ImLovingIt

Define "everything out there." Do you mean everything in a hospital except the ED and med/surg? Or have you tried outside the hospital too?

In some areas, an associates degree will not be enough to get a job in a hospital. However, I did an associates degree and then did WGU's rn-to-BSN program in 6 months. Working the floor is hard --physically, mentally and emotionally. There are older nurses in the hospital, but it's dominated by the younger set. If job flexibility is your goal, I am not sure nursing in a hospital is going to get you to a more flexible job. It's holidays and weekends. It's likely not going to be the day shift. Your schedule is dictated by the hospital (I know my schedule 6 weeks at a time, so planning 2 months in advance is an educated guess at best). If you are making good money now and enjoy your job, I'd say no way. I'm not seeing a life long "I want to be a nurse" in your post. I advise you to talk to "real" nurses in your social circle to get a better idea if this is for you. Nursing sounds great, but it has very high turnover and addiction issues, so....

Yup. My place has the same policy. 2 years before you can socialize with a former patient.

So, a former mental health patient you took care of less than a year ago figured out your name and how to contact you, you agreed to meet and what appears to be a very short time frame, you decided you were "meant to be"? There are so many red flags. And I think, deep down, you know this is a bad idea or you wouldn't have posted...At a minimum, check your employer's policies. I suspect dating former patients is not allowed for a certain period of time.

Does your hospital give out your contact information to everyone else in case someone needs a replacement? I would be livid if my employer was so cavalier about disclosing my phone/email.

I forgot to put the call light by someone who came back from surgery tonight. I'm a nurse with 2 years experience. It happens. You fix it and move on.

If it was as easy as you describe to get a job offer in a nursing home, chances are pretty good you can easily get other offers. If they are treating you like this now, it's only going to get worse. Move on. It's their loss.

Talk to the schools you are interested in. You will need to take several prerequisite classes, so you will likely be 18 by the time you will be in clinicals.

Hmmmmm.....waking 5-6 patients up. That means taking 5-6 patients to the bathroom and a couple pain pills. No problem. Then, add the bed alarms, telephone calls, beeping IVs and other interruptions....I see a discussion with your NM in the near future on your lack of time management due to all the OT you are logging.

See page 20 of https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5516.pdf#page18 Basically, recommended is 0, 1, 6 but the minimum is 1-2: 4 weeks, 2-3: 8 weeks, and 1-3: 16 weeks. I read it to say that as long as the minimum wait times are achieved, all is good.

First, if you want to raise your GPA, the most impressive thing you can do is take graduate level classes. Taking undergrad classes isn't going to be as impressive. Second, nursing school tends to have a tougher grading scale. For instance, my school was 93-100, A; 85-92 B; 78-84 C. Third, many people who do well in school struggle in nursing (not everyone, but plenty 4.0's go away after a semester of nursing school). Basically, it's 2 years of classes that are unlikely to get you where you want to go.

$80K is way too much. I completed my ADN from a community college for less than $15K (I think it was less than $10K) and then got my BSN from WGU for less than $3500. Also, I looked up Arizona College. The BSN program is new and currently unaccredited. Do not spend $80k at an unaccredited school!!!

After just a couple months on the floor, I've developed dry, red, and itchy skin. What have you used to soothe your skin? I'm looking for suggestions! The lotion aisle has so many choices!

And whatever you do, don't go to an overpriced for-profit nursing school. Medical school is expensive. Spend your money on that, not nursing school.

I got a job in a TCU, finished my BSN in under 4 months and applied (and eventually got) an acute care job the day I finished. I am sure I could have finished my BSN in half the time if I needed to. You could probably even do flu clinics while you finish your BSN. it doesn't have to be a FT job. Just suck it up and get your degree done. It isn't going to go any quicker than through WGU. And if you do a "traditional" program, are you going to not work for 12-18 months?

A couple things that may help: 1. An eye mask and/or ear plugs. I used an eye mask for the first time recently. I had been restless, anxious and couldn't stop thinking about work. With my first use, I fell asleep quickly and slept soundly and through the night. I'm hoping that continues. 2. White noise. I have an app on my phone that has a variety of different sounds. I like thunderstorm. It blocks out the sounds of "life." 3. Relaxing routine at bedtime. A bath, good book, meditation, yoga, whatever works for you. Good luck!

ADN, 3 semesters at ~$2800 per semester plus about $1000 for books BSN, 1 term at ~$4000 including books I got laid off, so the state paid for my first two semesters (and books) of my ADN as part of my retraining. Yup, I have a BSN for less than $7,000. I could have gotten my employer to pay for my BSN, but I didn't want to stay there that long. At my ADN program, LPNs got credit for just 5 credits out of the 75 total. It might make sense to see if you can just do an ADN program for your RN. If you can do that at a community college, the cost of those 5 extra credits will be negligible compared to what your are looking at. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My employer instructed the nurses to not do "CNA work" because the overtime for the nurses was out of control. They started getting all over us if we stayed 1 minute late. Fast forward 2 months...we got a new edict: call light wait times are through the roof. We must now stop whatever we are doing and answer call lights immediately. Gee, I wonder what'll happen to the overtime. I want to do those tasks. I do, but when I can't get everything else (that I can't delegate) done in a shift, how? I can't physically (or mentally) do it. It's not fair to the CNA, nurse or patient.

I went into it thinking (a) good wages; (b) job security; and © relatively little cost (time and money) to entry. I list my job, which I hated, and "fell into" nursing because I just wanted something better. Unfortunately, I think I equated "different" with "better." Now that I'm 2 years in, with one more to go, I'm fearful that this new career will be worse than my last. I've already talked to some of the nursing faculty about dropping out. I ended up finishing last semester...and I start again in 2 weeks. I doubt I'll finish. At least I didn't go anywhere super expensive for this 2 year debacle. Hopefully, I can get a job in my old field.

My prior career was a lawyer. I think I'm good with thankless people. That was my life. I hate suits. I hate sitting in an office all day. I enjoy my time with the patients. Unfortunately, I don't think I can get paid to chit chat with people. I met with the school about dropping out. I am finishing the semester but I don't know what's next yet.

Wow. Thank you so much for your responses! I am not a CNA. Our school doesn't let us do direct cares in clinicals, so I haven't done any of that stuff yet. If I don't drop out, I plan on taking a CNA class over the winter break. I'm not thrilled about that aspect of the job, but I do realize that I will become more comfortable with those tasks with time. I do put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed. I have no experience with any aspect of health care. I probably compare myself too much with my classmates' abilities (who seem to have all worked in some aspect of healthcare before). I guess I'll have to think about it some. I emailed my advisor if I could take time off and come back in a semester or two. I'm just waiting for her response. Once I know the options, I can work from there. However, I think I'll finish the semester and drop out. I'm an older student who had a successful career (that I hated) that I can always return to.

I think role playing would be a great way to jazz up your presentation. A powerpoint just lists the elements of an advanced directive, but a family/nurse/patient interaction regarding end of life issues would be interesting and bring the material to life. For instance, the DNR/DNI lady came into my mom's room in the ICU after she was told she had 12-24 hours to live unless she went on a ventilator (which would get her 30 days). Role play how you would approach a patient faced with information, what questions to expect, and how to address them.

How do you know when it's time to just throw in the towel? I hate nursing school. I'm in my first semester of actual nursing classes. Academically, I am doing fantastic. My grades are not an issue at all. I've finished all the academic requirements, other than the actual nursing classes, with a 4.0 and am getting A's so far in my nursing classes. In clinical, however, I am uncomfortable and have trouble with even the most basic tasks. I hate it. I have spent several semesters and lots of money pursuing something I think I hate. I don't want to make a rash decision, but I don't want to end up with a degree I hate. What do I do? I need a crystal ball. Will this all work out? Or do I just cut my losses now?