PTKChic

I had an A&P classmate wonder why she hadn't gotten into the nursing program, wondering how important could microbiology really be to a nursing education.

We had a few paramedics and a couple EMTs in our class. Our nursing instructors were biased against them, saying nursing school was harder for them. Maybe, but they were the first people my classmates and I went to with any questions about acute care situations, labs, or pharmacology. They knew everything about everything- just needed a little work on the "therapeutic communication" nclex questions. :)

I was a CNA for 5-6 years, CMA for 9 years, and now a RN for 1 year. There are a few good points by the other responses on this thread. First, medical assistant programs are notorious at overselling their product and overcharging for it. Medical assistants are in demand, true, but medical assistant programs are popping up right and left and many are non-accredited. Your classes will not transfer. Medical assisting degrees (please don't waste more money on a degree, a diploma will do just fine at getting you certification/job) are technical credits, not liberal arts. Lab classes aren't equivalent. The credit hour system is usually different too. There is one school, that I'm familiar with, in Minnesota that uses a medical assisting degree as credit in a RN program. This school is being sued by the state for selling lies to students.... Alright, all that being said, I thank my experience as a medical assistant everyday for helping me survive nursing school and my first year as a nurse. My sister-in-law started as a LPN and she would often ask me about the skills that I learned, "Yep, I do that, I know that, check, check, check." My technical and medical skills surpassed anything she learned in her LPN program. Like another poster said, it is a medical model, not a nursing model. Nursing approaches patients holistically, which is what I love. I was sick of only asking about back pain and ignoring the fact that the patient's obesity, knee surgery, anxiety disorder, and occupation all affected his condition. As a CMA, I spent weeks learning phlebotomy (including IVs), catheterization, DME application, microbiology, ortho care, pharmacology and medication administration, surgical assistance, specimen collection, and we also did office stuff like coding and transcribing. As a nursing assistant? Bathing, brushing teeth, feeding someone, taking a blood pressure, and making a bed. Both positions are valuable. The scope of practice for medical assistants vary greatly by state. In the south, you'll see [C]MAs doing mostly administrative duties- front or back office. In Minnesota, medical assistants work to the top of their certification and education. We are practice under a doctor's license and can be trained on more complicated skills, if under close supervision of that doctor. I'm very knowledgeable in wound care, for example. During my nursing program, we had very minimal education on skills- it was very concept based. Perhaps, this was my school; maybe it was because it was a bachelor's program, I'm not sure. Blood pressure were taught and tested on in within one calendar day. They weren't put into practice in a clinical setting until 6 months later. I gave shots to a flesh-colored square of gelatin. Gelatin doesn't give feedback on your needle-poking technique, like a fellow classmate does. It's quite perturbing when nurses on allnurses comment on the scope of practice and skill set of a medical assistant, with limited knowledge on the subject. If taking the medical assisting path, which I assure you is not a worthless one, be smart and shop around for schools. OR... you could do neither the LPN program or the medical assisting one and apply for a RN program straight up. My sister-in-law (the previously mentioned one) wasted her time and money on a LPN program by using it as a bridge to a RN program, when there were plenty of entry-level RN programs out there (again, we're in Minnesota). If you want to be a RN, cut out the middle man and go do it.

I like to tinker with my resumes too. Your advice on using key words from the job description is valuable. I've never done much with that. Thank you for mentioning it.

I didn't know there was such a thing, not sure why. That seems like a valuable way to make money; that being, because there's always someone to pay for a "guarantee" of being rewarded something. Whether that be a job (paying for a resume) or a grade (paying for papers). I'm the worst at writing resumes. I'm sure I've lost a lot of great job opportunities because of my poor resume writing skills. Still, one of my colleges offered free help (pretty much writing it) with the resume. It turned out awful. It didn't represent me well, it missed a lot of my important skills, the wording sounded stale and cliche'. She had even put one of my skills as Microsoft Word and word processing- no offense, but computer skills is a modern, commonplace skill. Paying for any similar experience would have been outrageous. There are so many websites that will give advice and sample resumes, that there's no need to pay. Peers, coworkers, instructors, Internet strangers are all willing to help critique a resume you wrote. This is a representation of you, it tells your professional story. No one else can give that proper justice but you.

Is NCLEX-RN correct? I always understood it that we put which board of nursing has licensed us.

Hmm. I agree with the other nurses, smoking while in school is not going to do you any favors. Not sure of ARCC policy, in general, but I attended another MANE program school, and we did not test. That being said, many employers do and if the school suspects you, they may test you in the future. Also, side note, it's very, very easy to find out who people are on the internet. You are starting a nursing program and your classmates will be the only people you will see for a few years, outside of your family. Someone is likely to find out. Just so you know. Good luck. Congrats on getting into the program.

Hello, I bring my personal life to allnurses.com for needed advice from nurses much more experienced than I. About me: I'm in my 30s, been in healthcare for 15 yrs (8 mo as an RN), married, and mom of a brand new kindergartener. I've got 1 year left of my full-time BSN program. Dilemma: I'm strongly considering quitting a 2nd RN job; a job I've been in for over 2 mo. I'm thinking about doing this very, very soon, but I have yet to hear any sound advice- for or against. Background: I earned my 1st job as a pediatric home nurse before I even graduated the ADN program. The most complicated care I provided my peds client was cleaning an old GT site and administering Zyrtec. Hours were few (had only 20 hrs for 1 mo, one time). I sincerely attempted to make it work by repetedly asking for more complicated clients (or at least another one) and more hrs. It never happened. I was an overpaid nanny, essentially. Admittedly, peds is not for me. After 5.5 mo, I found a 2nd job and gave a 2 wk notice (did not know the 1 mo rule for RNs at the time). 2nd job is in LTC, I wanted the fast-paced TCU but begrudgingly took this position because it worked around my school schedule. And...I love it here! I didn't realize I missed LTC so much, and it is not boring, quite the opposite, in fact. I am a .4 AM shift and don't plan to leave anytime soon. 3rd job is a psych position in a group home for independent residents (they really only need med management and occasional wound care). I've been dreaming of working in psych since before age 10. I asked about this job from a friend who worked there, before applying to the LTC job. No openings. Darn. Just as I finished LTC orientation (1 mo later) she tells me there's a .4 that was opened just for me (she went on and on, apparently, about me to her boss). Only every Friday evening and the weekends are opposite of my LTC job? What luck! Red flag: I had to keep convincing myself and others that it was my dream job and that fact trumped all negative ones. Back to back orientation sucked, but orientation was only "temporary", right? Effect on family: I see my daughter for a couple hours each weekday.She's been acting out so badly since all of my crazy schedule stuff started, so most of our interactions are struggling to get her to eat or ready for bed. Family time is gone with me working every weekend. I will miss all of her kindergarten events by working Fridays. We cancelled our out-of-state vacation to see my FIL. My husband and I haven't been intimate in almost 3 wks, there's no time. I've gained 7#. I'm in the car 7 hours for only 4 days of work (psych job is 1 hr away). I won't go into school stuff because it should be obvious that my school work will struggle, as well. I can't sleep, I'm in a constant state of anxiety, and my well-controlled back pain flared up again. ** But 2 jobs ended within 8 mo of being a RN? Been at 1 for barely over 2 mo. I sound like an undependable loser and feel that I will a shame my friend who got me the psych job. (I still love psych, though). What do I do? Merciful or merciless- please be truthful.

You will not be sorry if you choose Inver Hills. I hope that's where you decided to go. Their instructors are not comparable to any others- they're absolutely amazing!

So the deal with the MANE program is that you're enrolled in both you CC and MetroState (and what ever school it is up north). Anyone who plans on still transferring at the end of the ADN instead of continuing the MetroState part? So far my experience with them has left a bad taste in my mouth. They're unorganized, horrible customer service, and, to top it off, don't offer PTK scholarships. This is my experience, but wondering if anyone plans on transferring for similar or completely different reasons.

That's not entirely true, unfortunately. At my school, ihcc, the lowest score was 11.2. You need to be in the "best" 50 applying. I would guess that it'd be similar to F14 scores, but slightly higher with people understanding what's going on and getting tips from those how got in already.

A friend went and talked to a counselor to get real stats from the last admissions (she's applying for the spring program). The lowest GPA they took was a 3.25, the lowest combined score was 11.46, and the highest TEAS score was 93%. The most important thing that the counselor said was that NOTHING is set in stone, these facts and figures will change with each admissions cycle. I just thought I'd put them here for people interested in where they fall on the spectrum.

Very nice. If only politicians and educational leaders cam get a read at this. Maybe they'd stop shoving college down everyone's throats.

I'm from Minnesota. Our podiatrists do not doing any nail trimmings or callus debridements. However, they treat nail fungus, will fix ingrown nails, and debride wounds. We refer patients our to foot care nurses and their small businesses. This starts with Medicare, but we were just told this morning that private insurances are following suit. I am sending out a mass staff message to inform our clinics that no patient, regardless of insurance, can be scheduled for nails OR calluses.

Hello there! I was recently accepted into a RN nursing program, therefore, a bunch of scholarship opportunities have opened up. One of the scholarships that I am applying to requests a resume showcasing my education accomplishments, leadership experience, community involvement, and work experience. I'm (almost) 28, graduated high school 10 years ago, have a medical assisting diploma, nursing assistant certification, and no other degrees. My question is about what I should and, more importantly, should not include on this resume. This is specifically a nursing scholarship, so I should only include health care work experience, right? I don't even know if I have contact information anymore for my non-healthcare jobs. I've always been told that education should include degrees that were actually completed or currently in progress. For example, I've taken many classes at various different institutions but there's only been three that I've completed a program at. Lastly, I've never applied for a scholarship or nor have I done the education resume thing before. The tips that I'm most familiar with are in regards to working resumes. I've always been told to not include items that occurred or were received during high school unless it's for the very first job ever. Does this still apply for a scholarship vs a job? I question this because I have extensive extra-curricular involvement, including volunteerism, during my high school years. Post high-school, not so much; I was only focused on school or working or, recently, my family. Currently, in regards to high school, I have included that I had graduated with honors and was in a couple honors societies. I was senior Class Secretary and a lettered, all-academic-state Cheerleading Captain (x 4 years). Do I include any of this under leadership experience or is high school stuff entirely silly to put on there? Thank you for anyone willing to give me an answer! I hand in my application later this week and I just want it to be clean and crisp.