SurrenderDorothy

In my opinion - Awesome!

Yes! I, too, thought I was crazy, but I've smelled it on people in the days leading up to their death.

I was hired and the hospital said I just needed to be licensed within about 60 days or so.

I am just over the border from you in KS. It took me about 5 months to get a job. I revamped my resume and used more of a skills-based one (I am a second-career nurse) and bam! The first position I applied to, got an interview and a subsequent job offer. It was all of my non-nursing experience that could relate to nursing that really caught their attention (customer service, computer skills, diverse background).

The way you stated how you were walking around with notes about PE, aortic dissection, etc...and it irked you a "vet tech" would call herself a nurse is what made me reply the way I did. To address many of your further comments from above, you stated vet techs do not receive degrees in animal nursing is not true either. MANY vet techs are often pre-vet students majoring in animal science or some other science-related degree. MANY also go to a 2-year school for veterinary technology, so yes, they DO go to school for vet "nursing". In fact, those who go the pre-vet route take classes such as animal anatomy & physiology, 2 years of chemistry including Biochemistry, immunology, cell biology, developmental biology and many other advanced sciences most RN's will never have to take in their career. Many vet techs are also licensed or certified. Google it. Now, every single one may not be because many vets will offer on-the-job training, but most of these people take their professions very seriously and don't take too kindly to someone downplaying their knowledge, education or experience.

Just to prove my point a little further - Veterinarians are doctors. They address themselves as "doctor" and so does everyone else. By your logic, does this "Irk" you too? Yep, didn't think so.

Oh, here we go again. Your ignorance of the veterinary profession is outstanding, and unfortunately all too common. The vet techs I have known have an amazing amount of knowledge. I was in large animal research, so basically a vet tech before this and performed c-sections on cattle, administered anesthesia meds, drew blood on thousands of steers ready to kick my face off, performed euthanasia..not a whole lot was off limits for me in terms of regulations. The title of nurse is very appropriate to someone caring for animals. They perform the exact same duties, just on animals. A vet nurse is not trying to mislead anyone into thinking they are an RN. It's simply a term that fits. They take orders from a veterinarian and perform patient care on animals all the same. All of your notes on medicine you mentioned, a vet tech learns many of the same things. They aren't simply wiping up dog poo.

I was told by the nurse manager and doc that they loved me and everything was a go and to expect a call anytime from HR. It was about 5 days until HR called to officially offer me the job. In the past I've had offers the very next day or up to a week or so.

I don't know about the actual scrubs made by Wonderwink, but I purchased one of their silky long sleeve tees and the thing pilled after just wearing it once and looks awful now.

I was in a similar situation than you recently. '09 graduate, never worked as a nurse. Started applying in January to positions. A few weeks ago I revamped my resume in more of a skills based, professional format rather than the typical nursing templates you see. I got an interview for the first position I applied for with that new resume and just today a job offer. It's no stupid job either, I think I am actually going to love this. During my interview they stated they weren't worried at all that this would be my first nursing job. They were more impressed with my customer service and computer skills and I had many others on there that made me stand out to them. They also stated that the fact I hadn't worked as a nurse yet gives them the opportunity to train me in their own way. As others have said, I think a refresher would be a waste of money. Make your resume stand out and apply, apply, apply. Good luck!

No, and that is why I am switching to surgical technology. If I didn't do that, I would have probably went for ultrasound.

The embedded books can be a pain. I like having a hard copy of a book in order to study while I am not in front of the computer. I have no idea why more and more EduKan classes are doing this. You pay an additional $115 for Micro for use of the embedded book which is ridiculous. I ended up printing off all of the chapters just to I could bring it with me somewhere to study and went through a ton of printer cartridges doing it -- It is well worth the trouble though. Still, I'd rather purchase a book and own it forever, or buy it cheap from Amazon and then resell it on Amazon.

I am not sure about A&P because when I took it 4-5 years ago there was a book that you needed to purchase that came with a CD-ROM. Microbiology has a book that is embedded within the course and a lab program you download and use from your computer. I have taken a ton of EduKan classes and would highly recommend them if you are used to an online format.

I was a large animal research tech and coordinator before nursing, so not really a vet tech even though I used a ton of clinical skills. The biggest challenge for me during the switch was that, with animals, I could do virtually anything. I have performed c-sections on cattle, injected anesthesia meds, euthanized animals - you name it. I had issues initially with the nursing scope of practice. It just seemed silly to me that you needed an order to even apply oxygen. I get why the rules are there, but it feels so limiting coming from the other side of things. To top it off, I was an EMT-I also and could do everything within my scope of practice based on standing orders. Basically, the autonomy is what I miss. I was halfway through nursing school and started thinking it wasn't for me. I figured I would go ahead and finish and then figure something out. Fortunately, I found my niche in surgery and that is what I am going to focus on. I don't work right now because I stay at home with my son, but when I am ready, I will most likely be working 6 or 7 am until 2 or 3 pm so I will be able to be home when my boys get home from school.

I just had one of these last week. She asked basic interview type questions. The ones I can remember are: Tell Me About Yourself Describe your perfect job What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What would former supervisors say about you? Tell me about a time you went up and beyond for a patient. I hope you have a better interviewer than I did. She seemed to be in a huge hurry, really didn't seem interested in any of my answers because she'd let me get a sentence out of my mouth before saying "ok" and then moving on to the next question. Good luck!

I was an EMT, but wanted to transition into nursing because I felt it was a natural progression and would offer more career opportunities down the road. I felt I should get some hospital experience and got hired as a "CNA" (I wasn't certified, but they gave me that title anyways probably because I was already an EMT) on tele. I hated every minute of that job!! Part of the reasons I hated it is because of the limited scope of practice and I was used to being able to do so much more, but also the particular floor I worked on, the nurses were burnt out and bitter. Needless to say, I quit after 4-5 months. I chalked up my experiences to that particular floor and went into an LPN program as the next step. Being an LPN was better, but I realized I was taught to think under a medical model in EMT class, versus the nursing model. I adjusted and caught on, but it was still frustrating when as an EMT, I didn't need an order to do anything in my scope, but as a nurse, you need an order for everything, including oxygen. I was also IV certified as an EMT, but not as an LPN, so I couldn't touch them. I also had a previous bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences and know in my heart I would be much better suited going to PA school, but there are no PA programs near me and we are very settled in this area. I knew early on in my LPN program bedside nursing was not for me. During the last few months of the program, I couldn't wait for it to be over because I had pretty much decided I made a huge mistake going down that road and hoped that somehow I would find at least 1 nursing specialty I was passionate about. Low and behold, my last clinical observation was in the OR and I felt like I had walked into the motherland. I am now taking a surgical tech course and will bridge to RN after that. So, just because someone doesn't like being a CNA, doesn't mean they don't have the brain or skills to work as an RN in many areas of nursing or somewhere else in health care.

Yes to virtually all of the above mentioned diseases and disorders. I still diagnose myself with everything. When my neck is a little stiff, I have meningitis. When I get dizzy, I'm convinced I need a pacemaker. When I eat too much and my belly looks bigger than usual, I either have a liver disease or missed being pregnant for five months. I get headaches often, so they are naturally from my brain tumor or an impending ruptured aneurysm.

You won't be able to get into a master's nursing program without becoming an RN. You could attend an accelerated BSN program since you already have a bachelor's and there are pros and cons to this route. Or, you can get into an ASN program and complete your BSN online while you work as an RN.

Easy. The kids get the surgeries and the hospital accepts a payment plan for them after it's done. Sure, $5000 may take a lot of people years to pay off, but it's doable.

All it takes is to look at our government's track record on programs to help people to see where this could go. Now, there are some pretty strict restrictions on who would be eligible for this particular loan forgiveness program, thank goodness. Back in the 90's, President Clinton and Bush both started the country on a track that led to the idea that everyone deserves to be a homeowner. Now, 10 years later, we are seeing the results of that monumental mistake. Innocent people have seen their home values plummet as a result of the borrowers who spent money way beyond their means to purchase a house. So, as always, the "government" (ie: taxpayers) had to come to the rescue for the banks who made stupid decisions and there's even relief programs for homeowners who are underwater. Oh, and farm & oil subsidies, yes, I'm not even going to get started on my opinion of those. So, with education, let's take a look at the trickle-down effect our wonderful government could create with the idea that everyone deserves a right to higher education. YES, everyone deserves a right to be able to attend any college in America, regardless of race or status, but that shouldn't mean that it should be free or paid for by taxpayers. Just because one person decides to attend a private college and racks up thousands upon thousands in loans that taxpayers should have to pay for that. If you want to take out student loans to pay for your education - fine. But don't expect the government (ie: your fellow taxpayers) to pay for something you wanted to do. If everyone in America had a Bachelor's degree because they were able to take out thousands and thousands of loans to get it, knowing that it would be possibly "forgiven" in the future, what would happen to our already horrible job market? So, how does student loans create more inflation? Our government has no money. Our country doesn't produce hardly anything anymore. I repeat, our government doesn't have any money. They are borrowing it from other countries (which increases inflation) and/or printing more (which ALSO creates inflation) to meet the demands. If we are suddenly paying for people's student loans, it adds money that the government is going to either borrow from another country (weakening the purchase power of the dollar) or printing more (which also weakens the purchasing power). The dollar amount of student loans that get paid by the government does not go away - it adds to the amount of currency floating around. The more currency we have, the less value we get...Simple economics....It's just one more wonderful government program that will NEVER make our economy any better.

Yep, prn gets a 10% differential but no benefits, so if you switch, you get 10% less an hour but get full benefits.

I can't believe there are 3+ pages of people here who think this is a good thing. Where do you think that money that is "forgiven" is absorbed to? Taxes and inflation. But I guess if you are getting your free chunk, it doesn't matter that these programs make the value of our dollar sink, raise inflation and raise taxes.....

I'm not even going to do into this one, but I will say that today's Republicans are anything but conservative as compared to times past. So, to group conservatives as being automatically a Republican is not the case anymore. I am very conservative, but can't stand Republicans in our modern days. There are very few true conservatives left in this country.

You could volunteer for a while in order to do some networking. There's no harm in a morning or afternoon or two a week to pass the time while still looking for a job.

I would think genetics.