jadam86

I've been in the same situation and have come up with a solution, which took me about 3 months of research. Also, I live in Columbus so I kind of have more schools to choose from. All of the nursing programs in my area (ASN and BSN) have the same deadlines for application so I am going to apply at each one of them. A coworker said that there is not a difference in New Grad RN pay, no matter which level you attained. So if your worried about not working for a long time, the ASN is a good option. NGCSU offers a ASN-BSN online program, so if I am accepted into an ASN program, I will just complete my BSN online. As for the Masters part, I have also chose an online program. UAB actually offers the program I want which is a certificate in RNFA and allows me to earn a NP at the same time. The downside is that I have to travel from time to time but I'll just have to let my hospital know that I need to be off those days. I haven't heard much about MCG's second degree option. I know that there are several schools that offer it but I didn't look into it since it didn't apply to me. Tuition is actually a much simpler problem than trying to find a program. Visit www.gacollege411.org. They show all of the scholarships and grants offered in the state of GA. They also have something called a Service Cancellable Loan which is where you sign a contract to work somewhere for X amounts of years based on how many years you borrow money. Hope this helps

At the hospital I work at (which is in GA) the PCU is referred to as the ICCU (Intermediate Cardiac Care Unit). It's mostly patients who are waiting for their EKG to stablize after having a CABG. The work isn't too bad there. And on night shift, we usually only have one assistant working. Mostly you will be answering call lights, taking vitals, emptying foleys and helping pts to the bathroom.