Derek1975

Summer is only 10 weeks and it would more than likely be the only class I'd be taking, is it a good idea to take it in Summer? It means being able to take A&P I that much quicker, and getting done with prerequisites that much quicker, so I'm considering it, but don't want to sabotage my GPA for admission requirements either.

I'm glad to see that it is possible to get into an OR Nurse position straight out of school, I'll know what I want to do for a clinical in my last year of school. I'm also considering ICU or something similar but I think I'd like working OR, especially in a Level I or II trauma center. But anywhere, really. What got me interested was taking a tour of the new OR in a hospital I volunteer with, and it was super nice!!

I was a volunteer in the ED for about a year and a half, and we were praised up and down by the nurses and techs. We helped the techs out with cleaning rooms, stocking supplies and doing everything short of actual patient care (although we occasionally assisted with moving or transporting a patient if it was a big job) plus if the rainbows ran low we refilled those. I liked it even though I had to move to a floor due to school scheduling conflicts.

I try to change my thinking while I'm trying to do the task. Think about baseball, or play a song in your head, something to distract your mind while you're doing it. That's what works for me. That and doing it as quickly as possible without doing it wrong.

Theoretically, wouldn't you be able to work full time during the summer since there are no clinicals or classes then? At least that's the case with the programs I'm looking at.

I don't know if 2nd or 3rd shift on weekends would be any better or worse since most classes/clinicals are during the day. I'm wondering this myself, and for the same reasons.

The same amount of grief that I imagine Female Doctors or Paramedics get at first. This image of a certain profession being made for a certain gender has to stop, now! Once they see what kind of skills you have as a nurse they'll shut right up. That said, the only real issue I had as a CNA was female residents who didn't want a male anywhere NEAR them. But that you can get past since there are plenty of other females on the floor. Don't know if a male RN runs into those same kind of issues.

I did post-mortem/cleaning as a CNA at an LTC. I was a little unnerved at first, but it was night shift, and me an another CNA were the only ones on the clock,(other than the RNs) so it was us or nobody. You do get used to it after a while.

Are all hospitals 12-hour shifts? I know a few folks in the ER and maybe ICU that work 11am-11pm, that could work for me, since I'm a night owl but not so much that I could work with 7p-7a without some ill effects.

I used to volunteer in an ER and happened to be on that date. Which is a significant date for marijuana users. As it happens our hospital is not far from a major college campus, so it was nice and busy that night.

On 4/20.

I do think I'm in the wrong line of work as a CNA. I do home health caregiving, and it is expected that you are an extrovert that can work with all different types of personalities. I would like to think I can adapt but patient feedback is telling me differently, and have lost a few clients as a result (me, not the company.) I have a burning desire to be a nurse and am going for prerequisites for nursing (LPN, to start.) I've considered something like Dialysis, but haven't seen much in the way of LPN jobs through Davita or a company like that. Clinic Nurse would be interesting as well, despite the pay cut.

I will work 3-11 or 11-7 if I work 8. 3-11 is nice, because it's busy when you come in, but it winds down the closer you get to quitting time (in my experience anyway). 11-7 for obvious reasons. If I'm working 12's, probably something like 11a-11pm or something similar. The hospital I volunteer at offers those types of shifts for nurses. But the nice thing about either of those shifts is very little dealing with rush hour, as it's just getting started when you get to work (3-11) or when you get home (11-7) or not at all.

http://www.discovernursing.com has a nice long list of nursing specialties to get into, depends on what area you want.

I am a CNA in Home Health, going for an LPN in the not too distant future, and would like to go for an RN eventually. My situation is I would not be able to do it without at least working part-time. Is that possible to do on an LPN salary while still not failing RN school? The company I'm with is very flexible, so I don't see a problem from that aspect.

I am working home health, have been for a year, and love it. You may find you'll want to stay with it if/when you become a nurse. I tried long-term care but there's really no 'getting to know' your patients like you do in HH for obvious reasons. Answering call lights left and right and such. For a while I was worried about being in the house alone, but I found there is always an on-call nurse 24/7 on the other end of the phone if I have a question or concern, and the relative is usually always in the house whenever I am. My only REAL complaint is the policy against having male CNAs take care of female clients. I can definitely understand it (we just had a horror story in the news about patient abuse with a caregiver, who happened to be male) but it limits the assignments I can take. Beyond that I can see doing it the rest of my career. Even when I do become a nurse (whenever that is!)

What I'm considering is going to LPN or EMT school to become an ER Tech, then go to RN school to become a nurse. It'd probably be an easier trek if I had an LPN since I could do an LPN to RN program as opposed to waiting two more years after the EMT training to get in. Lots of LPNs get hired on as techs in ERs, but I'm not sure it's not at tech money ($13 an hour.) After having seen what I have seen in Long-Term care, I have no intention of ever going back again.

The hospital I volunteer in the ER at doesn't care about being a CNA, they do require you to be an EMT-IV before they even look at you.

I guess it really depends on the hospital. I see techs at the place I volunteer who have tats all over their arms and neck and display them visibly while working, no complaints from patients or staff.

I think the situation varies by the home you're in. I've seen some facilities you could easily mistake for luxury hotels (mostly in the richer parts of town, as you'd think it would be) and some that were old, rundown and even had rat infestations that no one seemed to be in a hurry to get rid of. If I were to wind up in that particular area of nursing, I think I'd rather do home health, which makes sense since I'm a CNA in home health now. So yeah, in a way I do understand why, but until reading some of these threads, I didn't think the prevailing attitude was so widespread.

What is the problem with Nurses wanting/having to work LTC? Is it that much of a last resort as opposed to working hospitals? I see a lot of threads around here that take that kind of attitude toward LTC and Nursing Homes. If you're good at it and enjoy the work, what's the problem? Is it the patient/nurse ratios? The overall atmosphere of the Nursing Home environment? I don't get it.

A little update on the situation from last year. I am a CNA in a home-health environment, although for the time being it is more of a personal care provider situation, no medication administration, that kind of thing. I also volunteer in a hospital ED doing pretty much the same thing. I think the ED is where I'll probably wind up when I'm done with nursing school, although the particular place I volunteer doesn't have a new grad program that I'm aware of, there are several hospitals in the area that do. I had considered becoming an EMT-P but decided to go right for the RN and start somewhere in critical care instead. And yes, I am male, and on the wrong side of 30 (I'll be 36 in February) so I'm starting a little later than I would have liked. I do like the health care field, and do wish I had started it earlier. The goal now is to get the pre-reqs started for nursing school and get on the list, which at present is about a year of waiting before I get in the program.

I am starting the application process, and getting the pre-requisites done for RN school at a Community College up the road from me. Waiting list is about a year and I can work full-time and save up since I won't be able to do it during classes and clinicals (at least not 40 hours.) I am a CNA, but can't find work partly because of the economy, and a few other reasons I won't get into, so I decided to start the RN application process sooner than planned. Can't wait to get started.

The Clinic Manager at DaVita said they look for a minimum Medical Assistant certification before CNA for their patient care techs. I'm not sure if that's company policy or if that varies facility to facility. I'm a CNA and going for my MA to increase my job chances, and Dialysis is one of the fields I'm looking at.

I know with Law School (of which I almost went), they suggest you go to school in the same geographic area you'd like to practice law. Is that the same with most Nursing Schools? I'm not sure I want to stay where I'm out now, but if it's easier to study here and move to another state, that might be feasible.