FARMER1870

I moved to Washington State from California about 6 months ago. My LPN licensed was transfered within a couple of months, but it has been difficult finding pt/ft permanent work. I was able to get a couple of agency jobs, because this is where I have experience. You see, I graduated in 2007 and got my license in 08 and no one would give me any work in a clinic or hospital with at least 6 months of experience. I even offered to take a $5.00 an hour pay cut just to try and get my foot in the door, but that didn't get me a job either. The bad thing about agencies is that you don't always work. It is hit and miss. I have even been thinking about getting some other type of work to help pay the bills. By furthering my education, I thought I would get a great job and be set, but that didn't happen. It dissappoints me that I can not do the job I love and was trained to do. Best of luck to you!

I think you are ready for the next step, since you have already helped Hospice nurse with CNA duties. You are never too old to go back to school. I just turned 48 years old and graduated from LVN/LPN back in December 2007 and got my license in early 2008. Currently, I work in the home health area, but it is not always stable work. I should have kept going to school for RN. By next year sometime, I plan to go back to school for RN. I am not sure how many hours you will be capable of working. This would depend on school and clinical hours required, but if you want it bad enough there is always a way to do it. My hubby and I had to make many sacrifices while I was in school. We had to watch our spending, because I wasn't able to work much. Also, we didn't get to see each other much. We were like two ships crossing paths. lol I have a friend currently attending an LVN/LPN school that is strictly on the weekends and she attends 8-10 hours each day, but it will take her 2 year to finish the LVN program. Maybe there is a school in you area that does the same. Also, many hospitals will hire you after you receive LVN/LPN and pay for your tuition if you work for them a certain length of time. A friend of mine is working in a clinic for Kaiser and he will start attending the RN program soon. He will work part time, but he will be able to keep is benefits and they are paying for school. After he gets his RN the only requirement is to work for them for at least 2 years. I hope this information is of help to you. Good Luck with your decision.

Congrats on your accomplishment of becoming a nurse. I graduated LVN school in December 2007 and took my boards spring 2008 and passed. It was difficult for me to locate a job as well. I had to start in home health which was not my first choice for a job. Today, with a year of experience under my belt, I still cant' find a job in a hospital. This is because they require certain experience and I can't get it if no one will give me the opportunity. Last night, I applied for a job on line for wound care, since I have some experience with it in my job in home health. I am hoping that this experience will be enough. I understand your frustration. But, don't give up. I posted my resume at monster.com and yahoo.com for jobs and received a few calls within 24 hours. Only one call was medically related and received one email for a nursing job . The others were from banks asking me if I wanted to change careers, but I declined. Also, I started doing some calls to assisted living and SNF in my area to ask if were hiring LVN's. I was able to mail a few resumes out that way. Keep applying you never know what could come up. Best of luck to you!!!! :wink2:

Nursing school is difficult and at times can be overwhelming, but what helped me get through it was a study group. I immediately started one when entering nursing school. This way we could help each other out, because on some subjects I was having difficulty comprehending, there was usually someone in the group was able to explain them in a way I could better understand and visa versa. It also helped making a study guide with bullet points under each subject heading, so it had the facts without the added unneeded words, which made it a lot easier to study. Plus when doing this you are rereading the information at your own pace and sometimes a light bulb will go on in your head and you tell yourself, now i get it. Nursing school will not get any easier from here, but you have made it this far, so keep up the good work. Good Luck!!!

It's definitely important to get your own liability insurance. I would never work a day without it. Prices vary by state, but it is not expensive. You can go to www.NSO.com for liability insurance. This company deals with only professionals such as nurses, doctors etc...

I have also encountered problems in my agency work, where the RN's have not done the initial assessment as thoroughly and completely as they should have and I have found wounds on my patients, because the right questions were not asked or they would try and get them done quick and leave. Many of my patients complained that the RN was at visit for only about 20 minutes and in order for me to be a good nurse (LVN), I would have to stay and extra 30 minutes to an hour to get all the necessary information. I was only paid for one hour, as this is all the time my company allowed for my patient visits, but getting paid for this extra time didn't concern me at all. The important thing to me was making sure the patient received proper medical care at visits. Plus if the patient would go see there physician and they encountered this wound it would come back to me and not the RN, because our policy requires us to do an assessment at each visit. However, I would CYA and I contact my office immediately with the information and was told they had no knowledge of any wound on the patient. Also, there has been many times where I had to make a list of patient's medications, because many times this was not done on initial assessment either. The worse part of the medication was that many times my patients had all medication unorganized in a bag with both current and DC medications which could lead to some bad adverse effects or potential overdose, because sometimes they were taking the same medication but the dosage was changed. These should have been separated on initial RN assessment as well. There has also, been many times where the patient or patient's family would call the office making false accusation about treatments not being performed, even though I would contact my office to verify physician orders for treatment or that I used the "F" word very frequently in my conversation. I was very fortunate that my agency didn't believe these accusations, because I made it a point to keep them frequently updated on patients conditions or problems with family members who didn't want to be in compliance or who refused to schedule follow up visits with physicians or I would have gotten fired by now.

I currently work for 3 different home health agencies, but haven't had much work in the last 6-8 weeks. In this time span, I think I worked only 4 hrs. total. Prior to this time, I may had 5 one hour patient visits a week. This is really beginning to frustrate me! Unfortunately, being newly licensed in 2008 and no experience at the time no one would hire me due to lack of experience. Next month I will have one year's experience, but I am still having difficulties finding a job in a hospital, clinic or assisted living, because I do not have the right type of experience. I like my agency work that is one hour visits with patients, because you set up your own daily schedule based on frequency of vists for the patient for the week,and the pay is good, but the major draw back is it is not stable work. Your either busy or slow. If you need a stable source of income, then working at an agency is not for you.

I used the Saunders Comprehensive book along with Sauders Statagy for Success book. The stratagy book was very helpful, because it gave testing tips, drug tips in case you may not know what a drug is for ex: if it has "vir" in word it's probably an antiviral drug, and it also had the alternative format questions. I strictly used the CD's to study and any question I got wrong or struggled to get right, I would bookmark the question, so it will come up again. Also, would read the reason why my answer was wrong or why I struggled to get right, since the reading in box is much more condensed. I was able to pass the 1st time around. Good Luck with taking your exam!! :wink2:

When I took the NCLEX early 2008, I had only one pharmacology question, but at least 6 alternative format questions. They were nursing priorities and check all that applied. I was so afraid I messed up the order of the priorities or missed or checked something wrong on check all that apply. If you make mistakes on these questions then entire quesiton is wrong. Some of the questions, I had no idea what they were talking about and had to take an educated guess. My computer shut off at 85 questions. It was so hard waiting a month to get the results, but I passed the 1st time around. I know you will passed, because if your questions were that hard, it's because you really knew your stuff!!!! I will keep my fingers crossed for you, even though I don't think that will be necessary. :wink2: Good Luck!! Janet LVN