lumberjack

From what I've seen at KRMC folks are mostly fairly happy, in terms of labor and managment, though as someone else said, nurse pay in MT is on the low side, no more at kalispell than elsewhere. The hospital has it's newer and older areas, but things are being upgraded all the time (as I imagine it is the same all over). Definatly more laid back than some west coast and big city places I've seen, friendly people (if a little suspicious at times of foreigners from kalifornia or out east). Nice place to be, as long as you like doing things outdoors. Everybody here hunts or fishes or picks huckleberries or hikes/bikes/rafts/climbs/etc. And everyone skis.

nothing within 100 miles of missoula, that much I can say with certainty!

University of Nebraska Medical Center is 11 months. They have 3 campuses: Lincoln, Omaha, and Scottsbluff.

Sure, no problem. Scottsbluff is in the western part of the state, actually only half an hour from the wyoming border, about an hour north of colorado. This is not the stereotypical flat corn country most folks think of when they think nebraska, though some people do raise corn. More is beets, beans, and cattle. What SB has going for it is the Scotts Bluff Monument, as well as the Wildcat hills, providing some topographic relief. Town is about 10,000 I think, maybe more if you count Gering/Terrytown which are contigous. As for the hospital, I did my nursing school rotations there and was shocked at how modern and nice it is. There is EMAR and electronic charting throughout, 24 hour (I believe...) pharmacy support, and generally good staff relations and esprit de corp. I assume you would be going into NICU; FYI it is not, from what I have heard from others, a traditonal NICU, in fact complicated pregnancies typically get shipped to Denver. That said, they still get full on complex babies there too from time to time. But the NICU is contigous with the nursery, it is all the same space. L and D and nursery/NICU nurses all work 3-3 shifts, although there is talk of this changing. Occasionally they may (?) float to the peds floor, but peds is usually pretty quiet there. Not sure what else I can tell you...the cafeteria serves great food, the cost of living in SB is very low, it is about 3 hours from Denver (major airport), though Great Lakes Air does fly into SB as well. If you have other questions, let me know.

A few thoughts from someone nearly done with their accelerated BSN (11.5 months): Accelerated may not be any cheaper, as most schools charge based on credit hours rather than semesters, and since you are taking the same number of classes and credit hours, you pay the same rate. Depending on your program, accelerated BSN is very nearly all consuming. granted, 15-16 months is a bit easier than 11-12 months, but it is still tight. Don't plan many vacations, etc. You'll need a supportive and understanding wife for all this. Re: grades, I find my grades are likely better in the accelerated program, because it is all I do, think, eat, sleep, etc. If I were in a traditional program I might be more inclined to slack off, etc. But that is just me. To a large extent getting good grades in nursing school is about punching tickets; actual learning may or may not a central component of getting good grades. Oops, do I sound jaded? Sorry about that. The point about getting a summer extern/internship is well made, I imagine that to be a big boon job wise post graduation. But some acclerated programs do allow for enough time in the summer to do that, my fiancee did in her 16 month accelerated BSN. Either way I imagine you'll find a way to make it work... I'd have to second the opinion of the previous poster who advised asking your wife-to-be what she thinks, since her support is so crucial. good luck!

Regional West in Scottsbluff, NE hires new grads and is a pretty darn good hospital. Don't know much about CA except the situation varies incredibly by location all over the state. AZ is tough right now, a friend with 7 years experiance had a tough go before landing a job in Phx. Flagstaff is even tougher.

One more thing to consider...will the hospital you are a CNA at pay for you to become an LPN? Would ease some of the financial pressure... Maybe a hospital further afield than where you live? But is that worth it? (Compare cost of school... is it worth that much money to move/work full time and loose your sanity/take out loans/live with your mom/other options. I'm all about comparing costs, both financial and other.

You mentioned that when you opened up with your preceptor that she would slow down and explain things... maybe letting her know what you told us will help. She may not get all soft and fluffy with you, but at least she'll understand how you're feeling and can tailor her teaching style to best effect. I say teaching style because I hope she is doing this to you on purpose and knows what she is doing (you are learning a lot by your own admission). Of course, experiance does not always a good instructor make... good luck and hang in there.

Since you have to have the pre-reqs done before applying to community college (2-2.5 years) or university accelerated BSN (11-18 months), I gotta recomend the BSN accelerated. More likely to be with people of his same mind set and cohort and life experiance. Mean time, pre-reqs can be done at commuity college and online, at what ever pace suite him.

I'd say you'll have a leg up in terms of anatomy/phys background and pt interaction. Adopting the nursing process will be differant, but totaly do-able. The only concern I'd have, echoing a previous post, is what you are "allowed" to do and under which lisence and when. For example, you can't practice (even using your chiro knowledge) as a chiro when in nursing clinicals. Just like as an EMT I can't do EMT things in clinicals if I am there as a nursing student. Once you get out and start practicing, just be clear on what you can and can't do and under which liscence you are practicing at any given moment. Kind of a shame that we have to do this song and dance, since I'm sure your experianace can only help in a practical sense, but I'd hate to invest the time and energy and money only to find out later that I couldn't practice the way I wanted. Just my two cents, ultimatly you'l find a way to practice the way you want one way or another.

Of course, one thing that may help me is that I don't see myself as taking orders from a physician, rather, I tell the physician what orders I need. Just a more collaborative, less hierachical way of practicing.

My fiance and I are both nurses... makes it easier to talk to someone and decompress after a rough day, and they understand the wierd schedules, etc.

In our program they have just started tieing progression to ATI...for the first two terms they were just for practice, now a level 2 is required for progression in some classes...but not all classes. Not thrilled about it, as ya'll know, a good test score does not neccesarily a good nurse make...

Had friends in nursing school in Flagstaff, AZ (NAU) that had to go over a hundred miles, sometimes 200 or more for clinicals all across the state. Sucked big time, made me glad I'm at UNMC and a 5 minute walk to 90% of my clinicals.

Agree with nanagose, I'm at UNMC in their BSN accelerated, it is intense, but doable with solid time managment skills. Personally would rather do this than the traditional track, I reckon I'm getting better grades because I'm always surrounded by it, than in the regular 2 1/2 year track. It is h**l on my relationship though. And I've never heard so many people tell me "you're crazy". Well, almost never...

Yes, you got it right, if they book 40 people, they take 40 people, and while sometimes they send some home early if they are done with that particular scene, if you show up, you get paid.

forgot to mention, some of the gigs are short, only a few hours (but you still get paid for 8!) and some run really long (15.5 hours my longest, virtually never more than that cuz then they have to pay you double your daily wage.) The point is, you usually don't know how long you'll be on set for any given gig. Average, between 7 and 10 hours, but it varies. You do get paid extra for anything over 8 hours though, so that is nice.

Not sure about the first part of your question, if you mean when do you go to Central Casting to get started, check the website, you want to go on the Non-union days, and get there early, looking like what ever you want your "look" to be. As for when you call in and book yourself on a gig, there is seldom just one of you with that "look." They might have 2 detectives, 5 firefighters, 4 state troopers, a dozen bridesmaids, and 17 college students. Or whatever. If there is only one of a given thing, sometimes you might get it, but often it is done through an agent and the person doing it is SAG (screen actors guild). So on any given set there might be 5 other background (extras) or there might be a hundred. Smaller seems to be better though, cuz then they treat you less like cattle. It will all make sense once you start doing it, just show up early, be ready to do whatever you signed up for, and don't give anybody attitude (there are some big egos there already). Other than that it is easy breezy, bring a book or 3 and a charger for your cell phone so you can call in to book the next days work. Enjoy.

I never had a call in service, and was fine, but that meant that I had to spend A LOT of time trying to call in and book work for myself. Lots of busy signals. I was told by others that having a call in service helped them work an average of 4 and a half days per week. I did maybe 2 or three days per week. If you are planning on working a lot, then a call in service is worth it. If this is going to more occasional, then it isn't really worth it. A lot of it is in hollywood or burbank at the studios, but a lot of it is on location all over the greater LA area. And the food is often better on location. The nice thing for students is the copious amounts of down time to study.

Well, from my limited experiance (anyone else want to answer this one is welomed), I'd say that resident needs to get checked out, see if there have been medication doses missed, if illness or stress or something else is causing the spike in blood sugar. In the short term, I'd say insulin or oral meds should be given to bring that high of a BS down pronto. Unfortunatly, what seems to happen in cases like this is that this resident might run high BS for a few days until they are so acidic and full of ketones and dehydrated that they are totally visibly sick, then they get taken to the ED, but a lot of damage is already done and, and once the ED gets their BS back to normal, they are discharged without the underlying problem being addressed. Now, this may or may not be applicable to your situation, but it is what came to mind when you told your story. Is there a consulting doc or nurse practicioner that can have a look at this patient before he needs to go to the ED? Or who can order insulin for when the BS spikes? Anyone else with more experiance want to chime in?

Yeesh, do they even make that in my size? I'm a dude with a size 34 waist and 6 feet tall, 200lbs :) I didn't think any place in the country still did skirts. I'm so very sorry they are doing this to you. And I thought the white scrubs we have to wear were bad...

No audition to speak of, you fill out a form that lists your talents, ex dancing, musical instrument, etc. They take a picture of you, and that is it. But they only take new talent 2 or 3 days a week, so get there early or you'll be in line for hours. Once you are in, they give you the phone number and instructions for getting work. You call the work line about a thousand times a day and when you hear an assignment that matches you such as "ok, I"m casting for the show "CSI New York" and I need white, latino, and african american men ages 25-35 that can look like prisoners, must be buff, clean shaven, tattoos are a plus." Or what ever. They need all looks and body types and sizes. And I've heard some weird stuff, like photo submissions for a foot double, people that own their own gorilla costume, etc. But anyway, once you hear somthing that matches your "look" you call the casting directors number, and you'll probab;y get a busy signal, cuz 100 other people are trying for the same gig, but keep trying and you'll get through to some of them. depending on how agro you are about calling and if you get a call in service to call for you, you can work almost every day if you wanted. Almost all work is weekdays, only rare weekend gigs. Pay is like minimum wage, but time and a half at 8 hours, and double time at 10 hours, and they usually feed you. Don't harbor any illusions about getting famous. Spotting the back of your head for 2 seconds is a good screen shot, this is not the way to break into showbuisness. But it can be a way to kill time and get paid to study during all the down time between shots. And there is a lot of down time. Central Casting is the main outfit in town that casts extras, but there are a couple others to. CC is located in Burbank, but the shows are shot all over. Hope this helps!

Be an extra on tv shows. I did it for awhile when I was in LA, look up Central Casting online. You get registered with them and then call the work line looking for a gig, show up do the background actor thing, and have LOTS of down time for studying. I never read so many books as when I was doing that. Met some other students who do it as a part time gig, some studying for boards, MCATs, etc. Pay is nothing great, but the schedule is super flexible and the work is ridicoulasly easy.

I'd echo the importance of time managment. My program is 11 months, and is pretty full-on all the time, but is managable enough because I just decided ahead of time that for these 11 months, my job and hobby is nursing school, and I do virtually nothing else. On the other hand, there is a gal in my program with three young kids, and she is doing as well as I am but is even more efficient in planning her time. What helps us is that we all get along really well (very important, I heard the last accelerated class had students throwing books at each other!) and asking the instructors to lay out very clearly ahead of time what assignments, tests, and clinicals are about and when they are due. And just suck it up and hang in there. It ain't easy, but on the other hand I couldn't imagine spending another 2 years in school in the traditional program.

At my school, chem is part of the required for admit and is included in the GPA but not considered as heavily as bio/A&P. In general the core pre-reqs count more than the others, but the others are still counted and might make the differance between two otherwise equally qualified folks.