steph789

Santa Barbara very expensive. Camarillo, Ventura, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley nice weather expensive but probably affordable - but don't rent in any of these places, sight unseen, just like with any area there are addresses that you definitely want to stay away from. On the plus side, no school age children so no need to worry about being in a good school district. Do your research, visit if you can and talk to nurses at cafeterias in hospitals to find out the how they like hospital, where they live, etc. Starting pay for full time job with benefits new grad nurse in Ventura County about $25/hour and all the hospitals pretty much pay the same. Good luck.

Also, ADN is actually 4 yr. degree, 2 year prereqs, and 2 years nursing school. I know some of the general education isn't at as high a level as at 4-yr school, but still. Do you know anybody who can get a 2 year ADN degree in 2 years?

Clinical instructors who think you should learn everything in the skills lab and don't want to actually teach you anything at the hospital or get mad if you ask questions about a procedure. Skills lab is rarely available and even if it is open mostly just other dazed and confused students there, all of us looking in a book trying to practice a skill that was shown to us exactly once with 30 other students looking on. Also, why be a clinical instructor if you never actually want to teach anything! First and second semester clinical instructors both like this and as a result I ran from procedures and missed out on opportunities. I don't learn well being treated like a kindergartener.