kabfighter

ACEN and CCNE are the nursing program accreditors.

ITT should be your school of last resort. All of the things I mentioned are the markings of a reputable nursing program; ITT is lacking regional accreditation, nonprofit status, and national nursing accreditation. You'd be able to take the NCLEX, but your credits would be no good at any reputable school. If you wanted to start over in a new career, you would have to start from college from scratch. Nursing school, above all, should be a college education, and accreditation from SACS ensures that you are being educated at a college level. A nursing program at ITT is a vocational program, and is not at the level of a college or university. I seriously wonder why any board of nursing would approve a program that is not regionally accredited. I may sound elitist, but nursing as a profession needs to sharpen up its image; schools like ITT being approved to educate nurses is really a step back, especially with the oversupply of nurses in many areas. Heed my words. Ripoff Report | itt Search of Complaints & Reviews

Don't give a single penny to any school that is not regionally accredited (in your region it would be the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools), approved by the state board of nursing (for initial licensing programs), not-for-profit, and accredited by either the ACEN or CCNE. ITT falls short on at least one of these criteria, and perhaps several more. Try your local state and community colleges. They will likely cost quite a bit less, as well. Excelsior College and Western Governors University offer respectable distance programs, if you are unable to get a slot in a local school.

I'll trade you my nursing license for your CPA license. Nursing isn't as rosy as everyone thinks. Stay with accounting...seriously.

I am a long-time atheist (borderline anti-theist), and I have prayed with a patient on one occasion. I was raised Catholic-ish, so I am familiar with a lot of the dogma and rituals. The only time that a patient's religious beliefs caused a problem was when a patient started on about how her surgeon wouldn't pray for Jesus to guide his hands during surgery. I had to kindly explain that he was entitled to practice or forgo religion as he pleased. If a patient ever asked to me lead a prayer, I probably would. Even though I'm not religious, I have a begrudging respect for clergymen for their showmanship. There are quite a few pastors who have completely lost faith, and are just going through the motions. I figure if they can lead a sermon, so can I. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZVhzVTBDvA Testify...like a sex machine! For what it's worth, it sounds like that family was being a bunch of urethral meatuses (can I say that?).

Wait until the honeymoon phase is over before making any conclusions. As a student you haven't had any real responsibility, and are frankly unqualified to be commenting on the original poster's question at this point. You haven't even been through the disappointment of being unemployed for months because the market is saturated with nurses. OP, I'd find something else if I were you.

Hi Elle23, thanks for the input, although you didn't quite answer my question. I think you can provide a unique perspective on this, since you would tend to have the same faith in miracles as the family members. Would you agree with them that God could heal the patient, or would you stick to the facts (as they pertain to this plane of existence)? Is this considered prognosing, which fall outside our scope of practice? As far as my choice of words, I looked up 'delusion', and it fits exactly into what I was trying to convey. A delusion is a belief held despite enormous contrary evidence; it seems to fit in this scenario. Please note that I said 'state of delusion', not that these people are all delusional regarding any aspect of their faith. With or without religious beliefs, it is a delusional thought to believe that someone (a dead body, indeed) with a liquefied brain can make a full recovery. It is as deluded a thought as believing that someone with a severed limb will regrow it.

In light of the Jahi McMath incident, I am left wondering how often my nursing colleagues have encountered the family of terminally-ill (or brain dead, etc.) patients in a state of complete denial that is bolstered by their faith. If you visit the Facebook page named "Keep Jahi Mcmath on life support", you will find dozens of people claiming that God will perform a miracle and allow Jahi to 'wake up', despite the fact that no less than five physicians have declared her brain dead, and the coroner issued a certificate of death on December 12th. These people have seemingly entered a state of delusion, and are completely unable to accept the reality of the situation. If we have a terminally-ill patient, and a family member says, "I believe that God will heal her," do we have a professional obligation to reiterate the prognosis and dismiss their religious beliefs, or just nod our heads? Creating false hope is unethical, but it is also not our place to argue with peoples' religious beliefs. How have you dealt with these situations, or how would you if put in a similar circumstance?

I had this same exact experience when I was at Keesler Air Force Base. I had just finished basic training and was undergoing my technical training. I remember marching around like a tool, sleep-deprived, and subject to more stupid rules than even now as a nurse (astounding!). I looked at the people mowing the grass and I envied them. As far as social status, military trainees are pretty much on the bottom of the totem pole (underground, even, at basic training). I can't say that I exactly envy the custodians at work, because they're constantly taking on more work for the same pay just as we are. The nursing staff have a camaraderie with the environmental staff that you might not see in most other workplaces. We're all in 'the suck' together, so to speak.

Bingo. Jobs are as tight for nurses as they are in most other fields. This is not some panacea job that will take you from the poor house to riches in two years. With all the for-profit schools popping up and letting anyone who is capable of signing a Sallie Mae loan attend, there is a huge oversupply of nurses. If I had my way, no state board of nursing or accrediting body (CCNE or ACEN) would approve nursing programs other than those offered by nonprofits. Imagine if University of Phoenix opened a medical school; the Liason Committee on Medical Education would never allow this to happen. Yet, these money-grabbing schools are allowed to offer programs in advanced practice nursing, and are fully accredited. Something is wrong with nursing education, and it needs to be fixed. The flood gate to nursing is open, and you'll be competing with many, many other people for a scant amount of open positions.

I'm probably going to get grilled for this, but nichefinder is right. We are highly-paid blue collar workers. I work med-surg, and I probably could have done this job right out of high school with six months of on-the-job training and two semesters of A&P. Other nurses ask about lab values during report, and unless it's a troponin level or the lab value is being treated with medication, I generally don't know. Lab values are for the provider to interpret and treat, and frankly if a patient asks about them I can honestly say "I don't know." This is not to say that I don't understand the implications of abnormal lab values; they just have no bearing on how I will carry out my duties. My job is to keep my patients alive and comfortable from 23:00 to 07:00, not to obsess over labs and diagnostic imaging results that have already been interpreted by one or more physicians. All this being said, I am a proponent of the BSN as the entry level education for registered nurses, and some sort of associate's degree for practical nurses (whether it be an AS or AAS). The occupation of nursing has come a long way, but to truly be a profession we need to raise the bar for entry, as many others have done. I always get a kick from people who fail out of nursing school, then say that they plan on becoming pharmacists, physician assistants, or physical/occupational therapists. They're in for a hell of a ride when they have to take organic chemistry, which was far harder than even the most advanced nursing classes I had to take. Let alone the fact that those all require rigorous professional or graduate degrees. To make a long story short: become a respiratory therapist. That, or look outside of health care for a career.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned tires yet. As has already been stated, AWD/4WD will only help you move forward; winter tires (with the mountain/snowflake symbol) will help you accelerate, brake, and maneuver. Your vehicle only has four patches of rubber roughly the size of a human hand in contact with the road, and you want to maximize the traction between those tiny patches and whatever surface you are driving on. "All season tires" are not tested for traction like genuine winter tires are, they just have to meet a certain geometric pattern. Winter tires with the symbol below have deeper, more aggressive tread patterns and are made of softer rubber compounds that don't turn to hockey pucks when the temperature drops. They must also meet a certain standard of traction to be eligible for the mountain/snowflake symbol.

The private status of any university isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's the schools that are for-profit institutions. You must understand that the students are not the school's customers, their primary concern is generating profit and distributing dividends to their stakeholders. Many of these schools have an admissions process that goes a bit like this: 1. Inhale 2. Exhale 3. Sign up for a $40,000 Sallie Mae loan Be careful out there.

I have an iPad and an Android phone and both are of absolutely no use for school. If anything, I would get a small laptop that could fit into your book bag/purse/satchel/what-have-you. You'll need the full capability of a PC or Mac to watch videos, make spreadsheets, do research, type papers, etc. Tablet computers are toys (barring a few exceptions), not productivity devices.