aeolus

honestly, does anyone really hire new lvns????????? i seem to have had very poor luck this past year in both san francisco and the los angeles area. i got my license slightly over a year ago, and last year i was able to get a gig giving flu shots but nothing else. nothing. this year even the flu shot jobs i see all require at least a year of experience. its frustrating, to say the least... hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies demand a year, at least, of experience. on the times where i've been able to talk frankly with them, they are usually like "i'd recommend starting out in a nursing home/ltc/snf/etc" the nursing homes have not been exactly receptive. several completely different sources have told me (and it hasn't contradicted my own experience) that in these regions the nursing home situation is sort of a 'filipino mafia'-people who are hired speak tagalog and/or are relatives of other employees. really, i don't know if it's worth even bothering. and when i see what appears to be nursing students in their white scrubs, i have increasingly had to suppress the urge to run up to them and scream "get out while you can!!!!!"

anyone know where to get MAB (managing assaultive behavior) certified in northern or southern california?

congratulations!!!!!

thanks mrslrj! best of luck to you and to all others still waiting out there, sounds like you should know within the week. got myself to the post office right away yesterday so now i only have the (much easier and less stressfull, though still agonizing) 3 week wait for the license to show up.

i passed!!!!!!!!!!!!:redbeathe:) took it may 11th. the trick was right!

called bvnpt this morning and today they're working on april 25th. i took mine may 11 aahhhhhhhhh i thought i would know by now the representative said they're maybe re-hiring some ex employees and next week there's no lost furlough day so i might know in a week or two.

@kati55-sorry to hear you had the same kind of nightmare questions. but don't give up~ @shannon-better be prepared for the sata, though really its the luck of the draw what kind of questions come up hmmmmmmmmm earlier i was sure i failed but now i'm not so sure....my last question was a hard one and i know i got it right so maybe i was being asked hard questions? hoping! i live in cali so i'll have to wait...

aaahhhhh!!!!! just took nclex-pn this morning and not feeling very confident about it. seriously about 1/4 of my questions (and i only had 85) were multiple answer questions...i thought there would only be a few at most. also i had no questions involving math (med calc, i&o), no hot spot, no ordered response, no fill in the blank. this seems unfairly unbalanced. it felt like i was taking a test to be a professional presenter, like 10 questions were 'you went to a conference on ____, which of these points would you/would you not stress when giving a presentation on it to your colleagues. maybe some of these were just experimental questions.....i'm hoping.... anyone else have a similar experience?

thanks so much for you all's input. it makes me feel better, or at least more justified in my opinion of this ci's behavior. i would consider reporting her, but i'm in the very last weeks and at this point it seems like a fruitless venture, especially if i want her to give me passing grades and letters of rec. btw the seroquel did knock me out the first night and following day, but i think i've adjusted and feel quite good actually during the awake times. should be fine for peds rotation, especially if i take it earlier in the night than i have been. :)

an lpn/lvn instructor job would definitely be a possibility. many of my instructors have some sort of injury that makes heavy duty nursing impossible-such as carpal tunnel or back injuries. they don't even all have their rn, one is an lvn.

i'm bipolar, and for the last week and a half had not slept or eaten, though at least i hadn't reached the point of pressured jabbering, delusions and hallucinations. i have only had one manic episode before, and i was suspecting another one was coming on. anyways, my psychiatrist prescribed me some new meds-i knew i needed to sleep at the very least. i read up on it-seroquel, and it sounded like for at least the first day most people describe feeling like sedated zombies. i got the seroquel the day before one of my last clinicals, and i took the ci aside and told her i didn't feel i would be a safe nurse if i had taken it the night before for the very first time. i was like, if i won't be able to pass the course i'll put off starting it til the weekend, but if i can pass i need to start them before i become totally insane. and in any case, at that point my hands were shaking and i was lightheaded from lack of sleep and noursishment-also not safe nursing behavior. i even showed her the prescription i'd just filled the hour before and its side effects sheet. she was all, "you're smart, and you know doctors will prescribe anything. i wouldn't trust them" ???? i had dimly hoped she might be glad that i'd showed the good judgment to know when i wouldn't be a safe nurse and to stay away. and then she was like 'thats your choice, but you know it will still be in your system for 10 days after. in that case you won't be safe for your peds clinicals next week.' huh???????? anyways, she's not the peds ci thankfully. i hadn't told anyone at school about my mental health issues before. it hadn't seemed necessary. but now she knows. and what a poor mental health ally she has turned out to be. sadly i'm not even that surprised, so many of my nursing instructors have shown much disdain for medical doctors and medications-as far as they themselves are concerned. its like they're on some pedestal above all of our patients. is this common? :uhoh21:

i am already 7 months into my one year LVN program and sallie mae has still not finalized my loan...needless to say at the back of my mind i have been experiencing a long and drawn-out panic attack the entire time. my credit is nonexistent so i applied with one of my parents as a cosigner - got rejected. added the other parent as a cosigner - approved. we all signed the final documents...and then a few weeks later (this monday) i got a letter saying i wasn't approved but could try again with a 3rd cosigner. after much pleading, yesterday me (and my mom) convinced my uncle to be the 3rd cosigner-he's well off and i fervently hope his credit is great. in retrospect i suppose the credit/mortgage/bank crisis was not the ideal time to apply for my first loan ever. my school has been harassing most of my classmates for tuition money nonstop but has mostly left me alone...not sure if this is because i generally scuttle past the administrative quadrant of my school with my eyes averted or because i am one of the few students who is passing our tests on a regular basis. my advice for anyone wishing to get involved with sallie mae: call up and follow up on your loan application often. they won't call/email you if there's a problem, they'll only tell you if you call their number and talk to one of their 'lovely' customer service representatives. aaackkkkkkk!!!!!!!! if it doesn't work this time, i don't know what i'll do. :uhoh21:

hey everyone, thanks for all the input. looks like i'm going to stick it out.... wish me luck!

one week ago i started attending a private vocational lvn (lpn) school in san francisco... things have not been what i'd hoped. first of all (aahh i need to vent): 1. my prereqs instructor is burmese, has a totally incomprehensible accent and thinks that teaching is making/projecting a powerpoint presentation and reading it out loud 2. i think i failed my first a&p test (tho we get to retake them each once)...the instructor, for reasons best known to himself, takes several days to check our tests (good lord, 13 students' multiple choice tests of 30 questions? could be done in 30 minutes or less) 3. on my second test (multiple choice) i was reprimanded for crossing off the obviously wrong answers on the test paper to help me focus (he said 'it looks messy') 4. at least 1/3 of the class (the filipina mafia) attempts to/does cheat on every test and has seemed to get away with it so far second of all... 5. today i called sallie mae and my first loan application was denied should i get out before things get worse?