jchatlpn

YES! There are always a need for bilingual nurses in AZ. I would get the LPN just as a safeguard. You never know what can happen to you during that 3 and 4 block. But with your LPN you'll at least be able to advance place into another program if something does go wrong for 3 and 4 block. You can even find an employer who will pay you to go to school and who can promote you to an RN position if you find an LPN position with those possibilities. Plus, you'll gain experience as a nurse when you use your LPN first. Look into school nursing at K-8 elementary schools, corrections, home health, hospice, LTC. Those areas hire LPNs a lot. Unfortunately hospitals do not hire LPNs as often but if you keep your eyes open on Banner and the other places then sometimes they have openings for new grads. I keep hearing that new grad nurses have a hard time finding jobs as nurses if they have NO previous medical experience first. So that would help you there. If you're getting your RN with no medical background then getting your LPN and getting that experience is a good way to go. That's my opinion at least.

It is absolutely NOT a hard format and UofP does a good job of giving you shortcuts so you don't have to worry about it. You actually have templates already created in that format that you can use. You'll have to do an APA paper in practically every class. It's just a specific font and page set up. If you can formulate a proper sentence, you're good to go. In your first few classes your instructors will be really lenient. As long as you show good communication with them, use the forums and check your forums daily then your instructors will be very open and understanding. The hardest thing for me was trying to get along with everyone in my team. There's always someone who acts like they can take the reigns and manage the assignment but then they do everything at the last minute and the quality is poor. Or you'll have a teammate that doesn't communicate and misses turning in their part. And then what do you do when someone clearly doesn't know what they are doing but they are on your team? I finally met another nurse and she was having a lot of the same doubts I was having. But I just kept my focus going forward and told myself that I'd be with my fellow nurses soon and it wouldn't be so damn unprofessional. So far I haven't done any "studying." Basically you go week by week completing your assignments and it's based on how fast you can do research and write a paper. If you can master the art of writing papers and finding references, you can cut down on time. Now I can write an APA paper in a day if I have to. But I had to stay up 36 hours to research patients and write care plans in previous nursing school. I haven't had many tests, yet. The tests I have had were simply quizzes and they were basic. If you're looking for night work then you should be able to find something. I guess it's really hard for nurses who have no previous medical experience in their work background to find work because everyone is looking for experience but a lot of people are looking for day positions. Finding LTC night jobs should be easy. You can also look into hospice and home health but I think there are some limitations to insurance benefits in those positions. I found FT work as a school nurse a month after I passed my NCLEX but that was one of those find work anywhere positions. I stuck around for a few years but now I'm looking for something else. Working in corrections is good too as far as schedules go because they tend to be short weeks but long hours. It's interesting work, though. Anyway, if you don't find a nighttime position at an LTC facility, then sign up with a few of them you like as PRN and as soon as a position opens up, they'll look towards their PRN nurses who are looking for FT work before they start hiring out of the facility.

Just because whether or not you have little dependents relying on you would have a major impact on how much a full time job would effect your school. I have two young boys. Let me just say that I feel like after surviving nursing school for my LPN, I feel like I can survive anything. And I say that because I definitely don't think that University of Phoenix is worse than nursing school in any way. But it is beneficial to have the day before and the day of your courses off from work if possible. My learning experience so far has been acceptable. I just started in August and I am about to start my actual nursing core classes. I just finished up my prereq courses. I wish someone would have told me not to expect much until I start my actual nursing courses. Expect to write an APA style paper and complete a power point presentation in each course. I did a lot of that in my LPN program so I was totally prepared for all that but I was very shocked at how unprepared all the other students around me were when writing those papers. Then I realized that no one in my prereqs were in the nursing program. So then I found myself working with a lot of people who couldn't write a simple research paper and that sucked. But I kept my cool because I realize that I am not going to be the same page as my fellow students until I hit my actual nurse courses and am surrounded by actual nurses. So far the classes have been fine but I don't feel like I have learned anything new in science classes like nutrition. But I do feel like I have been refreshed on some important concepts when doing research for papers and stuff. Expect to be in a learning team each course. That's basically a team of students who you complete team assignments with and are usually APA papers or presentations. Before I chime in on how I feel about the team learning, I'll let some other people state their opinions.

Do you have children?

I started looking around in the Careers forum. They have a Nursing Interview Help thread.

You know maybe that's a good question for the boards. What I can say about my experience as a CNA maybe really different than what you experience. One thing is I am in Phoenix, AZ and our retirement community keeps us working. When I was a CNA I applied for jobs in my scrubs and went to interviews in them, too. As an LPN, though, I won't. I did at first but I didn't get the first job I applied for at a school and at my next interview I wore interview clothes and got that job. I interviewed at CIGNA and was offered a position and at that point I was always wearing interview clothes. At this point all the nurses I speak to say not to wear scrubs. So maybe there's a difference. All I can say is when I was a CNA, my fat behind could've interviewed in a sheer leotard and I still would've gotten hired. I never didn't get the job, but I never applied to a hospital. So is there anyone who responded have any advice in that area? I just think wow, there are people out there that don't hire nurses because they are dressed in professional interview clothes?

That's what I'm doing. I got my LPN and continued for my RN while working. It's important to get experience as a nurse to help you find a job when you finally graduate. Search these boards about careers and you'll find so many new grad RNs are having a hard time finding jobs because they don't have actual hospital experience. If you find a job as an LPN, you have more info for your resume AND you may find a job at a facility that does tuition reimbursement. It also gives you an opportunity to just move up in a position. You get to work directly with other nurses and get great ideas about other places they've worked. I never even considered school nursing or correctional facilities. Then I learned about flu clinics. It just really helped me get my foot in the door.

Do not wear scrubs to your interview. I hate to even have to say that but I have seen it so much and have even made that mistake. Good luck! I was going to say transitioning from a nursing home or long term care facility to a hospital would be more likely so maybe try going that route. They are going to compare your working one-on-one with a low patient load to their high patient to nurse ratio and fast-paced environment. If you can ace that confidently then you've got a fair chance! You can also relate to how your 1-on-1 experiences allowed you to get a better understanding of how important it is for patients to feel comfortable and confident in their environments. Share a personal story about a specific experience where a client shared with you their emotional thoughts about their illness or condition and how it helped you understand the position patients are in when they feel weak and vulnerable or helpless. Definitely touch on working with alzheimer and dementia patients and how you can work calmly even when dealing with irrational and scared patients. If you have a specific experience where you had an out of control and confused client and you successfully calmed them and alleviated a stressful situation, use it. Of course, only if you have done these things ya know but relate everything you know how to do to what they actually would expect out of you from a hospital. Also bring up oral candida (thrush), dehydration, MRSA, UTIs, and C-diff and being able to recognize or protect yourself against them if you have that experience, too. When discussing your experiences, don't forgot not to violate any confidentiality laws. lol...I see people do this all the time. They get to talking and talking and they give away too much information.

Everyone already said plenty but I wanted to add that being a certified caregiver has great advantages too. As a CNA, you cannot pass medication. I became a CNA because I wanted to become familiar with nursing, it was a requirement for school and it definitely helped but I signed up with an agency and was assigned to a retirement and assisted living community. They had me covering for certified caregivers whose job was to pass medication, check GLU levels and administer insulin. I wasn't able to do anything but laundry and remove trash and help wheel people to breakfast cause I was a CNA. That really opened my eyes and so I was able to get certified as a caregiver by taking a simple 8 hour course. I eventually began working there and that's where I was when I started my nursing program. The first year of my program was the LPN portion. Everything I did that first year in nursing school as far as clinical experience was exactly what I had been doing as a CNA and certified caregiver combined. That first year was a breeze as far as learning about diabetes, intramuscular injections, medications and basic patient care was concerned. And the biggest pro here is that I worked with enough LPNs and RNs that just was so happy to work with someone who could handle it that they would recommend me for a position with their facility when I graduated.

If you're a new grad AND you have no previous healthcare experience, you cannot afford to be picky. Also be aware that morning weekday shifts are extremely hard to find. I was able to get my experience built up working night shifts and home health agencies. The better your availability, the better your opportunities. I signed up with home health agencies and flu clinics. Even when I work a full time job, I keep my agency and flu jobs because they build up on my resume and technically I only need to work a few shifts to stay employed with them. Plus, extra money! It's hard being a new grad, but don't let it discourage you. Just start creating an actual career path determining what field you want to get into. Once you start getting experience in a specific area, you really start to get the benefits of finding good paying jobs easily. Imagine being a new grad LPN, which is what I was. They don't really hire LPNs in hospitals in AZ so that was really difficult. Just be patient and take what you can. I was a school nurse for a few years until I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get my foot into a hospital with that experience above someone who has actual clinical and facility experiences. And being a school nurse isn't my goal. So now I am looking for something completely different to build my experiences. And NETWORK! Keep in touch with your classmates, get reference letters and contact information from your instructors. And from this point on get a reference letter from each place you work as soon as you get a little time in with them.

OFFER WATER! Do not forget that at some point during your visit with the invisible pt you MUST offer water. I'm a pretty smart person and I aced the exam but I failed the clinical part because they had the test room set up as one room. But I had to pretend there were two patient beds. Well I forgot that and just treated it like a one patient room and forgot to draw the curtain every time. I just made sure the door was closed. I also forgot to offer water. Needless to say I'm an LPN and an RN student now so eventually I passed it the second time. I'll never forget it now though. WATER AND CURTAINS!

Oh yeah, I know when I entered I needed to have work experience within 6 months of my enrollment date at U of P or something to that degree. I was able to do all my registration paperwork but my start date would not get set until I was working as an LPN.

I removed my objective a while back and I didn't get much luck with that so I put it back. I also had a resume with a job description that was specific to the job I was applying for so if it was home health, then I would plan my objective around workng one on one with clients and such. I also shortened my job descriptions and experience to short phrases, not sentences. So as a school nurse I would handle every injury that came in from recess and emergencies from ranging from sports related accidents to workman's comp employee accidents. I also had to maintain files. So I put Office Management, Health and Crisis Management, Triage, etc. This way, I was able to put them in a bullet format that was in a table, but with two columns. That helped shorten my resume so I could get it down to one page. I heard that these days that there are a few things you can do to catch a hiring manager's eye and a long resume with many pages may be a turn off. I also removed anything not relevant. You have so much experience, are you telling me you are having a hard time finding a job as an RN? Have you tried the VA? I was also thinking that if you are fluent in Mandarin then maybe try researching a website related to the cultural center. Maybe you can find an area that has a hospital where nurses with that language skill are specifically needed.

Definitely don't base your experience on this one person. Maybe he did point out a weakness, but it's definitely not something you can't change. Just get in there and get your hands dirty. Maybe you did make him feel uncomfortable because you were new. That's definitely not something you want to pass on to your patients so it's good he exposed this so you can work on it. When I was doing clinicals I had a young girl with me who had no medical experience. I went into a room she was in and the pt was giving her grief about moving his stuff around. I walked in and tried to alleviate the situation and the pt immediately stated that he could tell I had experience and that the young girl was too new and had a lot to learn. She didn't really feel bad because she knew it was true, she just didn't know what to do. So I took her under my wing and always went in with her for her first few patients and eventually she understood what her role was and how to execute it. But I've been insulted many times. As a nurse, you just work with sooooo many people, you're bound to have some bad interactions. Just being black, sometimes a pt doesn't want to work with me or is real rude to me. And sometimes men can be so inappropriate. But there are ALWAYS those pts who touch your heart and that's who you do it for, because they are always there. I hated school nursing so much because of the parents but those little kids were my angels and they made it worth it. There are people out there that really NEED you, they really NEED us nurses. Definitely remember that you can't let one pt take you away from so many others who really need you. Also, you can move around in so many areas with nursing that eventually you can end up in a position where you have real limited pt care or steady pt care where you work with the same people. Once you get to that stage, you get great bonds and it's all finally worth it.

University of PHX is good. I go to school once a week from 6-10 pm. Stay away from COLLEGE NETWORK and anything that charges you to find a school program for you. There are no ONLY ONLINE CLASSES FOR NURSING SCHOOL. You will always have to attend something because you have to get clinical experience and preceptorship. All these online nursing school things do is give you the information so you can pass the exam. But you can actually go and take CLEP exams on your own for credits that will transfer to a University. LITERALLY, you could do research on the subject and just CLEP test, get your credits and submit them to the University and you would get the same credit instead of paying these so called "online" programs. It's so stupid, I learned this the hard way. I don't know for sure if they have it in PA but check. So far it's the only thing that has been satisfactory. It will get me where I need to go and it is FULLY-ACCREDITED. You must research what accreditation means and how it relates to your nursing license before you sign up with a school or you can really get screwed. Some comm colleges have hybrid and online classes too.