palemoon

As the child of a nurse, and a medical assistant/pre-nursing student, I can firmly say it's not for lots of money. But nursing does have that middle-class income that I'm looking for, plus benefits. Side benefits include: Job security, interesting, varied, semi-autonomous work, and helping people. I'm a very practical person, and wouldn't be happy in a job where I couldn't directly see the impact of what I do. I meet very interesting people, and I'm constantly being challenged. Plus I like knowing that my job takes a certain kind of person, and I'm one of those. Huh, now I'm almost excited about returning from vacation. A good chance to rest, now let's get back to it! :)

Great post! I actually thought that I was a bully for awhile too, because I had my moments, as we all do, and I thought bullies were just mean to people. But looking back, I can definitely see the distinction. People have snappy moments. Bullies have a long-term goal in mind. Thanks again!

Make yourself not be judgmental--that's like asking yourself not to breathe. No, what matters is what you actually do, not what you think. It does present an interesting thought when you bring it up though--why are we so obsessed with our own thoughts? Why does our society make them mean so much? Why do we feel like we have to even conform our innermost thoughts and feelings to what is expected? That we're "fake" or "bad" otherwise? Thanks for the thought-provoking post, OP :).

In between the stresses of pre-reqs, applications, interviews, and entrance exams, it's fun to kick back and imagine our careers as fully-fledged RNs! Discuss the specialties that just really stick out to you. You can say a bit about why you think that specialty is a good fit for you. If you're not sure, you're still welcome to jump in and explore your options with us! While we know that maybe our minds might change in nursing school and plans go awry, what is the harm in dreaming and planning? I'll go first: Trauma, critical care (of any kind), and emergency sound wonderful to me. Nursing research and/or informatics could also be highly interesting for post-grad. I love technical skills and improving patient outcomes.

Nope. They're not implying that I did or did not, they just want to know. Nothing insulting about it.

That's insanity if I've ever heard it. "Doctor" is a title given to all people who have doctorate degrees, full stop. The state is basically telling NPs: "Clinical psychologists, optometrists, chiropractors, doctoral-level physicists, chemists, and biologists can be called what they earned, but you can't because it makes physicians uncomfortable." Especially in primary care, patients are aware they're seeing an NP. This taboo will only emphasize to the public and MD/NP professions: "NPs aren't different, they're inferior!"

It depends on a couple of factors: 1. What does your financial situation look like? RN programs are expensive, and you won't make very much even if you can secure a PCT job. As you said, in one year the LVN would have you making money. 2. What other commitments do you have? RN school is time-consuming. Can you commit the time necessary to make good enough grades to impress a grad school? Or would being an LVN at first allow you to space this out so you can keep many balls in the air? Plus, and I don't know if you're aware of this: You may need a BSN (Bachelor's of Science in Nursing) to apply to the school you want. Check to make sure their program is "post-RN" or "RN-to-MSN" not "post-baccalaureate" or "BSN-to-MSN." Grad schools look at your RN or BSN school grades, GRE (grad school entrance exam) scores, and professional references. All of these things you must keep in mind, and it's ultimately your decision. Good luck in all you do, whatever you do :).

Has anyone heard of the Fat Acceptance Movement? According to its Wikipedia article: "Some in the movement have argued that the health risks of fatness and obesity have been exaggerated or misrepresented, and used as cover for cultural and aesthetic prejudices against fat." They say that "people can be healthy at any size." I'm all for social justice and reducing prejudice, but to me "healthy at any size," means having normal vital signs, normal cholesterol, normal blood sugars, and a normal amount of body fat versus muscle (the BMI can be unreliable here). Body size be damned if these categories are normal, but those who are overweight/obese seem to have trouble doing this. Not a coincidence. Not exagerrated. Cold fact.

My first instinct was: Why exactly did you want to switch from education to nursing? Are you interested in the medical field? Did you have a family member get excellent care from nurses? If you have heard stories about nursing being "recession proof," and in "high demand," please take a second look. No job is recession-proof, and nursing is experiencing a backlog because of the recession. Older nurses are finding themselves unable to retire, while new nurses continue being put out without jobs. You will be responsible for patient care. That means medications, IVs, breathing tubes, feeding tubes, all manner of technology, depending on which specialty you go into. You will have to work certain holidays, most likely. You will have to interact with physicians, families, and all of the personalities that come with those people, day in and day out. Year after year. I'm trying to have you go into this with eyes wide open. This is a serious career change, and a big commitment. Good luck with whatever decision you make :).

I was always under the impression that at least 2 years of RN bedside experience is ideal, and in the specialty you want to pursue. Post-RN certification (CCRN, CEN, etc.) is also helpful. Those that are serious about pursuing the NP or CRNA route will already know this. Regardless, I get tired of these ranty, "I am SO SICK of X PEOPLE!" posts. Degrading and unnecessary.

This is only my personal preference, but I do not want to have any male L&D or Gyn caregivers, whether physician, nurse, or otherwise. It's not about them, it's about my history of sexual assault and though I would dearly like to be comfortable with them uncovering me and touching me, I just can't. I'm just there to get medical care, I would really not like to have a draining emotional experience while I'm there, thanks. Male nurses should absolutely be employed wherever they want to be employed. But as a patient, I should be able to say who takes care of me, without being told to "go get psych care for [my] pathological hangups." It's as simple as a polite request, and I have had it happen before with a male tech who was very gracious, so nurses are not above it.

Hey there--I'm one of those adult autistics that the medical literature seems to consider mythical creatures! :) As an adult, the most important thing for me was to have a community of fellow autistics and advocate for myself. Autism Speaks and other charities like it are okay, but they are mainly composed of health professionals and parents. No autistic people actually sit on their board and they are not welcome to submit ideas. This would be fine if it were a medical board of some kind, but these are advocacy groups, affecting the public view of autism as a whole. The autistic community that I belong to consider it to be a disability like deafness, in that we don't consider ourselves to be "sick" and in need of "correcting," or "curing," instead we need help to live in our communities fully and communicate with neurotypical people (people without autism). We are not a homogenous group; we all have different needs. I am passionate about bridging the communication gap between NTs and those with autism, that we are full people. I want to end parents murdering their autistic children and labeling them "high-functioning" and "low-functioning." I mean, what does that even mean, really? It's hard to really pin down what they're trying to describe there. Sorry, I'm just super passionate about all this :).

Front row center in my theory classes. Even with my glasses, I'm so nearsighted it just makes it easier to sit there. In lab we're all getting up to take each others' vitals/stick each other, so the best seat in the house is next to a warm, willing body. Aaaaaand that doesn't sound right >.>

MA's are certified at the national level, though the AAMA or AMT. MA's also do not get just clinical duties--we are also taught the basics of billing and coding, filing insurance forms, ordering supplies, and other administrative tasks for the physician such as phoning in prescriptions. We are employed by physicians. This is why the payscale is higher. Also the longer amount of minimum schooling.

Just finished my pre-reqs for MA school, on to the meat and potatoes: MA Fundamentals Theory I MA Fundamentals Lab I Medical Office Procedures Nursing school application is in the mail! I'm top of my class after pre-reqs--hope my chosen school is impressed with a 3.8 :).

Ah, I heard about her. Psychogenic or not, I'm glad she's at least doing better. I've had drug-induced dystonia in my back, neck, hands, feet, and eyes from Geodon and it is excruciatingly painful and scary to lose control of your body like that.

What a great clip! Complete with the black velvet band on the caps of the graduate nurses. They look just like my mother when she graduated from nursing school. She says that pinning the caps in place was a pain in the butt. She lived in a nurse's dorm attached to a hospital, and the dorm mother inspected everyone who had work in the morning to make sure all nursing students looked prim and proper! :)

while i agree that nursing needs to be more consolidated as a community (decide what is the standard entry-level degree, etc.), the fact that you didn't cite any sources for the terms you listed left me unconvinced. call me academic, but there you go. merriam-webster's 4th defintion of profession seems to be the one you are speaking of, but i don't find anything that excludes nursing: a : a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b : a principal calling, vocation, or employment c : the whole body of persons engaged in a calling dictionary.com more or less agrees with: 1. a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science: the profession of teaching. [color=#333333]2. any vocation or business. [color=#333333]3. the body of persons engaged in an occupation or calling while we may imagine only doctors, lawyers, and other highly-educated people to be professionals, two different dictionaries disagree. dictionary.com puts them under the heading of learned professionals. so i'm not saying that you're wrong, op, but that's my defense of calling nursing a profession. language is powerful, and calling nursing simply a "labor" belittles what nurses do and doesn't do anyone any favors or point us toward greater respect.

Hey, diagnosed autism spectrum since childhood here :). As to some posters wondering if a person with autism could be a nurse, yes, they can. The condition "autism" encompasses a wide variety of characteristics, strengths, and difficulties. I am considered autistic, however, you wouldn't know it from interacting with me. Women with autism tend to have a leg up on learning social rules than men with autism. I am fine with social rules, metaphorical language, and have no difficulty expressing emotions appropriately, however all of these things came later for me than other people (hence the term "developmental delay"). My disabilities are primarily sensory and motor. I cannot stand certain fabrics or textures. Being touched is a problem, but I get better all the time. I stim occasionally, but with deep breathing and being aware of my body, they can be almost unnoticeable. Around other people, I bounce my leg alot, which is a stim that won't make others uncomfortable. In short, with work and dedication, an autistic person can definitely succeed as a nurse. And don't believe that whole "has no empathy" thing. Autistic people have difficulty expressing their empathy in a way that most people recognize, but it is definitely there. For the OP: Autism encompasses a lot of different things, as I mentioned above, but even if you are neurotypical (not autistic), all diversity in neurological makeup is wonderful and should be embraced :).

I'm getting my MA at the moment to boost my overall grades, as I had some tough high school years. I'll work as a tech or per diem as an MA while in nursing school. Then on to an ADN program. Bridge over to BSN. I'm eyeing University of Minnesota's BSN-to-DNP program. As for my specialty? I've narrowed it down to psych, ICU (of any kind), ER, or OR. I've always loved all the technology involved in medicine, and I'd love to flex my technical muscles along with good nursing care. But who knows? Gotta keep an open mind, you know?

I apologize if I seem a little short and less polite than normal. But I'm about to divulge something that I rarely do. I overdosed on Tylenol about a year ago. Yes, a suicide attempt. Yes, I knew exactly what it would do to me, as a pre-nursing student and daughter of an ER nurse. I avoided permanent liver damage due to the gentle urging of a co-worker to call 911 and an otherwise very healthy liver. However, I was treated in an awful way by the intensivist in the ICU, who presumed I did it "for the attention," and by my psychiatrist. They assumed I was ignorant. They talked down to me. I said nothing to them as I was already vulnerable, lying in a hospital bed having my abdomen palpated and feeling awful already for putting my family through this. The point of all this is just to gently remind nurses about the fact that unless the patient explicitly says something, you have no idea why they did what they did. On a completely different note, a national campaign would be good :).

No, MAs are not the same thing as PCTs. I am an MA student, and MAs are trained to work in outpatient settings, i.e. doctor's offices. They get more training in medical office procedures, and do some clinical work like phlebotomy and vital signs. They take an exam and must be registered either through the AAMA (American Association of Medical Assistants) or the AMT (American Medical Technologists). PCTs, on the other hand, are usually employed in inpatient settings like hospitals, rehab centers, etc. They are trained in basic nursing care like bed baths and the like, as well as stuff like phlebotomy and blood sugars. They take the Certified Nurse Assistant exam. So basically, it's about where you want to end up. You can potentially become an MA and be employed as a PCT, but you may have to fight for it. One last tip though: If you want to become an MA, be sure your school is accredited and not a diploma mill. Schools like Sanford Brown and so on are good to avoid. Good luck in your education and job search :)

For much of my teens, I have struggled with a severe eating disorder, Complex-PTSD, self-harm, severe depression, and anxiety. As you can imagine, I spent my high school years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, various outpatient treatment programs, and therapy. While in the hospital, I saw the nurses interacting with us patients. Unfortunately, I wasn't kept on a very good unit, and many of the nurses were what we call "paycheck mongrels": They wanted to get in, get out, collect their money. They wanted nothing to do with us as people, seeing us only as a problem. They allowed me to starve and dehydrate myself for days before simply threatening to tube-feed me instead of trying to work with me. I came within hours of having a tube shoved down my nose for their convenience before the doctor cancelled the order on the grounds that I could be re-fed at home. Upon discharge, I vowed never to be like those staff. I met some good staff, and vowed to be like them: Committed. I saw the misconceptions many people in the outside world had about mental illness and desperately wanted to educate them that I wasn't crazy, insane, violent, dangerous, or a freak. I would never have dreamed of hurting anyone else: I believed I deserved to hurt myself the way I did, as had been done to me by other people before. I decided I would be a psychiatric nurse and work with the kind of illnesses I had recovered from, especially eating disorders. This population, I believe, has the hardest time receiving the care they need. They are often passive (because they are deathly afraid of what other people think), so they're not a problem. So they are allowed to slip through the cracks, and quietly destroy themselves. What's more, the women in my family going back three generations are nurses in some form or another. My great-grandmother was a L&D nurse back before they required licensing, my grandmother is a dental assistant, and my mother is an ER nurse with 30 years of experience. She loves her job and considers it very validating that her daughter wants to go into her profession.

Hello! I'm a very young future CNA (only 18 years old--just a baby compared to my future patients!) who is preparing to train at a LTC, but I must admit, I'm nervous. The older people I've met don't seem very perceptive to talking to someone as young as me, and I'm intimidated that I'll have to care for this population. Will they accept being cared for someone who seems like a child to them? I suppose I just need reassurance. Did anyone else start out this young and have good experience? Bad? I just want to know if my nervousness is silly or justified! Thanks.

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs.[1][2][3] It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases. In humans, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. Perhaps "disease" is simply too broad of a term. I think it's more of a negative coping skill that can take on a disease-like look if it becomes severe enough. One poster made a good point: With other mental illnesses, you can't simply stop the behavior, as is necessary with drugs and alcohol. You must learn to control and manage the symptoms of the illness so that you can live a normal life. Seeing addiction as a negative coping skill gives addicts more encouragement, I think. If it's not a disease, then they won't be sick forever; they can learn new coping skills.