MoonRising

Yes, thank you to the poster who mentioned getting certified. That does make you more attractive and I believe it only cost $120 to test and you have to take continuing education courses to maintain it. That does make you more attractive. In CA (which requires techs to have formal education and be registered) many hospials are requiring national certification. And I am sure a state like NY, that doesn't regulate, according to the other posters, that would be something impressive on his resume.

Many of the private Vocational schools (Unitek, CSI, Western Career College) don't require prequisites before you enter the school. But they will have you take prequisites at their school and then after you complete it you immediatly begin the nursing part of the program. Of course if you have taken these somewhere else they will usually give you a monetary credit toward the total cost of tuition plus you have less school to do.

Think of how completing NS will benefit you and your new child. Don't quit. Keep hydrated and keep eating. I had terrible morning sickness during my pregnancy (couldn't eat or drink without feeling sick) and it made studying difficult. I went to a bad school so I decided to leave school and begin again somewhere else. But don't give up. You can do it I wish I could have.

When I was in Pharmacy Tech school people asked for medical advice. When I was doing prequisites for nursing school and while I was in my first term of NS school everyone asked for advice. I kinda understand asking while I was in NS school but why Pharmach Tech school? We don't diagnose patients. I'm just a pill pusher *smile*

He really should check in the local paper or an online job board. I like Indeed.com because it pulls from many of the major sites and lists the jobs in one place. I am a licensed PhT (pharmacy technician) and here in Northern CA jobs are scarce. Because of this we tend to have abusive Pharmacist as we are replacable because tons of vocational schools churning out techs at a high rate. If he sees that there are a lot of jobs in his area then he shoouldnt have a problem. Also he should decide what kind of tech he wants to be because if you start your career in retail (Walgreens, Walmart, CVS etc) he will have a hard time finding a job at a hospital, who pay more. The skills between retail and hospital are totally different. If he couldn't find a hospital job I would recommend starting a career at a "closed door" pharmacy because you tend to use a lot of skills and going to a hospital environment will be easier because you tend to get IV experience in "closed door". Being a PhT is a wonderful job if you find the right pharmacy because you get to learn a lot and the pay if adequate.

Glad they are finally getting alternatives to Delta and MJC. This area really needed some other nursing schools. Yippeee for Maric!!! (Now Kaplan)

I did attend CSI but left due to my pregnancy. I was one of the few people who consistantly did well on the tests and my grades were at the top of the class. I wasn't too happy with the program during my time there. They were very unorganized, constantly changing policies, instructors were not very helpful, the in classroom teaching was nonexistent (it was pretty much read the book and test with little imput from the instructors who were inexperienced), and I felt that the clinical instruction was inadequate. The clinical area was along the wall and there were only 3 dummy patients. The instructor showed you only once and you were expected to test and perform it perfectly. I wish you all the luck in the world. You are up for a challenge, but that is with any nursing school. Remain dedicated and you will survive school and become a wonderful nurse.

Depending on which state you live in that is the normal price range for a private LVN program. In Northern CA: Unitek is around $30K, Gurnick is $22K, WCC is $42K and others fall somewhere in between. These are businesses and charge really what people are willing to pay. CC (charge around $3K to $6K) are so impacted that people will pay for private school programs because many people really want to become nurses. Private schools offer the easy admission process, no wait list, and all inclusive pricing. In the time you wait on the list for CC you could already be graduated and working from a private college. I myself am in this same situation but will have a few years decide since I need to wait until my son is in school to pursue my education. People in this situation should decide if the cost of private school is worth it partly based on the economy of the area they live in. Will they be able to find a good paying job quickly to pay off the large tuition? Its a tough choice

My truck driver husband is considered overweight, not by 100lbs, but since he has began his career he has put on weight . And it is true that not all truck drivers are long haul but even local drivers drive for 11 or so hours a day and are able to get in and out of the truck more often than long haul drivers. My husband does have to do mandatory physicals I believe annually. And at the last one they stated he was overweight but otherwise healthy. Its not that all truck drivers don't try to be healthy. He packs sandwiches, water (regular and flavored), granola bars, and for a treat one bag of 100 calorie chips. And for exercise we take walks on his days off. So, someone who is doing things to be healthy and is yet considered overweight, should be denied health insurance based solely on the number on the scale? I think that I lived my life in an extremly unhealthy way more so when I was in nursing school doing my clinicals. No time to eat a good meal, rest, and 12 hour rotations. These things have been brought up many times on this board. So many jobs that don't fit the 9-5 work schedule in a cubicle/office are at greater risk for overweight workers. Certainly providing incentives, as someone mentioned above, would perhaps provide a better participation in weight loss. But also understand that not everyone is meant to be skinny.

Being the wife of a Truck Driver this issue is very close to home. I was under the impression that providing access to preventative care was a way to reduce the cost of health insurance. Taking care of a problem when its small is the difference between a $200 procedure, that may be easily paid and one that costs thousands of dollars that may not be paid at all. I thought that because people were using the ER as their primary treatment center was part of the reason for increased insurance premiums and high wait times. This would be avoided if those people had regular health insurance. Since I have actually gone truck driving with my husband I can say that of the truck stops Ive gone to none contain gyms or workout rooms and I have never seen a truck driver jog around the stop or his truck either, being that they are not always the safest places and showers must be paid for. Plus keep in mind they don't always get the luxary of sleeping at a truck stop. Many times you have to sleep on the side of a road or freeway which have no amenities (ie: bathrooms) Yes, they choose this job but you should have a little compassion and think about their sacrafice the next time you eat that healthy salad, watch tv, or use toilette paper.

Thank you Baptized by Fire for you comments. It is true that being a Truck Driver lends itself to an unhealthy lifestyle. It is difficult to compare someone who has a job in an office/hospital and has a set work schedule to someone who lives and works in a big rig. After your workday is done you get to go home. Truck drivers maybe in the middle of nowhere. Has anyone even been to a truck stop? Not a lot of choices for eating healthy.

I have been fired twice (non-nursing). The first time it was because the other two women who worked there decided they didn't like me because I wasn't gossiping because I am shy and don't believe in gossiping. I came into work, opened the business and began working as usual for 3 hours. Then when the other two women came in they gave me evil looks and when the manager came in she promptly told me my employment wan't going to work out in front of every one. I had only been at this job for two weeks. I was given no warning I was about to be fired. The second time was when I had graduated from Pharmacy Technician school and I had gotten my first job at a hospital. I worked long hours, volunteered to help everyone, and seemed to get along with everyone. But unfortunatly for me, the gentleman who delivered our prescriptions developed a crush on me. This made one of the Pharmacist jelouse and she began to make my life a living hell. I came to work one day, opened the pharmacy and noticed my name was scratched off of the schedule. Then another Pharmacy Technician came in, late by the way, and we were puzzled why two technicians were working the same shift. Then after two hours of working I was called into the office and fired. No reason or warning given. To this day, I cannot get over being fired not once but twice. It hurt my pride and definetly changed how I see people. I felt like I was unimportant and replacable in the eyes of companies. And I was disappointed that good hard work doesn't seem to pay anymore. Where's the love???

I totally understand what the thread writer's son is going through. My husband is considered overweight and isn't eligible for private health insurance either. My husband is a truck driver with a rather large company and we were lucky to even get the crappy health insurance that they offered. This insurance plan has a managable deductible and we pay 20% co-insurance instead of a copay. And even though its a PPO it seems to run like an HMO being that if you see someone outside of the coverage area they change their coverage level to 65%. Again this didn't seem like a problem until I had to go to the ER because I was physically assalted when I was 5 months pregnant. While they were working on making sure my baby would survive it never crossed my mind to ask if the doctor was contracted. When in the ER you get what ever doctor happens to be there. Well, this doctor turned out to be a "non contracted" doctor and now is demanding his own rather high fee ($500)in addition to the other bills we recieved during that visit, our out of pocket expense was around $1000, the cost of the entire visit was way more. This seems like a scam to us because because when in emergency situations does anyone really have time to check if the health care provider is contracted? I contacted my insurance company about this and posed the scenario that when I go to have my baby (I'm now 9 months pregnant) if we need to do an emergency c-section will I again have this higher patient responsiblity? I was told "yes" and that the only way to avoid paying more money would be to ensure that all the doctors are contracted with the insurance company. Does that make sense to anyone? I think I would be more concerned about my baby's life than checking coverage. I've already ensured that I went to a covered hospital what more can I possibly do during an emergency?

My husband was in a similar situation. Except he had a choice,my husband wanted to get different private insurance instead of having his company insurance because it is "crappy" to say the least. High deductibles, limited coverage, high share of cost, etc. So, it would actually be more economical to have private insurance with better coverage for the same cost. Despite the fact that he almost never goes to the doctor and is in perfect health due to his young age he was denied health insurance because of the same reason "minor height/weight variation." I found this unfair because he is very healthy he is just overweight. Luckily, he can have company benefits in case of an emergency. This is a problem because I believe that people who don't have health insurance tend to use the ER as their doctor's office and put a strain on the hospital system. But if they had had health coverage they could have just had their check up, at a portion of the cost, instead of waiting until their condition became so bad they had to go to the ER and end up not paying the bill. That hurts all of us. True health insurance companies are in it to make money but they are simply "passing the bucket" by putting a strain on hospitals in the form of unpaid bills which increases premiums for all anyway.

Since I had the pleasure of attending WCC. I believe WCC is accredited the same as many of the public colleges. And you will have no problem transferring your public education credits to WCC but transferring them out tends to be a problem. I myself experienced difficulties in doing so because the credits were not the same or the course name was not the same eventhough I learned the same material. One of the counselors at Sac City College told me that a way to possibly get around that would be to save your syllabus, course description (which is usually on the syllabus), and book. But she said that it is up to the discretion of the receiving school on whether or not to accept these classes. Hope this clears this up.