cutisrn

Well, you're coming at a good time weather wise. 1st, there's lots of mountains. I believe beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder. I was raised in El Paso and believe it is beautiful. I don't know where you're coming from, but the climate is warm in summer (sometimes over 100 in summer) and mild in winter. We don't see too much snow. However, some say it is ugly desert. Not true. We have a tree!!! No earthquakes, no tornados, for sure no hurricanes. We do have wind storms though, but not that often. Population is about 750,000 and we're on the boarder of Juarez, Mexico, who has over 1,000,000. Primarily hispanic culture. We have delicious REAL mexican food. Very cultural and historical city. Now, back to nursing. I was a Hospice nurse for 3 years here for VNA. I loved it. We do have another non-profit Hospice, Hospice of El Paso and 2 for-profit hospices. I heard the other day that 3 new for-profit hospices have moved to El Paso, but I'm not sure who they are, if it's even true. We have one teaching hospital and several private hospitals. Ft. Bliss is here. The military hospital is William Beaumont Medical Center. They are begging for nurses, as are the other hospitals except our teaching hospital, Thomason. I have no idea what's going on there. Thomason is a Level 1 Trauma Center and William Beaumont, I believe, is Level II. We are expecting between 500 and 5000 people to be transported here from Louisiana, Mississippi, and whoever suffered from Hurricane Katrina sometime before Monday. Preparations are being made at out Civic Center and other large facilities around the city. 1st, the people needing medical attention will go to William Beaumont, then to Thomason, then they will be dispersed to the private hospitals. Hospice nurses here make approximately $25.00 to $26.00/hr, I think. But with the high gas prices now, I can't imagine doing that right now. Gas prices are over $3.00/gallon. In the hospitals, base pay, (I'm going from memory) is around $22-$23, but with the years of experience, shift, it goes up to about $27 or so. I'm talking MedSurg, as that is what I did forever. But, Texas does not have a state tax, so that's good. Sierra/Providence hospitals, for example, in labor & delivery (no experience) are offering a very large sign-on bonus and fairly easy schedules. Start at about $26 with no experience in labor/delivery. I think just about everyone has sign-on bonuses. This is just a little information. Let me know what questions you have. I'll try to find out for you if I don't know the answer. Talk to you soon, cutisrn

Jill, I started teaching a one-year vocational nurse program on Valentine's Day of this year. The program started in October 2004. From 10/04 to 2/05, there had been 3 nursing instructors and 2 directors. Big turnover. I had never taught before and felt the same way you do now. In this program, there is only 2 nurses, the director and myself, with 22 students. That was very scary. Since then, right or not so right, I have discovered, BY MYSELF, as I had no preceptor, the easiest way (for me) to lecture and for the students to learn is this: I became very familiar with using PowerPoint. For one thing, I did not want all eyes on me and the students seemed to enjoy looking at something else besides me. First, I found that the Elsevier Saunders books were wonderful, as they have PowerPoint for each Chapter in all texts for vocational nursing programs along with test banks, which are written according to the requirements of the NCLEX Test Plan, which the Board of Nursing oversees continuously. Also, included, is open-book quizzes, instuctor's manual and many helpful tools for teaching. This information is on their website. First, I would download the exam and PowerPoint from Saunders website. I print out the exam. As I went through each exam question, I would implement that concept into the PowerPoint (you can add or take away whatever after the PowerPoint has been downloaded). Now, all of the test concepts (not the test questions) are in the PowerPoint. I would then print out the OUTLINE form of the PowerPoint (not the slides--that would take forever and use a LOT of paper and cartridge ink). I would sometimes make copies or get the students who wanted the outline to prepare for lecture to make copies for themselves. The latter puts the responsibility on the student. The students loved this. As I lectured, I didn't need notes, as all the information I intended to lecture on was on the PP and the students made their own notes on their outline. This made it easy to lecture and keep information in tact. During the lecture, I would stop periodically and call on students to answer questions. Sometimes it would be to spell a difficult medical term (which gets a few laughs) or answer a scenario relating to clinicals. (I'm a MedSurg nurse and Hospice). This was also a good way to gauge who studied for the test, as you know the test information was verbally taught and handouts were given. So what they made, they made. It cut down tremendously on excuses they would give for not making a good grade. If they read the chapter and studied their outline, grades were VERY good. Immediately after the exam while it was fresh in their minds, I would go over each question, give the correct answer and rationale, which reinforced the information again and the students immediately had an idea of their grade. (Of course, this was after I collected the exam answer sheets). This group of students are now graduating in 2 weeks and will be taking the NCLEX-PN exam before December 1 (as that is when their temporary licenses will expire). The Board of Nurses require an 80% pass rate, so we'll see. I hope this wasn't too long and drawn out. And, I hope it may help you. The websites given to you look very good and I have saved them in my "Favorites". Let me know how it goes. Remember, this is what has worked for me so far, as I was desparate!!! I have so much to learn. (Lots of work) Good Luck, Sheila