lisal11

Hiep, Thank you for your thoughtful response. I do hope to hear more in the future from UW about my application. I've sat and processed the whole situation and think that my post-bac status is the main problem. I can't do anything to change being a post-bac. The only thing I could have done better would have been to put in numerous voluteer hours here or in another country. Quite honestly, I don't have the time or money to do volunteer work like that, so I probably will never be an exceptional post-bac candidate for UW. I'm sure I'll hear more in the future but as of now, they are not accepting inquiries until April. I think I'll try and go with the community colleges for now. I don't want to wait another whole year to try and get into UW. Whether I go to UW or a community college it's still 2 years for me to get the RN. If I want a BSN in the future, there is a one year UW Bothell program made for working RN's. I could also do an RN (associates) direct to MN program at UW Seattle. It is easier to get into those programs once you're already a nurse. Best, best, best of luck on your essay. I hope you get in! Happy Valentines!

Wow 2-4 post bacs? If I had known that in the first place I wouldn't have applied because probability of acceptance is so low. I looked into UW's MEPN program and was definately interested but it was not in my budget. After tuition expenses, fees, etc... the cost is nearly 40k for the first 5 quarters. My lender is not willing to give me that much and the school does not offer fellowships/TA/RA positions during the first year to compensate for extra costs. Even after extensive reseach into scholarships I realized I would not be able to afford the MEPN program. It was pretty much the same problem with SU. It's just too expensive because its a private school. My hopes were riding on UW because it was within my budget and I will have met all their program requirements (all 6 courses) by March. This would give me time to work for a while before starting the program in the Fall. Now, I am applying to Lake Washington Tech and Shoreline. Unfortunately, this means I will have to take another quarter of course work (CNA courses) in order to meet their requirements. That pretty much kills my ability to work more hours at my job this spring before classes start in the fall (I teach so I need to find other work in the summer). In addition to wanting to get into the BSN program, I really needed to work this spring, so this UW decision was kind of huge for me. Hopefully, Lake Washington and Shorline won't hold my post-bac status against me like it appears UW did. Thanks for the info! Are you in a nursing program in WA currently?

Well unfortunately I did not get accepted to UW. All is not completely lost, I'm still applying to two other schools. Honestly, it makes no sense why I was turned down because I met all their listed qualifications in spades. They listed the reasons why they were eliminating some people and I do not meet any of them. I had 4 of the science curricullum with a GPA of 4.0 I was working in healthcare as a social worker no less than a little over a year ago and was in the profession for 5 years. I respoded to their personal statement and clearly articulated my desire to become a nurse. My application packet was complete (doubled checked it several times). I'm stumped. The only reason why I can think that they were not interested is because I'm a post-bac student.

It's stressful waiting for an email but myself and my family remain hopeful. Wow, emails were already sent out as early as last week? I spoke with the nursing office on Friday of last week and they said that no emails had been sent out as of 2/9. The person I spoke to said they expected to start sending them this week. Congrats on getting your email!! When did you get it? I assume you've been asked to write the essay. Congrats again and best of luck to everyone!

I am also in the applicant pool for Fall '07 BSN program. I'm anxious to see what I get in my email box by this Friday. There are a lucky few who will get acceptance emails! Good luck!

Amen to that! I have also been through a couple of career changes (teaching and social work) and nursing is my newest venture. Everyplace I have been there is always a learning curve, crummy people, and bad politics. There is no escaping it, so it's a good idea to learn from the experience and develop techniques to avoid the negatives as best as you can. New jobs are always hard to deal with. I do not have a single friend (some of them in very high stress positions, nurses included) who didn't cry in the first 6 months of their job because it was too hard to learn, it was too stressful or co-workers were mean. However, with a little time, every single one of them (myself included) figured out the job, became confident and learned to navigate the political waters. In my experience, job satisfaction comes faster when I put on a big smile and be super courteous while becoming proficient. Even the nasty people will have a hard time being mean to you if you stay positive. Of course I still went home and cried/stressed until I had the job down pat, but at least my co-workers thought I was up to the task! Once all that garbage is resolved you can see if you love the job for what it truly is. I'm sorry to hear that you are having a hard time adjusting but I strongly encourage you not to leave your career, unless the stress is absolutely too much to bear. You have worked hard for your degree and this is a great time to get some experience under your belt before having your baby (congrats!). You have a great reason to leave work in the next several months and take an extended break without looking bad on your resume. Also, as the other posters have said, keep your certification current because there are so many flexible (and well paid) positions out there that you can pick up later. I wish you and your baby the absolute best of luck! Don't give up, you'll find your niche!

The market depends on where you live and where you are willing to work. I've been certified as a teacher in both IL and WA. I can attest that both of those states are pretty competitive in highly populated suburban areas. A couple of people in my graduating class, back in IL, have been looking for teaching positions for about 2 years. Several gave up and went into jobs that they could use their master's in, like human resources and training programs. If you were willing to work in an urban setting or go very rural you may have an easier time finding work as a teacher. Spech therapists are a different story. They usually have an easier time finding jobs in school districts because there are less speech therapists in general. However, there are also less positions for those and maintaining that position is dependant on the schools budget and need. Some people are not comfortable with that. Perhaps, if you would like to teach, you might look into teaching at a local community or 4 year school? I know that undergrad level institutions in my area are dying for experienced nurses who want to teach future nurses.

The grass is always greener: Absolutely people believe this. Evenings and nights: I work 'em either at the school, playing field where I have to coach, evening in the library tutoring and my "take home" work at night. Weekends: Planning, grading and curriculum. Not the entire weekend but at least 1 day. Holidays: Nope. Or very rarely if I need to finish something "take home". Manditory 12 hour shifts: Never. Hard labor: I wouldn't describe what I do hard labor... but there is lifting on occasion (not on par with a nurse of course) and I'm on my feet running around all day. Also, like nurses, I frequently don't get lunches or pee breaks. Can be sued or professionsal license revoked: Absolutely. I have comforted many teachers because parents or administration have threatened to take action against their license or sue them. Unfortunately, some of these teachers didn't even make a mistake, the problem usually originates from some attention starved kid who makes some false accusations. Of course, we always follow through with investigations 100% to make sure that everyone is on the up and up. Your point is well taken and I'm not saying that teaching is harder than nursing or vice versa. I don't think the grass is greener in nursing, I just think it's more up my alley professionally and I would rather deal with the baggage in that job than in teaching. I've had the chance to really see what nurses do so I'm aware of the "pros and cons" in that field. Before I became a teacher I was a social worker for several years. Teaching as a social worker easily translated to teaching in the field of education. I've worked in several areas of health care and with different populations. Luckily, this has afforded me the chance to work and be friendly with tons of nurses (and other healthcare staff) and see what grief that job can drudge up. Spent much time charting at the nurses station and visting patients, seeing the nurses in action. I know there can be bad days in nursing but as I said before, all jobs come with baggage. I just think nursing is the job that speaks to me and hopefully that will help me enjoy my work regardless of the "cons" in the job.

You should really choose your career based on what you think you'll love doing, not on the hours. I would suggest interviewing teachers and nurses to try and find out which career is right for you. Speaking from personal experience, I am a teacher who is just now trying to get into an RN program. Teachers hours are never what people think they are, especially in your first year. Your evenings/weekends will be spent planning, grading and figuring out curriculum. This may get easier in your second year, if you teach the same grade/subject, but some schools rotate subjects/teachers and tweak curriculum every year. As a teacher, work definately comes home with you. Also, you don't get the same amount of time off as the kids. Plenty of days (yes, in your summer break too) will be spent meeting with co-workers/administration or doing some kind of training. You may also get "asked" to help out with after school activities (you will do this if you want tenure at your school) and summer school. Realistically, I got into work by 7am and out of work by 7pm if I was doing an after school activity. If there was no after school activity I would get out by 4-5pm. I spent at least the majority of one day on my weekend grading, planning, etc. Not trying to put a damper on teaching for you. If it is your calling then I'm sure it will be very rewarding for you. I just wanted to give you a more realistic picture about the hours.

I agree with you 100%. I'm also a teacher (biology), though I've long had an interest in nursing. I've been teaching for less than two years and I'm already applying to an RN program. I like teaching but have never loved it. I have recently moved to a new state that has a state regulated pay schedule and was pretty saddened to find out that my master's degree would only earn me 36k a year to start. The median RN starting salary in this state is 42k. According to our current teacher pay schedule (the exception being if I took more coursework) it would take me 11 years worth of raises to get to a beginning nurses salary! Yes, 11 years! Besides that, the unemployment rate for teachers in my state is terrible. There are many unemployed teachers here as schools are closed down and class sizes grow. Of course, as with nursing and other professions, the politics in teaching are pretty bad too. Stressed out administrators, cranky parents, low pay and kids with a plethora of problems make one out of every two new teacher graduates drop out of the profession in the first 5 years. Many teachers do not receive training (outside of college) and are put in a classroom with 25 students on their first day of work, alone. I think it's rough all around but being in a profession that suits YOU makes it a lot easier to deal with that crap that come along with the job. If you are a nurse then you'll love nursing regardless of the baggage that comes with the job. For instance, my husband is in IT. He works crazy hours (80+ hours/week sometimes under deadlines) with amazingly high levels of stress and terrible politics. He makes great money but I would NEVER have the stamina to deal with the crap that he deals with. However, though he acknowledges his job is stessful, he loves what he does!! Sounds crazy, but he loves his field and he mostly likes the people that he works with. So, he stays with his company. Sorry, this has gotten long winded! Yes, some of these posts are scary but the point I'm trying to make is that if a person loves their choice of career, then the baggage that comes with the job should be easier to deal with.

Washington seems like a pretty good state to practice in. I just shadowed a NP in independant practice for a day to see what the work enviroment was like. He worked with three other NP's in a family care practice and was working without a collaborating physician. Seemed like there was high job satisfaction in that practice overall. I've also had the priveledge of interviewing NP's who work in critical care in the hospital and never realized until recently that there are many NP's used by hospitals here. I think WA is favorable for NPs.

Well I can say that midwives seem to do pretty ok in Seattle area. The University of Washington Medical Center has a midwifery practice housed within it. As a matter of fact they have a job posting on their website for a midwife right now.

I worked in a LTC (as a social worker, not a nurse) and that home had a fiercely enforced policy about gloves. The CNA was not allowed to don gloves until ready for patient care and had to take them off immediately after patient care. Any CNA caught "traveling" with gloves on was instantly written up even if they just forgot to remove them before leaving a patient room.

Great post. It's so nice to see some of the "positives" listed for nursing! I'm going into nursing at the age of 31 after being a social worker and elementary school teacher. Guess I'm just cut out for service professions and helping out people. Anyway, I've got some friends who are nurses and the primary reason they wanted to go into nursing was to help people out and they were interested in health care. Now that they have some years of experience these are some of the reasons why they say they love their work: 1. Helping others in need 2. Great money (regional I know, Seattle area average starting for nurses is 45k/yr though my friends make much more now with experience) 3. Ability to find part time and full time work as needed 4. Physically active for those who do not like to sit 5. Meet lots of interesting (and sometimes entertaining) people 6. Never a dull moment 7. Variety of work settings and shifts 8. Upward mobility and choices, like management, specialties, NP, education and research 9. Job security (we have a lot of available jobs out here) 10. Love the comfy scrubs (yes, one of them actually loves her work uniform and could never imagine wearing a suit) I know that nursing has it's negatives too but so does every job. Take the good with the bad I suppose! I'd say people who cannot handle bodily fluids, seeing people in pain, dealing with irritated patients/family and who don't like unexpected surprises should not become nurses. I love hearing the good stuff, it keeps me motivated as I work toward becoming a nurse.

Thanks for answering my questions. Unfortunately, for the most part, I've encountered two types of attitudes here in WA regarding MEPN programming. Those attitudes are admittantly opposed or polite but suspicious. The polite people usually say that they would hire me an an RN but would need to evaluate the program first to see what kind of experience it offered. The program in my area is at the University of Washington which has a great reputation for nursing but it's very new and I don't think people here have warmed up to it yet. It is a two year program and looks pretty good but the only problem I have with it is that it requires choosing a focus area, like becoming an NP or specialist. With no experience I have no idea what kind of an NP I would want to be. I think the decision I have come to is just to get a RN from a community college (to keep costs down), get some job experience and then enroll in a RN --> MN/NP program that allows me to bypass the BSN.