morgorm

Hey Markdanurse, you rock! I am 100% with you, you absolutely NAILED it ! Thanks so much for making the points I've been arguing and doing it so very clearly! Please keep up the good work and consider sending your well thought out prose to the relevant journals. Thank You:balloons:

Assoc in Veterinary Tech. State Univ.-1983 LPN Community College-1990 ADN Regents-1992 BSN Regents-1995 MSN/FNP Clarkson College-2001 Currently Director of an LPN program and loving teaching.

I hated LPN school and found it a very demeaning experience.:angryfire What a pain. I went to LPN school when I was 40 years old (already had a college degree in another subject) it sucks being mistreated....... BUT I do like being a nurse ! Fortunately, now, if you like learning and hate school....you don't have to go sit in any school. I got my ADN, BSN and MSN all online and never set foot in a classroom again. No waiting lists, no clinicals and I worked F/T while going and paid it off as I went along. Many of my LPN friends are still LPN's and loving it ! What ever floats your boat. Do what you want and want what you do because ...those that matter don't mind and those that mind don't matter! {Dr. Seuss}:balloons:

As a nursing teacher in Maine for many years I have to say that the problem is not getting a hospital job....it's getting a hospital job you want to take. If you are willing to work nights or 3-11 or on a fast paced or heavy duty floor to get your feet wet and learn .....you won't have a problem. If a student is expecting to graduate and work 7-3 , full time on the floor they choose.....yup....it's going to be a problem.

I just thought I would wade in here with a few things..... I do appreciate the need to vent ! Sometimes stuff just rubs me the wrong way and I go ballistic. Better I should write it down to you all than drive my poor long suffering hubby along on another rant;) I did want to mention , since we are all not christians and don't celebrate the same set of holidays, that an alternating policy almost never works for those of us who don't celebrate on the more 'traditional' days. I did try to volunteer to work the christian holidays for folks if they would let me have my holidays off and that worked out pretty good for many jobs. I have to agree with the posters here that mentioned another facet of nursing might be kinder for Holidays off.....I have found that to be very true.

Hi, WELCOME to MAINE ! The Way Life Should BE !!:welcome: Let me see if I can help a little. Salaries vary quite a bit as you know. Dr's offices are at the very low end of the scale here because those jobs can be staffed by LPN's, Med Asst's, etc. BUT a lot depends on how far you want to commute. You are 35 minutes from Portland and Lewiston (40 minutes from Augusta)so there is a lot you can commute to. There is also a lot of home health jobs in your reach. What field do you want to work in or have the most experience in? Have you tried the website www.jobsinme.com ? That's where most nursing jobs are advertised in Maine. That website will give you some salary ranges also. If you have all that experience, don't waste it.... look under 'instructors' There is also the www.mainetoday.com website which represents the major newspapers in Southern Maine (but NOT the Brunswick Times Record unfortunately) If you are interested in Home Health or Teaching LPN's I could help maybe. Mo:balloons:

let's think about this. what exact class are you short? you don't have to sit in a classroom to take a class. if you are short english lit, or psych or ? you can clep out or test out of a lot of first and second year college classes. you study the text and then just sign up for the test, usually given at a local school. look on the clep (www.collegeboard.com ) and www.excelsior.edu sites for the list of zillions of courses you can just test out of. this would get that class out of they way asap and you can be eligible for the school you want. just an idea from someone who clep 'd out of 22 credits worth.

Welcome to Real World nursing ! Being a good nurse (esp with the patients) will not help you keep your job. You have bruised the tender egos of the people who were there when you arrived. This has nothing to do about your abilities as a nurse and everything to do about personalities. You have some catch up 'smoozing' to do. Start asking them for their advice on stuff you already know, be humble and grateful for any info given (acting will sometimes be necessary....). Keep your mouth shut and your ears open and make sure you praise what they do and how they do it when you can do so while sounding like you mean it. Ask them how they are doing, how their families are doing....remember their kids and husbands names. Keep low and go slow......I'm sure you get the picture. Being a 'cracker jack' at your job is NOT a good way to keep it if you can't play it down... I can assure you. Emotional IQ needs to be cultivated and is a learned behavior for a lot of us. Good Luck !

Ok, don't despair, you actually probably do know all the material. What you don't have down ....is how to take a standardized multiple choice test. Get a book on tricks and tips for taking standardized exams. Most of my students know the material well when they take the NCLEX but they are too nervous or are not good at picking the 'most correct' answer out of 4 correct answers. Intelligence is good, knowledge is great but persistence is everything ! Keep trying , you will pass !{Prof Mo}

Absolutely lawyer up ! The BON is not your friend. The mission of all BON's is to "Protect the Public" not represent nursing or help you in any way. Everyone should have their own malpractice insurance that supplies you with a lawyer for 'BS' just such as this. Of course you didn't do anything wrong, obviously you have an unknown person there who wanted you gone for whatever reason and used this as an excuse:balloons:. This happens all too frequently. I am so sorry this happened to you, please don't let it make you question yourself as either a compassionate human being or a great nurse.

Actually, as the director of a nursing program, what I find most people fall down on is NOT the content of any exam ...but the concepts, tricks, and how to read the questions involved in taking ANY standardized, multiple choice exam. (including the NCLEX exams) For heavens sake, if you are reading this and your going to be a student for awhile....get some guides on how to take standardized exams. It will be the best money you ever spent. As for the NET entrance exam it is put out by ERI (Educational Resources INC. ) and the study guide ERI publishes is the most accurate way to study for the CONTENT in it. Don't worry about any other entrance exam review book. Several companies provide entrance tests and they are all somewhat different. The Princeton Review used to publish a guide on how to take standardized exams in general and it was priceless. Try something like that.

I worked as a Psych RN for many years. If management insist on having your last name on the tag I would just cover it with tape or use an indelible marker the same color as the font on the tag and make it impossible to read. All kinds of patients can get weird about the nurse that cares for them. Tell your manager you're just trying to keep it professional. (Of course I would also love to see all of management required to wear the same tags.....bet that would put an end to last names in large print........)

Bass Fishing !!!

As an old lady NP that has been on every rung of the Nursing career ladder (starting with CNA through MSN) Let me mention the unspoken and psychological reasons behind this push to a DNP.......... IT's the word "DOCTOR".......... Lets face it, for some inexplicable reason over the years that word has taken on the persona/clothing/ etc. of being this "all wise" "all knowing" Dr. Welby/Daddy/Protectorate figure. Nurses and nursing have played second fiddle to this myth based American ICON named "DOCTOR" for years. So in the final act of collective professional insecurity, even though current NP practice has been documented multiple times , as just as good if not 'better' than a DR.....we have decided to allow ourselves as a profession to cave in to the popular myth that calling ourselves by the magical "DOCTOR" word will finally make us equal in the American Healthcare Mythology. Somehow, as a profession, we will have acheived that final entrance into the 'old boys' club. For Shame !