Bandaide

It would definitely be a private duty situation, with an apartment or room attached to the home. The current caregivers are 24/7 from 2 to 5 days a week. They have rooms in the house. It's in a ski resort location in Colorado. The ideal situation would be with a couple who could share duties, with a third caregiver as well to break up shifts. I just don't know where to find such an agency to find people who would be interested. I live in a fairly metropolitan area a thousand miles away so I can't be much help. It's been difficult finding qualified people in a small town.

For a patient that lives outside a metropolitan area, are there any agencies that have nurses that will consider going there on a live-in basis? Some places seem to be "caregiver deserts".

I started nursing school at 52 and graduated with my ADN at 54. I decided that I would be 54 whether I went to nursing school or not, so I had better get to it. I took all the prerequisites over again because the first time around was decades before. You can do this, and will even have an advantage in some areas just because you are older. You probably will have better time management skills than some of your younger classmates. It won't be easy, but the good things rarely are. I see that my profile still says nursing student - I graduated in 2012.

I will get my flu shot in mid-October. I had Covid in March, and I feel like if I got the flu, it might just finish me off. I take my husband and we get our shots at the same time - it makes it easier to be sure that he gets it. We go get dinner after and has become a fall couples thing for us. I had H1N1 in 2009, and spent a few days wishing I would die and get it over with, so I'll do what I can to try to avoid that if I can.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Lee doesn't have a nurse in her office - just MAs that she calls nurses. I've seen that in more offices than I can count.

I've had 4 or 5 colonoscopies without sedation. I have an IV, and sometimes get a little fentanyl as the scope goes round the bend - usually for the doctor's comfort. The doctor had never done one that way before, but now he has a bunch of patients who elect to do it without sedation.

Keep in mind that it's to their benefit not to find any crime. How about users who can't get a chair in the place in time for their next fix? They end up on the doorstep of a nearby business or home. Now Seattle is talking about providing "clean" drugs for the addicts to use, free of charge. What is wrong with this picture? How about providing free drug treatment instead?

With more than 25 nursing schools in the state of Washington, there are lots of new grads you would be competing with for jobs. About 1/3 (maybe 1/2?) of our ADN class that graduated this June have found jobs so far, and I think all are on units where they worked as techs or where they did their practicums. Good luck!

The purpose of the NCLEX is to pass those candidates who meet the basic requirements to give safe care as new nurses, nothing more. It is not meant to select the best of the pool of applicants. It has no role in regulating the number of nurses in practice. If nursing schools are doing their job, they should be admitting students who are capable of learning the required information and skills, teaching them the content required, and graduating those who do so. Those students should be able to pass the NCLEX without repeating their education with review or cram classes if they take the NCLEX fairly soon after graduation. If students aren't prepared well enough to pass the NCLEX, either the school, the student or both have not performed as they should. I took the NCLEX earlier this month and found it to be about equal in difficulty (maybe even easier) than the exams we had throughout school. I passed with 75 questions in 55 minutes. So far, every student in my class who has taken the exam has passed, all but one with under 90 questions. We started NS with 36 in our class and ended with 29, so there was some attrition.

ATI is a testing company that gives the TEAS test that some schools use for entry into their nursing programs. They also have exams for the main curricular areas covered in nursing school, as well as the ATI Predictor which is supposed to indicate how the taker will do on the NCLEX. That is the test we are talking about above. Our school required us to take the ATI exam each quarter, so we had to purchase the package that included the ATI books and testing program.

I took it and got a 99%. When I took the NCLEX, I passed in 75 questions, so I think it was predictive for me. I didn't study much (about 10 hours) between the two exams. Good Luck!

I have not heard that a Residency is required - it's just much better than not having one. There is someone from my class (we just graduated and passed the NCLEX) who is now working on a unit as an RN.

As I understand it, and I could be wrong, we need to keep the certificates and if we are choosen to be audited, then we have to be able to produce them. But I've been dealing with inital licensing, and not the CEU part yet.

I took the state test. You may need it if you decide to work as a tech in a hospital during school. And it looks better on your resume, since you followed through with it and didn't just do the bare minimum required to get into the program.

To my knowledge, only two in our class have jobs. My experience so far has been that recruiters don't really want to hear from us until we pass NCLEX. Some of my classmates have been harrassing HR until they get a first interview, but they haven't gotten jobs yet. I have a trip planned this fall (once-in-a-lifetime, family thing) so I won't be applying anywhere until I get back. There are so many areas I'm interested in, that I think I can be happy in many different situations. So where ever I end up, I don't thing I'll feel like I'm "settling". In a perfect world, I'd like to be in the ED, but not many take new grads.