The Bob

My marriage. Gone. Kaput! But it was on its way out anyway. :stone I still work 40hrs a week, but I'm a graveyard shift worker, and I sit at a desk all night working on medical informatics anyway ... it's a good fit.

I stopped short of getting licensed after my BS in bio. I was accepted in a training program in San Francisco and decided to give up my position to someone who would actually benefit from it. I would have taken a pay cut as a CLS, and I was already on track for nursing school. Concentrating in CLS has only strengthened my current position. I would have been completely happy being a lab rat, but nursing is so much more diverse.

Hey Loner ... this is way OT, but I see you're a CLS as well. That's what I was studying before I went into nursing. It's good to see I'm not the only one to leave all that education behind for a more rewarding career.

I'm beginning to realize this. Well, since it's not my lot in life to proselytize, I can only stand by and watch the train wreck. The faith wars can be amusing at times, but they're predominately destructive, petty and mean-spirited. Now where's my popcorn?

How dare you assume a sense of moral superiority because you happen to believe in the Christian God. You should be ashamed of yourself. For you to actually think a person with an atheistic belief is without morals sickens me and only furthers the divide between believers and non-believers.

Offensive for me to want to comfort you in your time of need? I'm very sorry you feel that way. So that means you, as (apparently) a religious person of a particular belief system, would not pray with someone who subscribes to another belief system? If you were, say, a Baptist, and a Jewish person wanted you to pray with them, would you tell them "I don't believe as you do ... let me go find a rabbi instead."? That sounds rather selfish. You may be going into the wrong profession.

Another atheist here. My response is "I will keep you in my thoughts." That should be enough. If asked to pray with them I will bow my head and pray with them. It's not dishonest in any way because you are nurturing your patient (it's not as if the GOD of Atheism will throw lightning bolts at me for praying...). My lack of religious belief should never compromise how I care for my patients. To refuse such a simple gesture may change the way in which a patient or family perceives me and our relationship. I think atheists are allowed much more latitude in what they are able to do because we don't have any dogma dictating our behavior. We are free to act as we see fit for the given situation. I will read the Bible, Torah or Koran to a patient, I will pray the rosary with them, I will say Amen after a prayer ... because there is nothing or nobody to tell me not to. Make it about the patient.

Graveyard shift at "a non-profit healthcare informatics organization dedicated to providing services to our members that protect and save lives". From our website. 40 hours a week and homework is not discouraged. They are paying all tuition, fees and supply costs. I only have to stick around with them after I graduate. Not a problem.

What! There, I said it. Okay, I start Monday as well, only my first semester. We've got a little in common. I'm 39, former mec. infantry, combat medic and all that fun stuff. And I'm looking forward to peds/OB more than you can imagine. It's the polar opposite of what my experience is, but I want that now. I've done the manly, aggressive, bang-bang-boom-aaaaahg! stuff and I'm ready for a change. Interestingly, I'm also considering correctional nursing. I prefer the autonomy I had as a medic, and the prison nurses seem to have a bit more autonomy than most. But we'll see. I've got a year and a half to figure it all out. No decisions yet. Good luck with the kids!

I took a lower level A&P prior to taking both full courses (it was AP 50 @ Modesto JC). The lower level wasn't a pre-req and it is non-transferable. But it wasn't a waste of time, either; I got an A out of both classes because I had the primer/brush up. Both anatomy and physio were pretty lab intensive courses on their own so you may want to look into whether or not the combined course will equate to the separate courses.

I would totally show up for my current job, but that's because I have no pt contact. If my government expects me to put my life in extreme jeopardy to save lives I can only tell them "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (and medals) to prove it. Now leave me alone and let me take care of my family this time." They'll "take care of me". Pshaw! /I'm getting too old for that crap, anyway. :trout:

1.5 GPA in HS. Went on to JC and got 4.0, graduated Cal State biological sciences BS with a 3.2. I had a mentor. I had someone who believed in me and who was interested in my success as much as I was.

Well, I live in the Central Valley right now. I'm a nursing student and I chose this profession to move AWAY from the Central Valley (seems I can't make enough to feed my family anywhere else in CA as an EMT). The larger valley cities below Sacramento (Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Fresno, Bakersfield...) don't appear to be very nice places to raise a family, in my opinion. They are riddled with crime, they have strange smells and the people, in general, seem not to give a crap about much around them (I've been here almost 10 years and I'm so ready to leave). As for the climate, well, Spring is nice but it lasts about 3 weeks. It's dreary all Winter and the Summer/Fall heat makes you insane. I'd recommend the central coast for the climate, the Sierra Foothills and Northern CA for the Beauty and affordability. The San Diego area's simply awesome on all levels except housing prices. The SF Bay Area pays more, of course. That's because the housing prices are completely bonkers. I'm planning on correctional nursing and the dept of corrections pays an additional 10% base for the Bay Area prisons because of the housing prices. It still doesn't make up for it. Good luck!

Wow! The professor thought it was okay because both of you were gay? That blows me away. She must have some hidden stereotypes about gay men that allow blatent harassment to be laughed off as "normal behavior". I wonder if she would have reacted the same had a female student come to her being harassed by a male.