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Thanks to NedRN, Dassit82, and wayemika for the advice. All great ideas I hadn't thought about before. I'm going to look into those possibilities. Much appreciated.

Hi everyone, I'm going to start my first travel gig in December and it's about two hours from my home. I want to negotiate a cheap rate at a hotel with suites and am looking for advice. Should I go to my travel location and talk to some managers at the suite hotels there? I can't be the first person to ever do this, so maybe there is some established protocol about how to go about this. Thanks for any advice because I don't have a clue.

Oh. My. God. Are you serious? Women nurses are like little pigs. At the beginning of each shift I go into our break room and it looks like the basement of a frat house after a keg party. Doughnut boxes are everywhere, each of which contains just one little, itty-bitty half-bite, because nobody wants to be the person "who ate the last doughnut." The sink is stopped up and full of coffee cups. The communal bathroom looks like the worst Waffle House toilet you could ever imagine, its sink smeared with white goo of an origin no scientist would want to explore and its floor littered with toilet paper and wet paper towels. Inside the refrigerator, indescribable brown fluids puddle. The fridge is chock-a-block with fermenting smoothies, fraps, and yogurts that only have about 1 ml left in them, as well as Tupperware half full of salad but also half full of mold. I love my woman nurses. They're like sisters. And any guy who grew up with sisters knows how grody girls can be.

Dude, just do it. I'm 46 and finishing my first year at the hospital where I work. I enjoy every day I go to work, even the most stressful, long, ***** shifts. When I went to nursing school I felt the same way you feel now and I thought I would never get a job at graduation. Yes, some people argue that there is no nursing shortage. But here's the bottom line that most people don't talk about. There's absolutely NO shortage of nurses with bad attitudes trying to get jobs. But if you have a good attitude, care about your patients, and work well with your colleagues, then you will find a job. Believe me that employers will seek you out even while you're in nursing school doing your clinical rotations. It has nothing to do with age, gender, race, etc. My advice? Keep working at your carpentry work while you do your pre-requisites. And keep working at your carpentry job part-time while in nursing school, or get a CNA job at a hospital. Then finish up school and get your hospital RN job. You sound honest and sincere. Just do it.

Hi barcode, no disrespect here...But I think that's EXACTLY what the OP wants -- to have someone give him the answer. A long, long time ago, when I was in nursing school in 2011, we had to rely on obscure resources called books, professors, and fellow students to help us solve problems. But, then again, why bother now that we can cut and paste our homework into an anonymous website and see if some kind sucker will bite and do the work for us.

Yo hairy dude, wear the undershirt. Nobody wants to see your chest pubes. As for laundry, consider it the cost of doing business. If you worked in an office and wore a suit every day, then you'd have to wash your undershirts and have the rest of your clothes dry cleaned. I love my job as a nurse and don't have any problem throwing a load of whites into the washer once or twice a week.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I agree with all. To BaileyRN, what you described is EXACTLY how it is with this rude nurse. Thanks for writing in.

I've been a nurse in my hospital for about six months and still dread giving report at shift change. This morning I finished my third night shift in a row. It was a tough three days, but the last shift was really great. I felt like I did well with my patients. The chemistry on the floor was wonderful. But then I had to give report to a nurse I respect but who is really nasty at shift change. There's nothing I can do to prepare for giving report to her because no matter what I say she will come up with specific questions to put me in my place. She is impatient and sometimes abusive. The funny thing is...on the days I RECIEVE report from her, she is also incredibly impatient because she wants to leave and get home. She won't even allow me to ask any questions. That 30 minutes with her at shift change this morning was so bad that it destroyed all of the good feelings I took from the good work I did during my shift. Does anyone else have a similar experience? How do you get through it? I really feel so low when this happens.

Maybe now I can finally hear those lung sounds!

1. Three hospitals. 2. Out of the three, two were new-grad programs and one was a job on the floor that I did my practicum before graduating with my ADN. 3. I never heard back from one of the new-grad programs. I interviewed at the hospital where I did my practicum but didn't get the job since there was only one opening. Then I got into the other new-grad program. Yay! 4. So I got a job. I was very lucky.

Awesome poster!

1) WHY NURSING? Nursing is my second career. My first was editing/writing and I decided that I needed to be engaged with people on a different, personal, daily level. I got my ADN in December 2012, passed the NCLEX, and am now in training for my first nursing job on a hospital telemetry unit. It's totally awesome. 2) AGE? 45 and I am really happy to have made this change in my life. I was terrified to be a 40-something guy entering school for my ADN. But the only person who gave me crap about it was myself. 3) LIFE GOAL AFTER NURSING? When I was studying for my ADN, a couple of professors told me I should plan for an eventual NP degree. I'm not sure about that. I already have a BA in history (like that's been useful) and an MS in journalism (which fueled my writing and editing for the last 15 years.) I definitely plan to at least get my BSN, since it sounds like I might need it on my resume in a few years if I decide to relocate and apply to hospitals that require it. But I'm just happy to get through each day right now.

Hi everyone, I'm in my RN program and am about to enter the Advanced/Cardiac class. My college also offers a non-degree phlebotomy program that's not based on credits, but instead is classified as a "75-hour professional course." I've been seriously considering taking this class to help develop my skills and confidence in this area. Even though the Advanced class goes over blood draws, I sometimes find that I don't get enough lab and clinical experience on some of the skills. I guess my question is...should I just wait until I get into practicum or my first job to develop these skills? Or should I take this opportunity to get some of this training ahead of my first job. The cost of the class isn't a big issue -- I'm in a state college where the tuition rates are great. Has anyone else studying for their RN gone ahead and also done a phlebotomy class? Thanks for any advice. David

Hey Mike, I'm a 44 year-old gay man who is really close to finishing my associate's degree RN program. I'll probably sit for the NCLEX in December. Everything you said in your post is exactly what I was thinking when I started on this adventure nearly three years ago. Like you, I also have other degrees and have had a previous career. When I decided to get into nursing, I went through those countless hours of prerequisite courses and the struggle to apply and be accepted into my RN program. I tortured myself daily with doubts about getting into nursing. Was I too old? Would anyone accept a middle-aged man as a new nurse? And I was also gay. Yikes...an old, gay, male nursing student is a perfect storm of insecurity. On the first day of my RN Fundamentals course, I walked into a lecture hall of 75 strangers, thinking that I'd be the oldest person in there. But I wasn't. There were women and men in their late 40s, 50s, etc. We're all really conscious about our age. Sometimes we try to excuse ourselves by saying things like, "With age comes a certain wisdom." But what I came to discover in my program is that some of the kindest and wisest people have been the youngest. And some of the meanest and least wise have been some of the older students. So, I can now see the light at the end of the nursing school tunnel. I go to study groups in which there are smart 20 year-olds with more medical knowledge than me. I'm older than some of their parents, but never have I heard a derisive word about age, gender, or sexual orientation. We're all too busy to care about those things. I guess my only advice is to focus on the daily routine of studying and respecting each of your fellow students as a smart professional. Take "age" out of the equation. Sorry to be so long-winded, but I know exactly how you feel. You may not feel good today, but hang in there a couple of semesters, because, just like Dan Savage says..."It gets better!" Dave

Hi, My humble advice? Stay in the 90K job for another year (or two) and bank away cash to go toward a nursing program in a STATE school (not a private school). Meanwhile, get all of your prerequisites out of the way through online/evening classes. I know it sounds like 1-2 years is too far away. And it sounds like you're bored to death in your job. And it also sounds like you think that turning 32 or 33 is going to shut down your possibilities of creating a family. But that's just not true. I'm a 44 year-old male nursing student. I've already had one great career and am looking forward to my future career in nursing. I'm almost done and will be an RN in December. I used to worrry about my age and not meeting the expected benchmarks we associate with "growing up." But I got over it. So will you. And, in my nursing program there are tons of women (and men) who have kids and even work full time. I guess that my bottom-line advice is to take a deep breath and slow yourself down a bit. Yes, you CAN have it all -- family, nursing school, and a job. Best regards.