catlady

Off-topic post removed.

After you finish school and take your NCLEX, assuming you pass, and then find out that someone else may have compromised the test, how happy will you be to be ordered to retake your test, even though you know you did nothing wrong? I sense a little ethnocentricity here...

And this differs from your average acute care hospital how??

I applied to six schools. Because I didn't apply until February, I was accepted at four and wait-listed at two. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Unfortunately, in the LPN program where I taught, it seemed the only things needed were a pulse and a payor source. Some of my students were quite sharp, but others were barely literate. It made for a difficult teaching environment with such a wide range of abilities. Just for kicks, I took the entrance exam one day and found it quite easy.

If she knows enough to pass the test, then I'd say her knowledge is current.

Are you going to keep posting all your homework?

I've always done well with good quality men's T-shirts. They seem to hold up better and be more comfortable than women's.

If they're not going to accept her credits, why shouldn't she be able to CLEP out of them? AFAIK, you only can't repeat courses that you're getting credit for--no double dipping.

Thank you for this post. I feel like I'm crying in the wilderness sometimes...

So you've been accepted into anesthesia school? Congratulations on making it through the cutthroat competition.... Or are you just assuming you're going? They want to see more than "1 year of bedside nursing." They generally want solid ICU or ER experience in addition to outstanding recommendations and killer grades....and an attitude that nurses--all nurses--aren't beneath them. I also agree with the previous poster who wondered how a college graduate could demonstrate such poor writing skills.

I'm sorry, but I will never understand how someone with no nursing experience can go to school and somehow be deemed master's-prepared, and a better nurse than someone with years of experience and a somewhat different educational background. Never having approached the bar on entry level to practice, you have no real concept of raising it other than what you've heard from the ivory tower. No matter how much anyone tries to justify it, I can't see this as a reasonable response to nursing needs. My mind's plenty broad. It's just not cavernous enough to accept every piece of foolery that's laid across it.

So in your opinion she should skip the LPN and go right for the Ph.D???? She's already working on her RN and has the chance to take the NCLEX-PN while she's in school. It will give her instant marketability and increased income while she finishes up her RN. We don't know her career goals. But to suggest to someone not to "waste your time" getting an LPN is insulting to the great LPNs I know, and just plain wrong.

No, not really, because if you inflate the wage beyond what the employer is willing to pay, they're going to look for alternatives. Otherwise they'd just pay everyone $100K per annum and everyone would be happy, right? You can't try to outprice the marketplace or you'll be left on the outside looking in. Laws of economics do exist, whether we like them or not.

So new grads should make more than experienced nurses? Because I don't make $35/hr. And I came from a very high cost area, too--close to what you're spending in NYC--and never made more than the high 20s while I was living there (moved away last year). I'd like to see everyone's pay rise, including mine. But right now there are too many cases where experience and expertise are not rewarded, and too many cases of "I'm entitled." Nobody's entitled to anything, much as we'd like to hope we're so valuable. We are only entitled to what our employers are willing to pay us. And when new grads make more than nurses with years of experience and certifications in their specialties, something's totally messed up.

How about testing out through the CLEP exams?

If you can get your LPN license without missing a beat while working on your RN, do it.

I used to work on a urology floor where it was 1:10 ratio with no LPNs or NAs. I didn't stay long.

As long as it is an accredited school, nobody really cares. It might matter if you want to advance, though, but that's probably dependent upon who's hiring. Someone from Snooty U might want another Snooty U grad, y'know.

When I worked at a Catholic hospital, my GYN wrote a note to the insurance company that I needed my BCPs for fibroids, and they covered it.

It depends on the state. Usually if you don't have any RN hours after a number of years, you have to take an RN refresher course. Any kind of nursing will keep you active, though; it doesn't have to be bedside nursing. Would the RN with the 5th graders be working as an elementary school teacher or as an RN teaching health?

Oh, golly, you're not going to get an APA course in here. Get thee to the manual. PERRLA is a good program to get but you still need the manual. Googling "nursing capping ceremony" only brought out 585,000 hits.

Well put. That was one of the hardest things to get across to my students when I was teaching--it was not the collection of technical tasks they were learning that would make them a nurse. It's also, IMO, one of the major points that separate new nurses from experienced nurses.

Yes, I am working in acute care. I have been a nurse for 21 years, and about fifteen of them have been in acute care and most of those years were in ICU. I started out as a new grad on a med-surg floor with tele beds, although the head nurse refused to send me for training on how actually to read the tele. We had everything short of Swans on our floor, including radiation implants, CVP lines, pushing major IV drugs, doing all our own respiratory therapy and treatments, etc. I was doing charge in less than six months, and my orientation consisted of, "You've seen what the charge nurse does." What does that have to do with the fact that new grads are entry level workers, and that they shouldn't be making anywhere near what experienced workers are earning? When they have the experience, they should be paid for the experience. New grads are hired on spec. And BTW, IMNSHO, acute care nurses aren't any more deserving of higher salaries than other nurses. I am on my wage compression soapbox again. All industries have huge disparities between the workers and the CEO salaries, not just healthcare. We may not like it, but it's not likely to change; therefore it becomes just another strawman in the discussion.

When I graduated from nursing school, the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, and I started at $9.06 an hour, no bonuses, no relocation, 10% for nights. Today the minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, and the average new nurse starts out at around $20 an hour with lots of perks. But we still have students complaining that $28/hr isn't enough. It's entry level, people. A new nurse hasn't proven herself to anyone, other than she can pass a school program. It will take months to years for that nurse to become even marginally proficient. Some things have to be earned, including pay and respect. This is an interesting snippet from the past. Keep in mind it took place during the last nursing shortage, and high cost areas were cited. Within four years, nurses around the country were being laid off and having pay and benefits slashed. Nothing is permanent. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5D71738F931A15756C0A96F948260&sec=health&pagewanted=print