rduterte

Thanks for all the responses; I ended up accepting the job today. Some notes: westieluv - Thanks for the advice. Rural health just means healthcare in a rural area. It faces slightly different issues since the population is lower and there are fewer resources. For example, rural health hospitals typically do not have a separate pediatric wing/floor, so they end up on a regular med surg floor, etc. obizyanka - Good guess, but no, not in LeHigh (much, much further out) =). I applied to a hospital in Luzerne county that you might be at, but even though my info got handed to the nurse manager it didn't really advance from there. So different county, different hospital . I'm sure it varies by hospital, but I'm surprised your pay didn't go up when you refused benefits. To cover my family it would cost about $250 a month; opting out would put that back in my paycheck. What coverage did you have beforehand? Thanks again for all the suggestions. I guess I was originally disappointed because I was given the impression that in my current area, new grad RNs in hospitals started at, the least, 60k a year; my area has a relatively high cost of living, so I guess I was hoping it would scale down to *around* 55k outside the area, before a night differential. I'm now finding 60k here just isn't the case here anymore. I know a lot of people scoff and say, "Take it! Any job is better than no job!" But taking it means relocating my family, and attempting to take the risk of having my wife be a stay at home, and taking her away from her job (and government employee benefits). I know the economy is tanked, but you can go broke picking the wrong job, and I just want to be cautious. Thanks for hearing me out =)

Dear 2008 Ramon, This is yourself, 4 years later. I decided to answer your post, because no one ever got around to it, and I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat as you today, and have similar anxieties and questions. So here's some spoiler alerts for your life. 1) Yes, you get into nursing school. You cry when you get the acceptance letter. 2) It doesn't end there - you have to work much harder than you think. In fact, you fail out of the program in 2010, and have to wait a whole year to get back in. It is really, really hard. You cut it pretty close again in 2011, but make it. 3) You have a kid along the way. You cry when this happens, too. He is one of the best things that ever happen to you. Sometimes life is much more unexpected then you think, and many times it's a good thing. 4) Many of your friends fail out for good. You later realize your school has like a 50% attrition rate. You seriously need to study much harder than you ever have before. 5) The HESI is terrifying, but you kill it. Mostly because you studied for it for 3 months. 6) You kill the NCLEX, too. Congrats, you eventually become an RN. It never gets easy; the job search is tough and your state has a bunch of hospital closures so the market in your area is saturated with experienced nurses. The pay is lower than people told you. But you meet some amazing people along the way, and find out, yes, this is the field for you. You find out that helping people is incredibly rewarding. You find out being a nurse is more than meds, and you find out talking to a kid about zombie movies while he was stuck in a hospital bed was the favorite part of his stay. I urge you, myself from 4 years ago and anybody reading this who is thinking about going into nursing, to keep the faith and to follow your dreams. If you do your best, amazing things can happen. Best of luck to you, Ramon, RN PS - December of 09 don't bother driving 3 hours to go to the Christmas Village. It's closed when you get there and everyone gets all persnickety.

I'm getting a job offer in rural health that pays about $25/hr. I'm a new grad, and it's my first job offer. It seems low, but people from my class seem to be getting similar offers.Does this sound right to you? It seems to be on the low end of the median for the area (rural PA). Normally I'd just take it for experience, but taking it would involve uprooting my family and relocating 5 hours away, so I'm trying to be cautious and seeing if the offer seems competitive.Thanks in advance.

A classmate of mine (we're in an ASN nursing school program) said that to make more money he was going to take the LPN boards, hopefully become an LPN and then work throughout the school year as an LPN instead of what he does now (he's not specific, but I suspect he does transport). By this summer we will have completed one year of nursing school, and I was wondering if he understands the process correctly? Can we really take the LPN boards in the middle of nursing school? I'm not just interested in the salary (which is comparable to what I'm currently making) but his hospital does educational reimbursement (which is one of the major reasons he is going to school) and I feel my resume would be better off after I become a rookie RN if I had *some* work experience as an LPN. The courses we will have completed are Nursing Essentials and Medical Surgical Nursing. We are in NJ. Forgive me, I tried to figure this out myself but it looks like my Google-Fu is weak today. Thanks in advance, Ramon

It's been awhile - I honestly can't remember exactly how many questions there were - I think two sections had 20 questions and the other two had 40 or 45. The prep book was specifically for TEAS, make sure it's the one with the practice tests.

Hey everybody, thanks for all the positive messages. I got notified about a week ago I got accepted! @Junebaby - my school's bookstore had a prep guide for the test that I thought was really helpful. It had a practice test in it that I did a bunch of times - even though you know how to do it, doing it over and over again makes you faster, giving you more time to do it later. So my advice would be to, when practicing, do the practice problem even if you know how to do it already. You'll get faster and that will definitely help you on the test.

I just got my TEAS back and I got a 91.4%, and am in the 98th percentile. My scores were: Reading 97.5 (96th percentile) Math 84.4 (87th percentile) Science 93.3 (99th percentile) English 89.1 (91st percentile) I'm a little worried since I know the school I'm applying to is really competitive (Middlesex CC). Does anybody know whether this is not competitive enough, or pretty competitive? It's tough waiting it out and getting a baseline would be great. Thanks, Ramon

I graduated Rutgers College with a BA in English in 2004, but have gone back to school to pursue nursing. Unfortunately, I'm terrified about the odds of getting into a nursing program, mostly because of horror stories. Right now I'm attending Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ (this is my first semester). I'm doing pretty well in AP I, Microbiology, and Eng 121 (long story about having to take that). If everything continues on track, I should end up with a 4.0. I've heard, however, that the big determining factor is the TEAS test and that people tend to do well on it and it gets very competitive. I've applied to 3 ASN programs, but am worried about getting rejected from all three. Like, terrified, really. What's the stress level like of getting into a Diploma program? Is it just as competitive? Do you still get a RN, and if you do, can I pursue a BSN or Masters afterwards, or do I have to bridge a Diploma to ASN program first? I looked into som accelerated programs, but I work part time and am not confident I could handle the work load. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I know a lot of you have probably been here before, I guess I'm looking for reassurance that I'm not wasting years of my life trying to get into schools with closed doors. Regards, Ramon

I'm not sure if this is the correct section for this - apologies in advance. I'm having trouble understanding what I'm supposed to do as far as my nursing track is concerned. I've enrolled in a community college (Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ) as a Biology Pre-Professional major. From what I understand, when I register for classes, I'm supposed to look at the nursing school requirements and take the courses that overlap. I have a BA in English from Rutgers University. I think this is supposed to help with placements test exemption, but I'm not sure (supposedly this helps my application, too). My questions are: 1) It says to apply to the nursing program, I have to apply between August 1 of this year and December 1 of this year for Fall 2009. I can't understand if I'm supposed apply now or if I'm supposed to do all my prereqs first. If I apply now and don't have my prereqs done, doesn't that hurt my chances of getting in? I keep hearing, "Oh, she's complaining about being waitlisted but she doesn't even have her prereqs done." Won't I be this person? 2) If I get waitlisted, work on prereqs and get other stuff done, can I reapply and hopefully not get waitlisted again? 3) Is acceptance "meet the requirements, first come first served" or is it "based on your application"? In other words, do I have a better chance of getting in if I do really well this fall? My school has not been very helpful over the phone, and I have problems getting over to the school because it's open only during business hours, and I work 9-5. Time off is tricky because I get four sick days a year (that includes personal days). So for me to take a day off of work to have someone answer questions is really risky. I'm working part-time during school, so I'll have flexible hours in the fall, but if I'm supposed to apply to nursing school now I'm worried about submitting too late and getting waitlisted. Catch 22 being I don't want to apply if it'll hurt me long term but don't know for certain if it will because at this rate I can't get answers until my hours are flexible enough to attend a nursing information session during business hours. Something I'm not getting a straight answer on is what the timeline is supposed to be. As far as I can tell: 1) I apply to community college (done) 2) Take prereqs (will start this fall) 3) Possibly Apply to Nursing Program - or - Finish prereqs, then apply to Nursing Program 4) Possibly get waitlisted, in which case, if I've finished all my prereqs, do I just wait for three years for them to call me? 5) If I do get called, do I still have two years to finish Nursing? Sorry, I'm really confused and worried and all my net searching finds me ads for other nursing programs and more questions. My biggest question is, "If I take lots of credits every semester and don't get waitlisted, can I finish nursing in two years? If I do get waitlisted, is this going to take me like, 5 years?" Thanks for any help you can offer. Freaking out a little bit, Ramon PS - Some info here: http://www.middlesexcc.edu/admit/control.cfm/ID/2524/