CupofTea123

no way, that is a dead end. hold out for something better.

There are some great things about studying nursing in college, like you will be engaged, busy, learning practical skills, learning communication and interpersonal skills. I'm sure you know the large number of HS Seniors who flounder in college and wonder what college is really for. If you major in nursing, it will be pretty clear what college is for! Also, the field of Health Information Management (Healthcare IT, basically) also called Informatics is huge and getting huger. If you want to combine both of your interests, a BSN is a great foundation degree, and then later pick up more education in informatics if you want to move in that direction. The prestige & high pay of the downtown Boston hospitals are sometimes open to new grads, but it's pretty random, depending on the ebb & flow of hospital finances, nurses retiring, health policy changes, things completely beyond prediction. Right now, new grads are rarely being hired downtown. But it could change.

I think it's true that there are no guarantees about the HRSA. If you take the scholarship, no guarantee of a job, if you go for the loan repayment, no guarantee of being accepted, if you work at a site, no guarantee it will continue to be a site. Definitely an uncertain solution to the debt problem.

My situation is that if I am able to use the loan repayment program, it would be at the same time my daughter will be in college. Does anyone know how this affected your tax returns or financial aid for your children? If it is taxable, does it increase your income & therefore decrease the student's need? Any tips on this?

I just posted on a similar thread--at the bottom is a link to a document that is Research Nurse competencies. That covers that range of what a research nurse is expected to know. My days are similar to what klone describes above, though I have a lot of regulatory paperwork type tasks, as my lab has many open protocols. Also, I work in an outpatient setting, which is different from an inpatient floor, so I am calling potential patients & asking them to come in for studies.

I got my job this way: a friend of mine was complaining about her job as a research nurse saying "I feel like a glorified secretary". I was so bone-tired at that life-moment, and I thought "Dang, I would love to be a glorified secretary!! I'd be a really good glorified secretary!!" That night I changed my resume on Monster.com to say that I wanted to be a Research Nurse. The next day a hospital recruiter called me to say she had a research nurse job that needed to be filled immediately. (the position had been vacant for 6 weeks which, in Research-World is forever, and the physician had called the recruiter that morning breathing fire--so much for needing experience!!) The plus side was I got the job. The hard part was that I had no idea what I was doing. Research is it's own little world, with quirks and expectations that are not at all intuitive (probably similar to the NICU). I bumbled my way through the first few months with the help of a really stellar and compassionate Research Assistant who oriented me to everything, and I finally got the hang of it. I work in a large Academic Hospital--I assume that's the kind of research nursing you'd want to move into. The pay is much better than in the Pharmaceuticals Industry. I've been a research nurse for almost 7 years now, and it has suited me & my family very well for that time, though I'm now looking at going back to school &/or planning to return to a direct care role. One thing I really notice about research nursing that is very different than a clinical setting is that involves a great deal of writing, reading, trying to interpret the meaning of policies, and following obscure rules that seem to conflict with each other. There's no nurse manager or practice committee to straighten out the confusion & provide guidance. There is rarely anyone to really puzzle things out with--that is what the team relies on the research nurse for. It also can be quite isolated (where I am almost all of us work as the only nurse on a team, so no one else knows your exact setup, personalities or protocols you're working with). This was quite a shock to my system because I was used to having nurses around to bounce things off of. Also, I was used to a chaotic, bustling clinic setting where lots of funny or touching or potent or scary things happened every day. Research nursing has a lot of urgent deadlines, but there's very little to write home about or take to heart. The other thing I was not prepared for was that frequently research nurses work closely with Research Assistants who are just-graduated-from-college, high-achieving students who want to go to med school. There is a lot of mentoring to do as they can come out of school without much practical work experience. So, if you're going to be in an Academic Hospital setting, you probably need to have a big warm spot in your heart for 22-24 year-olds who are somewhere between puppies and baby birds. So if those things sound like a refreshing break (they were for me, just hard to get used to), Research Nursing might be a good bet. Lots of people want you to spend money to learn to be a research coordinator or research nurse. If you can afford one of those classes or programs that may help you get your foot in the door, since sites looking for Research Nurses will recruit from those programs. You will definitely have a leg up. But I don't think it's necessary. I found this document http://www.ons.org/media/ons/docs/publications/ctncompetencies.pdf to be an extremely accurate take on what is expected of a research nurse in a Academic Hospital setting. While some of it is specific to Oncology, the competencies section at the end is pretty much how it works (it's a lot). I would recommend that you spend a few evenings reading through it trying to puzzle out what it's talking about, looking up the terms and getting a bit of a grounding in the different components. And then, with that overview, network like crazy until you find some research nurses to talk to. If you can't find any, start answering ads looking for research subjects and ask to talk to the research nurse. If you go see how their offices are set up, and hear how their research teams work, etc, it will be more real to you. If you can imagine yourself in their role, you can probably make a good enough impression in an interview. Also, your new contacts may be able to help network for you. As I said, it is very hard on a team to go without a research nurse--things really grind to a halt--so when hiring happens it is often urgent. Best of luck!

Hello, I'm considering the Part Time option for January 2014. Would really like to hear from people who are part-way through or have finished the program on the Part Time schedule. Specifically, how many hours per week did you need to put in? And did you work while you were taking classes? clinicals? I am basing my financials on working 30h/wk until clinicals start, and then cutting to 20h/wk. Do you think that's realistic? or would I need to work less? (formerly stellar student w/ a 50yo brain). Thanks in advance for any info.