mom2is

My visit was covered under my insurance. Now that I am thinking more about this, I wouldn't mind doing antepartum visits for high risk moms too. I found an agency affiliated with a university health system nearby that offers both services! I think I will give them a call tomorrow!

I know! I had a pp nurse come to my house after the birth of my second daughter and I thought it was great. I would love to start something like this, but wouldn't even know where to begin! Any ideas???

I am an L&D nurse who would love to work home care. Are there any companies who would hire a nurse to do strictly postpartum visits? If so, what type of experience would they look for? I have almost 1 year of hospital experience as an RN and also worked postpartum as a nurse tech (basically did everything except for pass meds) before graduation.

I am a new grad working in a metro Detroit hospital and I make $24.50/hr plus shift diff. I honestly have not heard of sign on bonuses for nurses without experience in this area. The only thing I have heard of is loan forgiveness programs.

Henry Ford (downtown) has some type of ICU internship. I can't remember if they call it an internship or something different. A friend of mine applied for sicu. Beaumont also has them and they are very competitive, require an essay etc, so look into that now while you have a break! St John has a lot of graduate nurse positions. They are usually listed as RN/GN on the website.

I also wanted to add that if you start now, you will have almost two years in by the time you graduate. Your seniority will go by date of hire! Something to think about... many floors offer day shift positions by seniority.

I did this program and was part of the first graduating class to be offered this opportunity (there were 3 of us who just graduated and were part of the first group to go through the program. There is an article about it in the hospital's newsletter this month) I think it was very worthwhile and a way to get your foot in the door! I felt so much more confident starting clinicals with some knowledge of what I was doing. It is also nice to see things in practice that you are learning about and may not see during clinical. I worked as a pct until I finished Med/Surg 1 and then you can move up to a nurse tech. Nurse techs get to assess, chart etc and the pay is about $3/hr more! The jobs are mostly contingent (I have heard of one or two people who had a part time position) and most only require you to work 2-3 shifts/month. You can work more shifts if you want to, but it is nice to have the option not to when you have a million things to do for school. Contingents can also get reimbursed for tuition, books etc. I didn't know this until my last semester when they sent me a letter stating that almost no one was taking advantage of the reimbursement! (probably because no one told us :)

Also, don't just go by driving distance to the school; you need to consider where the clinical sites will be. There are semesters you will be at clinical more often than at the college. For example peds is at Royal Oak Beaumont, Children's downtown and SJ Detroit. Those are a pretty far drive for you!

If you are in Ann Arbor and don't plan to move closer, I don't think I would necessarily recommend Macomb. That is a VERY long drive and not a lot of fun in the winter! (they rarely if ever call of for weather and I live much closer than you and hate the drive!). Monroe CC, Jackson CC, Schoolcraft, Wayne CC and Oakland CC all have programs that are closer to you. Jackson CC is a pretty easy program to get into. I went there for a while and did some pre-reqs for nursing. They go by a points system by grades in pre-reqs and I believe you would also get points for EMT, Paramedic etc experience if you have any.

I would really aim for all A's in your classes! The program is very competitive and most students have a 4.0 or very close to it and a high HESI score. There was also some talk about not using the last 12 credit hours for the gpa and using the gpa from the nursing pre-reqs instead. The learning center has a study guide for the HESI that you can use or you can order one (Amazon probably has one). You are allowed to wear a white shirt under your uniform in the program. I don't think they would allow you to roll up your sleeves if the tattoos are visible. They are pretty strict on things like that. The nurse pack can't be purchased until you are in the program. They sell it in the bookstore at Center campus and it is just a bunch of bandages, foley kit, syringes etc. Nursing classes are usually 2 half days of lecture or one full day along with 2 days of clinical. Classes run 8 weeks at a time. Whatever lecture class you have you will have the clinical at the same time. As far as math, yes, you will have to use it! Everytime you start a new clinical rotation (every 8 weeks) you will have to pass a medication dosage calculation test. They do have a book called "Math for Meds" or something similar in the bookstore. I'll be totally honest and tell you that this is a difficult program! Be prepared to spend a lot of time studying. They don't recommend working more than part time during the program and a lot of students had a hard time with that. The end result will be totally worth it though!

Most of the classes are based on 2-3 test grades. Occasionally, there will be 10 "buffer" points from homework, but not always.

Macomb doesn't have a waitlist, but they typically get 1000 applications for 120 spots. They also are not offering the accelerated program anymore which had added an extra 30 spots. There is also talk that they will soon change the gpa calculation to only count your pre-reqs and not just use the last 12 credit hours. Too many people would take "easy A" classes and not academic ones!

I have seen nurses and doctors (residents) wear them in the metro Detroit area. If it is a longer covering, some tuck them into their lab coat or scrubs.

Nurse2be, I am trying to send a reply to you, but your mailbox is full. Email me again and I will send it to you. I accidentally sent you one reply, but it sent before I finished writing it!

Last year we didn't register until after our grades were posted in December. I think it was around the Tues or Weds after our last class. It definitely wasn't in November. Edit: I just found my planner from last year and we registered on December 20th.