justSara

Hi all, I'm in search of RN-MSN programs. I'm having a difficult time finding the right one for me. I've been researching for quite a while but I'm feeling more confused than ever. If you attended one yourself that you would recommend or know someone who did, please let me know so I can look into it. Either online or in Florida. I'm currently in an ADN program now, due to graduate in December. I don't have a BA degree in anything, and I was thinking that I may be able to save time and money by doing an RN-MSN program. My end goal is to be an FNP. Thanks for your replies!

I've been wondering about that. It would only be needed for one semester. I'll have fafsa back for the summer term. Have you ever taken a private loan? Anyone you would recommend? I'm just worried because I had a good credit score but recently I've put on more credit card debt and it would now be considered average at best. Probably not even average. And as a student I don't have a good solid annual income, and no one available to cosign. My family has horrible credit. If you could tell me anything you know about private loans are appreciated. If you have any experience with all of that.

Yeah, the car's gotta go but I don't know how to get it gone! I don't like nice cars. But at 19 I liked a car that was out of my price range, and at the time I believed I could afford it. I bought a pre owned 2014 Hyundai Accent for $12k with an 18% interest rate. I didn't know the first thing about car buying, I went in blind. The car was probably overpriced when I bought it. In hindsight, I would have gotten a much older car that was only $3-5k so I could have either bought it out right or paid it off quickly. But I didn't to that, I made a bad decision and now I think I'm stuck. Still owe $9k on the car and it's only valued at $6-5k. Which means if I sell it I won't even cover the loan. Not to mention, I'll make no money to buy a cheaper car. So what does one do when they've gotten themselves into this situation? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Don't be jealous! I'm 21 years old and have $3600 in credit card debt, $2500 in student loan debt, and $9k in car loan debt. And I make $13.50 an hour working part-time. I started working when I was young and when I got a little bit of money in my hands (and the ability to sign up for credit cards) I didn't know how to save or spend wisely. I signed myself up for loans I shouldn't have and now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and trying to dig myself out of this debt. I feel like my best bet is to finish school so I can make more than double my salary and start paying stuff off. But to go to school, it costs more money! Haha I don't live close enough to Lyft/Uber to work/school and public transportation isn't good here. I drive 30-40 minutes a day on the highway EACH way to get to school and work. Not to mention, my mom drives my car at night because she doesn't have one. She works the graveyard shift and can't use public transportation at those times of the night. So I don't see it being feasible to have NO car. But I definitely don't need a $350/month car. I bought the car for $12k with an 18% interest rate. Two years later I still owe $9k on it. But the car's value is around $5-6k when I KBB it. So if I sell it, it wouldn't even be enough to cover the loan. What would you do with the car in my situation? Do you know anything about refinancing? I'm just not sure what to do here. Maybe there are options I don't know about. Thanks for your comment by the way, I really appreciate you taking the time to leave it. Any advice is appreciated!

1) I completely agree with you that the car is too expensive for me. The problem is that I am already 2 years into a 4.5 year loan. It's not a luxury car, just more expensive than I should have. it's a pre owned 2014 Hyundai Accent. It's small and good on gas. Two years ago when I was shopping for my first car it seemed like a really good idea.. I now see my stupidity. I bought the car for $12k with an 18% interest rate. Two years later and I still owe $9k for it. Problem is, when I KBB it it's only worth $5-6k. So selling it won't even cover what I still owe. I wouldn't even make enough of a profit to buy a cheap car. Do you have any experience with refinancing? I'm not sure if that's realistic with someone with my income and credit score, but I may try that. Any advice appreciated. 2) I agree the car insurance is expensive. But I promise I shopped around and Geico is the cheapest quote I could find. I've been with them since I was 16. I started out paying $485/month at 16 and now I'm down to $285. I don't have a horrible driving record or a luxury car. I think the insurance is just expensive overall in my area? I'm not sure why to be honest. I remember back when my mom had a car she would pay $200/month and she was an experienced drive (55 y/o at the time) and had a perfect driving record. Not a single ticket in her life, and that's what she paid. So $285 for a young driver doesn't seem that crazy in comparison. I think it's just the going rate. Also, I live in an area where things are far away so transportation would be difficult without a car. It takes me 30-40 minutes of driving on the highway to get to school/work. My mother doesn't have her own car, she uses mine at night because she works the graveyard shift. 3) I should have clarified, $100 is what I pay for myself and my mother. I bought her a phone a few years ago and added her to my plan and have been paying for us both ever since. After reading everyone's comments here I think I will ask her if she can pay for half of it while I'm short for money for the next 4-6 months. 4) I do have the easy pay, its called SunPass here and it still costs my 0.78 cents each way to go to school. I don't have to pay to drive to work, but driving to school 5 days a week adds up. And my car does have good gas mileage actually, i just drive a crazy amount. I drive like 15,000 miles per year to get where I have to be. I put $20-25 in gas in my car weekly, I think that's better than average. As for your last paragraph, I think you misunderstood the message I was trying to convey. When I said my mom only makes $10 an hour, it's because I wanted to convey that her paying for anything is NOT an option. Because when I have asked my friends for advice on this stuff the first thing people say is, "can't your mom help you out?" or "can your mom give you a loan?" and the answer to that is absolutely not. So I wrote that sentence in an effort to stop people from suggesting that as an option, not that I think she should pay for my bills. If that makes any sense. I pitch in where I can. However she understands that from January-May that won't really be possible. I hope you can understand that I'm not trying to argue with your advice. I really appreciate that you even took the time to think about my situation and respond at all. But I don't feel that I can live with no car at all, and I'm not sure how to work out the financials of selling the car when I still owe so much on it. Do you see the problem there? With the details I've given you, do you have any advice about what I should do about the car situation? If you were me, what would you do with the car? Now that you know I can't sell it for enough money to cover the loan. Thank you in advance!

I'll check out the personal finance subreddit. I'm desperate for any kind of ideas/solutions. I agree with you on the car cost, I'm just unsure on how to go about dealing with it. I live in an area where things are far away (30-40 minute highway drive) and I drive about 15,000 miles a year just to go to school, work, and for my mom to use my car to drive to work (she can't afford her own, she borrows mine at night). I bought the car for $12k with an 18% interest rate. I'm 2 years into a 4.5 year loan and I owe $9k on the car still. It's crazy what I got myself into. When I KBB the car, it said my car is estimated to be valued at $5-6k. So if I sell it, I'll still be upside down with the loan. And then I'll also have no money for a down payment to buy a cheaper car. So I feel like I'm stuck with this car. It's not even a fancy car, it's just too much for a college student. As for the phone, I should have clarified that I pay for two lines. My mother's and my own. It's $50 for each line, but I have been paying for hers for the last few years because once upon a time I bought her a new phone and added her to my plan. When I start nursing school I can probably ask her to pay her half, but I'll still be left with $50. I think that's reasonable for a phone. The car is the main issue

I agree with you that I should not have a $350 car payment. It's ridiculous. But at 19 when I went shopping for my first car it seemed like a really good idea. In hindsight... not so much. I live in an area where there is some public transportation, but it would take me hours to get to school/work. I am a 30-40 minute drive away from them both, and I drive about 15,000 miles per year. Also, my mom works the graveyard shift (during times when there are no buses) and since she can't afford a car I let her use mine at night. So having no car seems problematic for us both. I would entertain the idea of selling the car, except I don't think it would work financially. I bought the car for $12k with an 18% interest rate. So I'm 2 years into a 4.5 year loan and I owe $9k on the car still. It's crazy what I got myself into. When I KBB the car, it said my car is estimated to be valued at $5-6k. So even if I sell it, I'll still be upside down with the loan. And then I'll also have no money for a down payment to buy a cheaper car. So I feel like I'm stuck with this car. It's not even a fancy car, it's just too much for a college student. Any advice on the car situation is appreciated, I don't really know what I'm doing here. Clearly.

That seems like such an obvious answer, I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of that myself. I previously thought you had to be a straight A student to get scholarships, but now that I'm looking into it there may be some nursing related scholarship I can get. I'm going to go talk to the financial aid office again on Monday. Thanks for your response!

Hey all, I have received financial aid for the last 3 years and never had to pay for school, just my own expenses. But this next semester I will not receive any FA and I'm ineligible for government loans. It's kind of a long story, but the bottom line is that I messed things up temporarily and now I have to pay out of pocket for the first semester of Nursing School. Before January I am able save up enough money for first semester classes ($2k) by working overtime while I am on break between semesters. But I wont have enough time to also save enough to cover my living expenses for 6 months. So I'm looking for advice/ideas on how to eliminate or lower personal expenses to live more within my means. Here's what I'm working with: Car payment: $350/month (any experience w/ re-financing a car loan?) Car insurance: $285/month (cheapest insurance around) Phone bill: $100/month Gas, tolls: $100/month Credit card bills: $150/month (I have debt from paying for last semester's classes) No rent to pay, I live with my mother (who makes $10/hr and can't really help me with bills much) That's almost $1k/month. I make enough now to cover it, but when I go down to working 12 hours a week during the program, I'll only be able to cover half that expense. How can I live within my means more and reduce this by half for at least 6 months, or come up with $500/month for 6 months? $3k is a lot of money.. I have no idea what I'm doing here, what would you do in my position? If anyone has advice, I appreciate it

So I guess it isn't usual then. On my unit there are only 2 per diem employees coming in, including myself. And unlike the full timers, none of us were assigned to a team. So we weren't expecting it and I assumed I wasn't on duty. And now right before the storm they printed a new list including a couple per diem people.

It's just not ideal because my family is evacuating and we only have one car. So I'm going to have them drop me off before they head to Georgia. But I understand them needing people to work. The way they went about it was rude though. Probably because everyone is trying to get out of working.

Because I wasn't on the list. Only full time employees were on the list that was posted. And now two or three days before the hurricane they're telling me I'm required to show up because I'm per diem. I decided I'm going to go, but I was upset because I wasn't expecting it.

Hey guys! I'm not a nurse, but I am part of the nursing staff as a PCA. I have only been working in a hospital for a year, so I'm not sure what is usual or custom. As the title suggests, I am located in South Florida and hurricane Irma may clobber us this weekend. If it is still a category 4 or 5 hurricane by Friday morning I have decided to evacuate my loved ones out of state. However, the hospital I work for is telling ALL per diem workers that we are REQUIRED to come to the hospital to work during the hurricane lock down. So my question is, is that usual for a hospital? To require the PER DIEM employees to come in? There was a hurricane list made up in advance saying which full time workers would have to come in and who would be part of the "after" team, but I was never aware that per diem workers needed to as well. I just wanted to know if my director/superiors are pulling one over on me by telling my it's required when it actually may not be what usually happens. My hospital has been known to lie to employees when it suits them. Sorry for the long post, thank you for any answers in advance.

@wawray I would be worried that it's taken over 3 weeks.. I was part of the group who applied for last semester (fall 2017) and did not get in. So, I retook A&P II at Keiser for a higher grade so I could get in this semester. After Keiser said they had mailed my transcripts out, 15 days went by and BC still didn't have them. So I went to Ft. Lauderdale and picked up my physical transcript at Keiser and dropped them off at the school myself and the admissions person evaluated them right there in front of me and put the info into the computer right then and there. Once they had the transcripts is was done on the same day. It also took one day for my high school transcript to be evaluated (Back in 2014 when I first came to BC) There's no reason for it to take 3 weeks. So if I were you I would verify that the transcripts have indeed been received by BC. If not, maybe one or both of your schools is lolly-gagging and hasn't even sent them like Keiser did to me. You can always pick up transcripts in person is your schools aren't out of state or something. Also, after going through this application process twice, I can't stress this part enough.. the whole system is a mess, so just go in PERSON. When you call anyone anywhere at BC, nothing gets done. It's crazy. You get put on hold for forever, hung up on, rude people, wrong answers to important questions, etc. Just go in person and demand that answers be given then and there.

First of all, congrats on possibly landing your first hospital gig! I'm currently a PCT at a hospital in South Florida so I'll give you a detailed view of what my job is like and a little background on myself. I've been doing this for 3 months! Hopefully you find this useful. Warning: This will be very long, lol! I'm almost 21 years old, I've spent the last few years slowly working away at my pre-reqs for nursing school. In the meantime, I was working in retail. This past summer I spent 3 months taking an intensive course to get my PCT certifications. I got my HHA cert, CNA license, EKG cert, and Phlebotomy certification. I initially had a hard time finding a hospital job due to my lack of experience. So I applied for CNA positions with various home health agencies and lied to them all about my experience, and found work with what I thought was a decent agency. I stayed for about a month and then got pretty tired of it, and realized the agency wasn't so great after all. So I again started applying for PCT positions online and got 3 interviews to my surprise. (I got these interviews by lying about my experience again. I said I had two years of Home Health experience instead of a month, LOL). I was offered all 3 positions and negotiated salaries, and ended up with a full time (daytime) PCT position in a hospital for $12.79 an hour plus benefits. Which is low in general but very decent for the area I live in. I don't think I could get any higher in South Florida. ANYWAY. I'll give you a look at my typical day. My shift is 6:30a - 7:00p (12.5 hour shift, with 30 minute lunch break and 15 minute breakfast break). I work on a small unit, only 20 beds. It's a Neuro-Telemetry unit and there is usually only 1 PCT working at a time, unless all of the beds are full. The perfect amount of patients for me is 8-10. I think 10-12 is still manageable (meaning I can do all my rounds and duties as expected), but anything more than 13 gets hard to juggle. At my hospital I often end up with 14 or 15 patients and I can't even round properly some days. I just run around crazily answering call lights and trying to help everyone in time. Anyway, first thing in the morning the Charge Nurse prints out a "PCT Handoff Tool" that is a report that gives me a brief summary on each patient explaining what they are being admitted for, any precautions, any wounds, what their activity level is, their diet, any allergies, and things like that. While looking at the assignment board, I jot down notes for each patient on the handoff tool (such as who their nurse is and what phone that nurse has today). 06:30- I arrive and go look at the assignment board at the Nurse's station that tells me what rooms/pts I'll have that day and which phone I will use (we have employee phones and pagers). An example of my assignment may be "Sara: 909, 910, 916-928)" Which means I have those rooms (15 pts for the day). 06:45- I'm ready to receive report on my pts from the nighttime PCT so I go find him/her. We go together to each pt's room and the nighttime PCT will tell me if the pt is "Self", "assist" or "total". "Self" meaning that they are self-sufficient and are in need of minimal assistance. OR the pt may be an "assist" meaning they need my assistance to get up and go to the bathroom and may need help with their ADLs. OR the pt may be a "total" meaning they need total or complete care from me; this pt cannot get up so they will need a bedpan or their catheter/ostomy bag emptied, if they are incontinent they will need me to change the pads on their bed frequently or their diaper if they use them, they will need me to do their ADLs for them, they may need me to feed them, and they will need to be turned every 2 hours by me. We go into each patient's room together and the nighttime PCT tells me what I need to know, I introduce myself to the patient, and then we move on to the next room. 07:00- I have *hopefully* finished getting report on all pts and am ready to work. I am supposed to round on all my pts on the odd hours of the day; so at 07:00, 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, and 17:00. And the RN's round on all the even hours of the shift. At the 07:00 round my goal is to change all the dry erase boards to reflect the proper staff names and health goals for the day. I will also perform the accu-cheks on any of my diabetic pts (since it must be done before breakfast comes at 08:00). I will also assist any pts who are awake with brushing their teeth, going to the bathroom, and changing linens if they want me to. Depending on how many patients I have, I may finish with this round anywhere between 07:45 and 09:00! Because of course I am constantly being interrupted with pages to assist pts with using the bathroom, etc. 09:00- This round is usually done pretty quickly. During this round I change linens, bring water, and assist with ADL's for any pts I did not get to during my 07:00 rounds or for the ones who were alseep then. I also change electrodes and batteries for all the tele-monitors since I work on a tele unit. As I go into each room, I greet pt by name, ask how they are feeling and if they are in any pain, see if they want to use the restroom (all pts have bed/chair alarms and must have someone with them EVERY time they are out of bed to prevent falls), I ask if they want to reposition themselves or move from bed to chair etc, make sure all of their belongings are in reach, and then if there is nothing else they need I tell them someone from my team will be in to check on them within the next hour. 09:30-09:45 I usually try to go downstairs to the cafeteria and eat breakfast around this time. My hospital offers one paid 15 minute break and I use it for breakfast. Sometimes I am too busy and have to wait until 10:00 or 11:00, but most days I take it early. 09:45- Back on the floor. At this time of the morning I answer pages and go back and forth helping pts to bathroom, changing incontinent pads, bringing someone more cups/ice/water/pudding/socks, etc. If there is free time I will stock gloves and extra linens in rooms. 10:30- I start my 11:00 round half an hour early because during the 11:00 round I also must take vital signs and do accu-cheks on the diabetics so this round can easily take 60-90 minutes (sometimes longer if we are short staffed and I keep getting interrupted to assist pts to bathroom). So I do normal rounding with everything mentioned early (repositioning, bathroom assist, placement, ask about pain, etc), then I take temp, respirations, b/p, and O2 Sat%, and blood sugar/accu-check. I record all the vital signs on my PCA Handoff Tool (notes). 12:00- *Hopefully* by this time I am finished with the 11:00 round/vitals and I will go to the computer room where I must chart on my pts for a while. I chart the vital signs for each pt, along with the times that I repositioned them, how many times they voided (used the bathroom) today and if it was urine or feces (if urine, must chart the ml if they have a foley catheter or urinal to measure). I also have to chart which pts I assisted in brushing teeth, pericare, bathing, eating (what percentage of meal did they eat at breakfast), etc. 12:30- If there are any pts who need help eating, this is the time I will do it. If there aren't any, I will go on my lunch break at this time (30 mins). Some days I can't eat until 14:00 or 15:00 because it's busy. 13:00- At this time I have to round again and ask all my usual questions (any pain? Reposition? Move from chair to bed? Need to use the bathroom? Make sure all belongings are in reach and tell them someone will be back to check on them in an hour.) 14:00- If I'm done with 13:00 rounds I will go catch up on any leftover charting; such as, which pts have voided since I last charted and how much, which pts needed assistance eating and how much did they eat, etc. If there is no left over charting I will SIT AND BREATHE for the first time that day and just wait to get pages for bathroom assistance of something else. 14:30- I start my 15:00 rounds half an hour early because this round also includes vital signs and therefore it takes much longer than the usual rounds. I ask my usual questions about repositioning and bathroom and blah blah, and then take all vital signs I mentioned earlier, record them on my handoff tool paper and go through all the rooms like that. 16:00- I go to the computer room and chart all my vital signs, who had voided and how much, etc. Usually takes about half an hour. 16:30- I do my last set of accu-cheks (blood sugars) on my diabetic pts before dinner is delivered at 17:00. 17:00- It's time to round again on all pts. I ask my usual rounding questions, and since dinner is being served right about now I am moving a lot of patients out of bed and into the chair so they can sit up and eat. For other patients I am helping them sit up their bed and bringing over their bedside table and adjusting the height and stuff so they can eat. I also get a lot of pages for stuff like pt needs ketchup”, pt needs coffee”, etc at this time of the day and I take care of that stuff. 17:30- If any pts need help eating I do that as soon as I'm finished with the 17:00 rounds. If there are no pts who need help eating, this is the time I start cleaning up and getting ready for shift change. 18:00- Start getting ready for shift change: stocking all rooms with gloves, incontinent pads, masks, gowns, stock up the linen cart, stock up the accu-check kits, empty all catheter/ostomy bags one last time, make sure all incontinent patients are on dry pads or in dry diapers, etc. Empty all the trash cans on the unit and bring all bags of soiled linens to laundry room. This usually takes 30 mins to an hour, because I'm still being paged for bathroom assists, etc. 18:30- Nighttime shift arrives 18:45- Start giving report on all patients to the nighttime PCT. 19:00- GO HOME! (Usually, haha) Sometimes I still haven't finished stocking/cleaning the rooms, so I have to stay an extra 15 or 30 minutes to finish. I've never stayed any later than 20:15. I am also supposed to bathe patients sometime during the day, but my hospital is way too understaffed for me to have time to do that as often as they want me to. Our goal is to bathe each pt every other shift. Luckily most pts are bathed at night, and then I usually have time to bathe one or two. But if there are more than that who need bathing, sadly, it just won't happen during my shift. Another huge hassel is getting a new admission or discharge. They happen daily, sometimes 5 or 6 in one day, and they take a lot of time to do. And they're unpredictable so that's something that often interrupts my regular duties. *Additional duties include: putting tele-monitors (heart monitors) on new admission pts and changing the electrodes and batteries daily. I change dressings for simple wounds. I put on condom catheters (not foleys). I remove IVs when the pt is being discharged or when the RN asks me to. I help with orthostatic blood pressure tests. I also try to walk with patients around the hallway when I have free time. While I am certified to draw blood, I never get to because my hospital has the lab techs come and do that, so I just do the finger pricks for the accu-cheks. Of course I can do CPR as well, but I've never had to so far. I also assist with post-mortem care when someone dies on our unit. I feel like there's so much more but that's all I can think of right now! I like this job a lot, I just wish we could have at least two PCTs on my unit during a shift for an extra set of hands. Also wished I could make a little more money. But overall, it's a decent job to gain experience until I actually become an RN. Hope this helps! And good luck to you!