ambermichelle

Covering everyone regardless of whether they have a preexisting condition or a job. A lot of sick people lose their jobs, and as soon as COBRA runs out (if they can afford it in their unemployed state), they have nothing...until they have run through all they had and are indigent, and Medicaid kicks in. And it's hard to get Medicare because it takes a long time to convince them you are disabled; then you have to wait 2 years after a declaration of disability to get Medicare. My husband died of a brain tumor long before he would have been eligible for Medicare. He was able to get on my insurance, but what if he were alone (as I am now)?

I am 90% sure I am going to start an LVN program nights in August. I have a "great" but not fulfilling job in engineering that I will be eligible to early retire from in a couple of years at 55, and I want something for a second career that floats my boat. I have been taking care of family members for 25 years, so I think I know what I am getting myself in for. 12 hour days are fine, I have often done those and have a lot of energy. And I am psyched about starting something challenging, now that I have an empty nest!

At work I know several people with security clearances and prior arrests. Just be open and honest because this is extremely minor. But don't try to joke with the interviewer, they typically don't have much of a sense of humor. It is best to tell them everything about the arrest episode, but don't volunteer a lot of information about your whole life, just answer the questions.

I am praying hard for the pendulum of fashion to swing back the other way. I wear a 0 in jeans, petites are too short, and the only thing I can find are low rise. There are no "mom jeans" for sale in that size. I do have my old ones I used to wear in the 80s, but don't want to get laughed at. So I wear long tops and hope for the best. It might be that some of the smaller girls, depending on their torso shapes, couldn't find anything but low rise even if they tried.

Anybody can have an unusual day and smell bad occasionally. But if this occurs again, I would tell her nicely. Of course she will be offended or hurt. But is it better to find out now and deal with it, or go through life wondering why you don't get hired or can't seem to have a social life? Or overhear people talking behind your back? It is not pleasant to be the one who tells her either, but it is the kindest thing to do under the circumstances. Sure, there is a chance it is for a medical reason and can't be fixed, so bringing that up to her first as a potential reason would be best. But even then, I would want to know in case there are other steps and I didn't realize I needed to do anything more than what I was doing.

The comments you have received are anomalies and do not represent what most people think. In fact, probably almost no one would agree with them. So ignore them. Everyone is not always going to agree with everybody's lifestyle, personality, anything. You can't please everyone. I don't know you, but for your sanity try not to be that sensitive. You are absolutely correct to feel they are unfair, but people will say many negative things to you all your life, and don't waste a moment of your life letting it bother you. Also, why would patients even know about your marital status or whether or not you had children? I think the people who made those comments, in addition to being unfair and insensitive, are not too bright.

nursing seems to be the only job, outside of the military, where if you get a dui in your off time it directly affects your career. where i work, (engineering for a defense company) you lose your security clearance automatically with a dui. depending on your specific job, that may render you unable to work it anymore. where my sister works as an engineer in a chemical plant, you would be written up for getting a ticket on your off day for not wearing a seatbelt, much less a dui.

I certainly am no authority, but I have looked around a little myself for MSN programs, since I already have 2 Bachelors degrees. Most of the ones I found want a BSN. Those that don't, at least want you to be an RN first. You could get your RN without taking the extra stuff for the BSN, then apply for the MSN programs. I didn't research online MSN's, just "brick and mortar."

Thanks to all of you for your examples and thoughts. I see now that it's about the same as most fields. One advantage you may have as nurses is that you often have more choices of employers, and while not recession proof as many threads have pointed out, the job market is better than most and is projected to expand in the future. Vito I share your sentiments that we do need to fill the gaps for people who can't get insurance because of a preexisting condition and cannot buy individual policies available to the more fortunate healthy people. There are a lot of advertisements about insurance for people in your friend's situation after retirement--but they all have an asterisk and a small note saying coverage is subject to being underwritten. They won't underwrite anyone with any significant medical past. I doubt we can or should abruptly transition away from insurance companies altogether; they do provide a service (though it's largely inefficient and too expensive), and I wouldn't want to suddenly put an entire industry out of a job... but maybe take steps to provide an option for those who don't have access to employer or private insurance, whether through the government or by requiring private insurance companies to cover such people.

Nurturer3, Thanks for your reply. Are you saying that, if your medical costs reach a certain amount, that YOU pay everything over that, or the opposite, that your cost is capped at a certain amount and above it they pay everything? I have heard of the latter type, i.e. that you pay more up front, but if it's over a certain amount they cover the rest. Your post sounds like the opposite, which sounds appalling if you develop a serious problem, or have to have surgery or get in an accident. A coworder says his son's car accident injuries have cost his insurance $500,000 so far, fortunately he has good insurance.

Hi, You spent a lot of effort on your reply and I like a lot of your points. It may be that we don't need a complete overhaul, but you admit there are a lot of people who are uninsured. 1% of hundreds of millions IS a lot of people. I believe insurance companies should not be allowed to deny coverage to preexisting condition patients. Sure, the way it is right now, it might be called unfair to force them because it would cost too much. But private industry has never solved this problem or even tried to solve it. They are able to claim that it would hurt their bottom line and threaten their company, and somehow we all say Oh, that's OK then, nobody has to help these people. State programs solve it for a few people but there are underfunded and don't provide for everyone. That is one place legislation needs to get out the scalpel. I also believe a person, even with a preexisting condition, should be able to optionally get guaranteed coverage without it being tied to their employer. What if they have no employer, or get laid off in a bad economy? COBRA is only for people who are laid off from large companies and only lasts for 18 months, not indefinitely. If this option has to come from the government, it should. My son is a college student whose career choices are quite limited because he will be unable to afford his medicine under many policies. If when he graduates he is unable to find a job, COBRA does not help him. Just showing up at the local ER won't help him either because his meds must be given 3 times a week and cost $30,000 a month--and the county cannot afford this prophylaxis protocol that keeps him from becoming crippled, having spontaneous head bleeds, etc. That's another thing--why does this stuff cost so much? Part of it undoubtedly comes from, as you pointed out, litigation since the industry is recovering from major lawsuits in the 80s, when they looked the other way while the treatments they had in the 80s infected most of the patients with HIV. But chemo drugs as well often cost many thousands per dose, with spotty coverage across even the "insured" population. So a person has the choice of financial ruin vs death, if they are even able to come up with the cash. It might not be an overhaul that's needed, but we need to fill in the cracks in the system, especially for those who were simply unlucky enough to be born with an expensive condition, or to develop cancer or some other problem that can happen to ANY of us, or our loved ones. A compassionate nation MUST do that or it is not compassionate.

Hi all, I would like to know what kind of medical insurance benefits nurses normally have under various levels of certification and from different types of employers. I am not a nurse -yet- but I am looking at it as a second career after I early retire. Mostly though I am asking for the benefit of my kids who are in college, as a potential career for them. Son has a condition that does not impair him at all, as long as he gives himself IV shots several times a week. Unfortunately they costs thousands each shot. While still a student, he is covered 100% by his dad's insurance which is super. After this runs out in 2 years, he would be refused any private policy and must rely on his future employer. He cannot get Medicare disability because he is not disabled (we tried). Though he might become disabled if he can no longer get his medicine. My daughter is on some medications but her costs are much more typical. Also before my husband died of cancer, we noted a lot of unfairness in the system. We stood in line at a cancer center pharmacy and picked up a 30 day supply of a cancer drug for a small copay (Thalomid). In the next line, a woman had to write a check for 10,000 copay with the same prescription (and also the same insurance company but a different type of policy). So just because somebody is "insured" doesn't mean they have enough coverage to handle a worst case type of disease that could happen to any of us. While my husband was a patient at a major cancer center in Houston, I asked an RN what her coverage was like. She said it was pretty good (I think it was from the state), but they probably would not get approved for a transplant, like a bone marrow transplant. I filed that away in my mind since I was pretty occupied at the time, but I wonder if many of us really know what our insurance covers and how far it will go? Most people here don't seem as concerned with medical insurance as other job factors, so I am hoping that it's not a big problem with nursing as a career, and that everybody had good insurance. Do RNs and LVN/LPN's working for hospitals, agencies, doctors offices, etc. have good enough coverage to actually become sick? I would appreciate input from all walks of nursing. This is something that as a mother, I lie awake worrying about since my son will soon face life without his dad's insurance. After repeatedly waking up worrying about this all night, I decided to come to this board for help this morning. Thank you so much in advance for anything you can share.

Of course you will know soon, but I would lean towards the view that she already thought she would hire you, and was trying to show you what they had to offer. That happened to me in my first real job (which was engineering not nursing). Being inexperienced at interviewing, I had expected to be grilled, and was not asked anything at all! Towards the end of his talk, I tried to interject some things about myself, and he just smiled and waved me off. I left not knowing whether I was in or out. I later got the letter with the offer.

My daughter is a junior in a sorority of smart girls with an average GPA of 3.2 at a difficult university. They have several parties a year but most of their events are volunteer or school related. They have weekly chapter meetings and many more time obligations. It seems there are always several events a week. What's more, if you miss an event you are fined $30 to $50 on top of the already high dues. They didn't care if you had a test to study for, apparently you should have studied sooner and planned better. They don't have a house, it's just high dues. If your sorority levies a fine for non-attendance, I think that would be hard since you have a child who is higher priority and can suddenly become ill etc. She is getting out. She cannot deal with the schedule and the cash outlay. As one poster pointed out, they don't want anyone who does it halfway. She was elected to an office a year ago, asked for help in a project she was supposed to head up, and no sister would help her (they are too busy also). She had to do the whole thing by herself, and then it was publicly criticized for not being up to their standards after all her hard work and after no one would help her. The cattiness of a couple of alumni was unbelievable, leaving such a bad taste in her mouth that she quit. So I would recommend not being an officer because no one will help you and you will get in over your head time-wise. Actually I would recommend not doing it at all, BUT...at every dinner I have attended of theirs, there were several girls who had tears in their eyes as they described how much the sorority meant to them, and how much they loved their sisters with whom they had made lifelong friendships. So I think, if you want to do it that badly, give it a try but check out costs and don't sign up for too much until you see your workload. And be prepared to bail if your priority #1 or priority #2 start to take more time.

There is a National Hemophilia Foundation MASAC committee recommendation on recombinate vs plasma derived factor VIII. They say recombinate is safer but seem to still allow plasma..try Google, "MASAC Recommendation #187". You might ask a hematologist or a hemophilia nurse at one of the Hemophilia Treatment Centers, if you have access to one. Other than the odd emergency, hemophilia is usually handled by those who specialize in it--not every hematologist and certainly not every physician or nurse will be able to answer specific questions. Many have never encountered the disease in their practices.

I am the mother of a factor VIII deficient hemophiliac son. What do you want to know? Recombinant VIII products are newer, generally more expensive, and are synthetic rather than based on human blood products. Thus they are safe from HIV, hepatitis, and any virus not yet discovered that may someday get into the blood supply and plague humanity (as HIV did in the 80s). I have not read the MASAC lately but I would hope that recombinant products are the standard of care, at least for anyone who was negative titer for the above viruses. Factor VIII can be given either as needed or prophyllactically several times a week to keep Factor VIII level up in the blood and avoid bleeding episodes, which can be life threatening or crippling. The products are amazingly expensive. Dosage is based on body weight and a dose for my petite son might be 2700 units, at a buck a unit. This is prescribed for several times a week. So maybe $30000 a month. We have always had good insurance that picked up the whole thing, but he is about to age out of parental insurance, and I dread it. Human blood products are safe now also thanks to many processes to inactivate the known viruses. They have an excellent record for several decades of not transmitting viruses. But there is a theoretical risk that some of the virus may not be fully attenuated, or a new virus evolves that slips through the current very effective methods. A fair number of hemophiliacs develop an inhibitor to Factor VIII which renders it useless. These unfortunate souls must switch to alternate products such as Factor VII products, that in our experience do not work well. Some, like my son, have success with immune tolerance which consists of daily high doses of Factor VIII for months until the inhibitor is overwhelmed, or until the insurance company stops paying. After a year of this, my son is back to responding well to Factor VIII. (Soapbox rant, sorry) My son didn't ask to be born with this rare disease. We did not even know I was a carrier until he was diagnosed. He has had a very hard time and is my hero, because he has toughed it out and is about to graduate from college in accounting. But with employer based insurance and no universal health care option, if he does not somehow find a job in this rotten economy, he will not be able to afford his meds. No insurance company will give him a policy. The local county system cannot afford them either. In the past when we were on the "treat when needed" scheme, he had spontaneous subdural hematomas, an ab bleed as big as your fist, and a shoulder bleed as big as a football pad. I am afraid if he does not infuse regularly, bad things will happen.

Is it really true that a 20 year old in labor can't decide if she gets an epidural? And family members who are NOT in labor get to decide? What kind of doctor would tell the patient that an epidural WILL kill her? What is wrong with these people? I too started into labor hoping for natural childbirth, but by the time I was 5cm I think I would have done violence to anyone who nixed my epidural! (kidding) I hope this turns out all right for you.

Unfortunately our society worships the young and disrespects the old, especially old women. It is understandable that a percentage of older women will try to look younger. Unfortunately also, you cannot predict precisely the outcome of plastic surgery and it is not very reversible. Tools that are supposed to give an idea of the outcome are biased to sell you on the surgery. At the plastic surgeon's offices, it's often all about sales, and the very real risks are sometimes downplayed. I have been there. I would not rant about this, just try to be understanding of people who sadly cannot accept the fact of their aging. Until you have been in their shoes and victimized by age bias, it is not compassionate to judge.