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Each place that offers a form of reimbursement is going to be different other than the fact they will all require you to work there for a set amount of time and will usually pay it off gradually over time. During that Time you will still be accruing interest so the amount they pay off will be significantly less than you think due to hefty portions of the pay off going to paying pure interest. Same thing for military repayments. If you're worried about debt for school these are my suggestions: -Work. There's no reason not to work during nursing school. It will get you used to managing your time well and force you to sacrifice various luxuries. A good ability for anyone to have. Many will tell you not to because nursing school is so hard all I can say is I disagree. If you cant work and go to school simultaneously then you'll probably struggle with other things in the future as well. Like when you need to get your CEN while your working. Remember, education in healthcare never stops. -Less loans. This ties into the above. The best way to not have to worry about school debt is absolutely minimize it. Don't take out extra loans because you need to pay for housing or food or other daily needs you should be taking care of anyway. Its interest that puts you in debt. And most loans you'll accrue interest while your still in school (unless you get a subsidized one) Currently you can buy a house with less interest than student loans, absorb that for a moment. Student loans will follow you after death (literally) so its best to avoid them all together. -Perkins loans - Ok after condemning loans I'll say this. Federal perkins loans are a type of loan that is forgiven by the government so long as you are working in a public service job. (nurses, cops, etc) Its a form of repayment that's already built into the loan so If those are available, snag them up. You'll have to do continual paperwork for years afterward but its worth it to save the money. - Join the military. Basically a guaranteed payback regardless of where you work. Both the reserves and the national guard have repayment programs plus the healthcare is amazing. The commitment wont be that much longer than a civilian hospital would tie you down with any way - MOVE! Good lord your state has high education costs. Here's the thing, No(OK almost no) job gives 2 poops what nursing school you went to. Once you pass the Nclex a nurse is a nurse is a nurse. Your just a new grad nurse to your employer so don't waste your money going to a school that costs double what a school in the state over costs. Plus, NY isn't in the nursing compact so if you ever want to work somewhere else you will have to petition with their state licensing and get a separate license (ie I hold 4 different licenses.) But if you pass your boards in a state that's in the compact you can freely go between the 25 states in the compact. (just something to think about) Even if your not going to move find a cheaper school. (yes I understand you'll have to live there for a bit to not pay out of state tuition but life is about the long term not the right now.)

For the amount of schooling and experience that is required to be a nurse the money is great. I understand that there's a huge variation of skill with nurses but just to graduate nursing school and get into a job is really nothing special and it can be done with minimal student debt. Nursing school was not difficult, TNCC, ACLS etc. are are very short courses, accomplished with minimal studying. The work itself, not that difficult. yet we make 20+ an hour, my state being in the top 5 lowest. That's enough for me to practically work part time and own multiple buildings. I've worked construction, delivery, management, and they were all much more difficult than nursing. Ok I'll admit one of the CAH assignments where I was rolling solo with just a single provider and getting 20+ ERs a shift plus my MS patients, ya that was tough but it was temporary. The hardest I ever worked as a nurse was as a Director and even that was cushy compared to construction. Compare that to MD's that end up with 11-13 years worth of college level education and half a million in student debt... go figure they make more. Or someone like my old flatmate. He basically sacrificed his entire teens and 20s learning 5 different programming languages. As another poster stated it comes down to skill and demand. In general, having the ability to understand and write a programming language requires more skill than being a nurse. Engineering an electrical layout for a sky scraper takes more skill than that starting an IV and double checking yourself in a drug book. As much hate as I'm sure I'll get for saying this here, its not that hard to be a nurse when you look at the educational and intelligence demands of other jobs. Nursing, as much as we pretend its not, is still just a blue collar job. We provide skills (assessments, IV's, vents) and a little bit of insight. Basically a step down from middle management in the healthcare field. We have an average job with average demands, it makes sense we would make an average wage (national average being mid 20's and nurses being 33) If you have more specializations or in an area that requires more skill then you tend to get paid a little more. Given these numbers: National average salary $25; Nursing average $33 The answer to this question is a question. Do you honestly think that you work harder or are more skilled than significantly more than half the population? Could you look those people in the face and honestly say, I'm worth more than you?

Yes, this should be higher up on the reply chain. People take suggestions as absolutes far to often and tend to not even do their own thinking. Everything is a weighted risk as you said. Great post.

I'm a bit confused, According to this assessment tool, every 75+ yr old person would be on lovenox because they have a risk score of 3. Regardless of if they have no other risks, their age alone dictates lovenox injections? That cannot be right.

omg thank you thank you so much for being a sane person.

How about we stick to the original 5 of route dose med patient and time. The point of the list was to be succinct, the more complicated it gets the more errors are made in remembering it. like adding to many parts to a mnemonic. There could be pages of additions to this but it becomes cumbersome and useless. All I see is expansion on the existing 5. Right dilution - is part of having the right dose, too dilute then it is incorrect etc. Right flow rate - is the same thing, too much too fast is the wrong dosing Right monitoring? - Monitoring and assessing is standard nursing practice and doesn't need to be included in this list. If monitoring was on this list than we might as well add, right notification to the MD, right lab draws afterward, right follow up assessment, right report to the oncoming shift. i mean really....? Right documentation - again, part of standard nursing practice the original point of the 5 rights was to prevent medication errors, not to be an extensive list of all our nursing duties Right circumstance - again that is redundant as it falls under the right medication. Being that standing orders or policy dictates in x circumstance you give y medication. Right site - this again falls under right route. Where something is administered, is part of the route Right to refuse - Seriously? I've always hated this one. Its a given they have the right to refuse as forcibly doing something to anyone is a crime, and of course you have the right to refuse as you are not a slave and should have a modicum of self awareness. If you need a rule or guideline to tell you that you have the right to be self aware than I question your ability to practice medicine. Point being is that this list was suppose to be a quick down and dirty checklist. all this extra fluff just makes us as professionals sound pompous.

Since your baby was being tested for RSV and Influenza, these are both tested by nasal swabbing. Streptococcus is a rare thing for your baby to have, but it is also shed by nasal secretions. While it is true that most of the time the testing is done via a throat swabbing some places use nasal swabs as well. Especially since sometimes it can be hard to "convince" children under 5 to open their mouths. I think its important to get all the facts before we, as a nursing community condemn our fellow health care workers. References: Marcie, J., (2007). Babies First Year. New York, NY., Sterling publishing. pg 495 CDC. Seasonal Influenza. Retrieved @ http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/diagnosis/labprocedures.htm I am also an RN in a hospital so I spoke to several of the lab staff directly regarding this.

I'm currently an RN about to finish my BSN. I went to the recruiter to find out about becoming a combat medic and the guy told me that dentist, doctors and RN's couldn't be combat medics because they were over qualified. This was a navy recruiter, and by combat medic I mean I wanted to be in the feild attached to a squad. I thought it had to do with the operating at your highest level of training but you guys say that there are RN's in the field with a squad as combat medics. Was this guy just wrong?