Brigi23

Advanced patho was brutal. I took it alone because my mentor thought that would be the best for me. My classes are in 7 week blocks. Right now I am taking 2 classes so similar to your scenario ( minus advanced patho this sem) and defiantly has been like a full time job for me. I work part time 16 hours a week and still feel like this is an intense amount of work. My daughter is grown now so I have no kids at home and I feel the pinch even without the little ones at home so it is defiantly hard and right now you are in one of the hardest classes. In my opinion adv patho was the hardest class. Hang in there and reduce your work load if possible

Mentalklarity, I cannot tell you the amount of times I have seen salary shaming within the nursing community so kudos for bringing some mentalklarity to the convo. There is no way if this was a group of physicians they would be shaming each other for wanting to make money. Just because Eliza didn’t mention how much she enjoys her patients or the field that is irrelevant . The conversation was about starting up a private practice which is the title of the post. This old school thinking of nurses has got to change if we are ever going to lift each other up instead of living in martyrdom and pushing each other down. You can love your patients and make money, it is very possible.

Esanity, I have been a nurse since 2007. For me, I have never truly enjoyed it. There are certain things that I love about it of course. I love patient care. I love being with my patients and seeing them do well. I really enjoy helping others. I came on this website many years ago now, I think it was 4 or 5 saying exactly what you are saying. For some people helping is what we love and truly enjoy but the rest of the ins and outs of nursing are not working for us. I have switched to probably 20 different jobs over the years. Maybe even more. My final conclusion is for me, I simply am not enjoying the politics that come with the job. I don’t like the lack of respect for nurses, the fact that we are always dumped on when they need to admit extra patients etc. I simply do not enjoy that aspect. I do not enjoy having nursing managers that treat us like children. Autonomy I have discovered is a must for me. Perhaps you should consider going back for your NP. I believe you said you like to see patients in short spurts. That is exactly what you would get and you will get more respect and autonomy. I believe that many nurses on this forum really truly love and enjoy nursing. So they may think that it is simply an attitude adjustment rather than finding a better job fit for yourself and your personality. I have never found a niche for me that truly fits because it is not the patients, it is the politics that go along with being a nurse that I do not enjoy. I have noticed often in nursing if you don’t “endure” the pain you are made to feel kind of bad for it ( not saying anyone on this post has done that btw). Also never mention that you want to make money for your services on here because you will get slated. You must be a martyr when it comes to making money and sacrifice. For myself, I decided to go back for my NP. I can’t be guaranteed that it will be a better fit, but I will be able to do more on my terms. I hope you find what you are looking for. NP does not equal happiness for everyone, but it sounds like your personality may be more of a 1:1 type of situation . All best

Haha. There are different levels of acuity. My hospital takes a lower acuity. It depends on what your facility will accept too. I was more afraid of peds hospital psych and adult psych. Gero- psych patients are usually very febile and if you need to you can restrain them etc. I am a 5'5" female 160 lbs so I can hold down and restrain 95% of the patients that walk in that door on my own. Adult unit was different, I could probably restrain 5% on my own. You never know who is going to turn and attack etc. I worked this unit for about a week and decided it was a little too dangerous for my liking. Some nurses say they have never been attacked on adult? IDK. I didn't want to risk it. My rule of thumb is if I can't handle a patient on my own, I will not work there. Because you will sometimes be left in a situation where it is you and a violent patient. Pediatrics was a different ball game. While I felt like I could restrain the kids under 8 on my own if I really needed to ( we needed to very often at the hospital I worked at), there were kids that would come in that were 17 years old and looked like running backs for the NFL. So..... when a patient is psychotic and circling your desk and getting up in your face wanting to harm you, these are things that you have to consider. I have been at this Gero-psych unit for almost a year now. I have been spit at once. pinched once and hit once ( not too hard). So that is the way that I look at it. I have never worked a psych unit where I felt completely safe. You always have to watch your back and your co workers backs. These people are dealing with delusions and hearing voices etc. that tell them you are trying to harm them and "not to tell the nurse things etc". You will get all types. Good luck, it has been pretty darn interesting!

It sounds like there is some room for improvement within the program. Thanks for the advice about posting in the beginning of the class. ? I am very excited to get my PMHNP. I have wanted to do this for a long time and I am so happy to get this opportunity. I know it is going to be painful:/ I am really glad to hear that has not been your experience. I have had great luck so far with the online schools. Congrats on making it this far! I also think you do get what you pay for. I would rather pay half the price and have a few more headaches than get out of school and have to pay off loans for the next 10 years. Good luck. Please update and let us know how clinical are going!

Wow. I haven’t had any bad experiences yet. I started 3/15. I took nursing theory and healthcare policy. I do have Dr.Vietz and she has been nice and pleasant. There has been choppy communication. I am not on facebook so have no idea how to connect with other students. I feel like an island out there on my own learning the material. So far I feel OK though. It is not quite as organized as WGU. I am surviving. Does anybody know how to connect with other students if you are not on facebook? I am finishing my first term in about a week. Hopefully the rest are OK. Now I am a little nervous about bio 669:/ I am in the PMHNP*

So far so good. I started my first 2 classes March 15. I feel a little overwhelmed but starting to adjust my brain. I went down to 20 hours a week at work so I can have a little downtime on the weekend. Mostly it has been a lot of discussion boards and writing. It is all about writing and APA format mixed with a lot of reading. I am pretty happy with everything so far? good luck !! Keep us posted if you get in. I am so excited to be in the program.

Yes, the wait to find out your future is a hard one! I did the RN to BSN program. I don’t have any info on their nursing program, I went to community college and then WGU. If it is anything like their RN-BSN program it will be great! Good luck and keep us posted!

I work Gero psych, I have also worked with adults and peds. My experience is there are a small number in every category that are prone to violence. Hallucinations and delusions make them more prone to thinking you are the enemy Peds can be very violent and OK to manage if they are 5-9. Above that you have some pretty big kids. Some built like football players. Can be terrifying when they are deluded. Adults can get very violent and are scary because they have the strength do do some damage. I work in a gero psych where we don’t accept knowingly violent patients. With covid that has changed a little and they are increasingly more violent. There are some pretty strong seniors that have bitten, kicked, spit on, scratched and even tried to hit a nurse with a chair holding it above his head getting ready to slam it down on her None of it is truly safe. You are always at risk of getting hurt when working on a psych floor. The good news is if you have a great staff that are trained in how to handle the situation that can defiantly help. Also seniors, at least the ones I have dealt with so far, I have been stronger than 90% and could manage them when needed. De escalation is key but when that fails you have to have a good responsive team and management. If management tie your hands by not allowing you to do your job then that can be difficult. Or if there are unclear expectations about what should happen. ultimately our license is on the line so it is really good to know what everyone expects while keeping the patient and yourself as safe as possible. I worked for a very good hospital and was floored that they were wavering on what we could or should do. it’s important to have a team that has your back and management that is 100% on board with what you are doing.

I start NKU PMHNP program 3-15 as well! I also deleted my facebook account so have not seen what is going on with that group. I am excited to start!

Your welcome! Good luck it will be over much quicker than you think!?

Hi, I just wanted to put in my info about this program because when I first started I was searching High and low to find out info so I knew what I was getting into. I was a traditional student for my nursing degree and went to Salt Lake Community college so was a little nervous about online learning without more direction. I cannot say enough about what a totally great experience I have had. Enough for me to get on and post about it and trust me I have no affiliation and am not getting a thing for this post. This is purely because I was the scared student looking for my bachelors needing info and it was people that did exactly what I am doing now that gave me the courage to blindly give money to an online school. Wow am I glad I did. From the beginning to the very end WGU has been so professional and fantastic at every turn. The plat form is super easy to use. You do not have to do any random discussion boards that are inconvenient to the working nurse. There are only deadlines from when the class starts to when it ends. Typically that is a month or two. Whenever I needed anything the tech dept was right there. My mentor was fantastic. In the beginning I will be honest, I was kind of annoyed at having a mentor because I don't really need someone to hold my hand. I am and always have been a self starter and self motivated. NOTE: IF YOU ARE NOT A SELF STARTER THIS MAY NOT BE FOR YOU. I have seen some people get online trashing WGU and my only guess would be is that they are not self starters or self motivated and do need some extra guidance. Not saying one way of learning is above the other but I am saying that some people simply do better in a sit down classroom. To hear and see visuals etc. What impressed me the most is that it seems like it was all on my time. I thought it was going to really be painful because I work full time. I do not have kids at home they are grown, but do love my weekends off so I thought I would have to sacrifice those to get this done. I finished my degree in 18 months. I had my weekends to play around and on the days I didn't work I did put in the time. Usually 6-8 hour days approx 2-3 days a week depending on the class you are taking. Sometimes a little more some times less but that is a rough estimate. The toughest class for me was statistics. I am not at all in any way shape or form a math person so I will level with you this one through me into a moment where I at times did not think I would complete the degree for a couple min. I had some panicked feelings because I detest math! But I called out to WGU and they were right there every single time at every single step. They have a math dept and they will literally link up to your computer and share screens so you have a tutor at your fingertips. This was a life saver to me as one of the worst things in math is getting stuck and not being able to proceed. It is not as though they took hours to respond either. Alot of times it was instant. All of my testing was done proctored on a camera at home. It was very easy and there were a couple times that I had a setback with the camera especially when covid first started because they couldn't proctor as many students due to limited space at the proctoring center and how many proctors they would allow in their facility to actually observe the student. It was a glitch that was super annoying at the time and set me back all of about an hour but realistically looking back most of my testing went down without a hitch, which is super impressive to not have to drive anywhere! I absolutely cannot say enough about my mentor Tammy. She was invaluable to my success even though I resisted having someone call me to check in regularly and was slightly put off by it in the beginning she has proven to be the best part of WGU because of her willingness to always answer questions and get me the answers I need almost immediately or at least in a few hours. For anybody that is considering taking an online program this one is highly recommended. I think in the end I will have spent 9k-ish but as far as I am concerned money well spent and WGU made my journey a very comfortable ride. Very nice people all of them. The only negative thing that I would say is in regard to payment. There was one month that I was particularly having a tough time and was paying cash all the way up, they would not let me slide not even a month and to me I thought that was a little lame since I was paying cash and things were tough. I think a little amount of leniency can go a long way. Some people take advantage and I understand that but for those of us that do not and do have little glitches it is nice to know that they will give you an inch or two until you are back up. Not a mile! but an inch. Thanks for listening and I am glad I did it! Happy with my choice and so glad I stumbled upon such a GEM!

Hello fellow nurses, I am struggling with wanting to still be a nurse after 10 years. ( sorry if this is a bit long) I do not have the least desire to go out and apply for any nursing job and I almost feel a bit irritable when I am interviewing like what do you want me to do now etc? I cant work weekends... I don't want to do nights. I am struggling because I never questioned going into nursing, for me it was the natural thing to do. I am naturally very compassionate and overly sensitive person. It made me an exceptional nurse to many for quite a while because I can literally feel other peoples pain etc and empathize with them. I don't think it is compassion fatigue because I don't feel in the least bit irritable about being with my patients. In fact that is the one thing that I do love. I have always been a people person, but again I am very sensitive. I went from pediatric hospital for approx 1 yr neuro. then tried home health for 7 yrs and enjoyed it most of the time. Doctors office for a year (which was traumatic), adolescent rehab center for approx 1 yr (which was ok) I am not good at being in and around alot of people unless they are very nice people, but usually there is that one person in the group that is overly critical or rude and it ruins the vibe for me and I seriously don't want to be around the place anymore. I know that sounds extreme. Believe me I get it! most people just suck it up and I am not sure why I cannot do the same. I used to do it for years. My strong points are I adapt well to change, I am compassionate, versatile, organized, loyal to a company and co-workers who are good to me, I am friendly unless of course.. they are rude, I am always on time, I pick up things quickly, I am highly empathic and empathetic to the point of it being a downfall. My weaknesses- I am physically unable to be around people I do not like for long periods of time, makes me very uncomfortable. I am obviously overly sensitive, detail is not my favorite, but when it comes to certain things aka life threatening i can be very detail oriented. I think I have a very very low tolerance for most Doctors as most of the time they have an air about them of entitlement and in my experience most of them have been very off putting to the whole profession. I have liked 1 md out of every 20. And when I say like, they are not incredibly rude and egotistical. I am not trying to be a drama queen here, I was just wondering if anybody has any advice. Has anybody come across this in their career and was able to just change directions and all was ok? I am feeling very much over it:( Thanks for listening to my ramblings and any GOOD advice would be great! Thanks all you nurses out there....

hey, I am glad that other new grads are also excited about their new jobs and are enjoying them. I am currently on the neuro unit at a peds hospital and am really liking it so far. there are a few things that are not exactly my cup of tea (like the nights), but I always walk away from my job feeling like not one second of my day was a waste of time. I work with some very smart and talented people and feel very lucky.

Hey, I am in the exact same boat as you are right now. I just graduated, got a job at a teaching peds hospital, and am studying for boards also. It is a ton of info, but so far I am managing, and not feeling too overwhelmed ( I know that doesn't comfort you), maybee the particular floor that you are starting on is a little busy? I know the floor that I am starting on is a lower pt. to nurse ratio, the pt.s are a higher acuity, but it is not as crazy busy, and is a great pace to learn. The staff on my unit has been incredibly nice and friendly, is the staff on your floor really nice and supportive? This is a time where it is very important to be able to ask questions comfortably, and if you feel like the staff around you are not warm, welcoming and understanding as far as you asking questions and not knowing things then it is very hard to learn. I think that your anxiety will fall once you start getting a little more hands on with the pumps and meds. I know that once I started getting more info about how things worked the better I felt I was able to handle the situation. I think that it helps to know that even the nurses that have been at the hospital for years are still asking questions daily. The bottom line is, there is sooooo much to know and to try and assume all of that right off the bat is insane. The only thing that we can do as new nurses to ensure our patients are not going to keel over in our care is move forward with some paranoia, but the good paranoia. The one that makes you check and double check every medication that you are giving for the first little while. Meds and IV's are probably my biggest concern, the rest will come with time. Goodluck, please let me know how you are doing.