elainebenes

I looked at the career sites for major hospitals in my area, and found my job listing there for one of the hospital's primary care clinics.

For your first job, I think a nursing home would be better for growth and future opportunities. What sounds most appealing to you? Jail nursing is hard because you don't work with many other medical personnel, so it limits your learning. And you literally have to go into jail every day. The work conditions are not ideal, and it may train you to develop bad nursing habits if you aren't surrounded by other nurses who are held to best practice standards. Try to pick a first job that you are either passionate about, or that can expose you to a lot of different learning opportunities.

Hello! I've recently moved and am looking for a new Med Surg position. I see many positions offered here are advertised as Day/Night shift. Is this a thing, to have to work both shifts instead of one or the other? In this scenario, do nurses typically work day shift one week and night shift the next? I've always found day shift positions easily in the past. A day/night shift seems hard on childcare options, and sleep continuity. Please let me know if you've worked a "Day/Night" situation before and how scheduling has worked for you. Thanks!

The hard job hands down.

I have a BA in Psychology and am now going back for an ABSN 15 years later and now that my kids are in school. You will be MUCH much much better off switching to nursing now and getting it done. A BA in Psychology doesn't do much for you career wise. I wish I had done Nursing the first time around, it would have saved me a lot of time and a lot of money (ABSN programs are not cheap). I think it is a much better idea to graduate with a degree that translates to an actual job title (ie nurse, engineer, lawyer, or even business, etc) than it is to go for a degree more based in theory like Psychology, philosophy, etc. Good luck!

I just took it two weeks ago. The practice tests were harder than the test in my opinion. Get a good night sleep and have a good breakfast. The thing I was most surprised about when I took it was how many people rushed through it without using the whole time allotted. I took my full time (but was always mindful of the amount of time left) and went back and looked over my answers if I still had leftover time. You can always eliminate one or two answers right off the bat, then just take time to think through the remaining answers. I scored a 92.7%. You can do great too. :)

I just took it this past weekend and the ATI workbook was very helpful. I also had the McGraw workbook which was also helpful but harder. I actually thought both workbooks' practice tests were harder than the actual test. I did not find an app to use, sorry I know that is your question, but if you master the ATI workbook info and practice tests you will do well. Just carry it around with you LOL. I scored a 92.7% which put me in the 99th percentile (national).

Yes, I was just going to say that for a traditional student, their first two years would be general education and the junior/senior years would be the nursing portion. So that is the only two years you will have to worry about. Your prereqs plus two years of nursing school is what you will do. I would love to connect with you and will send you my contact info to your email! Thanks for reaching out, we are in the same boat. And yes, regarding different prereq requirements for traditional vs ABSN, I had to deal with that as well. I chose NOT to take the combo Anatomy and Physiology that was required for the Accelerated because almost every other school wants the two semester separate A&P courses. So I would rather just cover all my bases now up front. Which is why I also threw Nutrition in there at mid semester. (I took an online course that was condensed into just the second half of the full semester because I realized I could handle it). Not all schools require it but many do so I just took it. St. Mary's wants me to take another Humanities class as well for the Traditional route, but not for the Accelerated. My head spins trying to keep track of it all! Anyways, I'll send u my email. Maybe we will be in Anatomy together at Leavenworth next semester?!

Hi!!! So I ended up doing my first semester of prereqs at Kansas City Kansas Community College and it worked out perfectly! I was able to take Biology and Chemistry right at the Leavenworth campus in downtown Leavenworth (8 minutes from post!). I also took Nutrition online and that went really well too! In the spring I will have to drive to the main campus for Microbiology, but I think it's only about 30 minutes away (I've never had to go to the main campus yet for anything). And I will take Anatomy at Leavenworth campus. Then Physiology in the summer. I went and visited USM and they were very helpful and kind. Arrange to take a tour and they will give you a ton of good information and you will meet the Nursing dept directors while you are there. I'm going to apply to enter the traditional program for next fall but since i won't have all my prereqs done yet I will be at a slight disadvantage but I'm not too worried. I will miss the cutoff this year to apply for the Accelerated program because of my prereqs timeline, so I will do that if I don't get into the Traditional. Both options will finish at the same time then for me (Summer 2017), so I'd rather go to traditional school for 2yrs and have some calmness, than take a year off waiting and then kill myself in the Accelerated program for a year, KWIM? And they told me that the Accelerated program is very rigorous and can be very hard if you have kids. The school is expensive and that is definitely going to be rough, but all of your school options around here aside from KCKCC are all in the same ballpark cost wise. I wanted to consider other schools, and there are several, but they are all 45min to an hour away and that is too far for me. And since clinicals can be up to 50 miles from campus, if it's in the other direction that could make attending a Kansas City area school a very long commute. My only other backup plan is to get the ADN through KCKCC and then get the BSN later. This option is VERY cost effective but doesn't work well for my timeline. But definitely consider taking your prereqs here. The Leavenworth campus is very convenient and I liked my teachers, and USM transfers these credits without problem. I just signed up for Micro, Micro Lab and Anatomy with Lab for next semester and my bill was $870. Let me know if you need anything!!

Hello! We just found out we are moving to Ft. Leavenworth, KS (Army) in August. With my youngest son entering Kindergarten in the fall, I would like to return to school for Nursing. I already have a Bachelors in Communication/Psychology. What school options do I have in the area? My gpa was always pretty high, so I'm not too worried in that regard. I also know we will only be there for 2.5-3 years and I need to do the science prereqs. Its so frustrating! If I just aim for an ADN at a community college, can you recommend which school? Or would St. Mary's accelerated BSN be the only option? It is expensive and I'm concerned with having two children and no family help in the area... I would love to hear any school options in the area, or any advice at all, thank you so much!

Wow, these posts are really great and interesting! Thanks for sharing your stories, I love to read about them! It's good to hear from both sides of the fence on the good things and bad things about Nursing. :)

AMARTIN1 - Hey! No, I totally agree. Nursing is not for everyone. I do however think it is for me. I already have a BA in Psychology and Communications, but it is hard to put these majors into action by themselves. I worked with mentally disabled adults for a long time, and there was a lot of physical non-glamourous work involved. I absolutely loved my job, unfortunately though those jobs don't pay the bills. When I realized I was doing basically the same job as the nurse there was, except for handing out meds, I knew what my plan was to be. Plus I love my nursing classes and have always had top grades. I am a hard worker, and have never backed down from a challenge or given up in anything I have done. I have worked with many lazy people before and could never stand to be like that. So basically, I didn't mean to say I'm not sure about becoming a nurse, my mind has been made up for a long time now. I guess I am just more interested in hearing some nice positive stories for a change. Alot of people get into Nursing b/c they think of it as a rewarding career, and I would like to hear people's stories on how it has been rewarding to them in their own lives and what their favorite aspects of their careers are!

There's so many stories here about how people hate their nursing jobs. Does anyone here really love their job? Also, out of curiosity how long have you been a nurse, what shift do you work and what specialty do you work in? I am a student excited about becoming a nurse, but am a little scared by the negativity, I would love to hear some of your positive thoughts about your jobs, if any! Thanks in advance!

I hear that! At least you can show him this thread so he can see that you have it prettty good! By the Lake, thanks for the financial aid info, I'll look into that!

Yours still looks good, if you take 13 credits for $585 that is still only $45 per credit, right? We still have all those lab fees, general fees, etc. too plus books. I'm still doing prereqs right now, so who even knows what the fees will be once I'm in the program. But regardless, your tuition still looks pretty good to me!