I think it is a great place to start. Most of your time will be spent passing out medications and charting. However, you will also deal with IVs, catheters, colostomies, wounds, PEG tubes, etc. and more depending on the patient population. Formal orientation will likely be short (maybe a week?) but after that, continue to ask questions and use the other nurses as a resource. My facility is very teamwork-oriented and I feel like they understand I am a new grad and have not put too much load on me in the beginning. I hope your facility will be the same ? Being on your feet all day is physically tiring, so just remember the basics to take care of yourself: good nursing shoes, compression socks, and drink water throughout the shift. Except for maybe a protein bar, I don't usually eat during my 8-hour shift, but I make sure I eat well and eat healthy outside of work. Everyone says the first year as a new nurse is really hard, no matter where you work. But they also say it gets better with time. Remind yourself of that when you have a hard day, and keep going forward!

Unless something has changed in the past year, yes you only have to have the prerequisites done in order to apply to get on the Maricopa traditional waitlist. It might take a few semesters of waiting to get into the program, so you can use that time to finish up your coreqs and perhaps work on prereqs for a CEP program if you want to go that route. There may be a shorter wait for the LPN program, I'm not sure. Personally, my timeline was: I turned in my traditional application in May 2017, finished up my coreqs and prereqs for a CEP program by December, and started Block 1 in August 2018. Good luck as you start your journey to become a nurse!