julieGN

Hey all!!! I am a GN who just passed her boards. I am thinking about joining the navy. The reasons I would want to join the navy are because you get good experience in training (from what I am told) and its one of the few areas in nursing that makes working outside of the US possible. I have a few questions and I am hoping someone here who is a navy nurse can answer them. #1- I am single and don't have any kids, but I have a dog. While I understand it may not be possible for me to take her to basic training, how likely is that I can bring her with me at other times? (The recruiter I talked to said I can- but everyone else told me this was un-likely and they were just telling me what I wanted to hear). #2- I know the Navy pays less then what I would make if i were to work in an inner city hospital. I promised my family I would help out with paying bills when I finished nursing school, will it still be possible to do this? #3 How different is Navy nursing from civilian nursing? Nurse/ patient ratio? What are the shifts? If I took a job at a hospital I would be looking at 3 12 hr/week or 2 12hr and 2 8hr shifts/week. #4 How likely will I be able to pick my specialty? #5 i have student loans, but they are from private loans does the Navy help pay these pack or only federal? I think that about covers it. If you have any words of wisdom or think I left anything out I would love to hear it.

The school is Temple University. I didn't want to write the name because I feel the school has positive things going for it. It has a lot of diversity, and you get a pretty good clinical experience (more than I would have if I chose a nursing school in the suburbs- and there are some excellent professors). However it is extremely unorganized, and left foot never seems to know what the right foot is doing. Before registering for the classes, I checked there accredition, and course descriptions, and contacted my advisor. How am I suppose to get written consent when they don't respond? Temple is a rare university in that they only require you to have 30 credits from there school in order to qualify for graduation. I had about 60 credits, so I didn't see this being a problem. The nursing program at Temple has a unique advising center. Instead of having advisors who have received former education in that field, we have nursing professors who don't really seem to have a clue. I contacted them numerous times and they would only respond in vague terms or not reply to me at all. They are only willing to meet with me after they flat out rejected accepting the credits. Though I am hoping they make an exception when they meet with me, and except my credits. I believe I took all the steps I needed to take, and met all the requirements required to receive a degree. My GPA is 3.0, and I have already taken my boards so I don't believe this is the issue.

Wow you guys are quick!!! I have actually been crying about the situation (but now I find it so ridiculous- I can't), and am not sure if I want to give them the satisfaction. (& Its actually two classes- but neither require lab or hands on learning). Great advice! What questions do you think I should ask? I came up with one: What are there reasons for not accepting them? I like the idea about bringing a tape recorder, which I think I will do. I am not going to bring a lawyer for two reasons. The first is money. The second is I am naively hoping we will reach an agreement. At the same time, I still feel like I should seek a lawyer based on principle. Or at least try and set up some guidelines that prohibit them from targeting and treating other students unfairly. I feel like I want to just get past this, but at the same time I know that they will most likely continue to treat individual students in an unfair manner.

I finished my nursing clinicals and the majority of my classes. However in January I was notified that I needed Statistics and Culture and Diversity in healthcare to graduate. I contacted my advisor (who is a nursing professor not at all trained in advising) about taking the classes thru an online university, which would be much quicker. Since the Culture and Diversity class (which I had previously taken and received an Incomplete which was changed into F- even though it should have been changed to a C, but I was willing to retake it in order to avoid confrontation) is only available in the fall. She replied telling me I needed a certain amount of credits from the university (which I had in excess) and would contact two other faculty members. With no response in 2 weeks I assumed we were in agreement and enrolled in the online classes. The online university is nationally accreditted and has the same Nursing accreditation as the University I was hoping to obtain my diploma. When I finished I again contacted my advisor. She told me they could not accept the credits because I didn't receive permission and it was against school policy. (However if I had permission before enrolling in the online classes they would transfer). I contacted the head of the Nursing Department who was very condescending and told me I would have to retake the classes at the university. I then conacted the dean who referred me back to the nursing department. The response I got from the head of the Nursing department was that is was not her decsion to make. I then contacted the dean about filing an academic grievence, he gave me an e-mail of a woman to contact. I e-mailed the woman and my e-mails were all returned to sender. I am meeting with my advisor this week. She asked me to bring course descriptions of the classes. If they are already set on refusing the credits, why would they ask me to bring the course descriptions? Wouldn't this request make more sense if it was asked before refusing to accept the credits. The classes were in no way easier than the ones I have taken at my university (in fact they were more writing intensive and tedious). I am becoming very frustrated and feel as though I am getting the run around. I am meeting with a lawyer on Monday, but I really don't want to take this route. I was hoping to resolve this matter reasonably, but they are unwavering and apathetic (and very rude!!!). I have been trying to understand there reasoning but havent been able to make sense of it. Any suggestions???