PatrickJ

Want to hear from anyone who did the algebra from TCN. How doable is it vs physical college algebra course and credit xfer. Thanks.

Hi, yes the pay rate seems rather normal. Also, most likely your experience places you in the sub acute area if the mgt does place by strengths. I am in west central Fla. I work FT in LTC and PT at Hospital. I love both, but the LTC money is the important feature at present. I too live a short distance to work, and longer to the Hospital. Seems like you are following a logical path. Patrick http://citruslocal.com/bbs/

:)

Cool beans for you :) It is a lifestyle of sorts too. I found myself thinking of all the treatments, procedures etc and their stages of repair etc all the time. My wife would ask me "where I was" because I was staring off into the distance sometimes. I would smile and say, all was ok. But you will find yourself enjoying the specialty and you will own your results. Your patients will also benefit from one who cares about the work more that one who just was assigned to the work!

My prayers tonight will be for your house.

Do not hesitate, run, speed, fly to register for your program. Seriously, Nursing is a fun career. Some excitement, loads of treats at the desk to munch on daily too. Nice thing is, we do not have to wear skirts or those little nancy nurse hats anymore. Granted, I miss booking drunks at 3 am, and the occassional high speed chase, but it is all replaced with "ah, here is my favorite nurse" . Do it, thou shall no longer go cold, wet or hungry.

MD stands for "ME DOCTOR" Have to say, being male I do not get the same tudes from these arrogant children doctors. Plus, being a retired cop, I relish the chance to show them how some people simply find it impossible to be impressed by them. Most docs do not know my history, and man is it funny to see them look at me when I smile at them and their tantrums. But that is only because I have experiences in dealing with all kinds of people. The more we do it, the better we get. Just know that you are most likely a ton better in the personality and likeability department. That makes for wider smiles just as we fall asleep at night. :) PS, out of 1000 med students on graduation day, the one with the lowest score is still called doctor! Seems you met that one :)

Two things come to mind reading your post. One, you seem to have the heart and mind for the job. For that your patients and co workers will be thankful and blessed. Two, that was a small snapshot of life. Hang in there, gonna get worse, and thankfully, much more nicer as your days face you. Being a retired police officer, I have my fill of lawyers who are arrogant. Not all are so however, but thank goodness we have more arrogant docs to fill that void. Oh, I had a pursuit that I had cancelled after ten minutes. The chumps decided to keep on running and 6 mins later, a total of 5 went to the coroners office. That was a strange snapshot of a day for me in 1979. Not making light of your day but man, we sure can see some stuff out there :)

cop 20 years, loved it nurse 10 years and love it too, :)

hehehe, such a topic A person can be a licensed nurse or registered nurse but I think you are a nurse ONLY if you operate as a nurse. Whenever an RN asks me as an LPN how to do something, or asks me to do something for them, I am reminded that no matter what your ticket shows, it is what you do and know that makes you a nurse. Not the title. Oh dont take me wrong, that is ONLY most RN's, not all :) (that ask how to do stuff) :rotfl: Oh, funny thing, had a duragesic patch from another shift placed, We use tegaderm on this pt because she tends to remove it. Anywhoo, the nurse who placed it, actually wrote on the patch, in Sharpie marker, the location of the patch. On it, it said, "upper right shoulder". Strange thing though, this RN did in fact place it on the upper left shoulder!!! True Dat I respect RN's and LPN's alike. Arrogant docs do make me laugh tho.

Neat stuff Could that be Karma?? Even if not, we would both still do it like we do I think :)

Being an LPN since 1995, retired from 20 years as a City Policeman I still love this nursing business. I still love to sleep in, but I still get a good feeling when I get to go to work. I am mainly a LTC nurse, because I love the old kids, and my kids of 13 and 14 like electricity at home etc. Last year I suffered a 4 dollar but to work at my local comm hospital just to learn more stuff. I love both settings. Cant say which I like more. At 51, I am doing the Excelsior route because in my area, I would have a BSN before I even get a seat for a bridge program here :) Just a post to let anyone know that there is still many of us who love our jobs and get to go to work in the am. I still appreciate the tons of caring people who post here, support others here. No matter what others say outside of the Nursing communities, Nurses rock. Bunch of super people exist on these forums. Patrick PS, I still am looking forward to Friday, my day off. Season Pass to Universal Studios and all that hehehee

I like how you outlined your risk factors. Agreed, such a bp is not er time, but it is action time. One motto you can consider "If it's gonna be, it's up to me" So, check with your doc, disregard those wal mart machine bp units :chuckle and have the doc guide you. Heck, with a lil ole modification to those risk factors, you will have more chances at being just fine. Keep them as they are and well, hmmmm, suggest you do not. Best of luck, some roads are hard to travel, but once completed, the rewards are nice. Patrick Florida is a great place to work.

Volunteer to start all and any you can. Follow the two attempt rule, and if you do not succeed, let another try. The poster who said 25 percent skill, 75 percent confidence is correct. Confidence comes with many tries. One thing I have done is watch others, I have sat down with some and asked their best tricks. I am always confident in my attempts and hit more than I miss :chuckle But the learning continues for all things nursing for me. One thing, remember, it hurts them more than it hurts you. When I had my CABG x3 recently, I remember volunteering to let those less skilled to try to get my iv started. A nurse, a female no less hehehe got me on the first stick. I ended up with two iv sites in me, and another thingy to monitor me, I had more cotton pickin things in my veins. You will do fine. Someday, rather soon I suspect, you will be helping others with their nerves on iv starts. Patrick

Dr. Dean Ornish's books were also suggested to me but not at books a million when I went there. Nice to read a second opinion on it. Thanks for the replies.

I am reading the book, and looking into it. Mainly because the RD who first told me about it the other day feels I may have it. I sure do fit the profile. I just went thru a CABG x3 at age 50. Feel great now but I know my diet has not been well considered. So, even though I have modified many things even before the bypass, I want to change more in my environment to help me enjoy life and longevity. I would love to hear from anyone who has personal thoughts on it, and even more interesting would be some food stuffs or recipes that would fit snuggly into this syndrome. Reading Dr. Reavens bood is interesting and fact filled. Just would like to read your thoughts and plans of attack on this. And of course, as always, any post offers a chance to enlighten others on different concepts etc. I just heard of this syndrome the other day and am interested deeply in it. Others may as well. In fact, I am going in for my ordered labs and as soon as the tubes are filled, I am going to follow some guidelines and cursory diets plans and compare the labs. So interesting is the rehash of hdl, ldl, vldl etc. Also the science of it all intrigues me. Thanks for your replies. BTW, Soy burgers aint to bad heheheee :chuckle

Had a RD/LD tell me about this, I am reading the book by the Doc who identified/named this syndrome. If you have heard about it, and have some ideas to pass along, would love to hear them Thanks Patrick

I have never worn a skirt. :)

You should enter the field only when you are ready. There are a bazillion places that will hire you with no experience. Just need that license. Good places will certainly orient you to entry level. Heck yea, take that time off. I took two months before I started. I had that emotional good feeling knowing I had my license. I just kicked back and enjoyed the time off for a while. You will find that nurses are a helpful and understanding bunch. They will help you get your feet wet and you will develop many good friends. Finish school, do boards, keep CEUs current and take time off. Hope this helps some. Patrick

My boys are now 12 and 13, Still love babies tho hehee Gave your lil one a 10. :)

One fast bit of advice that means so much with so few words Measure Twice, Cut Once The above replies are wonderful bits too. :) Patrick

Lots of people doing Excelsior. I am in the initial steps of getting everything going. I am an LPN, I have all my pre-reqs needing their NC classes only so my situation may be different. I do find that many I talk to at work seem to be not so willing to advertise their interest in Excelsior but when they do admit it we find the discussions interesting. I suggest looking into Excelsior directly vs other sources. Patrick http://citruslocal.com

I sent in my 65 dollars, they then did the initial review of my other college transcripts and everything happened in a timely manner. I had a reply in about 10 days I think. In Fla you need to be an LPN first and my hospital is helping with tuition. When I sent in the regular enrollment, the real deal, they then billed the hospital for the $800 dollars enrollment fee. I am now waiting for the complete and official transcript review. Been only a week so far. Seems the be rather quick so far. Hope this helps http://citruslocal.com

I do not believe it is a cakewalk. I hope not. Nobody has ever said it was easy. The word I see often is "doable". In my 20 year career as a police officer, I was an instructor in the academy. I told my students, basic and advanced that they would learn more on their first day on the street than any classroom would teach them. Same for nursing. In my 9 years as an LPN, I have learned tons. I see new LPN's. new RN's and the day they start to work, the learning begins. Get your LPN, work,learn and then apply that knowledge to anything you do. Excelsior college will not make you nurse ready, only test ready. (note, learning from excelsior will help your nursing skills, of course) I have found it to be most respected. It is the only distance learning school listed on the Florida nursing website. My hospital scholarships excelsior. Many nurses have gone this route. I also believe some are afraid to say they did distance learning. I will be glad to tell people I did. I think it is a smart move. This method only lets me learn nursing faster as am RN. Personally, I would suggest anyone take classes like A&P micro etc thru a regular school. The labs are helpful and nothing beats slides, skeletons, and glad happy Micro teachers hehehehehe. To self learn the nursing concepts is a natch for distance learning. I too dislike wait lists. So I deleted the concept from my vocabulary. While you learn as an lpn, take your harder sciences at college, and then take the bare minimum from Excelsior. Again, my opinion. Hope this helps.

I use both. I use the alcohol pad mainly as a system to help bring out the vein. I use the betadine with a sterile wipe to create the sterile skin prep. Since the betadine leaves a film, it is more effective. Note. When I apply the betadine, I wipe the bulk away in a cleaning swipe. So looking at the site, you can not see the staining from the iodine.