Robin Verde

That's awful! Poor customer service is a big no for me. I also spoke to another plus-ish sized nurse, she said that her Grey's Anatomy scrubs fell apart fast.

I have to agree. I want to say that a BSN is important because for any hospital that wants magnet status they need a certain amount of nurses that are BSN educated. They don't want to hire non-BSNs because then the nurse is forced to pay for it on their own and the company doesn't have to shell out the money. Just a personal feeling, nothing based on reality.

I'm plus sized also and I have to have Navy scrubs for work. I have had success with 3 brands (I wear size 3x). Epic, which I believe is the store brand of ScrubPro. HH Works which I also bought at ScrubPro in-store (they are also online). And a brand called Easy Stretch by Buttersoft that I got from a website called uniform advantage. I don't like buying from Uniform Advantage too much because my first set of scrubs came with a tear and it was like pulling teeth to get them to tell me what the process was to get a replacement. I was originally told that I would have have to pay the shipping for the return and when I refused they agreed to send a replacement for free. Hope that helps! P.S. I'm 5' 7" and for whatever reason the Regular length scrub pants are on average 4 inches too long. I have to buy Petite length or I have to hem the pants myself.

Not sure if this is helpful but, I had 2 degrees in non-nursing fields. When I decided to go into nursing, I had to take all of my nursing related pre-reqs (biology, etc). I thought that if I got my ADN at a CC and then passed the NCLEX I could get a nursing job. Unfortunately, in my area (Philadelphia metro area) it's pretty saturated and there is no shortage. So when I went to a job fair, NOT ONE, employer would take my resume because I didn't have a BSN. After 6 months I enrolled in an online RN to BSN program (the cheapest I could find at the time - UTA). Once I got my degree, I was still having an issue. Due to aforementioned saturation, I was still not able to find a job because most of the jobs wanted 1+ years of experience. I tried to get into nursing residency programs but I was competing with college students that did their clinicals at the places offering the residency programs. It took a while but I finally found something. So to make a long story even longer, those that I graduated CC with found immediate success by being CNAs in hospitals and then getting hired as nurses at those hospitals right after they passed the NCLEX. I don't suggest you skip the BSN. Not one employer cared that I had BS degrees, they weren't BSs in Nursing and therefore I was passed over. Additionally, in nursing school one of my professors told us about a nurse that had a BS in another field, switched to nursing, got an MSN and a PhD. Her facility then told her that she had to go back to school and get her BSN. It didn't matter that she was a DOCTOR IN NURSING, BSN is the keyword at the moment. I hope that helped a little.

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University of Texas at Arlington online.

I have been a nurse in a hospital for exactly 3 days. I have 4 degrees and I constantly feel like a complete idiot every time I step on the floor. My preceptors are extremely nice but firm. The entire floor has been nothing but helpful, from doctors right on down to PCA's. But, that is not stopping me from feeling like a dunce daily. I told my manager how I was feeling and she told me to stop being so hard on myself and that it'll take a year for me to feel comfortable. I can't wait until that day comes because I hate being lost in the sauce.

One of my nursing instructors once told me that every nurse has their one "thing" that makes them completely gag and want to vomit??. Hers happened to be emptying colostomy bags. She dealt with it by using peppermint or lavender essential oils in her mask. I have discovered mine...sputum. I have been taking care of a gentleman who has quite a productive cough. Whenever he coughs he then has to spit out a large amount of sputum in a basin. I then obviously have to empty the basin rinse it out and give it back to him. His doctor asked for a sputum specimen to send to the lab. So this time he had to spit it into a cup and I had to put that into a specimen jar and send it to the lab. It took forever to get it into the specimen cup because it was super thick and stuck to the sides of the cup. Although I didn't throw up, I was gagging so hard, I peed a little ????. I can completely understand the need to get that out of the back of his throat because I have chronic post nasal drip myself - it's so gross. My question is how do you deal with your "thing" and what is it?

That's exactly how it was when I went to nursing school. We were assigned to shadow a nurse but if we had questions, had to give meds, had to do anything the nurse asked that we didn't know how to do, we went right to our clinical instructor.

Not sure if this helps, but you were correct in your thoughts that the key points should come from your module assignments even if they are only reading. For example, these are the first few sentences of some key points for module 1 and 2 - these are not my full answers - each key point was around 250 words long because you have to use the criteria from the rubric to round everything out..(I hope this is not perceived as cheating, I just wanted to give you an idea)... Module 1 Key Point 1...The older I get the more I tend to take a step back. After taking the various assigned self-assessments, I can really see how my outlook and attitude have changed over the years. Particularly in the Temperament self-assessment... Key Point 2...How I feel about myself and my circumstances may not be how others see me. When I took the leadership self-assessment I scored as a guardian, and it gave me cause to stop and really think about how others perceive me.... Module 2 Key Point 1...Based on the reading and the assignment, this week, I really reflected on goals overall... Key Point 2...This week based on the assignment we had to do, I better understand that although it’s important to try to set a specific path to achieve something we want in life... And don't forget that you still have to use APA format in your key point if you refer to something in your answer. I hope this helps

Hi! Not sure if this helps, but, like you, I already had two non-nursing degrees one in Computer Science and MIS, so I didn't have any biology courses at all. I took all of my pre-requisites and got my ADN at the local community college (With books the ADN cost around $8K). After I graduated I then took and passed the NCLEX and then got my licenses in both PA and NJ. Although I was a licensed nurse, I went to a job fair in Phila and NO ONE would even take my resume because I didn't have a BSN. I then searched high and low for an inexpensive RN to BSN program and ended up getting my degree from the University of Texas at Arlington online for around $9K. Once I got my BSN, I was finally getting responses to my resume. Not to be a negative Nancy but considering the Hahnemann is closing in a week or so, putting 800 nurses into a market that is already saturated with nurses and nursing students, I'm not sure how easy it would be for you to find a nursing position while you are in school getting your BSN. Also, you mentioned $100K in student loans. Is that you HAD $100K in student loans or you currently HAVE $100K in student loans? Again, not to be a negative Nancy, and keeping in mind this is absolutely none of my business, but if that $100K in student loans is something you are paying off right now, I honestly would be too afraid to bury myself in more debt. Are you going to pay your BSN off as you go along? I still have student loan debt from the first time I was in school. The only reason that I was able to afford to go to nursing school is because my company paid 85% of the cost of tuition and books for both my ADN and my BSN (They paid for any undergraduate degree even if it wasn't related to our day-to-day work). My family chipped in and paid the rest of it so I could continue putting money on my existing student loans. I hope this helps a smidge.

I went through UTA's online RN-BSN program while working full-time. It wasn't a problem at all. It was harder to get my ADN at community college then take the NCLEX to get my license.

After I got my ADN, passed the NCLEX on my first try and got licensed in both PA and NJ, I went to a job fair. Not one employer would take my resume (greater Philadelphia/Southern NJ area), not sure how it is in other markets. I took an online RN-BSN program at the University of Texas at Arlington because it was the cheapest BSN program I could find at the time. I would do what Cookie did, do some volunteer work to get additional experience on your resume but also think about continuing to get your BSN.

Hi! I graduated in 2013 with an ADN. The school/professors recommend that you don't work full-time because of the amount of work involved. However, I had no choice but to work full-time because I needed health benefits that I couldn't get working part-time. It was extremely difficult. It's possible to do (I graduated with a 3.2 and passed the NCLEX on the first try) but I wouldn't recommend it. The program was great! The professors were very knowledgeable, I'm glad I went there. The one thing you need to think about going forward and getting your BSN. After I got my ADN and passed the NCLEX and was a licensed nurse in NJ and PA, I went to a nursing job fair in and not one employer would accept my resume. I ended up enrolling in Univ of Texas at Arlington's RN to BSN program and got my BSN with a 3.68 GPA. The only other thing I would add is some of my classmates got a part-time job in a hospital as PCAs WHILE they were in school, once they graduated and passed the NCLEX they were hired right away as RNs at their facility. My only regret is that I didn't do that. Hope that helps!