inthepipeline

I'm currently an LPN working in a diabetes clinic, have been for the last 1 year 9 months and I also work a sub acute per diem. I'm starting my LPN to RN January 2018 and have a Bachelors degree in another discipline. I do not have the requisite hours for the WCC and I was wondering if the DWC is worth the time and money as a certification or if I should just wait until I finish my RN and go for the WOCN certification instead. The price is pretty steep at $2,800 for the DWC. Thank you for any advice.

What I did was look at the board of nursing website and went through every schools website and looked them up. That's how I found my LPN program. For LPN to RN I found one school that has a waitlist but it goes quicker than what they posted and all I had to do was pass pre reqs. I found a cheap private college that while a little disorganized is cheap and accepts most people and has solid pass rates. The BON website is gold.

I'm an lpn that was not one before. I did direct care for special needs kids while in nursing school, but no adult/ geriatric care. I worked a few times as a cna to help out when my unit is short and to do a whole shift as a cna I strongly dislike. All the nurses that were cna first on my unit are glad not to be cna anymore. So, no you don't have to like it and there are several great nurses I know that were never cna and some terrible nurses that were and vice Versa. They are such different jobs each important. You will do cna stuff while a nurse of course however not nearly as much as an actual cna.

Hello, I was a financial aid officer before I switched to healthcare. The $2,500 from the FAFSA does not make sense unless you are talking only about the Pell Grant. My numbers may be slightly off but generally a student can get $5,500 in federal student loans without any parental help. The pell grant I'm not so sure about, but you can call the hotline off of the fafsa.ed.gov website and ask a rep. Also, how expensive is your school that $18,000 in scholarships doesn't cover it all? Was the e bill from before the scholarship is applied? You can apply to ROTC now without parental permission, you just can't sign the papers until you're 18. You can apply for a nursing scholarship. Also NROTC is not the only way to go the Navy has a nursing program where tey pay for the last 2 years of nursing school and you get a stipend and have to do a PT test during the year and are free the rest of the academic year. You can join the reserves or the national guard which offer various programs for nursing. You can join the active Army as a medic and later apply to their LPN school. Or you can do 3 years acrive duty and get the post 9/11 GI Bill to pay for school after your service. Keep in mind too that in nursing school you will have to do clinicals which can be up to 12 hours some days including coursework and studying which will leave little time to babysit your siblings. Eventually, you'll have to take a less active roll in childcare. Also, there are a few nursing homes/ skilled nursing facilties that will pay for your LPN or RN in exachange for a couple years of work as an LPN/RN.

I actually spoke with a nurse who went to med school after being a nurse for 8 years. Working as a nurse made him realize he wanted to be a doc. He had no regrets about becoming a nurse, just that he wanted to take on the doc role. I strongly recommend shadowing an ICU nurse, ICU NP/PA, CRNA, and MD anesthesiologist. Also, shadow a PICU nurse, peds NP/PA, and pediatrician. Ask the nearest CRNA program if you can shadow a SRNA and a med student. Also, work as a nurse for a couple years or more even after your obligation is up as actually being in the clinical enviroment and having that job and responsbility will help you see what you like. Also being a CRNA and MD are radically different, it sounds like you're just kind of reading and hearing about them, but don't really know truly what the roles are about. That's ok, I was and in many ways still am the same way, we all started like that. Just be honest with yourself and why you want a specific role. Yes, CRNA has money, autonomy, and respect, but do you actually like critical care, physiology, clinical pharmacology, the OR, and anesthesia? Do you mind your patients largely being asleep, following them for a short period? What draws you to peds? How does a peds nurse, peds midlevel, and peds MD/DO approach the same case? What do they do the same differently each day? Write down your answers, see how they evolve over the years, notice what questions you learn to ask and what the answers mean to you as you aquire more experience and knowledge. Do not be in a rush. Also, I worked with a doc who worked the first 2 years of med school, I've heard of it happening, but it is rare and not manageable for the overwhelming majority of people. Same with CRNA school. Good luck! If you do the pre med requirements they will help for CRNA school too, they won't hurt one bit so go for them! Also, one thing that really helped me was learning the difference of when I'm just interested in something superficially vs I'm interested in doing something day in day out. Think of something you thought you'd love before starting nursing school, but did not love once you saw day in day out reality of it once you got exposed to it. Apply that to being an MD or CRNA.

In Criminal Minds a woman was dunked in an bleach filled bathtub. She gets pulled out and the ever perceptive Spence gives her milk and tells her it will "coat her lungs" and help protect them.

Carharrts only ones I'll wear

You could look for pt care tech/ cna jobs, unit secretary, working at group homes (developmental disabilities/mental health), healthcare admin jobs such as pt registration, reception. Janitorial/ food service at a healthcare place ( hospital/ snf). Once you get into one of these places especially unit secretary/tech/cna start hitting up the nurses for help like old review books, shadowing, anything. As you work through questions or old books ask the nurses on ones you get stuck on. Practice tests are going to let you identify weak areas. However refresher courses are key. Look into forbearance for your loans fed loans give up to 3 years. Also do income repayment plan if the forbearance runs out because it can go as low as 0. When people speak about a refresher course only some states offer the type that are hands on like a mini nursing school. Have you looked into job training programs/ child care programs? Also see if you are in a state that let's rn students/ grads sit for pn NCLEX. It's not much easier but perhaps enough so to allow you to pass.

I used meditech in clinicals and do telephone triage with epic at my job and love it once you learn the ropes it's awesome. The epic team for our practice went into one clinic and almost doubled the number of patients they saw just by customizing.

I work a large practice during the week and do a subacute on the weekends. While I love the facility I'm at and what I'm learning I would not want to do it long term ( the subacute). It goes double for LTC. It's just not my thing and that's ok I only do it to round out my skills. Ambulatory nursing I truly enjoy. You just need to find what you like. Most nurses I met don't like LTC or like their patients enough to stay. There are plenty of non LTC options for lpns ( as for actual jobs in those option that's area dependent). Getting your RN will open up all nursing has to offer. See your dissatisfaction with being an LVN not as a dissatisfaction with nursing but with a dissatisfaction with a small part of nursing.

Thank you all for the awesome responses.

I'm an LPN and do all that stuff except the PA's. How you utilize your LPNs and MA's largely depends on your workflow and nature of your practice. So if you have more injections, infusions, procedures, and higher risk triage questions (chest pain, low BS, heavy duty med side effects/reactions) then an LPN/RN would be better. However, if you're mostly doing med management/internal med then MA's may be more cost effective. You can train either to how you need. Also, do you function off of paper or have an EMR like EPIC, eclinical, or Meditech? As for verbal orders to a pharmacy if you need a licensed person then LPN would be the cheapest. However, could the MA's set up the orders for your to sign and then they fax them so that all you have to do is review and sign with them doing the prep? Or you could do e prescribe through an EMR or service and your MA's/office staff could set up the order and you just review and send. If its a multistate practice they must have some sort of EMR or workflow system to address this. As for documenting an EMR is priceless for providers because you can use smart phrases/ formats which can cut down documentation time dramatically. I guess I'd need more information on your workflow to really offer valuable suggestions.

Thank for your responses. I'll probably end of doing it backwards and that's what I was inquiring about. Jadelpn there are RN to EMT-P programs in other states, which is why I inquired as to if there are any in MA. I guess "bridge" is not the best way to put it. However, thank you both again.

Hello, I'm a new LPN who will go into an LPN to BSN program in the next year or so. I'm going to get my EMT-B in the fall and would like to end up in an ER/ICU after finishing my BSN if possible. I'm very interested in getting my EMT-P or Pre Hospital RN however I haven't been able to find anything for an RN to Paramedic bridge or PHRN certification for MA. The only thing I can find is a blurb about challenging the board. I wanted to know if anyone has any info on a paramedic to RN option or PHRN cert in MA. Also, I wouldn't be starting the LPN to BSN program until Summer 2016 which gives me some time to do EMT-B, but would it be worth it to do an AEMT course after or EMT-P or wait until I am an RN and look into a bridge of some sort? Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you.

All these things will be heavily school dependent. Some schools require a TEAS, some a HESI, and some another type of admissions test, but TEAS is most common. Some schools require prerequisites, but most that I have seen do not. My program did not, however, when I lived in AZ all the schools in Maricopa Country required a CNA license first for the LPN program. However, having the CNA did not give you any credit towards your LPN, it was just a prerequisite. In MA that's not the case. My program awarded no college credit because it was at a tech school however I can bring that transcript to any college to evaluate and it's up to the college if they want to award credit (which they do not outside of special LPN to ASN and LPN to BSN programs in my area) . A co worker of mine did her LPN certificate at a community college and could take a 1 semester 3 credit A&P that would not count towards her RN prerequisites or she could do the normal A&P 1 (for 3 credits) then A&P 2 (for 3 credits) in two separate semesters and they would count because they are normal A&P classes. Also lvnforschool is correct LPN is NOT a degree, it is a license. Even if some LPN's have an Associate's Degree in Applied Science or Practical Nursing this does not make them an LPN, it makes them a person with a nursing degree. Once they pass the NCLEX-PN and meet other state licensure requirements and are awarded an LPN license, then they are LPNs. I have a friend who has a BSN, he never passed the NCLEX-RN and therefore never became a nurse. He's an administrator now (a great one), but not a nurse. I believe theCommuter's responses was more geared towards the thought that you can't get an associate's degree in practical nursing which is unture, you can. Long story short: visitng your local programs is best.