mmm333

start applying for other jobs now. It is obvious that these people are looking for ways to mainstream you onto their team, but rather to get you out. Don't take it personally, yes they are too lazy to mentor you, and yes you have some problems you need to accept responsibility for. Apply elsewhere now while you are still employed. It is harder to get hired once you have been "de-employed".

Also if you are targeting a specific job/practice area like hospice, dialysis, or med surg, then try to complete a CE certificate in that area so that you can put that prominently on your resume. This will show that you've done something substantial to orient yourself to the job. One CE course is not very substantial, but a certificate showing broader exposure to that area may at least get the attention of a hiring manager and give them something to justify hiring you. Even better, a training course with a residency (if you can find one and afford it) will give you a clear inroad and could lead to a job right where you do the residency.

Remember, managers like to hire people who are already employed. It means you won't waste their time, because you just passed someone else's screening process so you'll probably pass theirs as well. You become a "safe bet"... Your first few jobs are rapid stepping stones. As soon as you get one, start working on that "next step up" immediately. Update your resume again and get it out there. Integrate any lessons learned from each job interview. For a new grad, go give shots or clinics for an agency right out of school. Boom, suddenly you are not an unemployed new grad without any experience. HR managers hate that "fresh new grad" title so shed it immediately. A few weeks later, apply to an LTC / nursing home. They'll probably hire you and give a short, limited orientation. Work for a few weeks and start applying to Med Surg units aggressively, be ready to work nights or eves. If you can't find a med surg, go for a SNF that is more post-acute or more subacute (with trach patients). If you can't find that, look for a Home Care position or hospice. But don't give up on LTAC, post surg recovery / stepdown, or med surg. If you fall into the SNF realm, you could get stuck there until you either burn out or just get used to that being your life. You'll be hard pressed to find a SNF with a healthy work environment. You may be too tired to apply to hospitals while working in SNF, but make sure you keep applying, and make a move before you burn out.

I am a male nurse and I wore the 3 men's zippered tops I bought after school until they fell apart. Unfortunately they only sell to students now.

Wondering how the U. Mass Boston Online BSN experience was for you. Sounded pretty good from your post at the outset, but now that you've finished, what was the cost and duration from start to finish? And did you enjoy it and get the grades you wanted?

Or become a medical transcriptionist or some other job that uses some of your training. Chances are you can always work in a nursing home.

Yes those transcripts were in the system. I sent the rest along with DD214. They said the same thing, I'll get in. My only problem now is that I went to UC for undergrad (they do not require one since there are many presentations in their "discussion groups" that follow lectures). So now I might need to take a "Public Speaking" course. However, I would love to find a way around that one... I can't take a course like that and work my current job.

Yeah it's all over the map- some medics to trach intubation/IV/IO, some don't. The have massive overlaps and some lacking knowledge in the sciences and the patho in many cases. In general they get shortchanged but once in a program they will have an advantage and then another advantage in the job hunt when people select their resumes first. I would tell any corpsman or medic to use GI Bill, knock out the prereqs, go nail the BSN, and get hired. Or wrap their PA prereqs into the very end of a BA/BS degree in health science/chem/pharmacology stuff and then go to PA for grad school (GI Bill can cover it all that if you save your money and budget everything out, pull all the strings, and go to a cheaper state to do this. I would say skip the LVN unless you can just test out and grab that right away and use it to work SNF for some money while getting the rest done. I think at a minimum we are going to see Obama push more states to allow corpsmen to challenge LPN.

It gets complicated. Every SEAL and SWCC gets trained as a "medic assistant" (enough to call them combat medics) roughly at the EMT-B level + IV therapy and medevacs. The "lead medics" attend at a minimum, the NSW combat medic course which automatically allows them to challenge EMT-P. From there they can get a number of advanced courses including the 18D special forces medic course. IDC etc. NSW medics are among the most highly-trained medics in the military. However, unless becoming a Corpsman first beforehand, none of these people must be or need actually be a Corpsman prior to this! This is because SEAL (SO) and SWCC (SB) ratings were recently created for them to focus on their main skills and not get caught up in the "big Navy" details or have to study that stuff in order to advance in rank. LVN can be a mismatch with the acuity these guys are used to. However they do run sick call and clinics as well. Most of these guys are going PA or RN, not LVN, after getting out. They usually get the Navy to pay for that and stay in 10 more years after their badass days are over, OR they get out and use GI Bill to start a civilian career. My lead medic is the one who recommended that I become an RN before I got out (which I did using GI Bill). We talk about owing our vets, well- has anyone checked how much the post-9/11 GI Bill pays out for school + living expenses? It's a hell of a lot! We're doing a pretty good job of making it possible for them to become nurses, they just need the info shared with them. A number of schools give MAJOR ("shoe-in") preference to vets such as CSU East Bay and other CSUs. In general there is another HUGE and somewhat lesser known benefit- most schools give "priority enrollment" to vets (first seats, no waitlists to get into high-demand majors/classes/prerequisites, etc. right behind the disabled students, dates are always before anyone else can pick their classes and sign up). This allows vets to get all prereqs knocked out faster because they always get the class and schedule that they want.

Good. I'm a veteran applying to the RN-to-BSN program for fall 2013 and heading back to the military once accepted. They are currently accepting applications. You need to have your ducks in a row and get all transcripts in one time. Does anyone know if they hold on to transcripts sent in a year or two ago (I abandoned a previous application midway due to getting a new job)? Or do all of those transcripts have to be resent again?

If you are losing heart in nursing school already, you need to figure out a way to cope. The reality of nursing after school is truly soul-crushing for those who don't develop a thick skin. There are books on the topic that you can buy. And of course people here to get advice from. Think of it as a problem that needs to be addressed and use the nursing process on yourself.

"I drive a windowless van and sleep in it most of the time so commute time won't be an issue."

This post just took a wonderful turn. Humor therapy.

That's not to say that an MSN from Yale, Georgetown, or UCSF isn't going to impress more than one from one of the for-profit online schools. But BSN is really just a box-check, the curriculum is pretty much standard.

and Winston Churchill said: "Courage is the ability to go from one defeat to another, without losing enthusiasm" because sometimes you run into long periods of adversity before any glimmer of hope appears, and you have to keep on plugging away regardless.

My microbiology course had online modules with quizzes which my instructor asked us to take under our name and he would check for passing scores before he started lecturing on that subject. Those were focused on memorization of key facts, concepts, and definitions. It virtually eliminated time-wasting questions in lecture about very basic facts and definitions, got everyone on the same page, and allowed the professor to lecture on a much higher level and skip the very basic stuff. For some reason many students won't do reading assignments, but they are all over interactive modules. Maybe because there is a record of what has been completed. Not grading these took away incentives to cheat or have other people do one's work. A system like this could work in any course and had been done with CD-ROMs for a long time, but the online system is easier for a professor to monitor, tailor, and keep records of.

For anyone interested in the direction of online learning, watch this TED Talk: Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education | Video on TED.com

You get through all this stuff one hurdle at a time, by taking the long view. There will be awful days. You will comfort yourself by saying patients appreciate you taking time. Then when you start working you will take the same amount of time with patients and your managers will be riding you about overtime. Then you'll start getting more and more efficient until you are actually able to do both, if not after getting run off or terminated once, then at least on the second or third job. Nursing is a rough ride and not for the faint of heart. Take your lumps, swallow your pride, and keep your chin up. Eventually you will notice that each year is better than the last one was. Hang in there and reflect often on lessons learned. That's my two cents for now.

In the meantime don't put me in charge of selecting applicants to a nursing program, because you know I'll be biased and throw all of the medics apps on the top of the pile ;] ... you know, things like that do happen... job applications as well. An RN with a medic background is way more than just a new grad and employer know this, trust me- they know they are getting far more than they are paying for, and at the end of the day in today's world, money talks, not jingoistic patriotism.

Ohio University is currently waiving out of state tuition for their online RN-BSN. I enrolled. It's a good old brick and mortar school with a long history of providing education to military, etc. by correspondence/proctored testing on military bases, going back before the internet. The were involved in some of that "college education for prison inmates" stuff as well. So they have all of that experience behind their online division (eCampus).

Some of the following was lifted from another thread online, but it is useful perspective for those who haven't been in the military. At the end of Navy Corpsman school, you are a "quad-zero" (000) corpsman. Your Naval Enlisted Classification (NEC) code is "0000". Without advanced training, you won't have a code. If your "C" school is field medicine, your code will be "8404". Many of these codes translate into Allied Healthcare job fields. EKG tech, Radiology tech, OR tech, etc. all have a corresponding NEC code. There are ways to get these translated into civilian qualifications. There is no NEC for RN to my knowledge since RNs are officers. There may be one for LPN - (the Army did create an MOS for LPN partly so that their vets could find jobs similar to their Army jobs once separated). Before I landed my first nursing job I actually considered going back to being a SWCC medic with my RN license in tow, though I realized that my RN license would not be utilized or rewarded there because that job largely entails and emphasizes trauma/field/medevac/CBR. Quad zero (0000) Corpsman work just about anywhere where the Navy decides to stick them. Could be an XRay lab for 4 years. Without a specialty (an NEC) you could be helping out in any medical setting from an ambulatory clinic, to a floor on a hospital, to a lab- anywhere they'd like to put you that helps out navy medicine. Many assignments require the code to act in that capacity, such as base EMT or ER tech. No specific code = no specific work center = no specific job. Oftentimes, having a code in your file will get you "stuck" in a particular setting, whether or not you want to be there- because the Navy is short on people to fill those billets (this is common in all fields of the Navy- if you are a welder, you can forget about working in the plumbing/pipefitting shop, etc.). Maybe someone in the Navy can chime in here- but if there is no NEC for LPN, I'm still pretty sure that passing the NCLEX-PN and getting the license still looks VERY good in a Corpsman's service record, evals, and training file, and may help get them out on a nursing floor working under/more closely with Nurse Corps Officers, essentially working on nursing tasks rather than Allied Health Tech tasks, at varying levels of independence (contact your division officer or officer on deck with any changes of condition, certain parameters, etc.). This was basically the way it was when I got out. Some Corpsman entered Allied Health fields when they got out, some entered nursing, some changed careers. I know that in the Special Boat Teams having EMT-Basic looked great even if the servicemember was not a NSW paramedic as their primary specialty, and it increases the chance of getting a coveted spot in the Naval Special Warfare Combat Medic course (after which they can challenge EMT-P) alongside their SEAL counterparts. At the end of the first enlistment, they can challenge NCLEX-PN , though many do go to PA school or RN school though. It would be interesting to hear if anyone knows what the Navy currently does with licensed LPNs. One thing is for sure, you can have any license or qual, and the Navy can still stick you wherever they want to stick you. They could stick you in a closet full of medical supplies handing out hairbrushes if they want to. Alot of this depends on your performance and yes, politics. But most often, whether a billet or space is available for your NEC. I think the president used the word "Corpsman" instead of "medic" since Navy corpsman may not be able to challenge NCLEX-PN in their state, and many cannot even challenge EMT-P in their state. Meanwhile the Army has allowed for all of its medics to become LPNs through their training. There is something wrong with the Navy there. The right changes are going to have to come from way up high because they involve nursing on the national level (at and beyond each state BON), within the military (makes its own rules and doesn't answer to civilian agencies), educational organizations both public and private (bureaucracies famous for their slowness and backwardness) and in the political arena (oh, brother, we already see it in this thread). And there is going to have to be some tax money thrown at this problem on behalf of our vets (institutional change doesn't happen for free), another problem that gets super-politicized. I support the president if he's trying to help our vets as the wars wind down and they are looking for work. I applaud it. I do think he may lack an understanding of nursing in general and he fumbled if he said "couldn't even find work as a nurse" (if he said LPN instead of nurse, the LPNs would be up in arms), but I understand that many non-nurses really have no idea who does what. Many patients and families have no idea what the difference is between all of the people coming in and out of their room in scrubs, Obama is likely not much different as his family have all been served by private duty physicians for years. I have a feeling he's going to get quite an education this week as nursing associations write letters to him. Let's make a good impression as we educate politicians and the public about nursing. We don't want to lash out and appear hostile as that will not help our cause much. The fact is that anybody in Congress/Senate or high level positions has very little contact with hospitals- they get attended closely by dedicated physicians or APNs/PAs and are out of touch with what we think of as the healthcare arena. The hyper-politicized environment that exists now has the potential to do lots of harm or lots of good. Let's make sure it does good.

There are programs for documenting the hours spent on various types of equipment, getting it all signed off, and getting civilian qualifications. They briefly tell you about the "Journeyman program" but very few people take advantage of it while in the military and it takes alot of initiative to penetrate bureaucracy. The journeyman program is key here and should be updated, funded, and advertised. Again, the military does not especially want to lose all of its talented mechanics to the civilian sector- They were not happy about losing special operations people to Blackwater, etc., and they don't want to lose all of their medics after the first 4 years. So they don't really want to advertise it or make it too easy to the point where they lose their own workforce. However, now is a "sweet spot" since after the Iraq/Afgh drawdown there will be actually too many medics- and they don't want to pay for all of those retirements. Flag-waving aside, it's all about the money. Veterans know that the day they get out, much patriotism is just lip service, very few employers ACTUALLY lend major preference to vets and many do discriminate. Some managers know that it is very hard to win an employment or contract dispute with a veteran, especially one rated for disability, and unfortunately find excuses not to hire them if they can. Ask any VFW rep and they'll confirm that as the unfortunate truth. Veterans need access to all of the certifications and education they can get, and it pays to start that stuff during and immediately after enlistment. Knock it out, fellow vets. You'll be glad you did. And DO NOT waive that GI BILL! for a few measly thousand bucks. You never know when you might want to retrain, go to law school, or whatever!

Corpsmen carry out delegated tasks in acute care, everything they do is monitored and checked by an RN who is their superior officer and whom they report to. Attending to patients and independently managing their care are two different things. Also, operating in a nonlitigious environment vs. a litigious environment makes a big difference. Yes, many do incredible things in every and any setting- and act independently in the field (and let's face it, that RN just signs off on alot of what they trust them to accomplish). Still, their job scope and training is intentionally designed to interface with an RN as their manager. 9 months of GI Bill-funded college LPN-RN training is not too much to ask our corpsmen to take on, and they can do it. The post-9/11 GI Bill would pay for even the most expensive RN program from start to finish, plus living expenses. I was part of the movement during the Bush administration to allow Corpsmen and medics nationwide to challenge NCLEX-PN and also to gain priority enrollment in RN programs. I wrote hundreds of letters and made phone calls. There is a certain senator behind this movement, and he continued putting the pressure on Obama once Mr. Bush left office. Now, some of the same senators who are pushing for tons of work Visas for nurses from India and other countries are the same ones not supporting turning our medics into nurses. Get the drift? The competition for the (mythological?) "baby boomer healthcare goldmine" is on, and many large healthcare organizations are already thinking about getting the bigger piece of the pie and hiring less, paying less, sharing less, and caring less while making more. They would rather have thousands of temporary workers on visas, and they already have lobbyists in place. Second, ANA and the other professional organizations want diploma programs phased out. I think I remember hearing that there were only one or two left in the country, and that was years ago. What we are essentially talking about is a diploma program out of a military hospital. In this day and age it does not help nurses to say "I don't need no fancy book learning, I learned it all on the job". See how far that gets us when genetic therapies and nanotech become a normal aspect of medicine. This is a huge stumbling block for turning medics into RNs and a big reason you will probably see this end up as a national program for medic>LPN via NCLEX-PN coupled with an accelerated LPN-to-RN college option for medics, (probably supported with some nice federal grants). My service was 8 years long and my work was in the field. I went to college on the GI Bill and I can tell you I learned a whole lot in college/nursing school that the military does not teach alls medics even with advanced training. I do maintain that there are many corpsmen/medics who just don't get the hospital exposure needed to step into an RNs shoes immediately after enlistment ends with no additional training- and all corpsmen could benefit from a year of college-level nursing coursework that puts them on the competitive edge in a world where "BSN required" or "BSN preferred" is starting to pop up everywhere on applications and not just in California but Alaska, the midwest, and the east coast as well. This is lively debate here. The subject is important. I realize that this issue is politically and emotionally charged for many people, but let's consider one another's opinions respectfully and understand that nobody here knows who they are talking to and what their experiences (military, nursing, or otherwise) have been. Let's not stumble over logical fallacies such as "My friend X is a stellar medic doing the work of a nurse (while being monitored and checked by an RN or not), therefore ALL medics should be able to challenge NCLEX-RN". Finally, let's pay attention to words like "many, most, all" etc. (when someone says "many", please don't respond as if I said "all") while considering one another's claims, because these meanings matter. Failing at any of the above makes this conversation far less constructive. In the UK and Canada, military medics have transitioned into their civilian version of the LPN after careful consideration of these scopes and roles, though many go to RN schools afterward. The same considerations have led to the same conclusion in the US- these jobs correspond to LPN, not RN, though there is some very real overlap depending on the person and situation and in many if not most cases, they far exceed what LPNs do. Any military medical experience makes for a great RN, just as MA, EMT, or ER tech experience makes for great RN student. It also gives them an edge in employment screening and interviews. Most medics that become nurses really stand out and impress their peers and supervisors. They all deserve the opportunity to challenge NCLEX-PN in my opinion, and I fought toward that years ago. All of them could benefit from a BSN in this competitive market oversaturated with new grads and new-ish nurses. Within 3-4 years they won't even be eligible to apply for many hospital jobs without a BSN. That's not exactly giving them an advantage. What they need to do is fund more LPN-RN programs, preferably online ones tailored to medics. They should allow medics to enter these programs without the LPN license. Excelsior was mentioned as a rapid track to RN but there are others. Excellent medics should be able to eat up these courses of study like breakfast, and benefit from them as well. These programs should get massive grants from the federal govt to accommodate medics. That would be the best way to serve medics, the nursing profession, and patients.

One other aspect of the military that explains why corpsmen can do things like place chest tubes in the field is that they are in REMOTE, EMERGENCY situations where there is no other choice. This, and the fact that nobody can sue the military especially as a member of the military, whereas anyone can sue a hospital, is the reason they can have a pretty large UAP scope of practice while in the military- explains alot about why they cannot do more once they get out of the military and into the real world where people get sued, and where patients and their families are going to demand education behind their clinicians license.

To be fair, the information about how to complete a nursing degree is available to military personnel through their Educational Services Office/officer, and corpsmen can get their stuff done while serving- if they make that a big priority while enlisted. I knew many enlisted people who lauded me for taking college courses instead of racing motorcycles or drinking beer- what can I say? I'm out and successful in the civilian world, and some of them complain to me about the usual military BS that they still put up with (uniform inspections, other BS, etc) and I just silently think back to the hours I spent burning midnight oil, dreaming of enjoying the freedoms that I served one 6-year enlistment to protect! I served honorably and proudly, and got out happily! With the rise of online programs and technology, there is simply no excuse for not getting some college done while in the military. In my opinion, too many enlisted people spend FAR too much time out drinking and whatnot. Corpsmen are not automatically = to nurses. Corpsmen are more like medical assistants, CNAs, phlebotomists, and other UAP roles combined in different and varying combinations depending on where they are assigned. Some are nurse material, and some are not. I do think many could handle SNF, but not many could jump into acute care without more training. The biggest difference is that they are not college educated, though their military schools may give them about 5-20 units of elective college credit that will help them toward that ASN or BSN degree. There are nurses in the military who went to nursing school before joining the military, and they enter the military as RNs and serve as nurses. The military doesn't take ADNs these days, only BSN which qualifies them to take officer billets and manage corpsmen. After thinking it over alot, I think that enrollment preference would be far more valuable to corpsmen than a faster track into nursing.