MeganS

It always makes sense to get experience and knowledge. The decision on whether to go to LVN before your RN is your choice. If income and experience is a consideration, go for the lVN/LPN license and then enter as an advance nursing student in an ADN or BSN program or a program designed for LVN to BSN--if that works for you. If you decide to wait for the RN program or go for the LVN route, you can start reading the books and taking notes. The best time to learn is when you are not under the stress of nursing school. :redpinkhe

I don't know your program and it may be best to consult the LPN/RN program's website. In my state, if you wish to go from LPN to RN, you must satisfy all the requirements because the RN degree is an ADN degree. You must satisfy any missing classes before you can graduate. The best thing to do is talk to a nursing counselor or consult the RN program website.

I would be more concerned if you had a question and did not ask for direction. Sometimes people work together and form a clique. Any new employee creates turbulance within their group and to support their insecurities they will belittle a newbie. Use your job as a learning situation. With time, you will be comfortable with your surroundinngs and the equipment. At that time, you can decide whether you want to stay or move on. I know it can be difficult, but continue to treat your coworkers with respect despite their actions.

All the advice you received is excellent. I had some difficulty hearing hert sounds. I finally researched amplified stethoscopes. Littmann has an electronic stethoscope that has ambient noise reduction. Not only is it light weight but you can increase or decrease the volume. It works great but it is expensive. They did have a free d loaner stethoscope program to enable buyers to play with the unit and determine if it is a good fit. I don't know if the program is still available.

From what I understand you to say: you do not like nursing because of working on a med-surg floor. Some nurses do not like working on the floor and work elsewhere. The best thing about nursing is there is so much flexibility. If you do like nursing but not on the floor, have you considered home health, private duty, nurse case manager. You mentioned an interest in geriatrics. There are so many assisted living and/or retirement facilities who hire nurses. If you are interested in clinical trials or research, there are jobs in that area and it does not require acute care nursing. There is a need in transplant nursing or organ procurement (post death, that is). Don't give up on the profession and your training. Do a little research, there should be something that will fit your needs. Don't feel bad, not everyone wants to work in acute care; I thought I would like home health. Found out that was not for me.

I don't know if this has been asked. I have a very narrow foot. Does Crocs come in different widths? The only Crocs I have seen/tried on are far to wide for my foot -- even with socks.

I can't comment on GA, but in CA, fingerprints are required. What happens here is: everything is submitted and then we are given a date for the NCLEX. Only after passing will the board process your file. I suppose the rationale is that it cuts down on paperwork if they weed out those who do not pass before processing the file. Check with your board. Do they give you a NClEX date before they process paperwork or afterwards. :redpinkhe:redpinkhe

I had difficulty with cardio in the last med/surg class. The department offered an EKG class and that greatly helped. I also purchased some of the Lippincott review books which helped reinforce what was presented in lecture and the book. The series starts with, "How to get A's in _____ (med/surg, peds, maternal/child, family, etc.)

I worked with a student-nurse nursing-assistant when I worked for Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. We worked together on the ICU and he was greatly respected by the other nurses. During vacation time, he took time off from the student job and worked overseas with his MPH. He felt that he had to get his BSN to be able to accomplish his goals--which was to work in public health overseas. I should note that he was bilingual; it helped with his employment.:redpinkhe

So noted. Thank you for your response.

You discussed commuting distance from the area you are will reside if you make your move. We have a subway (aka the Redline) and it runs from 0445 to 0100. This is the easiest way to commute downtown. There are many hospitals located along the line (the subway goes from downtown LA out to the San Fernando Valley. Universal Studios is the next to the last stop on the line). Additionally, we have the Metrolink that is not a subway, but connects various parts of the metropolitan area t(San Bernardino, Anaheim, Lancaster/Palmdale, Ventura, Long Beach) to downtown. While it is not as convenient as the subway, using the Metrolink would enable you to live in one area of LA and commute to another. Otherwise, you will have to use the very congested LA freeways. Most often a comute of 30 miles will take a min of 2+ hrs. One could try getting up early to avoid the traffic, but the freeways are already full at 0500 and congested by 0545. Consider the high cost of housing, gas, utilities, and transportation in Los Angeles when mulling over a change of local. Other than that,if you decide to come up here, keep in touch. :heartbeat

Carlotter, Congratulations for finding a good fit with your program. I am certain that your program is excellent, but for me, Excelsior is that is not recognized in my state--and others. My state's BAOA requires a certain amount of lecure as well as clinical hours (beyond the capstone internship during the last semester/quarter), which is not offered thorugh Excelsior.

I appreciate your rationale and applaude you for your volunteerism on this site; however, that does not explain the need for website housekeeping. My question remains: why should we wade through so many Excelsior posts when it would be easier to have an Excelsior only site--the way this site has for ISU posts. Whether or not Excelsior has more students, etc is an invalid rationale for forcing people to trudge through numerous posts that have nothing to do with their program.

a quick view of the first page of the distant learning site indicates a need for website housekeeping. while i appreciate the rationale, the distant learning site appears to be predominantly devoted to excelsior while other distant learning programs are dumped into one or two huge sites. one would think that there is a bias toward excelsior. let's look at the first page of the distant learning site as an example--here are some of the excelsior posts on page 1: starting with health safety here is my schedule...apr 13, 2010 03:46 pm’ it's the last one... apr 17 02:40 pm staying motivated apr 17 11:20 am passed chronicity!! apr 17 11:10 am i got a date!! apr 17 11:05 am another mycaa and ec exam registration question... apr 17 03:15 am should i try to find floor experience to pass cpne??? apr 16 05:14 pm i passed fcca now on to cpne!!!!! apr 15 10:13 pm okay so now i'm finally ready to begin the ec rn program... apr 15 04:40 pm any canadian/international excelsior grads out there?? apr 14 09:04 pm tutor for the cpne ? apr 14 04:54 pm excelsior yahoo group moderator apr 14 01:53 pm cpne study partner in s.e. ga. apr 14 12:36 pm need excelsior cpne advice please!!! apr 14 04:00 am passed cpne apr 14 12:59 am mycaa users and excelsior apr 14 12:56 am anyone using caa to pay for excelsior adn? apr 14 12:55 am it only seems fair to use the same rationale for excelsior as used for other distant learning programs. to eliminate the need to wade through all the excelsior posts to find the appropriate distant learning program, let’s start an excelsior only site. feel free to contact me personally if there is a problem.