Astock

I spoke with the Pedi nurse manager, and he stated that after 6 months I can look into cross training. I also spoke with Human Resources, and they said the same thing. Thank you so much for the input. Both good, bad, and sharp I want!

I am a GN nurse (I will find out wednesday at 8:00am if I am a RN, BSN) from Abilene, TX I worked on a Cardiac Step down unit/CICU for the last year as a PCT, and been hired on as a RN. We have both the step down unit, and a six bed Cardiac ICU (mostly post cath's, etc). My orginal plan was to move to Houston, TX and work at Texas Children's Hospital starting on a general pedi floor and moving to the Pedi ER. Things did not work out, and I had to stay in Abilene, TX to get more experience. One of my career goals is to become a Family NP (start in 5 years). This is my current plan. I will work on my Cardiac Step down unit (we have a whole lot of overflow of med-surg patients) for the next 2 years. In about 8 months I want to get cross trained on the Pedi floor at my hospital. I will work on both floors (one week cardiac other pedi something like that). I'm planning on getting my ACLS in the next 4 months, and my PALS before I get crosstrained. I am leading a children sunday school class for austic kids. At around 2 years from now I will move to a Pedi ER in Houston. Is this a good career path/plan for me? I think my floors will give me a lot of good experiences for my FNP. People are telling me I should get my Adult CCRN. Would this just be a waste of my time in the big picture? Should I get my Pedi CCRN? Thanks for any advice! Anthony

My name is Anthony Stock. I currently live in Abilene, TX, and will be getting married in June, and moving to Charlotte, NC (hopefully). My fiancée has two great job offers that include teaching art to inner city kids, and being a nanny for her uncle/aunt. They are one of a kind of jobs that she can't get anywhere else. I have applied at Presbyterian for the GN internship. It was already filled up. I have also always applied at the Carolinas Healthcare System. I am open to working anywhere. I have a back ground in Cardio and Psychiatric as aides/nursing student wise. I am also calling Nursing homes for any opening they have. I have called the HR at the Carolians healthcare system and they are in the "we are assessing our needs for GN right now". Has anyone heard about the hiring of GN for the Carolinas Healthcare system? Also any other ideas for places to apply (i have even look for prisons, Special ed, etc)?

Well my psych experience is as following. I worked about a year in an adaptive recreation special ed program as a coach/event planning, and almost 2 years in an home taking care of 6 adults with autism. So the aggression,hitting, etc I am used to already. I loved my psych clinical at a drug rehab, and a mental hosptial. On my floor (cardiac) we have had a couple of depressed, anxiety issues, drug seekers (oh the joy of a person calling for pain meds every 15 minutes through the night!). I'm a patient care tech (which is between a nurse and aide...I can take patients, document, but not pass meds). I like cardiac because the patient numbers are lower (4 to 1 nurse), and we have more critical status. I'm a adrenaline junkie. I want to be able to blend the fnp and the psych. I want to be flexible. I love listening, counseling, and doing the psych portion of nursing but at the same time I love being able to help people deal with the day to day health issues. I know psych has a high burn out rate so I would love the flexibility of being able to move back into a fnp role for a while, and then go back to psych. In addition, I am very big into medical missions trips/humanitarian trips. I have gone to mexico with the fnp students at my nursing school and I enjoyed that a lot. That's my abstract goal :).

I will be gradating with my BSN in nursing this may. I will getting married, and moving to Charlotte, NC afterwards. I have been speaking to the NP Director at my school about my desire to go FNP with another year of psy. training. I want to be able to treat the entire person and not just focus on the body or the mind. She stated after nursing school it is best to work 2-3 years in general-med surg before applying for NP school in Charlotte. She stated yes, you can go NP school directly after nursing school, but many places will not want to hire you because of a lack of experience. During this time I will be paying off school loans. I have been trying to find advice on how to prepare for FNP school. I'm currently working at a hosptial on a Cardiac/Telemetry floor. I love Psych. but I don't think I will get enough gen-med experience working there. I was also wondering about working on a pedi floor. In december I will be applying for jobs, and I would like to get on the best floor for me in the big picture. What type of floors would you recommanded me working on? Any advice/words of wisdom you have for me?

Thank you everyone for the input. With us moving so far, I don't want to be blind or have unrealistic views on what i will be making as an RN. This will help us out a lot!

Hello! I'm a current nursing student in Texas. I will be graduating in May of 2009, and I will be getting married June 6, 2009. We will be moving to Charlotte, NC for a great job for her. Due to the fact that I'll be a RN, I can be more flexible with my job placement. I have been looking into the two major hospitals systems in Charlotte. My plans are to do general/med surg for 2-3 years, and return to college for my Family NP with psych. I was wondering how much grad. BSN RN will get paid on avg. in that area. I'm not expecting super high starting pay, but I'm just wondering so we are figure out how much we can afford for apartments. Thanks Anthony

i have a couple questions about np. i am a nursing student, senior, in abilene, tx. i have a interest in psychiatric nursing, and i have deep desire to become a psychiatric np. i love the idea of having the ability to diagnosis, prescribe, and give psychosocial therapy in the psychiatric field, while having my rn background. i believe i can treat the whole person in a better way, than just to look at the patient from a psychiatric view alone. my current plan is to work on a gen-med surg floor for about 3-5 years after nursing school to get just core nursing experience. after that i want to transfer to psychiatric floor/hospital to work in the field for 1-2 years before beginning my np education for the field. my girlfriend and i will be getting married june 6, 2009, and more than likely moving to charlotte,nc, which has great art community of clay for her . the state college there has a np program there in adult, and family. they also have a psychiatric/mental health clinical specialist. i know they have psychiatric np programs out there, but they are not as common as adult/family. so i have a couple of questions 1)is my overall plan before entering into np college, a good plan to gain enough experience, or would i need more experience/less? 2)is there a clinical difference in a np and a clinical specialist? i have read up on them, and i think the only difference is the ability to prescribe. 3)i have always read that i can get certification for psychiatric field as an adult/family np. would this allow me to practice in field doing psychosocial therapy, and prescribe? -anthony