career#2

Wow. Drug seekers vs. truly sick. Aren't the drug seekers just as 'sick' as the lol with a hip fx? What a way to spend your life - what to get, where to get it, how much you're going to get. Lose your job, your home, your car, your child, your freedom and possibly your life. Sign me up. And just to add insult to injury, the nurses hate you, too. Or at the very least resent you.

And hindsight is 20/20! One of the funny things though is that had I not done this, I would have always wondered. And the unhappiness/wanting something more probably would have continued to grow. I think that it's because of this experience that I can look back and see the positives of career#1 and the things that I miss. What a situation to be in. Burning both ends of the candle pretty fiercely at the moment, something's got to give soon. And I think I can honestly say that I'll be equally happy with either and just a little bit saddened by what I may have missed out on.

I would think long and hard about it. I was in a similar position several years ago and decided to go the nursing route. I had taken some time off from my prior career after having my children and was working in a family business that offered more flexibility related to child care. Once my children were both in school, it was back to my former career or give nursing a try. After 3 years of school (including pre-reqs), 9 months post graduation, hundreds of applications later and I still don't have a job. Is it the economy? Maybe. My age? In my early 40's, I'd hate to think that but I have heard that from some. Is it my lack of prior healthcare experience? That could be, too. Just some things to consider. At this point, if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't. At the very least, I would have been more proactive about finding a healthcare related position while in school. (Although I know a CNA and someone that worked in a physicians office while in school, they've just been able to find jobs in the past 2 months and one of those is not an ideal situation.) Of course, if I were to land a job tomorrow, I'd probably feel differently. One of the things that struck me about your post is that you want your time away from your family to be worth something. Nursing school was much more difficult than obtaining my first degree and I gave up a lot of family activities and outings to do well and succeed. So far those sacrifices have not paid off. I'm currently pursuing positions in both nursing and my prior career. I've come to the conclusion that neither is perfect; they both have their pros and cons. I love nursing. Even as a student I found it very rewarding. If I could find my dream job, I'd probably be quite happy. Nights/weekends/holidays don't thrill me to death, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for a job that I enjoy. 3 12 hours shifts in a hospital setting is attractive. 5 8 hour shifts working 3-11 or 11-7 in LTC not so much (though I've applied to those, too). My old career isn't looking so bad these days. I've discovered that the position I hold doesn't define me, it's what enables me to enjoy those things that are important to me - namely my family and children. I'm fine with the salary reduction, but tuition, books, unemployment (although I continued working while in nursing school, I have since been laid off) is starting to take its toll. While our hearts may be in the right place, the reality of it has been quite different. I don't want to dissuade you from pursuing nursing, if you feel it will truly make you happy. Just trying to point out some of the things I wish I had considered in more depth before giving up so much.

Sorry my post yesterday was looooonnnggg on the rant and short on advice. It is just so frustrating. To make matters worse this area had only been graduating associate degree RNs. This year a local college will also be graduating a class of BSNs for the first time. Yay. I've asked on one occasion if the community college plans on cutting their class size. I was met with a pretty emphatic 'No!'.....seems there's a nursing shortage looming. That may very well be, but by the time it comes to fruition, a good portion of those trained will have fallen by the wayside or moved on to greener pastures. I feel like a victim of some fraud scam. Anyway, back to the advice part. These are the only other things I can think of. Volunteer somewhere even vaguely medical related. May not help but it can't hurt and you never know who you might meet. If you can afford it, take additional classes or certification courses. While humiliating, it's nice to be surrounded by that many employed nurses, never know when you might hear about a job opening. Good feeling, too, to know that even though I'm feeling rusty I'm able to keep up with the experienced nurses. I wish there was a way for me to push my clinical skills along, too. Anyone else have any suggestions?

No advice here....but I feel your pain. I'm in S. Jersey. Today was just about the last straw for me. I've been applying to every job that I come even close to meeting the requirements for. Im a May 2009 grad., 3.86 gpa, no prior healthcare experience but worked in a very detailed IT environment for many years (BS in Information and Computer Sciences), BLS and ACLS certified and enrolled in an RN to BSN program part time through Rutgers. Figured I'd go ahead and apply to New Grad positions again this year. Received a rejection letter today. Called nurse recruitment, of course neither of them are available. Secretary asks if she can take a message. I explain the rejection letter, graduated last May, better than average GPA and explain that I had spoken with someone in the office before and was told that I can't apply for open RN positions either. The response was that you can apply for positions if you have 1 year of experience. Do you see my problem??? She took my name and number with the promise that a recruiter would get back to me. Still waiting on that phone call. I've not been particular with jobs, I've applied to LTC facilities, Dr's offices, hospitals, dialysis, home health care....you name it. Thank goodness for the home health care agency that I've done flu clinics for. I'm going in for training next week to do cholesterol and blood glucose screenings. They'd like to use me for other things but have a corporate policy for home health care that you have to have a year of experience. I'd move in a minute if I could. However, my husband is the only one of us making any money and he owns a business here. I made the decision to go back to school to be a nurse after taking some time off from my prior career to be with my kids. It was pretty much school or back to work. If I had to do it all over again, no question I would go back to my old job (and am currently exploring that as an option). I don't think there's anything else that I can do to make my resume look any better - I don't think additional certifications will help and I'm doing/I've done the best I can as far as school is concerned. My employment history is just about as good as it gets, letters of appreciation, individual applied excellence awards, etc. Just don't know what else I can do. Too experienced for a new grad position and not enough experience to apply for open staff positions. That just takes the cake. I could kick myself squarely in the backside for not trying to return to a M-F job with no nights and weekends that paid better sooner. When I think of the lost income over the past 3+ years, combined with tuition costs and lost time/experience it just literally makes me feel ill.

I think one of the things being overlooked in this to flush or not to flush discussion by some in the always flush camp is that if the tubing has been primed with the appropriate medication and is not intended to be flushed (as some have mentioned), you are then overdosing when you do flush. Unless I'm missing something, if the tubing is primed, x amount of solution in one side = x amount of solution displaced out the other side. So, if it's been primed (we'll call this amount y) and you administer x, x comes out the other side. Now you flush, you've also just displaced y and have effectively administered x and y to the patient. Now if the next person that comes along after the post administration flush is not also a flusher, the patient is underdosed. Tubing is now primed with saline as opposed to medication, x amount is administered. However, because y is saline, dose administered is x-y unless this person also flushes. That's if I understand all 8 pages of this thread correctly as I have no experience with this type of device. (One of the unemployed new grads.) The other poster brought up a good point, too, regarding nurse administering what previous nurse drew up when using the primed method. I understand the intended function, but everyone needs to be in agreement with how it's being used in your facility. Accident waiting to happen.

That's just funny. Laugh out loud kind of funny.

Thank you for your input. I think I'm starting to warm up to the idea. Have any of you started in LTC and gone on to work in a hospital? If so, was the transition difficult? Along with the preconcieved notions, I'm afraid of being 'stuck' there. Overall, I think it would be a good starting/learning place for me but I can't see myself in that environment for a long time. One of the things that attracted me to nursing was the diversity of seeing different people/new things everyday. So while I think it would be a good place to start, seeing the same residents day in and day out for years would surely drive me insane.

The other post regarding a typical day in LTC was so helpful, I thought I'd go ahead and ask. I'm a new grad (new to nursing, that is) and have been somewhat resistant to applying to LTC. Lots of preconceived notions about what LTC is and isn't. Some of those that I've graduated with have had luck landing a 3-11 position. Because I have small children, I'm really not willing to take a 3-11 and give up seeing them. Although I'd consider it on a very limited part time basis. And 7-3's seem to be reserved for the insiders. Sooooo, that leaves me with 11-7, if I'm able to find anything at all. Based on the typical day description, I'm thinking 11-7 would be much different. Anyone?? Thanks in advance for your input.

I went in one the other day, too. Beautiful lobby, no unpleasant smells at all, and...get this, absolutely beautiful real roses on a small table in the lobby. So confused that we had to touch them. The no unpleasant smell thing was so obvious that I started purposely sniffing. Nope, not a thing. Not even the medicinal smell of a hospital. Very pleasantly surprised.

I worked flu immunization clinics this year and that was my first question. Standing order. It was physically present at each and every clinic that I participated in. Ditto what previous posters said about screening for contraindications/consent/liability, etc., too.

Even in the face of such difficult times for a new grad such as myself, stories like this make me so proud to be able to say that I am a nurse. Thank you.

Would have to agree that there seems to be something to this 'trick'. Took the NCLEX on the 9th and found out about an hour ago that I passed!!!! 4 of my classmates that I know of have also tried it. All of them have passed and the 'trick' was correct. Good luck to everyone still waiting to take the test or for 'unofficial' results.

That's just funny! I am the 'and their mother' that was mentioned in the original post. I had 2 or 3 things that I wanted to be in high school - and yes, a nurse was one of them. Didn't think I could do it - the idea of needles freaked me out. A cat with kidney failure (needed LR SQ) and 2 kids changed that. Like several of the other posters, I too was in IT. I had a great job in a very specialized area and made better money at what I did than I probably ever will as a nurse. Sometimes there are more important things in life than how much money you make. There's something special about feeling like you've made a difference. I will graduate in May and believe me, with 2 kids, a dog, a husband, etc. it hasn't been easy. On most days, the feeling that I go home with after a day of clinical, beats the pants off the feeling you have when you schlep out of the cubicle at the end of the day. At my age (42), it was a now or never kind of thing. I could go through the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like to do something that I truly enjoy or I could take the plunge, do something about it and find out! For me personally, I don't think that it would have been the same for me had I gone that route straight out of high school. I believe that the life experiences that I've had are making it a different experience for me than it would have been 20 years ago. I think you're just upset about the competition - the older students in my class are the ones with the impressive GPAs.