Price 2002

It wasn't even mentioned. Oh well...shouldn't be surprised!

I work 6p to 6a. I love it! More money and less hassle! Don't think I will ever wanna work days.

This might sound a little out there. But while my DH was in his EMT course one of his instructors told him that many firemen/emts he knew were married to nurses. He said that they understood each others job stresses, odd hours, etc. I thought well I hate my job, I was totally overworked and underpaid and burnt out. I can do that! I had thought of being a nurse before but thought that it was too hard and I was not smart enough even though I had done excellent in school. So I told my DH that was what I wanted to do. So I found a LTC that was offering a STNA course. It was about 6 weeks away. So I took a leave of absence for personal reasons from my current job and enjoyed 6 weeks off with pay then started the 10 day paid STNA course. I loved it. Before the course was over I signed up at the closest nursing school I could find which happened to be one exit up the highway from where I live. It was a 15 month Practical Nursing course with IV Therapy Cert. I am proud to say that I graduated Oct 1st, 2008...finally sat for boards Dec 16th 2008 and found out I passed on the 17th. I am currently working full time at one LTC and part time at a local County Juvenile Detention Center. It was totally worth it. I only work PRN as a STNA while I was in school but I would do it all over again!

I know that this question has been asked a 100 times before but I am going to ask again.... What is the best nursing tennis shoe? Doesn't have to be all whire or whatever. Just looking for comfort. I have a high arch and have considered that Nike Shock but I am usure. Thanks in advance!

I got my license right before Christmas and with that and the economy no one was hiring. So finally after a ton of applications and resumes I got 3 interviews. One day I went to this nice older LTC about 15 mins from my house. They offered me a PRN position, which I accepted. Another day I went to an interview at a county jail, which is about 10-15 mins from my house depending on the traffic. They offered me a PRN position, they need someone to come in a pass evening meds Monday through Friday...but the catch is it only takes about 15-20 mins per night but you get paid for one hour...so they needed someone that lived close by and was looking for experience. I told them that I wanted the job but could not commit to every day Mon-Fri but would do all I could. Today I got another job...this one is at another LTC PRN to start. They are looking to train someone and get them ready to take over because they are going to be losing some staff soon and need people ready to step up and take over full time when this happens. This place is WONDERFUL! Great pay, great place...just amazing...great staff retention. I also accepted that! When I was doing all of this I was thinking that PRN wasn't going to be enough...but now I am thinking I might have gotten in over my head...but I am so excited about them all!! All of the places are great for their own reasons and I want all of the jobs! So I am asking for advice...am I in way over my head or is it possible to juggle it all? Thanks in advance!

Congrats!! :balloons: I just took mine last Tuesday and the computer shut off at 85 questions and I was freaked out but I passed too! Feels good! Congrats again!

LOL! I def know where you are from!!!

I am so happy to finally be able to tell you all that I passed the NCLEX-PN! My computer shut off at 85 questions and I was pretty freaked out because it seemed so much harder than I was prepared for but after two days of waiting I found out this morning that I passed!!! I am thrilled....of course now I have the task of finding a job in a very difficult market. But nothing could bring me down today!!! :yeah:Thank you all for the kind words and support and encouragement that you gave me while I was in school and studying. Now...I gotta go job hunt!

Well after a very long time of waiting (I graduated October 1st) I finally got my ATT today. I got a test date very quickly. I am scheduled to test Tuesday 12/16 at 8am. I have to work Saturday, Sunday and Monday before this. I am thinking about calling off Monday. I have wanted this for so long and worked and fought so hard...so why am I so scared? I am crying my eyes out as I type this so afraid of the next few days.... Any words of wisdom or encouragement would be much apperciated! Thanks!

I take a 100mg of Topamax daily. It has helped my considerably. I still get a few migraines a month but I used to get several a week so I am happy. When I first started taking it I did have some memory trouble and increase appeitite. But I have been on it for about two years and have had no problems other than the time I was stupid and stopped taking it and got terrible migraines for about a week until I straightened myself back out on it.

congrats!! :balloons:

The cheating in my class was terrible. The sad thing was EVERYONE knew who the cheaters were and had informed the teachers, head of the nursing program and dean on several occasions. It drove me crazy:banghead:. I ended up quitting my job during school so that I could study more and still see my husband and kids but these cheaters were still working, some of them 2 or 3 jobs and bragging about how much $ they were making and we all knew that they had no time to study. It created a lot of tension in my class. In my last 3 terms were started to do the ATI program and it FINALLY became clear to the school what was going on when the cheaters got terribly low scores on the ATI tests but were doing good in class. So in the end the cheaters had to start studying b/c the ATI scores were 25% of our final grade and if you didn't pass the ATI chances were that you would fail the class. It still bugs me though b/c I tried so hard...but I guess like others have said you can't cheat on the NCLEX...and I know how hard I worked and I am proud of myself for it!

Wonderful advise! I am going to use this...thank you so much!

27, Female, 5 (two of them I was the passenger and two were parked cars that I backed into! lol)

I developed it while working in banking for 6 years. It was better for awhile after I left but flared up again during nursing school.

I just graduated from nursing school 2 weeks ago and went back to the facility I worked at before as an aide until I take the boards and while I was waiting to see what they were going to pay me to rehire I put in a couple more apps and made it clear on all of them that I would be a LPN soon and ALL of them called me back and offered me a really good starting wage and were interested in me as a LPN once I passed boards. I ended up going back to the LTC that I had worked at before because it was closest to home and pay is hard to beat and they are also wanting me as a LPN. For me I don't see the economy hurting my job or future jobs...at least not at this time! My husband is a Firefighter/EMT and doing really well in this slump too. When it comes down to it...people are always gonna get sick and need help.

Great advice! Thank you, I will do that!

It has been 15 months in the making but I have offically graduated as a Practical Nurse!!! I am going back to work as a STNA where I previously worked and they have already offered me a job as a LPN when I pass boards. So I am feeling confident and ready to go. I am going to keep study my butt off but not for the rest of this week...I am just going to enjoy it! Thank you all for the encouragement through it. I am sure I will need plenty more as a new nurse.

congrats!!!!

One of my friends did not find out she was pregnant until 6 weeks before her due date. It was not abnormal for her to miss periods for months at a time and she wasn't gaining much weight. This was even her second child. Everyone thought she was crazy or hiding it but she is not that kind of person. She is in a stable marriage and they were really thrilled to have another baby. She said that she didn't feel any movements or anything. But she had a healthy, happy boy. He is almost 5 now and doing great. Just thought I would throw my in.

Hello! Yes I did this. I was working at an STNA (same as CNA) making really good pay $14.50 which is good in my area for a STNA so that I could finish up my last 6 months of nursing school. I managed to work full time the first several months then went PRN then in order to keep up with my family (I am married and have 2 kids) and clinicals and class my husband and I decided that I would stop working. It has not been easy but we have survied. My hubby, who is a firefighter/medic has picked up extra shifts and worked at 2 different departments to make ends meet. We have fixed up the older van that I drive and are trying to make it last until I graduate and get a job...which should not be long now!! Luckily we do not owe anything on his truck. But we not go out like we used to and had to cut back on shopping etc. Good luck to you! It is hard but so worth it!

Repercussions were one of my biggest worries about boycotting the school's ceremony. I would not put it past them to hold up our paperwork just to spite us. I am going to speak with my fellow classmates on Tuesday and see what they think about me contacting my father's friend who is an attorney and seeing if we have any kind of a case or at least if we can use him in some form. I am sick of being pushed around and being told to shut up and put up and "that's how it is in the real world, or "in nursing you have to be flexible". Well I think that I have flexed as far as possible and have reached my breaking point along with many others. Thank you all for the encouragement and I will keep you posted on the progress that we make.

Thank you all for your responses. I feel very torn by the whole thing. I am not upset about being rescheduled...I know in nursing you have to be flexible so those sort of things do not bother me. What gets me if the fact that we were suppose to have this nice ceremony that was traditional in a beautiful church and now it is at our school with the MA students and it has been completely cheapened. But most of my class has come together and already booked a site on Oct 10th in a nice local church and we are ordering our own pins and having food catered in and having some of our very supportive instructors pin us and officate the ceremony. It just would have been nice to get what we paid for and not have to go to this extra trouble. But this way my whole family can come. I am still unsure if I will go and get the pin that I paid for or if I will just skip it all together. Thank you all again. :wink2:

This might get kinda long so I will start out by thanking everyone that reads it! As many of you know I am graduating October 1st with my degree in Practical Nursing. My school only has once a year mass graduation ceremonies (every May), I knew that going into the program and totally understood but I was told that EVERY nursing program would have a pinning ceremony, as was everyone else in the nursing program that I have spoke to. So last week my class is told that we will be having our pinning on November 21st, we were given a time, the place, how many tickets we could have so we could plan on who to invite (8 tickets per person), told about parking, what to wear, and what to expect etc. We were all very excited, as you can imagine. So yesterday they come into our class and tell us that everything is changed and our pinning will be October 3rd. Well that sounded great until they told us that we were going to be pinned with the MA students because it is not fair that we get pinned and they don't and that the pinning will be held at 1pm on a Friday, at the school and we are only allowed to invited 2 people. I am a married mother of two kids! How is that fair? Many of us are married or involved and have childern and other family members that have supported us through out this. My very elderly grandma was looking forward to watching my get pinned and to bring her into my old school with all kinds of other classes walking around and being loud just seems for the lack of a better word trashy. So many of us are upset because we feel lied to. How can they expect people to take off work in the middle of the day to attend this? Then when everyone started objecting to this new "pinning" we are told not to make to big deal of a fuss and shut our mouths or we may lose it all together. As it stands now we are boycotting the "pinning" and having our own after graduation. It just is one more thing to worry about that we shouldn't have to when it has been promised to us from the beginning. Thank you for reading this....any advice or comments or encouragement would help so much at this point!

So it sounds like you got your ATT really fast. That is what I am really worried about. There are some people that graduated my program on 5/29 that just got to take their test this month. The school keeps telling us it is because they have to send our background checks off again and that the board is backed up. When I go to the OBON site it does say that they are really busy. I just really hope that I don't have to wait until December to test! I graduate on the 1st of October!