VTRN774

If you are sure you hate it, get out now. There is a place for you in nursing that will feel like home. Your unit is spending time and money training you. You're putting in chunks of your life you don't get back again. If your gut is sure, then listen and move on. If the job is not a good fit for you, then say so to your current and future employers. In the long run, you'll find the right nursing job for you.

I am fully aware of the risk to my license. I am also fully aware that being a closeted pot smoker is not so different than being a closeted homosexual was fifty years ago. The laws that keep me from legally using pot are wrong and should be changed. I may be brave enough to post here, but I'm not brave enough to go public. I've used this anonymous forum because as long as I have children to support, I can't risk losing my job. However, I wonder if the psychic/spiritual cost of lying is just too high. That is why I wonder what would happen if nurses leveraged the respect the public gives our profession and chose to come out of the closet en masse.

i pay $1500 a year to my pharmacy (that's on top of what insurance pays) for medications to manage my genetic disorder: depression. without those medications i would be dead. with them, i'm functional and stable, but most of the time i'm also irritable, tense, closed. that's why i also pay about $500 a year on the black market for the one medication my insurance won't cover and my doctor can't prescribe: marijuana. my husband likes me better when i smoke pot daily. my colleagues like me better. my kids like me better. i like me better. in the horrific six months when my old medications stopped working marijuana kept me alive until the new meds started to work. i really wish i were kidding, but i'm not: i would have killed myself without marijuana. because i hate hypocrisy, i quit smoking pot before i took the n-clex and abstained from it for a year. it was not a good year. because i knew i would be a happier, more productive person, citizen, and nurse, i started smoking pot again. i have never gone to work high, and i never will, just as i would never go to work if i were drunk, hungover, running a fever, or taking any medication that caused drowsiness. just like pilots have a 12-hour "bottle to throttle" rule, i have a 12-hour "toke to time-clock" rule. i am respected in my community for my work and for my parenting. i don't cheat on my taxes, i don't steal, and i would never park in a handicapped space. if i want to, i can legally buy and consume cases of liquor and cartons of cigarettes, substances we nurses know causes disease. but in order to purchase a drug that i need for my mental health, i lie and i break the law, and i hate it. sometimes i wonder how many nurses are in the same position. sometimes i wonder what would happen if nurses, the most respected professionals in our society, stood up together and said we want marijuana legalized now.

Why the complaints about a paper license? What your license looks like is unimportant. What matters is that you earned it and that you have the state's permission to begin your professional practice.

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer a helpful response and a specific suggestion. This program looks very close to what I need at a reasonable cost. I am looking into it.

Does anyone know of a way to get a BSN by taking an exam rather than doing course work? I already have a BA and an MFA in English, but I need the BSN for job advancement. I do very well at self-paced learning, and I'd love to be able to teach myself the material and sit for exams for the degree. If such a program exists, I'd love to hear about it. thanks, VTRN774

Writing care plans in nursing school was a useful learning process, but once I learned to integrate this skill into my daily practice, nursing diagnoses became irrelevant. I thought then and still do now that nursing diagnoses are silly and a waste of time. There is enough jargon in nursing without adding nursing diagnoses. Also, I have never been disrespected by a physician, nor would that even be tolerated by the hospital I work in. I can't imagine why any institution continues to allow disrespectful behavior among colleagues.

I went thru VTC so I can't comment on UVM, but I can tell you how I made my decision: I talked to faculty at length. I had the school put me in touch with current students and recent graduates to ask them how well the program prepared them. I looked at their graduation rates. I looked at where clinicals were and how many hours of clinical there were. In my opinion, a rigorous program is a good sign. Even though all the courses may not be enjoyable, you want to be a well-educated, well-prepared nurse when you start to practice. I did not enjoy nursing school, but I love being a nurse. Good luck!

Vermont can be a great place but it's not for everyone. The towns you mention are in northern Vermont which is colder, snowier, and has longer winters. We have far fewer sunny days than Arizona--last year only 81! I could be wrong about this and don't want to offend anyone :) but my impression is that those towns have less going on culturally than, say, Burlington or Brattleboro. If you like winter sports, you'll like Vermont. If you want the arts, you can find them but your choices will be fewer. I expect the cost of living is different than AZ but not necessarily less. Housing is expensive here relative to wages--not San Francisco or Manhattan expensive, but still hard on most folks. Heating can eat up a lot of your money. You have to have a reliable car here, and depending on where you live you may need 4 wheel drive. Good luck!

If you like being a CNA, then I say, Good for you! There is a huge need for CNA's, especially those who are dedicated, professional, and choose it for the job itself, not as a step toward being an RN. There's nothing wrong with starting as an aide and then becoming an RN--in fact, I wish I'd done that myself, it would have helped a lot in nursing school--but CNA's are so much more important to caring for patients than they are generally given credit for. I have infinite respect for those CNA's who make it a lifelong profession. They are the backbone of the healthcare system, and they deserve more respect--and pay increases! If you love it, I'd say stick with it. If later it's time to move on, you'll know it.

With all respect, let me state that not every nursing position requires functioning in a code situation (and certainly not hospice or research nursing). As for looking "silly," is that really the issue? Does the CNs job require lifting patients? then get her the training. If not, then what's the big deal? Nurses specialize. that's okay.

I'm curious: has this suit been filed yet? I went throught the Bennington site several years ago, and I'm not aware of anything illegal. I got a pretty good education there, and I think I came out well prepared to begin my practice.

I don't believe there is any "one size fits all" or one single essential step for being a nurse or growing as a nurse. If you know bedside nursing isn't for you, of course you should give something else a try. You might have some gaps in your education, but you'll fill in the gaps when and if you need them. Go for it and don't waste any more energy defending what feels right to you.

If you're free to pick up and move, I'd consider looking at Dartmouth Hitchcock, which is accessible to both Vermont and New Hampshire, and Fletcher Allen, in Burlington. If you're willing to take any shift, any specialty, there are definitely jobs, though not as many as there were a year ago. The further north past Burlington you go, the more likely there's a shortage. Good luck!