cyclone67

I have lived in Hawaii (was not a RN then), but I have enough knowledge to tell you to prepare to work in the Midwest to get experience. The only chance you would have would be to work long-term care / SNF. It is very hard for new grads that are from Hawaii to get hospital jobs, much less for an outsider. Peruse the Hawaii forum here and you will see most new grads have to work as an unit secretary / aide for a year before they can get an RN position. And consider this is happening to people who graduated from there and are known from their clinicals. L&D, nope not going to happen. Go ahead and apply, but DO NOT move there without a signed job contract in hand. You also need to decide what is more important - your goal to work in Hawaii or your goal for a DNP in midwifery. You will have a lot more luck getting the experience needed for the DNP goal by going elsewhere. Goal setting is important. But having an achievable goal is step one to success. Just my 2 cents.

Absolutely there is a difference between the military and nursing. I am retired military and there is a huge difference. The military basically has a break it, you buy it policy. If a military member catches Covid19 for any reason (work or social contact), if there is permanent lung damage the soldier will have free treatment for life and disability pay. They won’t be burning PTO or sick leave, they will just be off duty to recover. I guarantee you don’t see a military nurse wearing a bandana right now...... yes, a nurse does accept a level of risk, but our hospital leadership should be doing everything they can to decrease the risk. That includes planning and preparing. I know my hospital has been purely reacting, I still see no efforts to come up with plans for what is coming. We had Covid19 in our area and our monthly training was on bedside report! I volunteered to go back on active duty as I feel the PPE will be better, planning will be better, and compensation is surely better. I could not make myself quit my current position (but would love to) so I will likely not get called up. Probably a stupid mistake for me, I don’t know why I am being loyal at all. Solely for my co-workers....

Retired Army person here. The military is a great way to get into and test a new career area, and worst case will give you the GI Bill which you could use to make a career change later. If you are interested in that, see a recruiter, see what’s available for you and research! Since you are married with kids, you would really need to know what you are getting into to make sure you are comfortable with the fact that both of you could be away at the same time, might have a time period where one of you gets assigned away from the other, deployments, etc. You can have a great dual military career and there are some great jobs in the military that can set you up for a really high paying civilian job later. Do your research and know what a possible job would likely entail for you as far as possible assignments, deployment likeliness, post military career opportunities. Very important for you to research carefully since you are married and by user name have kids. I would also recommend to “#$&@ or get off the pot” as the later you join, the tougher it is to stay in and retire if you wish. Military life is rough on the body and being in your 30s and trying to keep up with 18 year olds can be tough and can lead to lingering injuries. Sounds like you are late 20s so now is the time. Intel has some great jobs out there - I did Human Intelligence myself. That or Counter Intelligence might be of interest since you said you were interested in crime and legal. Lots of similarities with getting to learn interrogation and other aspects of the job. Anyways, good luck but really time will fly by and if you aren’t careful you could find yourself at 45 still a LPN and thinking of what could have been......

Did something unusual happen? Usually a hold happens because you hand scan wasn't working, power outage, etc. they have to go through then and review the tapes / test before the release your results.

Things that are important to consider: Are you getting interviews? If not then your resume or experience are not making you competitive. If you are getting interviews remember You are also applying to the most competitive residencies. You need to think about applying for other specialties at this point. You can work for a year or two and then move over to those specialties. Also, have you written a cover letter specific to the residency? From my experience in talking to the recruiters in my area it mattered! I sat in on a virtual workshop and that recruiter specifically mentioned it. It sounded like this recruiter put you to the side without it. It could also just be a pure numbers game. Others may have had clinical oR worked as a tech/CNA on these units. They have a major advantage.

I had 3 months of orientation with a preceptor; oncology unit. No, 4 shifts is not enough or the norm for a hospital job. I would keep my eyes open for another residency opportunity.... And that is not flexible to your needs -- but is totally flexible to their needs for a warm body.

I agree that the math doesn't seem to work. I used my GI Bill for nursing school last year. I didn't have to pay a single penny. I completed a entry level master's program and the tuition for the 16 month program was 40K. Just FYI, you do know that you can get in state pretty much anywhere for 3 years after discharge??? Just to open up more possibilities if you fit that category. And some schools will go past the 3 year mark. I got in-state at University of Arizona and I was just a bit over that 3 year mark.

Just FYI, I think I read earlier that one of you are using it because of cancer. If it is for nausea / vomiting check into Marinol. It is a legal FDA approved drug and with that you could turn it in as a prescription with the urinalysis. I work on an oncology floor and we give it out quite often to our patients.

This is likely the major roadblock. You cannot get a clinical placement with a positive drug test. Even in states where marijuana is legal, medical personnel cannot use it for even medicinal purposes. It all comes back to the fact that marijuana is still set as a schedule 1 drug and is federally illegal. it is kind of ironic because we actually had a lecture in pharmacology about the various known medical benefits of marijuana. If there is a workaround with testing later for clinical placement then I would say you have a chance. Unfortunately in this case the CON just can't set their own policy but they need to be in compliance with all the clinical sites / hospitals in the area. There is no sense in admitting a student if they can't get them into clinical sites. Hopefully they can make this test disappear and retest later..... Good luck!

I would run far far away from that Tampa school. I also read the comments / reviews on the school and they were pretty horrifying across the board except for some 5 stars with no comments that looked like they were probably put in by "fake" students. I noticed that many of the students complained that they were restricted from sitting for the NCLEX by the school because they refused to send their paperwork to the BON. It looked to me like they cherry pick graduates to sit for NCLEX to keep their rates where they are (which as someone pointed out aren't super great. If you notice, the person who recommended that school then posted a new thread about how she does NO clinicals in a hospital and only does 12 hours a month of clinicals...!!!! I will just warn you that if you go to this school I can almost guarantee that 2 years from now you will sorely regret that money spent. You are much better off looking for a job that can work around a school schedule. Run away now -- do not waste your money on this school!

Most schools have a 5 year period for science pre-reqs. However, do your research. I also found a program where I did not have to retake any courses. I was in a similar situation to you. I ended up going the opposite route -- a MEPN program. Mainly because I could start right away, didn't have to retake pre-reqs, and it was 16 months straight through to graduate.

I don't know about the gauges; but I can comment on missing days. They will work with you in the case of things like weddings, medical issues, death in the family -- usual things you cannot avoid / were already scheduled. If you're talking missing for traveling or something like that; I would not count on it. Let them know right up front about the issue. If it is on a clinical day then you will just make up the day with another group. I would say the only other major issue would be if it was on a test day. Anyways; as soon as you start -- talk to the instructors and let them know what is going on.

You should check with the College of Nursing at University of Arizona. When I went to school there we had quite a few nurses who just worked a few days a week helping out with clinicals and lab skills.

Just wanted to pass on that you guys will be using some different books than the last cohort. So do not buy any used books off former students until you get your book list from the CON. I saw that on the MEPN Facebook page and just wanted to pass it along because i know some people have books posted for sale.

Drug screens are always going to be a possibility regardless of where you work. Even if they don't test you at hiring (and I have never heard of anyone not being tested for a nursing job), you can face a random test for a number of reasons. Such as suspicion of drug use or a medication error. If you think smoking the occasional joint is worth it, I recommend you spend a couple of hours reading the subform for recovering nurses https://allnurses.com/nurses-recovery One positive urine screen can easily ruin your career and cause you years of trials and tribulations to keep your license. As well as a bucket load of money. And this is the same if you live in a state where marijuana is legal. Read their stories and this SHOULD help you make this choice.