Koalablue

According to this link, Nightingale, being upset about the conditions soldiers were subjected to used her contacts to publicise it. So....by showing the world what the army was up (i.e. publicising it), despite it being negative publicity for the military, she was able to use it to safeguard the sick and wounded and force through better care for them. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REnightingale.htm

Well, I may be making some progress on getting some child and maternal health stiff done at uni. I am doing 3 subjects this semester: Emergency Nursing, Primary Health Care and Complex Care. It seems Complex Care is a `consolidation' subject on our previous med/surg subjects. What this means I'm not sure really :chuckle Anyhow, seems we can choose an area of nursing we'd like to explore outside of just med/surg (if the uni agrees) for the five weeks (200 hours) of placement for Complex Care. I spoke to the coordinator and said how I want some time with both kids and maternity nursing. Looks like she might go for it. There are only ten hours of tutorials associated with the subject, and of course they have nothing to do with kids or maternity. But I figured I could always take a summer distance ed course in child and maternal health (much easier to find one of those if I'm not also trying to find clinicals attached to the subject too). Maybe this way I can meet the hours required by the US? Knowing my luck, the US somewhere somehow requires the clinicals to be attached directly to the child/maternal subject. I'm gonna do it anyway this way, as it loses me nothing regardless, and I'd like the experience with kids etc....so if I do have to do some more study in the US/here at home next year then at least I will have some prior knowledge.

Hi Lopid, I have one more semester to go. I should be finished by October this year. I've looked into Charles Sturt but their maternal/paeds course doesn't involve any clinical hours so is no use really unfortunately! I am heading at this stage to California, so expect a long wait on paperwork, although my fiance is applying for new jobs in other states so I don't know now where I might end up! Maybe I'll just work at McDonalds? LOL I initially started my training through the hospital too (way back in '89). Wish I'd finished it now!

Yes, you're right - the fiance visa and US study is an option my guy and I are considering. I think Australians just have a problem with the cost of studying in the US, even just for a semester. Especially seeing as I just plain don't have the money for it anyway LOL. Still if thats the way to go then I'll just have to do it! Unless I come up with the cut price answer here at home first :chuckle

Gwenith, I *could* go to Canada...but the fiance waiting in America might get a little cheesed off with me lol.

Thank-you..much appreciated! Any info or advice would be gratefully received :-)

I'm personally going to avoid agencies altogether. I am yet to hear really positive feedback about any of them, and I'd rather remain independent anyway. Not that I am going anywhere just yet regardless :chuckle

Yes I could. And it's always an option, but it would be at least 18 months from now before I could afford it (and thats being optimistic!). I'd rather find a faster (and much less expensive) alternative here at home. Airfares, tuition fees, living expenses, books etc.....ack, I'm a fulltime student, I have about $50 to my name lol. Although it would be extremely cool to study in the US even if only so I could say I have been to `college' instead of university (I know it's the same thing, but college just sounds so American ) Maybe I need to go sweet-talk my folks - hey ma and pa - got a spare $5000 - 10,000 to give me?? It'd almost be worth asking just to see the looks on their faces :chuckle

Seeing as there appear to be some of us here in Oz having trouble getting the required courses needed to meet US registration requirements, I wondered if there were any Aussies working in the States now? There must be some! If you have moved to America (especially in the last few years) perhaps you would let us know what university you studied at here in Australia, and how difficult/easy you found it to get your studies verified and accepted by the USA. If we knew what uni you studied at it might narrow down the search for courses that have the paediatric/maternal health classes required. At this stage any information would help I am currently studying at La Trobe and they are not offering *any* classes related to kids or child-bearing women (they were, but they changed their mind half-way through this first semester...darn it!). Help! :rotfl:

They're not really specialist programs here like they have in the UK....all nursing degrees lead to to the same thing here (for basic pre-registration degrees). We all come out at the end qualified as RN's and able to work in any area, except midwifery which requires an additional years training. It's just some (or a lot!) of programs don't cover paediatrics or maternal health, or if they do, don't offer specific clinical placements associated with those areas. I've done the mental health I need (I just completed 120 hours of clinical placement in that this semester). I guess I will just have to keep looking around for universities with what I need, but frankly it won't be possible to do it unless it's via distance education, and I haven't found anything yet. It can be difficult here to just jump into another university mid-year (though I'm sure it's possible at some places). It's a shame about that Deakin Uni course, but it certainly seemed odd that the classes are claimed to be acceptable everywhere but California :uhoh21: Oh well, I'll keep looking but this is starting to get very tiring. I understand and appreciate that the US has it's standards and thats that, but it sure is creating headaches down here! If I won the lottery I guess I could go study in America...but if I won the lottery you can bet I wouldn't be looking to work either! I just want to say thanks Susanne for always so patiently answering questions (from everyone) and listening to the griping (mostly me lol). I would have lost my cool long ago always reading the same things being asked over and over!

Hmm, sounds good. Can you give some links or code info to the particular units? Did you speak to someone from the univerisity about this? Is this off-campus study?? I know, I know too many questions! I'm looking at the Deakin website now but I could be here all night at this rate! And I'm yet to find specific info from the US about the exact hours of theory and clinicals required (everything I look at, whether BON or CGFNS, says `an approved number of hours, in an approved undergrad course'...not very precise. Maybe I am just blanking it out in my frustration?? lol)

I've no doubt there are people out there that are in it purely for the money..though it surprises me they last more than two minutes in the job. It's a rather large leap to assume that because money and job security make the top of my list for reasons to become a nurse also somehow make me lazy, inefficient and a bad nurse. Someone who is lazy tends to be lazy in all areas of their lives, including in how they care for their own families. I'm choosing nursing because I care about my fiance and want to be able to help us build a secure future together. I care about the children we will have one day by having a safe (employment-wise), flexible job with many career opportunities no matter where I live. I'm prepared to work hard to achieve these goals. I also know my caring attitude will extend to those patients in my care. Yes, I enjoy the patient contact, yes I care about them - and I show it by studying hard, making sure I understand what I'm learning, turning up to work on time, getting done the things I need to get done each shift, handing out meds safely, providing a listening ear when needed etc etc - but I still want my pay cheque I'm no Mother Teresa. If I didn't have to work, I sure wouldn't! I might volunteer my time to help other people even if I won a million dollars, but it wouldn't be on a hospital ward doing what nurses do every day....you gotta pay me to be worn out like that!

`de novo automatism'??

Heh. I like that! I'm pretty sure noone would ever accuse me of being a nun As I said in the previous thread on this topic: I made a conscious choice to go back into nursing for the money. Not in the sense of making a whole bag load of cash, but in the sense of having a secure, reasonably well paid job (though I reckon we should be paid more!), that offers a variety of job choices/fields and will allow me to travel all over the world. Thats not to say I don't care about people - if I didn't, I'd make a pretty shoddy nurse. My patients always seem happy and tell me how well cared for they feel when I have looked after them, so I must be doing something right. But that doesn't change the reasons why I decided to go back to school to become a nurse (for the second time around: maybe thats why I was able to leave `caring about people' off my list of reasons to go back to school. I knew exactly what I was getting into and I had no illusions about any of it!). In the end I'm doing it because I want to. I'll let other people do it for whatever reasons *they* want. It's none of my business. If they're in it for the wrong reasons then they'll find out soon enough (and how!). I *do* think it takes a special kind of person to be a nurse, but I'm not so special that I don't have bills to pay and a need to put food on the table

Yes, it's 40 hours of lectures and 80 hours of clinical practice isn't it? Is there an official site somewhere to see this information set down? I have an enquiry into Charles Sturt about the subject. It's a semester long subject, and hopefully has a clinical placement associated with it. 80 hours of clinicals is nothing....it's only two weeks worth of shifts. Is that requirement per topic though? 80 for paeds and 80 for maternal health)? I suppose it would be. Not so bad I guess...I just completed 295 hours of clinical this first semester..and that was only for two subjects!