jelly

ok, one more question. Going off Salary.com, I was assuming I'd start out as a new LVN at around $35/year. After reading some posts on here, I'm wondering if I could make more than @$17/hr, especially if I work night shift. I make $23/hr. now ($48/year) ... anyone know if it's possible for a new LVN to make anything close to that? What areas might pay the most? If I can make close to what I make now, it wouldn't be quite as hard to quit my current job and work nights. Do I need my IV Cert? Anyone know where I can/should get that done? Thanks!!!

thanks for the replies. I actually talked to University of Phoenix awhile back, they only do RN (Associates) to BSN. Not LVN to RN I can't believe nobody has yet thought to offer online classes and then just have the students do clinical work on weekends. My prayers would be answered! And with this nursing shortage, wouldn't that help? I don't have any classes to take while on any lists actually, I have all the prereqs imaginable, except for the odd things that certain schools want (like CSU wants critical thinking). Once I know what program I'll be doing, I'll make sure I don't have anything left to take but you wouldn't believe the crap I've taken through the years waiting for a program! lol Now I just need a program that does nights or weekends! I'd pay anything at this point, but UOP only offers RN to BSN, which I do plan on doing later, once I get an ADN at least!

I also just found out about mount St. Mary's evening/weekend program from reading a post. I went to their website and they aren't even accepting applications for Fall 06 transfer students! If they aren't even accepting applications, doesn't that mean they aren't even waitlisting you? I can't sit around and wait for a year and hope they accept them next year. But, it sounds ideal!

thank you for your response. An online bridge program would be great! Do you know of any such program? I inquired about one and they responded with one sentence that my state didn't accept the online program. Are you in CA? I wish I could slow down and take a deep breath! :S

I just don't know what to do! I'm an LVN, with no experience. I took the boards in CO and got licensed and then moved to CA. By the time I got my license, I was already employed in a non-healthcare related field, making $50/K year. I applied for some LVN jobs, but only got one call, and it wasn't enough money, nor would I have gotten any good experience out of it. I've been here a year now and I need to make a decision. If I stay at my company, I can do business school online and my company will reimburse me a %. But I still desperately want to finish nursing school, so I need to figure out what to do asap. My job is full time days, so I need another job. I need to work as an LVN at nights to finish RN school, right? I'm almost done. I have 3 1/2 years. I should finish in 1-2 years. I'm even totally ok with doing my Associates RN first and getting that over with in a year. One of my biggest problems is the pay. It's sad how little LVN's make. Any advice on where a new LVN could work and get decent pay? Since I can't afford to just quit my job and make $15K/year less (because of the cost of living here!), I want to get some experience on the weekends. Does anyone know of any places I might be able to work weekends for some experience, so that I might actually get called on any jobs I apply for? Is that even possible? I can't do per diem right now, cause I have no experience. I'm just at such a crossroads and I don't know what to do. I have 110 credits towards my BSN, I don't want to start over with business. If I want to finish nursing school, I need to work nights, but still need to be able to pay my bills. I need experience so I will get decent job offers. I just don't know what to do and this is killing me. I want to be a labor & delivery nurse so badly, it's all I think about anymore. A further complication is that we currently live in Ontario, and I currently work in El Segundo (lax area) but we're moving in April, somewhere closer to LA. Not sure where we're going yet, so it would help if I had some idea of what I may do with myself. We're also trying to get pregnant. Working as a nurse pregnant won't be a problem, would it? Approximately what do LVN and RN's make starting out and after a few years out here? Salary.com says LVN's make around $12 an hour or something like that, but I had an offer for $17. If anyone has any advice, I will kiss your feet and name my first born after you Seriously though, this is tearing me up and I don't know what to do. Thanks in advance!!!!!! Kelly

Hi Kittytn, I sent you a private message :)

That's exactly what I was thinking. Nurses are human also and it is very normal to do your job, and do it well, and still need to *vent*. This is an appropriate place to vent. You know you can't say these things to the patient so you do what you have to do, and vent later. There is no way every nurse can come home and have nothing but positive things to say, that's ridiculous.

I live in Ontario and work in Pasadena (but I'm hoping to find an LVN job closer to home). Anyone know of any schools that have the LVN to RN program that has classes and clinicals at night or on the weekends? I'm not sure what to do cause I'm at a crossroads. I should get my CA residency in November so I want to get back to school ASAP. I live in Ontario now but not sure if I'm going to stay out there. I work in Pasadena now, but I'm hoping to find an LVN job closer to home. But like I said, that might change too. Maybe I could get an LVN job at night and do school during the day? Does anyone know of any jobs that will help LVN's finish the RN degree as far as with the time and/or tuition assistance? Thanks a bunch! Kelly

Well, I never once considered LVN. I also have always had to work full time and took classes part time for an eternity. Finally started a 2 yr RN program even though I had so many BSN pre-req's, I just wanted to finish school and get my RN as quick as possible. So, working full time night shift I start my two years of nursing school, going straight from work to class, having to skip class to sleep, going from work to clinicals to work again ... going three days sometimes without sleeping. And I don't have children and I could also study at work. I had to work harder than other students (I'm one of two who worked and the other person quit) but I did well. I missed a quiz once cause I was making myself so sick and that put me from an A to an F in one class. Had to make a B on the final test to pass and I did :) Then came year # 2, MORE clinicals, LONGER clinicals, 2 weeks of 12 hour clinicals straight. Well, even working 1045p to 715a I couldn't do it. I had the option after that year to take my LVN boards. I'm dissapointed but at least I'm still a nurse! I want to finish that last year but now I work during the day. It's very very hard. I don't think there's anything wrong with getting your LVN first, especially if you can't dedicate yourself only to school. Just keep in mind how incredible hard it is WITHOUT work and family! Good luck!

Texas is the best!

I just moved to the LA area and commute 1 1/2 hrs to and from work each day and still pay twice as much for a condo than I did for my house in colorado. Don't get me started!

as for jobs, look at Careerbuilder.com, hotjobs.com and some other links I recently heard about are nursefinders.com, hirenursing and healthcareers. Due to my resume on careerbuilder.com, I get nursing job announcements often.

Hi, I'm an LVN who moved here about 8 months ago from Colorado. I haven't actually received my CA license yet so I haven't begun working but I have already looked into a few schools and I know they have LVN to RN programs. I looked briefly at the USC, UCLA and Azusa Pacific Univ websites but I think I'm going to do the 2 year RN program first (unless one of these schools will take all my credits). I know they have that program at the Pasadena City college. I don't know about schools in San Diego, but if they have them in the LA area, I'm sure they have them there too.

Another quick thought for you. If you aren't completely sure Nursing will be for you and you've already spent 3 years in school, maybe you should just do the LVN first and make sure you like it before you spend so much more time in school. If you don't want to do that, you can do you Associate RN first and make sure it's what you want before you spend that extra couple of years taking different chemistries and stuff like that! I was in the Associate degree program and we had to have algebra, english, phsychology, then Anat/Phys 1 & 2, Micro, bio 101, Human Development and that was pretty much about it. Then two more years of nursing courses or one more year for LVN. Then, if you like it you can go back and get the BSN. I have been working on my BSN pre-reqs all along even though I haven't gone to a 4 year college yet. But I have taken all those "other" classes that I don't really need for the 2 year degree. But let me give you one piece of advice while I'm blabbing. Since I work, I thought online courses were a blessing. Well, Chem 101 and other so-so courses were fine, but taking Chem 111 online, totally self-taught, along with some other courses as well about killed me. That is hands down the hardest class so far. I think I passed out of the kindness of the instructor's heart. I'd take the hard sciences in real life if you can :)

Maybe you should look at school's nursing programs online that you might be interested in going to, and see what pre-req's are required and how many more you would need, and then talk to a counselor. That might help you figure out how long it might take. From my experience and those around me, the science courses like Anat/Phys, Chem and Microbiology take SOOOOOOOO much studying. I worked full time throughout my education also (and I'm not done yet) So far I've been going to some degree or another for 8 years (had to take some time off when I was in the Army and for the past year). There weren't many other students who worked as much as me, and I know I had to work harder. I took the advice of the students before me and didn't pair Anat/Phys 1 or 2 with Micro or Chem. So I would take, like Anat/Phys 1 and Human Development. Due to working full time, I'd spend like every available minute on the Anat/Phys. A full load of science classes with a full time job will be unbelievable hard. Well, my little plan all changed once I got to the nursing program. You usually can't choose class times or clinical times and it's a full job in itself. My program actually told us "you can't work!" Well, ok, pay my bills then? Nothing stops me. Anyway, I was lucky that I had a night job, but still unbelievably hard. I worked from 10:45 pm to 7:15 am then went straight to class and pretty much just sat there cause I had to, but wasn't really "there". Then I'd get a few hours sleep before work again. Sometimes when there would be long clinicals, I'd work, go to clinicals for 12 hrs then go back to work again, and I passed out once. I was sick a lot. I ended up not being able to finish. But I was actually lucky cause I worked at night and could study at work. I don't know how anyone could do it otherwise. Now I'm in the situation where I have just a year left to finish my RN (I'm an LVN now), but I can't get back cause I work a regular day. I was an outsider with my class too because they would all study and chat on breaks and I was like the weird zombee with my head down on break and I was a little bitchy too from lack of sleep lol. Anyway, I don't want to detour you or anything, cause I'm still doing it, but just to let you know, it's one of the hardest degress to do if you work full time. But, then again, I'm sure you have hard classes and clinicals with your present major. And btw, giving shots isn't the hardes part to get over, it's the really stinky stuff! Kelly

My school wasn't absolutely horrible, but we thought so at the time. It sounds like giving actual (previous) NCLEX questions on the very first test, which we thought was insane, is part of that 'normal' weeding out process. Like someone else said, there were those students who took the prenursing courses several times, so they were darn dedicated but just not as 'natural'. And some were smart and studied their butts off, but couldn't critical think. Anyway, I wanted to say that even though I don't think my school was horrible. We DID have all students fail tests before ... sometimes they would throw out a few questions so that some people got D's. It was horrible. Although, our failing grade was below 75, is anyone else's school like that? It made me so mad when we would complain to our instructor about failing tests and she'd go "there are still 2 more, you can still pass the class, don't freak out". Um hello, some of us have been protecting GPA's for years, not to mention get schoalarships for grades. GRRRR But I did pass and our school has had a 100% NCLEX pass rate. I wish people knew how hard it really is. So many people don't. My own $%@ fiance once compared it to an Art degree. HUH?!? Anyway, I guess it's good that they are THAT hard. If they were just a tad easier on us, how many patients would get hurt as a result?

Don't forget that if you go to work in a certain area of nursing and don't like it... maybe it's not nursing all together, but just that field you don't like. There are too many opportunities. If you know the 'less-glamorous' side of what nursing is about and you still want to do it, then I'm sure you'll be able to find something in the field you like! Think about all the possibilities! And yes, in nursing school you will do the work of an Aid throughout and you will find out very quickly if you can handle the yucky stuff, the stress, the way you can be treated, etc.

Are you an RN?

Hi everyone, my name is Kelly. I was in an RN program two years ago but was only able to finish half due to working full time and then moving. Anyhow, I got my LVN certificate and got licensed in CO, but then I moved to CA. I got a job at a medical software company since I didn't have my CA license and have been slow about getting it transferred. It's now been like a year and a half since I got my LVN cert. and almost 2 since I have been in school (my plan is to eventually finish RN). So, to try to sum this up faster, lol, my CA license should be arriving within a month and I'm starting to think about actually working as an LVN but I've forgotten so much, I'm scared to death!!! (not to mention not really having learned everything in school in the first place!) Well, I know I want to do L&D eventually but I've always been told it's hard to get into as an RN, much less an LVN... but in Southern Cal, I've actually been seeing job postings in the field for LVN's. How realistic is it for someone inexperienced, having forgotten so much already, to be able to handle it? Please don't laugh, but is there a such thing as OJT? I don't want to crash and burn, and most importantly, I don't want to end up hurting someone which of course is my biggest fear. Is there a field, other than L&D, that might be better for someone in my situation. I'm so scared right now, I'm hanging on to this job talking to Nurses on the phone all day about their software when I known darn well I want to be doing what they are doing! Off the subject a little, does anyone know of any books I could read to kinda throw myself back into Nursing again? Know what I mean? I obviously can't re-read all my textbooks, but something more condensed? Thanks alot for any advice, thoughts, etc. You will probably be seeing me around alot cause I know L&D is what I will do ONE DAY, even if not right now. :) Kelly

OH MY GOSH - Do we have the same Grandmother??? We must!!!

Thank you for your response, Since I'm a CO resident and I live in CO, I figured I had to apply here first. I don't plan on working as an LPN here, but I guess I figured it was a good back up. But, I can't be licensed in two states at the same time? If I got the license here and then switched it over, how long does that usually take? I want to be able to get a job immediately after I move (end of Aug, beginning of Sep). If something happened and I ended up staying here, then I'd have to go through the process of switching it over to here, huh? It's kind of confusing. If I apply to CA, can I use my CO address? Do I need to apply for a license before I take the NCLEX or do I have a little time? (I am just registering to take the NCLEX today). Thanks for any help, this is kinda confusing.

Hi all. I just finished my first year of an ASN program and am planning on taking the LPN board this summer. After reading some of the posts, I'm really nervous about it! Any pointers? Also, at the end of the summer, I'm moving from CO to CA. I'm about to register to take the NCLEX-PN and for a license in CO (although I don't plan on working in CO) ... can I simultaneously register for a CA license? Or do I have to pass, get my CO license, then switch it? Thanks for any help Kelly