arobins72

My facility does not pay overtime for "unproductive" hours such as education classes or meetings.

I have my GED and graduated in December with my BSN. I had to take a special ACT to get into the university, but I did it. Go for it. Don't let it hold you back.

I just turned 42 last week. I graduated with my BSN in December. No, you aren't too old.

I'm a new grad in orientation as well. I'm on a med/tele floor. Our normal ratio is 5 or 6 to 1. Beyond that the charge nurse will take patients. I'm very fortunate to work with very supportive nurses and an awesome NM. I also work with a new nurse that is only 4 months out of orientation and another that is at 1 year. It gives me hope to look at them and have an idea of where I'll be in that amount of time. I'm still terrified. Just know you aren't alone and it will get better. We worked too hard to get here.

Med/tele, most often 5. Sometimes 6, but if we have 6 we get 2 aides, a unit clerk, and a task nurse who does our blood sugars and discharges.

I keep a tube of Carmex in my pocket and put it under my nose. Vick's works well too. Just when I think I'm used to it, I get proven wrong.

I graduate from a BSN program in December of 2013. We are paying for our pinning ceremony ourselves through class dues and fundraising. Our class is pretty tight knit and we look forward to the pinning ceremony more than graduation itself. We've agreed to keep it simple to keep costs down as much as possible. The pinning ceremony has really been encouraged by our faculty, but the decision whether or not to have one was entirely ours. No one is forced to attend or forced to pay class dues. As a class officer, I've not heard any suggestion of the pinning ceremony being done away with, but we are very fortunate to have a nurse as the Dean of Arts and Sciences, so I wouldn't expect to see it happen without a strong fight.