cjward3

My goal is to work in the hospital on med surg while I go to school to become an FNP. I can't work in the hospital right now, though, due to my husband being deployed and we have small kids and no family support. We are due to transfer in the next 6-18 months, though, and he won't be deploying anymore. I want to set myself up for success. I currently do staff development and occupational health for an assisted living. The CEO of the company offered to fill out my job (bumping me up to full-time) by hiring me at corporate to help roll out our new EHR. This job offers a lot of flexibility, but doesn't exactly point me in the direction I want to go. I could easily do this job for 6 months, but the thought of doing for 18 months sounds mind numbing. I just got an offer working at a busy family practice doing triage. It's a lot less flexibility, but with the goal of becoming an FNP, I feel like it would be consistent with my long term goals. I would spend 85% of my time chained to the phone doing triage however. The pay is excellent at both places. When I go to apply to FNP school, I assume the family practice will look better. I don't know if either will help me land a hospital job other than the practice is a part of our local hospital. My current job points out my drive and initiative. Corporate promotions don't come easily, so it's a huge honor to receive that. I'm afraid that I am going to lose clinics skills and become an unattractive candidate for acute care in the future. Any insight is appreciated.

What books do you need? I didn't go there but I just graduated and have tons of books that I would happily get to you for much cheaper. I'm in Kittery.

Have you considered going to the hospital that you worked at for 7 years and working for a year or two? I'm in Maine now and got a job offer within 2 weeks (Internal Medicine). I have 10 years of LPN experience, so maybe that was part of it.

Did your pre-WGU gpa factor into your ability to get into your program? I am starting WGU on 9/1, and, like everyone, hope to be done in the blink of an eye. My next goal is Frontier's WHNP/CNM program. My ADN GPA was a 3.89. Will that still help me, or do Master's programs simply look at the "most recent" GPA?

You all give those of us just starting out hope!

Unfortunately I can't work in that setting right now. My husband is active duty and deployed. I'm at the mercy of daycare hours (M-F).

Bump. Anyone?

According to PV it's 48 business hours, but I took my test at 2PM on Friday before Memorial Day and my license was posted to my BON (maine) on Saturday morning. So, it might be quicker than expected

I'm a 10-year LPN vet and a new grad RN. I've spent the last 7 years working in SNF management. I'm a mom of two small children with no family support and a deployed active duty husband. My goal is to do FNU's WH/CNM program. All of that is to say that I recently started working again and I'm a little worried that I may be killing my chances of ever getting into acute care. I took an SDC/occ health position in an assisted living because the hours are consistent and work for my family. And, while it's great for right now, it's not my goal. OB is my passion and the only place I see myself headed. Since I'm back in management and essentially doing zero patient care am I destroying my chance of getting into a hospital setting in the future? In 2 years both of my kids will be in school and my husband will be at a non-deploying unit. In the mean time I'm starting at WGU to finish my BSN, and get myself primed for grad school. it kills me that I won't have the opportunity to do acute care before I start, though (I have zero experience, so I would never be able to commit to a preceptorship even if the goal was to try to go per diem). I worried that, in 2 years, I will have lost my chance at those "new grad" opportunities, but I'll be unattractive because I don't have acute care experience. Any insight? Things I can do now to make myself more attractive for the future?

I winged it. My local testing center had an opening 2 days away and I figured I would give it a shot. I passed with 75 questions in about an hour. No crazy studying. I did NCLEX mastery, Saunders and LaCharity. If you have a good grasp of content then I would absolutely focus on LaCharity. Most of my exam was prioritization SATA questions. I didn't count but I'm guessing close to 50 questions were SATA. Mi took my exam within 3 weeks of graduation. I figured that if I was ever going to know the info, it would be right away. Just thought i would would piggyback on your post and share my experience as well.

Here we are rounding out week 3. How is everyone feeling? I have already completed 2 tests, written 3 papers, and have taken 2 quizzes, not to mention cultured the bacteria from my car on a petri dish. I'm feeling a lot better now that I've seen the actual testing style of the professors and gotten to play with ATI a little bit. So far, so good. Clinicals start in 5 weeks and I couldn't be more excited.

and I'm feeling SO overwhelmed. Anyone else feel like they bit off more than they could chew?

I was previously licensed as an LPN in Michigan and just transferred my license back. It took me about 4 weeks, and I had to use a third-party finger printer as well.

Eh. Don't let jaded comments get in. There are plenty of us who still have fun EVERY day! Congrats girl!

I graduated with my LPN in 2005 and am anxiously awaiting news if I was accepted into an RN bridge program to start this fall.

I am asking myself this question as well. Thanks for that website Commuter!! That's awesome.

I'm a 30 year old mother of 2 (3.5 and 2) and have been with my husband for almost 10 years. I've been an LPN since 2005 and just applied to an LPN-RN bridge program. I'll find out in June if I get to start in the fall.

It must vary from place to place, because I have never worked in a facility with those stipulations, either. Also, how is it ethical for a physician to bypass a patient's code status? If a physician has a problem with a patient's code status, then either the doctor needs to address it and work with facility staff and the family to get it changed, or he needs to drop the patient. Choosing to ignore a black and white directive is unethical. That's been my training anyway and every facility I've worked in across the country has held the same standard.

I think that you will be much more successful in school if you have A&P done prior to starting nursing courses. That said, if your school doesn't have that requirement, then I suppose they feel it's not absolutely necessary. Perhaps their course is structured to teach some of that along the way? Either way, I probably wouldn't do it, personally. A&P was definitely one of the hardest classes I've ever taken. It's SO much information and memorization.

I read the post as the MD was in the room as the patient passed, not necessarily that the doctor discovered the patient. Reading it in that context, then yes, I do agree that more detail is needed. However, if it was the case where the MD witnessed the patient stop breathing, then I stand by my prior statement.

Unless the doctor was physically restraining me, I would be performing CPR on that patient, no matter what he said. I would call for another nurse to come in for a second set of eyes as well. No matter what the doctor's opinion is, a full code is a full code. You perform CPR until the medics come and take over.

Well we will hopefully be in this together! Good luck, and we've got this!

I graduated with my LPN in 2005 and will hopefully be starting my RN program in the fall. I've worked in multiple capacities within LTCs and SNFs, ranging from a floor nurse to an ADoN to an MDS nurse and finally as a nurse manager for a Medicare unit. I'll be honest, I'm a little freaked out that I haven't been in nursing classes in so long. For the last 2 years, I have been slowly taking pre-requisites, so school isn't a foreign concept to me at this point. I'm mostly concerned about the intensity of nursing classes. When I went for my LPN, I was still dating my husband and was carefree and 20. Now, I'm a married 30 year old mother of 2 kids aged 2 and 3. Thankfully, I won't have to work at all during school, and my mom will be watching my babies, so I feel confident that I will be able to invest my time and attention completely to school. So, has anyone been working as an LPN for an extended period of time, only to go back for RN and be really successful at school? Am I psyching myself out for nothing? I'm just on pins and needles thinking about the possibilities!

It seems like that nursing class would require admission into the program as a pre-requisite. I don't know of any schools that don't require A&P prior to admission. So, in that respect, I think that you'll definitely need to take A&P first.

University of Alaska Anchorage does online A&P. I took it and LOVED it!