Acton

So I just passed Nur 2 from an ADN program in upstate ny with an A-. At this point I think it might be a good idea to start looking past graduation and what it will take to get a job! I currently work at a hospital as a nursing assistant, and have been with them for a year but they dont hire any ADN grads, even those who are current employees as the hospital is seeking magnet status. The area is saturated with new grads and experienced nurses alike so my chances of getting a job in acute care in the immediate area are slim to none! The good news is I plan to start a bridge program online as soon as possible to get my bsn, and Im willing to move to anywhere in the country that will give me a position in acute care! I recently got engaged in December and my fiancé is on board with this! She's a vet tech so Im sure she'll find something in whatever area we move to! At this point I want to figure out what it takes to apply for licensure in X state and how to transfer my liscense from ny, and how I should go about hunting for jobs acrossed the country! Are there any sites that you guys use? Ive got a lot to learn, starting with how to make a good resume, how I should conduct myself in phone interviews and what I should expect as far as what I will need to do to move me and my fiance half way across the country! Im willing to move to wherever the opportunities are! My hope is to secure a medsurg position and work it for 1-3 yrs while earning my bsn, then eventually secure a job back here in the hudson valley so we can be close to our family when we decide to start having kids! Any advice is appreciated!

I think it is. I met a nurse at my clinical site who graduated from my program, and she failed nursing 2 the first time, but passed with flying colors the second! Believe it or not, a lot of students don't come back the second time after they fail once, so it's hard to really judge! If your motivated, have a good attitude, and think critically about your studies and what you may need to do to improve; then I'm sure you'll do fine!

How to start this topic off. . . ? So my original intention today was to come here for support in relation to struggles I've been having recently in nursing school that have gotten me pretty down lately. This isn't in regards to grades or anything, but interpersonal skills with my instructors and peers. I just feel like I rub people the wrong way sometimes when I don't mean too, and it gets me down. That isn't going to be what I'm discussing though, even though that's my problem; what this topic is going to be about is my response/attitude. . . So Nursing School is hard, I'm sure we're all on the same page as far as that goes, but really though besides the academics, when you boil it down nursing school is about dealing with stress and adversity, and how you as an individual respond to it. You have to ask yourself though, how is that any different then life in general? I feel like sometimes its really easy to lose sight of that. That's what happened to me recently, I lost sight of that, that is >I'm the most dynamic variable in any situation that I'm apart of. In the past I've gotten such great feedback here on a lot of things, and looking back a lot of my issues are the same, but I've made big improvements! I still have a ways to go, but that's why we all push ourselves, so that someday we can be the person we've always wanted to be. Sometimes it's just a good idea to take a moment to look back, especially in nursing school when your constantly looking forward. Remember all the hard learned lessons that brought you to this moment, sure there's a lot you still don't know, but remember what you do know! When the going gets tough, don't give into despair! Feel like you may have stepped on someone's toes when you didn't mean too? Learn from the experience and make changes, but don't beat yourself up! Sure, the same thing might happen again. . . and again. . . and again, but if you maintain a positive attitude and keep your head in the game you'll see results! I just posted this because I wanted to give something back! I read an old topic I posted 2 years ago here in relation to another issue before I started nursing school, and a lot of the advice I was given there was really relevant to my issues right now! Its funny how things work out like that sometimes. =)

3.67 GPA and a 73 on the Teas Test. I did really well on the science section getting into the 92 percentile nation wide and 93 percentile program wide. I didn't do too well on the grammar and word meanings section, some of the words they wanted you too define where just ridiculous Where do you guys think I stand?

I thought I saw on the teas website that you could only take it once a year. . . anyway I know for a fact that the program I'm applying for will only let you take it once a year.

Well this situation is quite complicated and I'm hoping to get some advice on it. I recently put in an application to a acute medical facility in my area. I currently work at a nursing home and I've been there for five months. Being that I'm a nursing student it has been my ambition to get into acute care at some point, but I didn't expect to get an opportunity this quickly. Today I had my first interview and everything seemes to have gone well, I was not yet offered the job but they told me when orientation would start and what the base pay was. My issue is that their reference section is quite complicated, and it puts me in a awkward position being that I have not yet been offered the new job. In the reference section they want five references, one having to be my current immediate boss. I need her phone number AND her email. They will email her a survey that she needs to fill out in order for the hiring process to continue.. . . this is somewhat different then my previous experiences have been, where they only needed the number, and could only call regarding when I was employed there and for how long. . . .At this point I would have to approach my boss about a job I haven't even been offered yet in order to get her full reference info, and this will put me in an awkward spot with my current boss. . . what should I do? I really want this new job, it's 1199. . . .

I'm a nursing student as well, and during my CNA class last summer, we had a GN in our class (didn't take the NCLEX yet) and he failed the class! He was really arrogant and he ****** off the instructor, he couldn't understand the concept of lowering/raising the bed rails either. . . go figure.

The only reason why I bring up any concern is because some of my coworkers seem to have a fondness for embellishing on the truth and making things out to be much worse then they really are. They are, quite frankly, not the nicest of people. During my first month of employment I was scheduled to work the weekend, and that Sunday on my way to work I ended up vomiting on my way in. I felt fine, and it was mostly a spontaneous thing, I'm sure some of you have had such a thing happen to you at some point. I expressed to my supervisor my willingness to still work out the shift, and that the only issue was cleaning up the front of my scrubs, since I had no time to pull over to the side of the road. Because of this I was forced to pick up a day on the following weekend, which happened to be my girlfriends 21st birthday. During a break I expressed my frustration to my coworkers, and they pretty much all told me, "tough ****." They felt as a new worker, it was unfair for someone to come into the situation and have things changed for them, despite whatever the circumstances where. So I dealt with it and worked the following weekend and moved on with my life. So skip a month and a half ahead and the same "experienced" coworker who pretty much told me, "tough ****" calls in on a Sunday sick. She was scheduled to start vacation the following Friday, but due to the circumstances she would be forced to work during that weekend, which she had taken off for vacation. Well because of this she proceeded to complain the whole week about the situation and how it was unfair. All of those same coworkers who originally had no sympathy for me took her side and felt her situation was unfair. I understand that workplace politics do exist, and their is a dynamic in the workplace between people. Being that I've only been there four months, I'm not really sure where I stand with my coworkers yet. At this point I'm getting a lot of mixed messages, it's really hit and miss most days. Some days I feel like everyone on the floor like's me and I've got no problems with anyone. The next day I feel like I can't do anything right and I'm just being a burden to the floor. This is compounded by the fact that I'm a male CNA and there are a lot of no male residents that I'm not able to care for. This forces my coworkers to pick up the slack, but I'm not in a position to do anything about it. I'm put into the position a lot where I'm asked to do something that's against the rules while no one is looking, and I have to be the bad guy and say no. So taking all of that into context I'm not sure how accurate of an impression I'm going to be getting from my coworkers. A lot of them seem to have the, "It's not my problem" attitude when someone else has an issue. . .

Good point. I've been there for four months, (this is my first position as a CNA) and this is the first time this has happened. Of course I wasn't able to be mandated in my first 90 days of employment, and I only work part time. Depending on how you look at this, it's hard to say whether the situation is likely to happen frequently. I'm not sure if I should be looking at my situation differently then others, where I'm part time and other staff is full time. How would you guys go about accessing the situation accurately? Honestly people can tell you whatever they want. Being that I'm new to the field I feel like it might be hard for me to accurately judge whether or not this is likely to happen frequently. Any advice? Thanks.

Yeah I even offered to work the first four hours. I spoke to my nursing advisor at the college, apparently this IS legal. She thinks I should have just dealt with it, and worked something out with my professor the next day. That's usually not possible, and most professors usually don't make such exceptions. . . . The good news is though as of right now I contacted the staffing coordinator (the Director of Nursing wasn't in yet) and she told me that the supervisor never left a note about my refusal to work the shift. She's apparently they one who gets notified of such events and she told me to just not make an issue out of it, since there was no note left. My mom, an RN who has been in the field of nursing for 20 years feels that I should hang low for a week and then confront the Director of Nursing about the "hypothetical situation", and if any sort of agreement can't be reached, she feels I should put in my two weeks notice. I think she's assuming that I should be able to secure another position where such an arrangement could be made, but I'm not so sure. My advisor, like I said before feels that I should have just stuck it out. I'm really stuck on this one, any advice?

Hi, I currently work as a CNA at a nursing home in NYS. I was mandated tonight to work 11-7 after working 3-11 when I have class in the morning from 8:30am-2:30pm. I am also scheduled to work tomorrow evening from 3pm-11pm. I was told by several people including my CNA instructor, the hiring manager at my facility, and my mother who has been an RN for 30 years that it is illegal to mandate me under such circumstances. This issue was my number one concern when entering the field, and I made sure to make it a point to ask about such circumstances when I was hired. Apparently the law implemented in NYS only applies to RNs/LPNs. I have a test tomorrow and anyone who has been to school for nursing knows how difficult it is. I cannot be reasonably expected to be able to work 16 hours, function in school for another 8 and THEN return to work for another 8 hours. I'm not sure if the law is with me here on this one, but if that's the case I'll have to quit being a CNA. My education is my number one priority and I am currently maintaining a 3.7 GPA, which is quite hard to do. Thanks for all the comments in advance.

First I would just like to introduce myself and give a little back ground. I'm a 24 year old male who has worked at a brain trauma center for a year in house keeping. It doesn't involve direct patient care, but I interact with the patients on a daily basis and I've worked with quite a few who have behaviors right along side the CNA's on the floor. I'm also a pre nursing individual studies student, I've just gotten through a year of pre and co-reqs and I've got a cumulative 3.75 GPA, my GPA last semester was 3.90. I'm very serious about my profession in health care. So I registered for the CNA program at my local Boces and it's gone pretty well. It's given me a lot of great experience and for the most part its been profitable with a few bumps. At this points I'm in the clinical portion of the class, and I've run into a problem with what I consider to be blantant sexism. Today was my third day in clinicals and I was performing perineal care on a resident who was highly constricted, this was a resident I had been working with my first night of clinicals. She was a female and I had to verbally and somewhat physically help her relax so two other sudents and myself could perform perineal care on this resident. Half way through the skill one of the students left without and explination and returned with one of the other students five minutes later. They proceeded to explain to me that, "This resident is a female CNA only resident, so we're going to need you to leave." So I was somewhat skeptical but did not want to make the resident uncomfortable so I just agreed with them and left. I went to the LPN on the floor and asked her if this resident was in fact female CNA only. She said that she wasn't, so I explained the situation to the instructor because I was somewhat upset, and she had a few words with the other students. At the end of the clinical I had a few words with the instructor, and she kind of beat around the bush but I got the vibe from her that she was siding with the female students altough it was obvious that they had lied about the resident being female CNA only because she felt that they where right that I wasn't "In touch" with the residents emotions and how she felt about the care. This resident has severe dementia and she made no verbal responses to any of the attempts we made to speak with her. So we explained the procedure and she seemed to be fine with it, she was just constriced and we had to relax her a little bit; which did mean getting her to open up her legs somewhat. I firmly believe I know the difference between a resident who is consiously resisting and is upset, and a resident who has severe dementia and is constricted. I was very upset with the situation, and how the instructor didn't really get to the point with the constructive critisism and just kind of hinted and gave me vibes that she thought I was wrong. I'm just . . . frustrated. Can someone give me their thoughts on the situation? I've got three more days of clinicals left and I want to get the most out of them that I can before I move onto my first job as a CNA. I feel like I'm missing something here. I don't know, maybe I need to focus on my interpersonal relationships with my coworkers more? Maybe I rubbed them the wrong way? They had all of their supplies set up on the dresser near the TV, (there was no bedside table). I gave them the bright idea of using the geriatrics chair as a clean surface, kind of like a bedside table to work with instead of walking in and out of the curtain to wash and rinse the washcloth. . . . which I might add meant walking ten feet with a dripping feces covered cloth. . . Any input is appreciated, thanks!