ccunurseboy

In Indiana, not only will they hand out your street address and date of birth, but they make money from it, too! (they charge $1.00-$2.04 per record... see: http://www.in.gov/ai/appfiles/hpb-mlvs/ or if you wanted to stalk each and every nurse in the state, you could go here: http://www.in.gov/pla/bulk/ and download the entire database, starting at $150 for the first record and $10 for each 1,000 records after that.) Now that's just creepy.

The reason you're seeing fewer LPN programs around is (or so I'm told) due to the "Magnet Status" Initiative... which in part eliminates the LPN in the hospital setting. There are still some good programs around, and I've heard that some places that got rid of the LPN cirriculum are bringing it back because the local nursing homes started screaming. Good Luck!

I'm in northeastern Indiana... New nurses fresh out of school start here at $17 and change. We top out at 29. If you're willing to drive a few extra minutes, just across the border in southern Michigan, most places are starting at $20+ with about the same top out. Someone was asking about office nurse pay... Offices that are part of our group pay between $11 and $16 regardless of LPN or RN.(The medical assistant scale is just $2 below that) I'm told that's actually pretty good pay for an office nurse around here.

Man... sounds like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Having been through both Paramedic and Nursing school, I can tell you that, for whatever reason, My clinical experience as a Paramedic student was MUCH better than when I was in nursing school. I got to see the majority of the births I was assigned to as a Paramedic student, but as a Nursing student, I got lots more refusals... The doctors were a lot nicer to me as a Paramedic student too... they took the time to explain things, showed me how to perform certain procedures, etc. As a nursing student, the nicest any of the doctors was to me was to say, "excuse me" when he bumped into me at the nursing station... for the most part they were either rude, or just ignored me... one guy looked at my student nurse badge, then up at my face and just laughed. So if you're thinking that nursing will be an easier experience, I'd think again... it's only easier if you have a hard time with all of the Paramedic skills.(I/O sticks, Chest tubes, Intubation, etc.,etc.) Of course I'm speaking from my own experience here... perhaps there are other Paramedic/Nursing school vets who can vouch for this phenomena?

Yep... stereotype all the way here. CCU and ER.

Heh... great thread. I've noticed that when girls find out I'm a nurse the first thing they tend to do is try to figure out if I'm gay... some are more subtle than others... sometimes I'll be as ambiguous as possible... just to see how long they'll keep at it. Of course I've been hit on at work a fair number of times, too. If you're getting that response from "all" the girls, you're just talking to the wrong ones.

When I graduated from high school nursing never even crossed my mind... not a very "manly" job. I was looking at becoming an M.D., but at the time, it seemed like too much time and money. Wound up as a medic for 6 years, burnt out and got out. Got into computer work. Did PC/network repair, programming, etc. for the next 4 years or so... Then my dad got sick and for the last week or so of his life, he had a male nurse in the CCU. Watching that guy work not only changed my perspective on nursing, but it reminded me of why I got into the medical field in the first place. One month later I quit my job and went back to school for my ASN. I worked full time and went to school full time... had a lot of trouble switching mindsets from medic to nurse... I personally thought nursing school was much harder than paramedic school. Anyway, wound up in a CCU, and I've been there since.

You might want to look into the IT or IS departments at the hospital where you work... I know where I work, IT/IS is seperate from informatics... with your BS in CompSci, you'd be well suited for a senior analyst position... these are the guys that work with/troubleshoot systems problems, etc. The informatics people(At least where I work) deal more with data collection/analysis and software education. I have some computer education/experience myself, and this is just what I've learned from looking around the job postings at work.