hkRN83

@TheCommuter Thank you for your insight. I will take that into consideration too! :)

@RNDude2012 Thank you for your help! There are 2 transplant hospitals in my state. The one that my husband had his transplant at is 2 hours away. This hospital just opened a satellite office in my city but I think they just have one nephrologist and 2 nurse case managers. They don't have any NPs yet. My husband is finishing up his last rotations for pharmacy school and he is on the transplant floor at the same hospital that he got the kidney transplant. He saw a kidney transplant yesterday! This teaching hospital has 3 main transplant surgeons, a lot of resident physicians, pharmacy and medical students and 1 NP. The other transplant hospital is 25 minutes from our house and it's in the heart of downtown. The only problem is this hospital has a bad reputation and I agree because I worked there for 5 years as a pharmacy technician. The other option that I have is to work at a nephrology office and I may get a chance to take care of transplant patients every now and then. Another skill that I have is that I am fluent in Vietnamese. The only problem is that there are less than 2,000 Vietnamese in my city so this skill is not as marketable. I see that you are from California. Any Viet NPs there? My husband and I want to move to the Pacific Northwest after we pay off the debts and house because the weather here is too darn humid in the summer and too cold in the winter. It does not help that we live in a valley. The polluted air does not have anywhere to go! The fact that everybody and their horse smoke here does not help the situation either! Thank you for your help, RNDude!

@sadiemae1123 Thank you for your time. You are correct that I can pick up more shifts in the ICU. My mom lives with us and helps out tremendously! It is going to take a lot of sacrificing to be debt free. I will accompany my husband to the next appointment with new transplant doctor (his transplant hospital just opened a satellite clinic in our city so we don't have to drive 2 hours anymore). We are hoping that I can shadow either that transplant MD or one of the NPs. Yes, husband has life insurance and I will definitely do my research to get my own policy. The insurance company that I am working for just acquired a company that employs almost 150 NPs. I am hoping to work part-time for this insurance company once I become an NP and then work full-time as a transplant NP at a clinic. This insurance company has a great 401K matching program! I would hate to leave that and 5 years of seniority and networking. By the way, My husband and I love the name Sadie. My husband was an elementary school teacher and one of his best students was a bright girl name Sadie. We have not seen our Sadie in 4 years but we talk about her often. Thank you again for your guidance!

More replies YAY!!! Thank you for your guidance. This is helping me! I love reading your perspectives. The good, the bad and the ugly! I want it all! @nyc2011 Yes, the full-time job that I have right now is AWESOME. The salary, the work from home, no talking on the phone, no stress whatsoever and the hours (I get to make my own hours, I usually work from 6am to 2:30pm) are all strong points. You are correct that I cannot count on my husband's salary with 100% confidence. We are reminded of his kidney transplant at least 2 times a day when he takes his medicines. We are always preparing for the worst but hope for the best. My husband plans to take on a part-time or prn job in addition to working full-time at Walgreens to pay down the debts. We know a waitress who is on dialysis and my husband tells me all the time that if she can carry all that food and be on her feet 8-9 hours a day then he can still work if he needs to be on dialysis. I told him I would rather sell my blood and eat dirt before I would let him work while on dialysis. Thank you for reminding me about life insurance. My husband does have a policy that he parents bough for him before he got sick. I don't have one but I will talk to my husband about it. Your post helps a lot! It makes me so happy that my post made your day. Your reply brought a smile to my face. Are you still in NYC? My insurance company is growing in your part of the US. I want to go to NYC or Hawaii for our 10th anniversary this year but with two kids and a mountain of debts, I know my chances are close to 0 so I have been living vicariously through the youtube personalities by watching their vlogs of NYC/Hawaii. My husband asked me if I regret meeting him and I always tell him no. I would rather spend 1 day with him than to be with someone else for a whole lifetime. I was watching Dr Phil while breastfeeding my son yesterday and he had a guest who is 71 years old, she was married twice but has never been in love. I am so fortunate that I am in love and have someone who is also in love with me. Thank you again for your time.

I like all the replies so far. Keep them coming. Yes, if I plan go to NP school, I will use tuition reimbursement through work and then cash flow the whole program. Absolutely no more student loans. Our plan is that we live on my salary and all of my husband's earnings will go to a separate account to use only for paying on student loans. We estimate that we will pay all of the student loans in 2 to 3 years. We both want to contribute 18K each annually toward our 401K. I currently have $50,000 in mine but husband does not have any. We have about $40,000 of equity in our home. The main reason why I want to go to NP school is to take care of kidney transplant patients. There is a transplant hospital near my house but the management there has a terrible reputation. I would love to work as a bedside nurse on a transplant floor but not at this hospital near my house. My husband was only 21 when he was diagnosed with ESRD so it was extra hard on us because it was just not normal for him to have this terrible disease. When you envision someone with kidney disease, you think of someone in their 60s and 70s, not a 20 year old saint like my husband who is a kind and wonderful human being. My husband has been through hell and back countless times and there is not one single mean or bitter bone in his body. There was not a lot of support for us. We didn't feel like we belong anywhere. I want to be a nurse NP to take care of and hug those young people with ESRD.

Come on people! Give this dog a bone here. Over 250 views and nobody wants to say anything?

Good morning! Thank you for reading this post. I have been an ICU nurse for 7 years and love what I do. Three years into my staff nurse position at the ICU, I managed to get a part-time job at a large insurance company doing case management but I continued to work in the ICU as well. I have been working both jobs for the last 4 years while my husband went back to school to get his PharmD. I currently work full-time as a work at home clinical advisor making $69,500 annually for the same insurance company and working prn as an ICU charge nurse 4-5 shifts a month. My husband will get his PharmD in June and has secured a job with Walgreens in which he will be making $119,000 annually. We have talked about me going back to school to become an NP because I need something else and I want to take care of transplant patients. I would like to specialize in Nephrology and take care of kidney transplant patients because my husband got a kidney transplant at the age of 27. I do have a Bachelor in Business prior to getting my BSN and I went into nursing school my husband was diagnosed with end stage renal disease at 21 and I wanted to be a nurse so I can take care of him. So this is where we are at. Ten years and 2 kids later, my husband is doing great with his mom's kidney and we are grateful but we also need to plan for the future. The future is different for our family because we know there is a chance that my husband will need another 1 or 2 kidneys. Therefore, I can never stop working and I need to always be making decent money. So here is the fork in the road...Should I try to climb the ladder at this insurance company and make more money to secure my family's future or should I go back to school to become an NP. Remember, I work at home as a clinical advisor with absolutely no stress making $69,500 and working the prn gig in the hospital to pay for out of pocket healthcare costs due to my husband's frequent check ups. We have two boys and want to have another child in 2016. We also have about $150,000 in student loans (private business and nursing schools for myself, Master in Teaching and private pharmacy school for husband). We also have a mortgage but those are our only debts. The NP practitioner program that I am looking at is about $30,000. I do have to take two pre-reqs which will be around $3,200 for both. The insurance company that I am working for does have a tuition reimbursement of $5,000 annually. If I go the NP route, I plan to still work full-time for this insurance company as a clinical advisor (no climbing the ladder because that may require me to go back to the office and may have added stress), drop the prn gig at the hospital (because I can't do it all), take care of 2 boys (thank goodness my mom lives with us and provides childcare, housekeeping and cooking services), do well in school (because once I set my mind to something, it has to be successful) and take care of my husband (because I love him). HELP! I wish I can travel into the future and try both! :) I know it shouldn't be all about the money but I have a spouse who may have some serious health issues in the future. I need to think about how I can get the best medical care my husband and feed my boys. Stay with insurance company and climb the ladder to make more money, no NP school: Pros (no stress in current role but may have more stress due to more responsibilities that come with the promotion and more pay), Cons (won't be able to take care of transplant patients) Go to NP school, continue to work current role as a clinical advisor to get tuition reimbursement and contribute to 401K and help husband pay back student loans, No climbing the ladder: Pros (get to learn something new, possibility of making more money, learn more to take care of husband, insurance company that I currently work at may employ more nurse practitioners in the future), Cons (more money for school, husband wants to pay as we go because we can't afford any more student loans; the struggles between MDs and NPs)

I have been an ICU nurse for almost 7 years and thinking about going back to school to become an NP. I am considering getting my DNP but I will never refer myself as a "doctor" in a practice setting. I will introduce myself to my patients as "Hi, I am Jane Doe and I am your nurse practitioner". Once patients hear the word "doctor", they will assume that the person went to medical school and completed his/her residency. My husband will have his PharmD in June and he will not refer to himself as "doctor" to his patients either. I also believe that the term "physician" should only be used by a person who graduated from medical school and completed his/her residency. Anybody who does not have an MD or DO after his/her name and refers to him/herself as a "physician" need to be disciplined for fraud. If I ever become a nurse practitioner, I do not want to be referred to as a mid level practitioner or a physician extender because I am a nurse practitioner.

Hello! I am an ICU nurse who also does part-time case management for an insurance company. I have to say that I love teaching my patients and members on how to management CHF but these people always end up back in the ICU to see me. I am so tired of seeing the suffering and the resources we spend on treating this disease that can be effectively treated in an outpatient setting. What else can I do beside telling my patients/members to see their cardiologist as ordered, take their diuretics as ordered, daily weights and cut down on sodium. I have heard that some hospitals do send scales home with their CHF patients and nurses from these hospitals do follow up with them for 6 months. I know that some places also have HF clinics but I have not seen any in my area. I am frustrated and feel like I am failing my patients/members. The other day, I diuresed 27 lbs of fluids from a patient!!! (cross posted: case management)

I have been working for Humana for over a year! I love everything about it! I do post discharge calls to make sure our members have their meds, food, transportation and help answer any questions they may have. I work from home (started after 6 mos of employment) and I can see myself working for this company for the next 25 years! I am sure that I want to continue to be a post discharge nurse for the next 7 to 8 years, after that, I may do something else within the company just to mix things up a little bit :). Humana has a huge market in Florida. If they don't train in Tampa, they will pay for you to train in Louisville, KY (that's our headquarter!). Humana just celebrated its 50th year anniversary and it's growing by the minute! By the way, I was told at one of the meetings that every department at Humana employs at least one nurse. I believe in this company and that's why my mom, both in laws and most of the people at my church have Humana Medicare! Good luck to you!

NO! Don't talk to this nurse directly. You need to write her direct supervisor a letter giving examples of how this nurse is practicing unsafe nursing. It is up to the administration at your facility to decide if they need to talk to her or not. If you decided to talk to this nurse, you don't know how she is going to take this conversation. I can't believe that the administration at this facility is allowing a 83 years old nurse to take care of their patients/residents. But keep in mind, unless your facility can prove that she is an unsafe nurse (which hopefully your letter will be able to demostrate that), there is not a lot they can do due to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Dr Martin's review was recommended by my school. They actually required several students who did not meet the targetted hesi score to attend Dr Martin's review before taking the NCLEX. I passed the hesi but decided to take the course to boost my confidence. I took the review course in Chicago. Dr Martin is brilliant and she does not taking any bs. You have homework and if you want to do well and get your money worth, you must do whatever she tells you to do. She is from the Philippines and at times has a heavy accent. She goes over everything in her class. The class is worth it. This class is especially helpful for students whose first language is not English. Dr Martin does a very good job at breaking down the questions and helping you understand what they want and find the best answer. I passed the NCLEX after the 75th question and threw away all nclex related stuffs. Best of luck to those of you who are studying for this test. It is just another hurdle before you get your license. You can do it.

Hello, How is Humana? I am interested in working for them too.

Dr Martin reviews all the material that you had in nursing school (especially fundamentals and Med Surg). She also teaches you some test taking strategies. It is definitely the best of both worlds. Good luck to you!

The review was amazing. She went over just about everything. The handouts that she gave us were very useful for the exam. I just found out a few minutes ago that I passed with 75 questions. Good luck to all of you who are studying for the NCLEX.