Laura_G_in_ID

I just finished my CNA certification because my school gives an extra point in their points system to get into the RN program if you are a CNA. I decided that I wanted some experience in the medical field, and chose to apply for work as a CNA while I'm still in school. I found a flex position, requiring only one shift every two weeks, at a local hospital, in the float pool. It couldn't be more perfect for me while I'm still in school. The hospitals in my area generally hire staff from within as often as possible, so this should help me find a position at a hospital when I finish the RN program.

Is there some other field you can find a position that pays comparably so that you don't have to stay working as a CNA for another year while you get through school? It sounds like you really need to leave as soon as possible, for yourself, and for those in your care.

Thank you for the excellent tips! I start orientation next week. I'm super excited and a little nervous. I am no stranger to hard work, and I'm an outgoing person who likes to make friends of everyone I meet. I hope float pool ends up being exactly the right fit for me. I think it will be. I'll keep everyone posted after I attend orientation. It's a 3-day orientation, professional dress... time to raid my stay-at-home-mother closet, lol!

I just finished my CNA certification, and I got hired on at a local hospital on the float pool. I'm super excited about this, because being in a hospital offers much more variety than being at a long-term care facility. It will prepare me well for my ultimate goal, to be a nurse-midwife. I really want to succeed in my new job, make good impressions wherever I go, and not look like a fool. I want to give my best work to my employer, and give empathetic and efficient care to the patients I work with. What tips do you have for me? What I should carry in my pockets? How can I best organize my work so that it flows efficiently and also gives me adequate time for patients who need it? How can I make myself stand out as a great employee? I'm breastfeeding my 6 month old daughter... what about pumping breaks? How can I keep from making clumsy or stupid newbie mistakes? How do I make myself a great teammate of the nurses, CNAs, and other staff? Thanks in advance! I am so stoked about this opportunity.

The things I listed were exhaustive, and not geared towards any particular job. I wanted to have all these items compiled so I could draw on the ones I wanted for whatever job I was applying. I appreciate the feedback on what might be useful and what to discard. I am applying as a CNA first, but my ultimate educational and career goal is to become a CNM. The nursing school to which I'm applying next spring gives an extra point towards their program if you are a CNA. If I have to work before I get through school, at least I'll be able to work for a little more than minimum wage. I'm not IBCLC certified, so I'm not qualified to be a lactation consultant. If a job at the local WIC office opens up for a breastfeeding counselor, I would absolutely apply. I have done doula work in the past, but it's a self-employed job, without a regular schedule, without regular pay. It doesn't really fit into my life at this time, while I'm still trying to get through school and have small children. Also, MANY nurses have said the best start is to become a CNA first. My end goal isn't to be a nurse, but I think I'll enjoy it. I need to have a year of nursing experience before I apply to my master's program. Being a midwife is the goal, and I chose nurse-midwifery over direct entry midwifery for a variety of reasons, after many years of debating in my mind. By the time I get through my master's degree, I will have older children and the erratic work times attending births won't be as much of an obstacle for me as they would be now. It's fine to be in your late teens and have no job history yet, but it feels different to me as a middle-aged woman. I didn't just sit at home and eat bon-bons all these years. I just hope potential employers see the value of what I've done. Thank you all for such great feedback. I really appreciate it.

I am 39 years old, and I haven't worked outside my home for the last 21+ years. I've been a stay-at-home mother. I have been in school the last two years working on pre-reqs for the nursing program at a local community college, and this summer I am taking the CNA course. I'm getting divorced from my husband of 21+ years, my youngest child is only 3 months old, and I'm breastfeeding. I'm not sure how I'm going to get through clinicals with a nursing baby that won't take a bottle, plus the rest of my brood... I have eight children at home, thirteen children total. I plan to breastfeed until my baby is at least a year old, so I'm not really looking to work just yet. I think I can make ends meet with the child support I expect to receive at least until my baby is weaned, and my academic school schedule is doable with a young baby. My ultimate goal is to become a nurse-midwife, so being a CNA, and later a nurse, are steps towards that goal. I decided to look at CNA job offerings to see what was available in my area, and every listing prefers or requires at least 6 months experience. How the heck will I ever get a job when every place wants experience? My resume has a whole lot of nothing on it, and so I'm worried that when I am ready to start working (probably next summer), I won't be able to find work. Here are the things I'm considering putting on my resume so far, but I feel like I don't really have anything substantial, since I haven't worked and every place wants experience. Education: 7/2016 - Completed Certified Nursing Assistant training at College of Western Idaho, Nampa, ID. Current until 7/2017 – CPR and AED Healthcare Provider Certification Current until 8/2016 – Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Provider level IV Certification 6/2015 – Assistance with Medications for Unlicensed Personnel Certification 8/2014 – present – Pre-nursing major, 4.0 GPA student at College of Western Idaho, Nampa, ID. Projected graduation with Associate of Science in Nursing is May 2019. Working towardsBachelor of Science in Nursing with a Music Minor from Boise State University, Boise, ID.Ultimate goal is Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) in Midwifery from Frontier MidwiferySchool, Hyden, KY. 2001 – Bradley Method® Childbirth Educator Training, Seattle, WA. 1999 – La Leche League Leader Training, Boise, ID. 1998 – Birth doula training (DONA) – Doulas of North America, Boise, ID Experience: 2003 – 2014 – Micro-dairy owner – family cow owner certified and inspected by the state tosell raw milk. Also sell farm fresh eggs. 2001 – 2011 – Childbirth Educator – Taught comprehensive 12-week birthing classes from myhome. Also gave continuing support to new parents after the birth, including phone calls, emailsand personal postpartum visits. 2000 – La Leche League Leader – Volunteered as a La Leche League Leader. Assisted newmothers with breastfeeding via phone, mail, personal visits, and monthly group meetings. 1999 - 2007 – Doula – Attended over 20 births as a doula. Assisted clients prenatally, duringparturition, and postpartum. 1997 – Volunteer at Birthright of Boise – Assisted women in crisis pregnancies. 1996 – 2014 – volunteer choir director at church 1995 – Wendy's crew member 1994 – 1996 – Waitress at Plush Pippin restaurant, and Shari's restaurant. Served customers,handled cash register, and did a lot of cleaning. 1992 – Receptionist at Illusions Salon. Handled telephone calls, making appointments forclients, cash register, washing towels, cleaning displays and waiting area. 1991-2016 – Personal birth experiences – have given birth to 13 children, in a variety of settings. Honors, Awards, and Accomplishments: 2015 – Caused major changes at the College of Western Idaho regarding the recognition of TitleIX sexual discrimination in regards to the educational rights of pregnant students.2014-15 & 2015-16 – Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation Scholarship via College of WesternIdaho 2005 – Den Leader of the Year from Boy Scouts of America 1996 – Boise State University Department of Music Scholarship 1994 – Who's Who Among American High School Students 1993-94 – Received Meridian High School varsity letters for choir and orchestra Hobbies/Interests: 2009 – present – running and triathlon – racing at the 5k, 10k, and half marathon distances inrunning. Sprint distance triathlons. 2004-06 – Den Leader for Boy Scouts of America. 1990 – present - Singing – participated in many choirs in school, church, and the community, aswell as private voice lessons. I have also volunteered as a director for my church choir. 1984 – present – playing viola – I have studied viola for over 30 years, with many bumps in theroad. Currently, I am taking private viola lessons and participate in a community orchestra. Reading, writing, small-scale farming, and making YouTube long hair videos. I could use feedback and guidance, since I haven't been in the job market for so long. Thanks in advance.

I'm a pre-nursing student at my local community college and I am super, 100% sure I want to be a midwife. I have 12 of my own children have done doula work, taught birthing classes, and assisted a home birth based midwife for a short time. I took several years to decide on whether to go the CNM route or the CPM route. I finally decided I wanted to go the CNM route for a number of reasons. I've been given advice by a few nurses about my path and wondered if there is a consensus here about the advice. I've been told I should be a CNA while going to school because most hospitals in my area hire from within and it will give me valuable experience in learning time management and getting a feel for the medical field. I've been told I should be a float pool RN because I will learn to see patients as whole people rather than just from the waist down. I've been told I should not be in float pool, but rather I should be in a med/surg unit to really get a feel for nursing first. After receiving this advice, I signed up for a nursing assistant class which will overlap with my regular academic classes the first few weeks of Fall semester. I currently have a 4.0, and definitely don't want to jeopardize that with having too many irons in the fire. However, I've been told the homework load for the CNA class is about an hour a week. I can probably manage that in addition to my 12 credits at college. What about being a CNA while going to school? The key in my situation is that I don't have to work to make ends meet, at least not right now. My husband has been the sole breadwinner while I raised children (still raising them and balancing homeschool, too... my older kids and husband are super helpful and supportive or it would be impossible), and I am getting enough grant and scholarship money to pay all my tuition and books, plus have a little leftover. I would think something where I am called in as needed and don't have to work a 50+ hour work schedule every week would be just right. I'm thinking 1-2 shifts a week would be a great fit. But to be a good midwife, do I need to be a CNA first? I think being a CNA might be fun for me, and help me make some professional connections, but is it wrong to say that I don't want to get a CNA job in a LTC facility, only in a hospital? I don't want to spend several years as an RN, in any capacity (but if my life circumstances change, I would be thrilled to have my BSN so that I could hold a decent-paying job, if need be). Is it wrong to feel that way? I can't imagine a career as a CNA or as an RN, but think that both will be exciting and valuable on my journey to midwifery. I'm 38 years old and want to move forward on my education so that maybe by the time I am 50 years old, I will finally be a midwife. Sorry for the rambling. I just want to get a feel from others on a few of these suggestions so that I can mull it over in my mind. I'm all signed up for the CNA course, in any case, and hope I haven't bit off more than I can chew.

DON'T do it! Why burden yourself with excessive debt for an undergraduate degree? I'm pretty frugal... getting my ASN at a community college, and going to a public state university for my BSN. I don't expect to take out any additional student loans at this point. Last year, I took out $6k so that we could buy a more reliable vehicle and I have started paying on the loan already. I got lucky with some scholarships last year and hope that I can again this year so that I can wipe out my loan before I graduate from school. As long as the school is accredited, there is no reason why a less expensive school should be overlooked. Surely, it can prepare you adequately for the job, and any graduate program will look at accreditation of the school and your GPA over the fancy name of the school you attended.

I wasn't required to take more than algebra 1 in high school, so I didn't. In college, I was afraid of having to take any math, but finally decided my goals trumped my fears of math. I signed up for my remedial math class, and was pleasantly surprised. I actually *like* math, and I pulled an A in both math classes I've taken so far. On my math midterm and final last semester, I got 100% on both of them. I knew I did, too. I handed my paper to the teacher and said, "I think I got 100% on this." He looked right at me and said, "I bet you probably did." The keys to my success in math at college: 1. seek help early and often 2. do as much math at the math tutoring center as possible so I can ask for help if I get stuck - ask CHALLENGING, DEEP, PENETRATING, THINKING questions of the tutors, and work several hypothetical problems in addition to the ones in my homework 3. email contact and office hours visit with my professors - often... weekly at least, and ask lots of hypothetical questions so that the concepts are solid in my mind 4. ask math-y friends on FB if I am stuck on something after the tutoring center is closed 5. use khan academy and purple math and youtube videos of all sorts to help me understand math concepts 6. review my notes often - write math notes with enough actually written in English to explain steps, or help you follow logic 7. pray for help. I'm a spiritual person, and I seek truth. Math is truth. It is logic. I have prayed that truth would be revealed to me, and I believe it has helped me a great deal. If praying is too abstract for you, then think of math as a universal truth and know that the universe will reveal the truth of it to you.

I had someone do this to me in an elective class. It was the end of the semester and in our music appreciation class she hadn't attended a concert and wanted me to tell her about a concert that I attended so she could write her report on *my* notes of a concert *I* attended. I flatly told her I wouldn't do that, but she could accompany me and my friend to a nursing home for a little performance/prayer thingy we were doing there and see if the teacher would allow it as a concert attendance. She did it, the teacher accepted it, and all was well. She didn't think any less of me. In fact, I think she appreciated my help and respected me for NOT giving her an easy report to copy. Another student in my Spanish for Healthcare class and I helped each other a great deal through the semester. We spent a lot of time in the language lab at the tutoring center, and we would help one another through all of it. It was a mutual give and take, and both of us put in individual effort before asking the other for help. A *friend* of mine met me in math class and so the next semester she signed up for ALL the same classes as me, because suddenly we were BFF. Really? Do real adults even use BFF or "bestie" as a description of their friends? Okay... So she signed up for all my classes, and fell behind the first week. I stayed up late at her house helping her get caught up, and thought if she keeps working on it, she'll catch up and be fine. The second week was the last week she attended any classes. When the last day to withdraw came around, I reminded her to withdraw from school, and she did. I think she was in school because she wanted the federal grant money in excess of her tuition to help pay her house payment. I think she took the same classes as me so that we could *study* together, but really, she was too distracted by her phone to get any actual studying done. I think she expected I would cheat, but I didn't and she had to withdraw. It's not my problem, and I don't feel like a bad person for not helping her more. I can't carry another person on my shoulders through school. Can't and won't! In the end, she respected my boundaries, because I had integrity. In your situation, OP, any requests for help need to be considered with integrity. If the professor could see what you were doing, would you still be doing it? If yes, then it's okay. If no, then you know it's not right and equates to academic dishonesty. If you get caught, it could mean the end of your formal education.

After reading many responses here, I want to start my response by saying that I agree with the majority. Nursing care will involve plenty of wiping butts. That just goes with the territory. It is good as a nursing student that you realize this and can go into something that you enjoy more, OP. On the other hand, I would hope that nursing would involve much more than wiping rear ends and cleaning up. Else why is nursing school so competitive, and why do nurses need to learn so much? If all a nurse is needed for is to clean, why make him/her go to school for years to do that? Nursing schools want the best and brightest students. I would think there is a reason for that, beyond the capability to clean patients. I plan to be a nurse-midwife, and have attended several births as a doula. At a birth, I have no trouble at all cleaning up all sorts of bodily fluids and waste. Birth is an earthy event. I'm honored to do the cleaning, because I see the birthing woman as a queen who deserves the best tender loving care possible. It doesn't even phase me. Really. My father recently had a massive stroke, and if he weren't uncomfortable with his daughter cleaning him, I would have done it. The hospital did not seem to have enough staff to keep him clean, dry, and fed, and his personal/bodily needs were inadvertently neglected. I felt the ultimate in compassion for him. He did not ask to be ill. It wasn't his fault. He was entirely at the mercy of others to care for him. When I get the chance to help others in this way, I will remember how I felt as the daughter of a man who needed round-the-clock care. I will take care of the people in my charge as if they were close family members. It is an honor to do so, and should be done in a way that helps the person retain their dignity as much as possible. I won't lie though, I know I will crave for the "intellectual" parts of the job. The thing I look forward to the most is the variety involved. That will be great. I want to use my brain, and my heart, and my hands.

I'm 38, and I'm just getting started (and planning to get a doctorate degree eventually... just taking nursing pre-reqs for now). It is never too late, unless you are dead. I think you are right not to delay though. Just know that you aren't too old to pursue your dreams. You just need to balance your life so you get to be a mom, too.

I'm not a single mom, but I am a mom with a large family. I wanted to go to school for a long time, but my husband's military career made it very difficult for me to have consistent childcare (because my husband was always gone) so that I could attend school. I had no extended family support. This was before so many classes were made available online like they are today. Now my older children are teens, husband's military career is winding down to a close, and I'm able to attend classes full-time. I'm not working outside the home, but I still have a large household to run. If not for my teens being able to provide consistent childcare for the younger kids, there is no way I could go to school. The amount of homework for 14 credits in a semester has been, at times, overwhelming, and I've felt like I was neglecting my family. However, I managed to get a 4.0 so far, and I'm still going strong. You can do anything you set your mind to, but at times you will likely feel guilty or sad that you are neglecting important areas of your life so that you can focus on other important areas of your life. You will probably also feel pulled in a thousand directions most of the time. I know I certainly do, but I also know that what I am doing will make a better life for my family in the long run, and is personally very fulfilling. That is what has kept me going strong even when all I could do was apologize to my family for being gone so much and not being able to help them as much as they needed/wanted. Is it possible to only attend school part-time so that you won't be absent in your child's life so much? Can you reduce your work to part-time status so that you might qualify for more financial aid and have more time for homework? Each week, you will need to schedule 2-3 hours outside of class for homework, for each credit in which you are enrolled. Taking 12 credits, you'll spend 24-36 hours on homework/studying every week. If you are working 35-40 hours a week, plus attending 10ish hours of class, plus doing 30ish hours of homework every week, that's 70-75 hours a week. You need some down time to recharge, and your son needs to be with you and see you. If you have extended family support, this will be much easier than if you lack family support. It is doable, but if you can adjust your work to part-time and only attend school part-time, you will keep your sanity and have some balance in life. All work and no play will burn you out quick. And from one mom to another, you will miss your child, a LOT if you try to work full-time and go to school full-time. Slow and steady wins the race. You can do this, just pace yourself.

Being contracted would mean that you aren't an employee at all. That means you would basically be a sole proprietor of your own small business. Your paychecks would not be reported to the IRS, no taxes withheld, no FICA, no benefits, no retirement/401k, etc. I'm new here, and don't know what pto means. I'm wondering about malpractice insurance as well. If you take this deal, you will be self-employed, and you will need to pay your own taxes, and have your own insurance and such. So, if you approach this with the idea that you are a small business entity offering your services to this potential client, you can do whatever you want with it. It's your own business. This would obviously be the ultimate in freedom, but would also give you a lot of personal responsibility that may or may not make this an attractive offer to you.

Wow, it is so good to read this thread. I am taking pre-reqs at my community college to enter the nursing program after years of hemming and hawing over which route I would choose, CPM or CNM, if I were to pursue midwifery. I really appreciate the like-mindedness I see here, echoing my own heart. "I am not planning to be a nurse, I am going to be a midwife" I've said that to the wrong person more than once and been told, "You will always be a nurse as a CNM, it's a nursing degree and you will answer to the state board of nursing." Um, yeah, thank you for that. I know. My heart is for midwifery. I've worked as a doula and childbirth educator while raising my own large family, and I know this is a calling I need to pursue. I believe nursing is a step to becoming a midwife, and I will likely enjoy it, because I like learning stuff, all stuff. I even found out through being in school that I actually like MATH!!! Wow! I never thought I would *like* math. I have my reservations about working in the L&D RN at a hospital, but one of our local hospitals here has the most wonderful hospitalists, one of whom WANTS me to work there after I graduate. That would be so wonderful. I think I might enjoy float pool, too. I am a high-energy person, and I love learning new things, and I am flexible. Anyway, nursing is a necessary step, but not one that I think I'll need to grit my teeth through. I think I'll actually enjoy it, even though I'm into non-Western medicine, and consider myself a very crunchy gal. I like to think of different modalities as complementary, not competitive, if that makes any sense. I'm planning at some point in my education to spend some time learning at a new freestanding birth center school (for those pursuing a CPM) that is opening in my area. I think I would benefit greatly from it. I hope they will offer some a la carte courses and clinical experiences.