prettywishes

I agree 100%! I started my job when I began NUR101 and thought it would be great because it was sort of like a CNA position. I felt the wage was decent compared to the $10-12/hr CNAs usually make in my area. Now she's requesting me to do nursing duties (med admin- po & injections) but hasn't discussed with me raising my rate or changing my title so it would be within my scope of practice. I'm going to take the advice I received and not back down. I plan on giving her a month notice because it's hard for her to find help and I understand she's moving in November, even if she doesn't deserve it. It's time for me to move on. Thank you all for helping me get the courage up to finally make this decision concrete in my mind, I typed up my resignation letter and plan on handing it in this Sunday (it's my Friday, to give her a week to stew about it before I see her again). I'm nervous how she's going to react but I can't be afraid forever.

Thank you! You're right, I don't owe her any explanation and I haven't trusted her for a long time. My only concern would be the orientation phase because a lot of places do it in the morning/early afternoons instead of weekends or during 11-7 (the shift I need). I'm excited to put my resignation in and move on to a real nursing position.

Thanks for the advice! I spoke to the DON of a company I'm interested in today and she sounded very enthusiastic about taking me in as a new grad to mold me as a new nurse. I'm going to go in tomorrow to fill out an application and see if she's available to speak with. I'm very excited! If I do get interviewed I'll request they contact her after they've made their decision.

Hi! Yes, this is an actual position. She handles the budgets/hiring/firing/training/ect for families on a self-directed waiver for disabled individuals through state funding.

I did call the labor board today and spoke with this very nice lady who is looking into what I can do. She said she has to research it more since I don't want to file a formal complaint yet and requested I call her back within the next few days. I'm talking to a few classmates to find out the best places to go. I've applied at a few places and I'm hoping I can find a place that will work with me and my hours for school/clinical. She's pretty sneaky and seems to cover all her bases. She's a support broker and has her hand in every pot it seems. I have been paid for the hours I've worked over 40, just at regular rates and not the correct pay periods which doesn't really matter, it's still against the law. I do feel like I need to leave before it gets uglier than it already is, and would like to get a reference although I'm sure she wont give me one. I even told her when I decide to move on to an actual nursing job I'd give her a month notice and help train another worker but now I feel like that's too much and I should just do the average 2 weeks and call it a day..I know she's going to make things very hard on me.

I would speak to your school's financial aid office and explain what's going on to them. There may be grants and/or scholarships you can receive. I'd also reach out to hospitals and other employers. There were a few of my classmates who received full scholarships and they only have to work 12.5 hours per week to sustain it. This also guarantees they will have a job; both now as an LPN and later as an RN.

Hey there! I'm reaching out to my fellow nurses for some much needed advise, and appreciate any and all responses. Sorry for the long post, there's a whole box of crazy about to open!! I've been with my current employer for a little over a year as a "direct support staff worker". My boss is very intimidating and since it's basically private duty, I feel like I have nobody I can report to over my boss's head. When I first found this job, I was very thankful. It paid better than the office jobs I held and my boss seemed happy to work around my nursing school schedule. Even though I was sexually harassed by my client at times, I took it in stride and justified it by reminding myself of their developmental issues. I work with a non-verbal teen male with severe Downs Syndrome. There were many times I thought about leaving and discussed it with loved ones, but stayed because I didn't want to put financial strain on my spouse (times have changed and my spouse has now found a different job that pays almost 3X more than when I began). I've made note of the following things below: -Before I started my last semester of my LPN year (this past summer), my boss told me if I couldn't be available for the hours I wasn't hired for (mon-thurs) then she would need to "rethink my position there". My boss was intimidating the hell out of me, and her eyes got beady and small and at that moment I knew what it was like to see crazy in someone's eyes. I stood up for myself and told her I was not hired for those days unless it was school break and she went as far as to pull up my buried application only to confirm what we already knew. She was trying to intimidate me and this one time it didn't work, but opened up a new perspective for me and showed me her crazy. Also this made me realize that she can't keep workers..hmm..wonder why. -She keeps all employees at the same rate; new and old employees..all three of us. -I was advised I'd be getting a raise to $16.25. However, when she had me sign my rate forms, she stated "I wanted to keep it an even number" while pointing her finger at $16. I received a whopping 8 cent raise after a year of being there. My year anniversary wasn't even acknowledged. -Last year about two weeks before Christmas, I was told that "the company" would no longer be giving out bonuses; even though my hiring paperwork said there was $600 allocated to bonuses for employees each year. I was the only employee working there at the time and relied on this for my family. Many people who know this story believe she has funneled the money to herself, as she is the client's "support broker" and also the client's mother. -I was told that when I pass the NCLEX-RN I would have a position offered to me of delegating nurse and be bumped to $50/hr plus mileage. I've seen the invoices for their delegating nurses, and they make less than that..a lot less..about $29/hr less. -My boss moves my hours from one pay period to the next if I go over 40 hours (usually during school breaks) so she doesn't have to pay overtime. and this is what really brought me to make this post... -My boss refuses to change my position to LPN, or nurse (and maybe even bump my pay), yet expects me to provide medications and possibly injections to the client. It is not within my job duties as a support worker to provide any medications, and I feel pushed into it. I feel like my boss manipulates me quite frequently, and have gotten the feeling lately from her that she feels a bit entitled in every aspect of her life. The way my mom explained it to me would be if a nurse went to school to be a teacher, and all of a sudden they wanted her to be the school nurse..even though she's now just the teacher. It's been over a year now working for her and her son, and I've been fortunate to sit for my boards and pass the NCLEX-LPN exam. While my classmates are all getting 'real' nursing jobs, I feel slighted because I'm terrified that this woman will cause troubles for me if she knows I want to leave. Even more, I'm afraid that if I take on a new job as an LPN at a new company that I may not be able to give it my full dedication because I have two more semesters until I get my ADN-RN. Many of my classmates told me that you have to orient on day shift (even though I'd be seeking fri-sat-sun only, or 11-7 weeknights) and I don't want to miss school. My earliest class is at 3p. I have been applying in hopes that I can find somewhere that will just work with me, but I'm so nervous. I feel robbed at this point, financially and from something worth even more than money- experience. I look forward to responses, and once again thank you for reading!

Hi everyone! Thanks for reading my post. I'm trying to find some feedback and suggestions on what I should do to solve this ongoing issue. I've been e-mailing my instructor for the last week in regards to getting approval to use two articles for an annotated bib which is due in two weeks. I also have questions in regards to a program we use (PassPoint) because I completed an assignment almost three weeks ago and it doesn't show "completed" as my other assignment due Friday. Not to mention it took almost two weeks to get a response from her about reviewing the first exam that I had failed with 70%. It's getting hard for me to hold my composure, and it certainly is taking much effort to do so. This also happened with another instructor who I will have beginning next week. I had sent her an email, once a week, for three weeks in regards to a book that is required for the class. I had been given the previous edition from a friend, and I needed to know if it was necessary for me to spend the $100 on the newer one. After three weeks, I finally received a response with a simple "no thats fine". Maybe I'm just being a negative Nancy here, but this program is extremely difficult as is, and the lack of communication on the instructors' part is getting to me. Not only does it seem to take an excruciating amount of time to get a response, but they're so unprofessional when doing so and give such simple responses as if there was zero thought put into them at all. I seem to be getting a lot more information from talking to my classmates..one who has become a friend of mine which is great! (I even found out our clinical was cancelled through this classmate..I texted, called home, office, and cell and e-mailed my instructor and got no response to confirm this!) Please help!!

I'm super sorry to hear about your losses, that is hard enough and there really aren't words to describe it. Hang in there!! Maybe you could try a community college or an LPN program instead of a university? For my nursing program, they calculated your GPA by using 5 classes, and I was freaking out because my GPA was a mere 3.4 when I applied. I seriously considered applying to programs in the states close by because I was concerned and told by many that all the seats would be taken by students with a 4.0 GPA. Keep trying and don't give up if this is your dream! Good luck and the best to you.

Thank you! (:

Thanks for your response and the congrats! Sometimes I get a gut feeling that it's better to be on my own, just sucks to feel left out. I have noticed a lot of those same things in my cohort. I also know there are eyes and ears everywhere so it's probably best not to be involved in the drama, especially when insulting instructors right in the hallway. Sometimes I feel like my class has reverted back to a high school/middle school mindset which I had a very hard time with socially as well.

Thanks Wuzzie. I'll just think of something else to say when everyone shares what they got rather than a number since it seems to cause so much animosity. It's nice to know how I'm doing compared to the rest of the group, but it seems to backfire. I am very happy and proud of the grade I received and feel like I handled the situation very well. I'm not trying to bring about resentment from my cohort though, so I will keep it to myself from now on.

I've always been socially awkward and a bit unusual..strange, really. My mom used to tell me that in nursing school people find their best friends and become very tight knit. This hasn't happened for me. I'm now going into my second month and it seems like everyone has found their group, and I'm just kinda quiet and when I'm not, I'm spoken over or am not acknowledged. I found out today that I'm the only person who scored a 90 or above on our first theory exam, and feel like that has placed me even further into not being liked although I was very humble about the grade I received. I realize I don't need a social group to finish nursing school, but it would take away the feeling of "outsider".. I've never had many friends, maybe 1-2 in regular school..sometimes none..but I had high hopes that this would change. Is there anything that can make this journey easier other than having that social group? Is there a moment where things just suddenly change?

Thank you!!! I was blessed to barely ever have to study outside of class before nursing school, so I was having trouble figuring out how to tackle not only my lack of knowing how to study but fears of failing as a first year student. We have to read close to 300 pages of our fundamentals textbook before the first class, and I was wondering how in the world I would even begin to retain this information. Example : I used your "web" approach. I made a web for ADPIE, putting the basics in each bubble surrounding the main topic (the nursing process). I plan on making individual webs for each to further build the knowledge of each step. I'm not sure where all the things I learned from "Introduction to College Studies" went, then again I took it over two years ago and sometimes I forget even how to study LOL..This is sink or swim for me though, and sinking is definitely NOT an option! Thanks so much, I appreciate it this and any other study tips you may have!!!

I agree with the previous poster. When I sat with the head of the nursing dept. at my school (not in CA, but still extremely competitive..like over 700 people applied for 48 spots competitive) and she figured my GPA to be a 3.4, I almost cried..I thought it was over for me. Turns out I'm a lucky goose and start my nursing classes Sept. 6th. I screamed, cried, and fell to the floor when I got my acceptance letter..my boyfriend thought something was wrong with me. LOL... Luckily for me, I was accepted with this mediocre GPA. I suggest applying to different school either way. I do recommend raising your GPA if you can, even just a little bit. I hope this helps you and I wish you the best of luck. Never give up.