Willofthewisp

Thank you, everyone who has replied so far. I loved psych clinical but still don't feel I have a good grasp on the actual employment aspect of it.

When researching psych hospitals as potential places to work, do I do the same things/ask the same questions that I would at other hospitals to see if it will be a good fit for me, or are there special considerations?

Thank you, everyone. This helps.

Hi I will graduate this May with an ADN and then have to move to another state, so I will have to take the NCLEX then. I have already been offered a job in the new location, working as an RN in a long-term care/assisted living facility, shifts and pay are what I'm looking for. For any acute care jobs, the hospitals have year-long nurse residencies. We're on military orders, so we'll only be in the area for two years. My question is: if I take the LTC job and maybe start my MSN (I have a Bachelor's already), would I get into an RN residency program at the next location if I decide long-term care isn't for me? I've heard to do whatever I can to get into med-surg or rehab first, and I've heard to just do what I want to do and that experience is experience. With COVID and Winter storms, my cohort has lost a lot of clinical time, so I don't have as great a sense of what kind of nursing I want to do as I normally would. I just know I don't want to get trapped in long-term care my entire career.

I am about to graduate myself. I have heard two schools of thought. One is to go med-surg and possibly get into an RN residency. You will be able to use and master all the skills you've learned and it is seen as a pretty good position to be able to transition to other specialties. Acute rehab is also a good one. The other school of thought I have heard is to go with what interests you and what will hire you. A lot of peds positions want experience that you could get from med-surg or rehab, but experience is experience. On this note, I was kind of wondering what people thought about a first job being in long-term care/assisted living. I am moving right after graduation and will only be in the location for 2 years. I've been offered a job as an RN at an assisted living/LTC facility, but I don't want to be pigeonholed in that my whole career. Is working there for the 2 years (and probably getting my BSN while I'm there) and then going for a RN residency at the next location possible/recommended?

I haven't started it yet, but I've been accepted into the Fall 2018 CNA program at Shoreline. I'm working on that in coordination with an overseas move, and the communication between myself and the CNA program advisor has been great. She answers emails quickly, gives detailed responses, and has helped make sure I don't miss deadlines. It sounds like it goes at a much slower pace than other CNA programs as it's two quarters long, but since I'm new to the healthcare field, I don't mind too much.

What was your experience with American Healthcare like? It sounded too good to be true online, especially when it said that if you find employment in a year, you can be reimbursed. I'm researching them myself, so this is what they emailed to me. Maybe it will help someone else: "Here at American Healthcare CNA School, we welcome all students, we do provide CNA training, Core Basic Training, and Continue education which are self training. We offer two CNA classes the first one is our Weekday class which are Mon-Thur. from 7am to 2pm for 3 wks and the second class is our weekend class which are Sat. & Sundays from 9am-5:30pm for 6 weekends. The cost of the training is a total of $550.00 (srubs [sic],gait belt and state exam not included in the training). Clinicals are done at Washington Care Center they are a skills nursing facility. Once you pass the state exam that is when they register you to work in the state of Washingtion and Washington only, if you do leave to another state you will have to contact their DOH to see how their guidelines works. As For reimbursement, once you complete the training and find an employer, you can ask them to see if they will reimburse you, each facility may differ. If you have any more questions you can also reach us at 206-838-4094."

I haven't taken Microbiology through Portage yet, but I've taken quite a few with them and it's a good program. I've been about 50/50 in my research so far on schools that will accept online prereqs with a lab. To let you know, though, the transcripts say Geneva College in Pennsylvania.

That does help, thanks. Transcripts from Portage Learning say that they are from Geneva College, so unless they say "online" on them, I was wondering if schools would be able to tell the difference. I just got worried since one already said no. But I feel a little better now. Thank you! For anyone thinking about taking chemistry through Portage, I'm having a great experience with it. I forgot most of high school chemistry, but going at my own pace, having a good instructor, and the examples being very straightforward, I have a solid B so far and I'm about halfway through.

I asked on one other Portage Learning thread because I'm scared--has anyone else had trouble getting the credits to transfer? There was a college that asked for the syllabus of the course and when I provided it, they told me the chemistry class wouldn't be accepted because the labs aren't face to face. I'm not too worried about taking non-lab classes through them like Nutrition, but I wanted to take A & P and microbiology through them, too.

Has anyone had trouble getting Portage Learning credits to transfer? I am still in the prerequisite stage and Olympic College in Washington requested the course syllabus so they could evaluate the course. I just heard back from them that they won't count it because the labs aren't face-to-face. I'm worried that this will be the same answer no matter where I look at going.