weibelem

I went to nursing school during the middle of the pandemic and I went from getting As and Bs to failing a class due to pandemic related stress/family death/etc. I retook it but it was still in the middle of the pandemic and I only managed a C. It dropped my associate's degree GPA down to a 2.9. To make matters worse, I earned my first degree (BS in Biology) and graduated with a 2.7. I earned that degree over a decade ago and was hoping that my associates in nursing would have a high enough GPA to help offset it. I did so well the first few semesters before the pandemic hit. But when it did hit I simply couldn't keep the grades I needed. I currently work at the Mayo Clinic and plan on going back to earn my BSN where I hope to get mostly A's. But I'm not sure that's going to be enough. Does anybody have any experience with this? How much will my first degree GPA affect my chances? Will working at the Mayo Clinic help increase my chances of getting accepted? Would getting straight A's in my BSN be enough? Should I take other random classes to boost my overall total GPA? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi guys! I have 6 months left of nursing school and I had initially planned to spend this past Summer vacation working as a CNA to gain experience. Sadly, COVID-19 ruined those plans. I want to make sure I have a leg up after school but if I get a CNA job now I will have to work during nursing school (unless I want to quite in 1.5months). All these jobs require 3 8hr shifts a week and I can't commit to that when school is in session. Is there any other opportunities I can take on to give me a leg up after graduation? Would volunteering be an option or do employers not care about such experience? Another option would be to work as a CNA right after graduation while I'm studying for the NCLEX/job hunting but I don't know how employers would feel hiring me knowing that I'm just going to quite once I get an RN job. My goal is to try and get a hospital position after graduation and avoid working at a nursing home like I know a lot of new nurses do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in Advance!

Lately, I've been seeing a ton of postings from New York for new nurses. They clearly are understaffed at the moment. You could treat it like a temporary job, working there during COVID-19 as a way to get your foot in the door.

Thanks for the advice! I'll look into the tax home situation a bit more. I did a bit more research on new travel nurses and apparently things have started to change and programs have been initiated so new grad nurses (with less than a year experience) can now work as a travel nurse. These programs apparently offer longer orientation times, a nurse mentor, and other forms of support within the hospitals. I'm not certain why these programs started popping up in nurse travel agencies but it is definitely worth looking into.

Hi guys! I've been lucky and have been able to stay home with my parents while going to nursing school. I'm currently finishing up my Associates's Degree, and plan on working as an RN while I finish my BSN. After I finish my BSN I plan on jumping into travel nursing. I'm thinking about trying it out for a year or two and maximizing how much I earn by not paying for an apartment that I come back to in-between assignments. Would I be able to use my parent's home as a "tax home" since I will be living there until I start travel nursing, and can technically come back and stay there whenever I need to? Or are tax homes more complicated than that? Has anybody done this? Is it worth it to travel nurse and live more like a "nomad" rather than have a home to come back to? Side Question: If you are a travel nurse, how much experience did you have before starting travel nursing? I know you need prior experience and the websites say you need 1-2 years. However, nursing peers have said they were able to get travel nursing jobs with much less experience.