susyn153

I have been in Hospice nursing exclusively for a few years now. When I made the switch to Hospice only, there were many many great nurses. Most of the fellow nurses are gone now, frustrated and moved on. We have a plethora of nurses now that have poor language skills, very poor clinical skills and view the job as "easy" and frankly 8 out of 10 night nurses sleep the majority of their shift. The quality of the nurses has gone downhill at a 90 degree angle. I had one primary nurse show up at a patient house wearing something down to her navel and up to her crotch and had her kid with her. Does that say proffesional to you? The language barrier seems to be the hardest on both the patients and myself. I can't understand a word they are saying in report and when I say what or speak slower they get an attitude that I am being racist or something. The patients are frustrated becuause they can't understand the instructions and tell me about it becuase they can understand me! I also get relieved on average of 20 min late each shift. Is this happening everywhere or only in south Florida? I do want to be clear that I love my job and adore my patients, just would appreciate a little more proffesionalism and a higher standard of care from my co-workers.

I could not agree more, I worked for a nursing home that saw me sit to lunch uninterupted maybee once the entire year I worked there. I also never got paid for 30 min out of each day that I was there and WORKING. I also got hassled for having a cup of tea (covered) or a bottle of water at my desk. My too smart response was "do you want me malnourished and dehydrated" they did not appreciate that response. I actually got written up for having a bottle of water. I wished I knew about the uninterupted thing, that would have been great. We were absolutly not allowed to clock in early or late, it did lead to ALOT of animosity on the next shift. They also thought that 30 patients to one nurse was ok because my supervisor was supposed to help out. She was never there. They had a massive turnover and it so disheartened me that I have not worked in LTC since. I just can't face it.

I do not want to give the wrong impression, but, I get complaints on a DAILY basis from my patients that they can not understand word one from some of the nurses. Please, please please can you practice your english in south florida so that the patients can understand you. I even have a very hard time making out what they are saying myself and I have no hearing problems. Slow it down, enunciate and do not use a ton of slang in your speech. This population (Geriatric) is usually a little hard of hearing to begin with. Have some compasion and polish your english. And for heavens sake, wear a watch and learn what it means to come to work on time.

If you decide to do this, contact me, I have a ton of the guides with TCN for the LPN to BSN program. I would be happy to tell you about it a bit (I'm in the program)

I have a TON of guides for classes that are prereq to the ISU lpn-bsn and ancillary books, workbooks etc. Selling most of my library. If you are interested in anything please contact

I have a ton of guides and the Nclex-rn guides for sale. If anyone is interested please contact me

there is a way around the REALLY expensive tuition for your LPN to BSN, just so you know, thousands can be cut off that total, but its a bunch of work.

Dear abracadabra, You DO NOT have to be a RN to go from LPN to BSN There is only one program to do that but you can do it. contact me privatly if you wish and I can tell you about it. susyn153

GOOD FOR YOU! I waited and shouldn't have, I would have finished soooo much sooner, and all that knowlege was nice and fresh and frankly, after a year, it wasn't so fresh, more like day old bread;) If your school lets you and you plan on going on with either TCN, Rue, or a traditional school, then DO IT. You will be happier when it's all done. My thinking, at the time, was that I didn't want to go to work, learn a new job and environment and try to go to school as well. I was only going to take the summer off, and start in the fall. I ended up starting a year and a half later. That is procrastination. All the best of luck, susyn153

BOY are you right about expensive, If you really want to go, then go down at the begining to middle of hurricaine season, you can hear an echo in the place and the hospitals and especially the nursing agencies need help (everyone that is not in it for the long haul bugs out at hurricaine season) So they are short staffed and know you are serious, plus the restauraunts etc. give you a break in the off season. Try renting a camper at the sugarloaf KOA if you aren't sure you like the place. But if you are, get an apartment ASAP before the season starts. Utilities, dish, etc are aprox 2x more than miami or dade counties and 2.5 more than palm beach county. You may want to get a COSTCO or BJ's card and do your bulk shopping once a month, bring down all your food and especially your liquor. Try to buy as little as possible local, bag of pretzles can run you $3.00. If you are good about it, you can make out pretty good. When I was there, they allowed sailboats to harbor off of Marathon, and the rent was free, you have to be a minimalist, and I had to pay a dingy docking fee each month. but we all went up to west palm once a month to stock up on goods at BJ's and visit with family, friends etc. Thats where I am at right now. The winn dixie in marathon is $$$$$ hot dogs are as much as a steak. You can blow $200.00 a week and eat top ramen and cat food. I was using solar power but my landlubber friends said the electric and Water were sky high compared with 100 miles north. Your water bill can get you. I got water with my dingy fee and just carted it back and forth. You can wash most things in salt water and dawn dish detergent to get the goop off and then just rinse with fresh water. Also on boats you can catch water and filter it (makes for less hauling of water). It's used for deck washing and rinsing of things. There were rumors about Marathon starting to charge to hang on a hook in the harbor, so if there are any other boater nurses out there thinking about a year or so in marathon, you may want to check it out. It was alot of fun, I'll say that for it. I would recommend a stint in the keys, just be aware that you will take whatever bills you have, double them, and you will aproximate the cost of living down in the keys, You don't have to have a car, but it helps. best of luck in the Keys, they are trully beutiful and I can recomend a kayak, a set of snorkle gear, a basic dive licence, and a bike. You will have GOBS of fun on your day off.

Dear summerland, You can get the guide anywhere, it will not have the testing warentee with it. You will just be purchasing a book. Also, for the clep and dantes, there is REA, and Pass Your Class, they both put out guides to the clep tests. ISU also offers some of its classes online for less than the cost of the guides. Such as Technical writing. There are prerequisites for some of the writing courses so talk to someone at ISU for that. For instance, the technical writing requires that you have all your other 100 + 200 level writing courses out of the way. Best of luck. susyn153 I would recomend that you go on the ISU site and navagate to the distance learners page. They have a ton of info there.

That was the big draw for me as well. I am planning on doing it with a free clinic in the area, they see about every type of medicine there. I may have to leave to do the mental health, I will see if the counciling is enough. I really liked the idea of clinicals too. susyn153

before you get madder than a wet hen. Ask TCN or ISU about what states that have licences with Texas that accept the ISU credit. In other words if you can apply for a reciprocal licence with Louisianna and Louisianna accepts the ISU Program, then you go to Louisianna for your NCLEX and then simply apply to Texas for your licensure. I don't know if they do or not. but most border states accept the licence of another state with no problems and few exceptions. Since only a few states do not accept this program, and Texas has a few border states, chances are good that one of them does. You can talk to a advisor from TCN or ISU. You Don't have to use TCN, it's just easier and they do the work for you to figure all this out. susyn153

Nay, you didn't scare me off. I was just taking far too much time with the whole thing. I was far too focused on the amount of money to take the test over and was convinced I was going to fail. It would have been a self-fufilling profecy. This is soooooo much less stress and I get to take the technical writing which I feel a lot more confident about. susyn153

I'm not far along, chose to chicken out and take the lesser credit english and technical writing. I like to memorize long lists of junk, like for chemistry or something, only one answer, you know or you don't . oh well, at least if I fail technical writing it will be a cheap do-over, lol. thanks for the buck-up though. best of luck to you as well, susyn153:cool: