I_slapped_Ouiser

I understand what it feels like to be a second-career nurse and to question my decisions from time to time, especially the first year after school. I want to encourage you to keep on venting until you find clarity. For what it's worth, here is my experience with second-guessing my decision to go to nursing school and the lovely thing that happened afterward... During nursing school and for the first year after obtaining my license, I had no idea of the non-traditional nurse opportunities that are available. They became more evident to me after I made the decision to identify them- some I found here on the Career section, and then other sources like nursing blogs/ podcasts and talking with a lot of different nursing and staffing/recruiting professionals in my city. I was a teacher in my former career and was happiest in non-traditional teaching settings, which finally made sense to me as a nurse who didn't love the hospitals. There are magnet hospitals in my city but I didn't know about that until after I started nursing school, so I didn't understand the Associate Degree vs. BSN "situation" and relationship to magnet status facilities. Some of my classmates work at the magnet hospitals and let the hospital pay for their BSN- maybe that's an option for you- some hiring standards aren't "Must have BSN before hiring". Here in the south, the magnet hospitals hire ADNs with the requirement to begin a BSN program within a certain number of months after hire. I'm a patient educator now for a private company and have completed 3 BSN courses- not to work at a magnet but to be able to manage or work for an insurance company. I took an interest inventory, hired a career coach for a while, joined NNBA, and actively seek information about the trends in non-traditional nursing. I love the idea of being able to bounce ideas off of others here because it can be a supportive environment, and I want to encourage you to keep looking deeper at both yourself and the local landscape to identify what your'e really great at doing, if that meshes with what you want to do, and what other roles are out there that you may not even know about. I've stopped framing things in a "one & done" perspective- it is a much more flexible and friendly way to embrace how fluid a career path can be. I embraced and even celebrated my weirdness/uniqueness as someone who isn't a "nursey nurse" and when I did that, and worked it into my personal "brand" during an interview, I was hired on the spot and the HR manager was told to call the remaining applicants to cancel interviews scheduled for the following week. When you can wrap your arms around whatever your unique perspective is, and clarify the unique combination of skill sets you bring to the table, I imagine that a profound sense of peace will set in. It's okay that you may not be cut out/prepared for the hospitals in your area for now- the LTC work you've done is meaningful and has a purpose for whatever your "next" is. Best of luck!

Congratulations on your decision to think outside of the box! I'm a second-career nurse (began RN program at 39) after teaching and non-profit program coordination (again, mainly teaching). Having been through academic programs before, and succeeding, helped me maintain confidence during the stress of nursing school. If there is one thing that I would have done differently, it would have been to intentionally meet/connect with nurses and other healthcare professionals before school consumed my schedule, for 2 reasons: Information gathering and networking. There are so many non-traditional nursing roles out there now, too. I encourage you to begin contacting as many people as you can- in as many different roles as you can- for "informational interviews". In order for you to make an informed decision about an entire career change versus a role re-definition change, try to get a somewhat robust perception of what roles are available that could combine your skill sets as a novice nurse and an established social worker- there has to be more out there than staff nurse or case manager, for instance, especially after the first year as a nurse. LinkedIn was a great way for me to find other people who are doing what I would one day like to do- you may want to look into it from that direction as well. Good luck with your new chapter, and have fun on the journey!

In our program, whenever anyone failed a class (or just withdrew from even one class and, therefore, was taken out of "normal progression through the program"), a semester-long remediation course was required before students could continue with the program. I withdrew from one class with pre-clinicals at night to attend to a family crisis, and although I have a master's degree in a different subject, I still had to take that remediation class. It was a pleasant surprise, because we took study skill assessments, note taking classes, and had to actually use Cornell method note taking on the chapters of our lowest-scored test (whichever one it happened to be). I had a lot of extra time to take NCLEX review books and I would also recommend that you look into an NCLEX review course- If I would have known how helpful they were, I would've taken it after my first semester. Practice questions were not helpful to me unless they were NCLEX review questions, because our tests were written that way- some of the textbook publisher's practice questions were less rigorous and didn't serve me well at all, so I stopped relying on those. I began highlighting the main points in rationales to questions I missed, and eventually patterns appeared- I was horrible at SATA formatted questions, so I bought SATA books. I was confused with fluids & electrolytes, so I re-wrote the material from the rationales and focused on that during the NCLEX review course. Several people in my class spent countless hours of time and I don't know how much energy fighting instructors about how "awful" their test questions were. But, they were NCLEX-style. They included select all that apply on their tests, as does the NCLEX. They weren't going to change. So, when I changed the way I studied, I began doing better on our tests. Some kind of remediation (self-imposed or not) surrounding test taking strategies, would probably help you. If you don't have a remediation to attend there, then I would take an NCLEX prep course and use it as your own "remediation". Whatever you decide to do, I applaud your resilience and dedication. Sometimes, it's not about how hard we work in school- it's about how we decide which tools to use- and I honestly think that's all this is, in your case. Test anxiety and NCLEX style test questions are a pretty common combination for reasons to both fail, and when addressed, succeed. Wishing you all the best, and the energy to keep on keeping on!

I left a non-profit outreach program coordinator position at 39 for nursing as a second career. I'd been teaching health/wellness and teen pregnancy prevention in several school systems throughout our metro area, and realized that I was being called to it after hundreds of conversations with high school students. My teaching background has helped with patient education, but was a drawback for me in nursing school- it was a 180 degree change as a nursing student. It was much more difficult than I had ever imagined. Now, patient education is my focus and primary responsibility- I adore it!

Two sources that might help keep you from falling asleep as you're browsing for information are 2 sites: The Nerdy Nurse and NextWaveConnect. They're both combinations of the platform that social media can bring to All Things Informatics. A quick glance through some of the communities at NextWaveConnect brought issues like EHR & Meaningful Use from the background to the foreground for me (I don't work in a direct patient care role). Good luck!

My perspective is influenced by the conversations I have with several post-herpetic neuralgia patients every week. I can only share what I would do, and wish you the best with whatever decision you make. :) That said, if I were in a similar situation, I would probably opt for delaying my start date another orientation cycle or two. One of my former supervisors used to say, "I don't like to participate in stress", and I tend to agree with her when I have a choice about it. I would choose the peace of mind that accompanies the extra time for all broken skin to resolve, to rest and possibly achieve a more lasting recovery, and to avoid feelings of guilt by removing the opportunity for them to surface in the first place. Just because I can do something doesn't mean that I should do it. Because I know how stress personally affects me, and how much more energy I require when starting a new job and being "on" for most of the day, I'd choose to wait it out a little bit longer. Wishing you the best, and a speedy recovery!

There are several courses on nurse.com as well. I only had a few CE hours at the point in the year when I registered with them, so my membership will go through the summer of 2015, to get the hours I'll need for the next 2-year licensing period. Since I no longer work in a traditional patient care setting, I like their list of CE choices, too. Good luck!