greytRNtobe

As one of the 12.8 percent who were unlucky enough to get breast cancer, I can tell you it is not all "pink ribbons". It was one of the worst times of my life-I had no support system-everyone left in a hurry. I had every side effect of every treatment. Even my medical team was useless. They just assumed that since I was a nurse I knew everything about breast cancer. Black women are less likely to get breast cancer but more likely to die of the disease. They are also less likely to have the economic, insurance, physical, psychological or spiritual support to fight such a foe. Many more black women have triple negative tumors that are more aggressive. And younger women are more likely to have more aggressive cancers. If you are unlucky enough to join this club, always, always, always get a second opinion! Cancer is an industry-if you don't like your doctor or the the center, find another. I wish I had. My center is filled with cold-hearted people and I refuse to go back for follow-ups because they are just so heartless. People don't understand this-once you have had cancer-you always have had cancer-there is no cure. We just hope to outlive our recurrence.?

Go for the hospital graduate program. It is SO HARD to get into these programs and without them, you will have a hard time getting a job in a hospital ever again. When I got out of school, there were few programs available and you had to know someone to either get a job in a hospital or get one of 15 spots (that had 500+ applicants). Community nursing jobs, while not always easy to get, are easier to get. You are young and will find out where you fit in, what you like more, and create a working life.

While I still pay every year for my nursing license, I no longer ever want to practice again. I should say that I was bullied from day one in nursing school despite being a great student. The bullying continued throughout my tries at nursing jobs so I finally just stopped trying. I was bullied so badly at one job that the company paid me to not sue them. I am trying to get into Nurse Informatics so I can deal with data and have some peace in my life. When I got out of nursing school, with no "ins" to a job in a hospital and a glut of nurses, I was forced into community health nursing. While I enjoyed my patients, I took the only job I could find, in a dysfunctional workplace. Nurses told me horror stories before I started and I became part of the roadkill from this job. I am convinced that I have no future in nursing and will never apply or work in the field again. I spent a lot of money to get a job (not a career) that made me so stressed that I attempted suicide. You are damned if you do- I worked 16 hour days, won praise from the state Health department, but was daily (sometimes several times a day) reemed out by my Nurse supervisor. I tried to work in a rehab facility. The CNAs told me I wouldn't survive- and after bullying by fellow nurses, I was out the door. Even though I worked with nursing educators who said my technique was perfect, I was told everything I did was wrong and I was happy to leave. No more Nursing for me!!!!

Ok. There is nothing wrong with being a Medical Assistant. If you got there by taking classes, great. If you got there by being medical corpsman in the military, even better. Be proud to be a MA. But as a nurse, I am not going to call myself a Medical Assistant, just as I would never call myself a Physician's Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner, if I did not study and take exams to certify my level of knowledge. MAs who live in states where they can just say they are a MA without licensing and/or certification are playing with fire because these are often the practices who do not have a nurse on hand- and the MD is too busy to help a "MA" understand the implications of their decisions. Be a MA - be proud and work up to the limits of your training. But don't call yourself a MD or a RN.

The problem for nurses in my area is that there are so few jobs for new nurses (No New Grads!) and so many experienced nurses all applying for jobs that are being filled by travel nurses (no benefits, no commitment) and nurse residencies that being mobbed with hundreds of applications for a handful of slots. I had a nurse recruiter tell me to go spend $2000 for a refresher course - and told me I would not be hired because of lack of 2-5 years of experience. If you can get a job, your first year might break you and if you can't find a way into nursing employment, they can still discriminate against you.

The problem for some new nurses is that there are very few options for new nurses in some states. You can easily get stuck in LTC, if you can find a job at all. Some of us do not have the ability to move so we are stuck with whatever job we can find. My "sister" has been working in LTC for some time. Both she and I went back to get our BSNs. She can't get any traction out of LTC and I am still looking for anything.

In our state, MDs tried to get the state to allow medical assistants to be able to give meds. They said "no big deal" but the nurses of the state lobbied our legislature to drop the amendment. Medical assistants don't take the level of pharmacology or nursing classes, to deal with an adverse reaction or identify and treat a seriously ill patient. Medical assistants are NOT nurses. If they want to be addressed as nurse, they should spend the time and energy to go to nursing school!

My first year in nursing was so awful I thought daily of suicide. I worked so hard and put so much time and energy into it and was finally let go. And I was happy for a moment. My co-workers made major mistakes- and then quit so I was the escape goat for a major issue. I loved my patients and they still ask for me- even years later. The place I worked at was so poorly managed that nurses every day told me "to leave now" during my training period. The company they sent in to "counsel personnel" told me they were mismanaged. I left to take care of a sick loved one and now I am trying to get back to work with little success. No matter the newly minted BSN and my great resume, I can't get my foot in the door now they say I need hospital experience; and hospitals are looking for 2-5 years experience. I should have left when my fellow nurses told me how the nurse supervisor "made their lives a living hell". I could have gone back to my prior job and enjoyed my life. Now I am stuck with numerous student loans, past due bills, and no job to pay them. I tell kids in college to go to medical school or physician's assistant school but avoid nursing because there are no jobs. And if you do find a job, women nurses will make your life hell. Is that why I spent time and money to become a nurse. Hell no!

Many nurses will end up LTC by default-Some hospitals are downsizing and others require acute care experience, which we all know we can't get unless someone hires us. Nurse residencies, while a good idea, only offer a few slots for a select few. It is usually the person who knows someone who gets the few available slots. Unfortunately, LTC can be a dead end where nurses are stuck because even after all the work done in LTC, acute care hospitals can't see the parallel in work so people become stuck in LTC. Frankly, I'd rather deal with the elderly than a maternity patient at one of our "boutique" hospitals! I think that everyone should have to be exposed to LTC as a student. As for me, I went back to get my BSN but now I need acute care experience which I can't get ( even home care requires it) so I'll be lucky if I can find a job in LTC.

Please check out NY Med where the nurses are a major part of the program.

I understand that I coming in on a subject that has been worked before but hey, give me a break! What I am saying is, that in my area, it is hard to get hospital jobs, which are a prerequisite for a degree and, in some cases, applying for a job. I have read that sometimes working nurses in hospitals don't even need the degree but while I have worked on database systems in my previous career, I need to see if I can apply even though I have only working in hospitals as temp in many other departments. Thanks for your quick reply but please understand I have been working on the BSN so that I might qualify for a hospital job in the future.

I just finished my BSN program but hospital jobs are hard to get around here. I have another degree that pertains to the field on top of my BSN. Would like an entry level job. What do I do?

After much thought and frustration, I have decided that I will not renew my nursing license next year. I am tired of being told that I need more experience, more education (BSN and above), remedial courses, etc. to get a job so that I can be mistreated and marginalized. I will perhaps try PA school in the future. The leaders of nursing are not leading nursing-they are being pushed and shoved by forces such as doctors and other health care professionals and they can't or won't protect nursing. It was enough to have a RN, now they want a BSN (no matter how worthless the content of the classes). It was Ok to have a Masters to be an APRN, now its a DNP and no one cares about the experience or the quality of the education. The DNP is being looked at by MDs and they are working to marginalize that degree (don't call yourself "doctor"). It's OK to be called "Doctor" if you have a PhD in a "medically related field" or even Psychology. But not nurses. I have a BA and Masters and I will not waste another dime on further training or education in nursing. There is no where to go where you don't feel conflict-either from MDs or from other nurses. As a PA student, I do 2 years and I am done. I can change careers without having to spend more money-I learn on the job and get paid for it. As a nurse, I have to "invest" in BSN classes, then MSN and then DNP all to get the same salary - a lot less time and a lot less money and as a PA, I don't have to deal with other nurses who want to be mean to each other to make themselves feel important. Come next year- I am out!

As a new nurse, I remember talking with my aunt who graduated from a hospital based program. She had training that related directly to working in the hospital. They were working there, all the time, doing the job. They went from their training directly to working for the hospital. She seemed to have had a better experience than I did in my nursing school program (they were in the trenches together and they had to work together). We need the same thing for new grads.

I just heard about many jobs in Williston, North Dakota. There are not many places to live but there are lots of jobs.