KeepItRealRN

I have experience with HCA. When this happens you are in a no-win situation. Your manager wants you to quit and if you don't this is the beginning of the paper trail she will use to ultimately terminate you. I've seen it numerous times. If you love the unit you work on your only hope is that you last longer than the manager. In my experience managers at HCA facilities rarely last longer than 2 years. It is time to make a plan B if you don't have one.

I think you hit the nail on the head. A lot of new grads are too picky about what they are willing to do and where they are willing to live. The only new grad who can not find a job is one who is unwilling to relocate, unwilling to take any position but his or her "dream job", and wants to spend a maximum of a year or two doing it before going back to school. Yes, this scenario is possible but only for a very small %. The rest claim the school lied about the nursing shortage. The shortage is regional people, but it is expanding. If you live in the northeast and refuse to relocate, then yes the jobs are fewer. Leave the northeast and go anywhere else and the jobs are plentiful and in some places pay more than the northeast and have a lower cost of living

We always called it going out to check the weather.

Thank you for answering my questions. And no I'm not judging you at all. Whether something is worth it or not is absolutely up to the person who made the decision. One thing I do want to point out though is that there are some grads out there who seem to be shocked when the bill comes due and it is half of their take home pay. People that is a lot of money. It is one thing to take on that amount of debt, be able to manage it, and feel like it was worth it, but an entirely different thing to whine, complain, and claim to be a victim when the bill comes in the mail. One common theme I read though is that nobody was aware of how much the payments would be when everything was said and done. I'm starting to think it is by design more than accident.

Congratulations! You're doing it right.

It is.

If anyone ever questions your path have them watch this video ADN vs BSN, Let's Follow the Money

If you have rich parents or a rich benefactor paying for it that's great. All of that is not worth going into hawk to the tune of hundreds of thousands for a Nursing degree. It may feel like it is at the time but sooner or later one has to pay the piper.

I am curious what does a "prestigious" school offer that your average school does not? I am asking this in all sincerity. What do they provide to justify the added cost?

Again I'm sure that big fiance had a lot to do with that policy.

That is insane that at the age of 25 living on your own you are still considered a dependent for federal aid. My guess here is that the big fiancial corporations have lobbied the government to have this asinine policy put in place to make people dependent on them and thier loanshark terms.

I never called you a fool or stupid. I simply was stating a fact that the payment on a 100k loan is about $1,000/month which is close to what an average new grad takes home every two weeks. I was simply stating a fact. No judgement here.

100k in student loan debt pretty much wipes out one paycheck a month in take home pay as a hospital RN.

A hearty round of applause for you. You will be happy with that choice.

Can you give me a specific example of a door that was opened because of the school you attended?

The smartet thing you did was pay off each loan before taking out another and once you got established did the pay as you go plan.

You are doing it in a very wise and financially sound way. Congrats.

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories. I have read them all so far and appreciate your input. Sometimes I wonder if people turn to expensive private and (ugh) for profit schools because it is easier to get in due to decreased competition as a result of cost. I can totally understand it is difficult to get into reasonably priced State Universities and Community Colleges because there is a larger pool of applicants. Could some of the huge debt be a result the attendee being impatient to get into nursing school and therefore of attending a school that is essentially unaffordable?

Is it common nowadays for nursing students to graduate with >100K in student loan debt? I am trying to wrap my head around how this is happening so let me throw a few questions out there. Did you go to a public or private university? If you chose a private university what advantages did you expect over a public university? Did cost play any role in selecting what university you went to? What was the cost of tuition per year? Did you use the student loan money for anything other than tuition, books or school fees? When you signed for the loans, did you have any idea how much the payments per month would be? If you are a working RN, what percentage of your monthly take home pay goes to servicing your school loans? If you are a working RN, knowing what you know now what if anything would you have done differently to keep the debt to a minimum?

Dayshift or Nightshift, if you're working 12 hour shifts you're not going to have a social life on the days you work anyway.

I have addressed this very topic right here.

When I graduated and started working I lived on a low budget for 5 more years. I didn't buy a house, new car, or any other expensive toys. I didn't spend a lot of money on entertainment. What I did was work OT when it was available, accepted shifts with bonus pay when available, worked some agency on the side, and I simply paid the damn things off. No magic. The formula is pretty simple make more money than you need to live on and pay the rest to the loans until they are paid. There are two ways to make more money than you need to live on: 1. Reduce your monthly expenses or 2. Work more hours I recommend doing both.

Because in this say in age of zero tolerance for bullying, the tech accused you of just that. GUILTY AS CHARGED! Zero tolerance means no common sense can be applied to this situation. If the Tech says you bullied her then you did. Case closed. If the manager had backed you up she to would have been accused of bullying the tech and caught up in this zero tolerance for bullying nonsense. Thus that is the reason she was such a limp noodle. Look at it this way at least your manager didn't write you up for asking your Tech to do her job. If that were the case I would start looking today for a new unit to work on.

Even if policy doesn't state the male nurse or MD have a female in the room for such procedures, as a male nurse it is prudent to have one anyway. All it would take is for one female patient with psych issues to accuse the male nurse of something inappropriate and that nurses life would be turned upside down. Hence the need for the "witness" to set the record straight so to speak. Because the sad truth is that in today's world if you are male nurse and a female patient accuses you of something then you are guilty as charged until proven innocent in the eyes of the hospital, the BON, and the law no matter how bogus the accusation is. As a male, having a female nurse present for intimate procedures is simply being defensive from a legal standpoint.

I noticed that too.