nishey94

Hello! I’m a medsurg nurse, practicing for 1 year and 9 months thus far. I floated a lot so I have some experience in ortho, tele and observation. My question is how do I safely get into PACU. I know it is a part of critical care nursing and I want to feel confident in my skills. Should I try a post surgery floor before attempting to apply for PACU? Most PACU positions require two years of experience in surgery or pre-op. I just wanted to clarify how I would get that experience! I’m trying to avoid having to go the ICU route because I would have to do an ICU fellowship which involves most of the time a 2 year contract to the hospital and also requires alot of time outside of the being on the floor in class etc.

I feel like Im going insane. Im so tired. Ive changed my major like 5 times and finally my senior year of university I decided to do nursing, and am trying to finish my last two pre-reqs. Still that means two more years of schooling. I feel like im burning out. Though I like nursing all I really want to do is go backpacking around the world. But I don't have money, just debt. Even after graduating, Ill just be working full time to pay off my debt. I just don't see the point in life. We exist to go to school so we can work for the rest of our lives until we die, we exist to survive. I really wish I hadn't existed at all. I feel my whole life I keep looking forward to the future. That after I finish school I'll get to accomplish my goals and dreams. But its not happening. I feel like I'm running and the exit is just getting farther and farther away. I feel like quitting everything, taking a few things and just leaving. My mom says if everbody else can do it, I can do it, I can finish school and get a job. I feel so tired of living, of getting up every morning and going about my day. What should I do?

I don't really know where to go to talk to active duty or veterans, I really don't know anyone other than my recruiters that are even in the military........I feel like I'm probably going to have to give up on the Marines because it really isn't fitting in with my plans. I feel like Im mainly doing nursing for my parents. Who I owe everything to. They've done so much for me.....when I told my mom that I wanted to join the military she gave me this heart broken look and she said she thought that this time I would make her proud, finish school and get a job, so she can rest easy and know that I'll be okay. I feel so stuck, like i have no choice but to finish school, Ive wasted so much money. I mean I do like the medical field, I like being in the hospital and treating people and just talking & being around them & a fast paced environment. I don't mind the throw up or any other body fluids or the gore that would come my way. I know I would make a great nurse. I just don't know if that is what I want for the rest of my life....yet it is affecting so much of my future.... I think that I am going to look more into the Army nursing, see if I can talk to someone currently in it.

Has anyone done this before? My mind has been spinning the past couple of months about what branch to join that will also help me with nursing. And what I really want to do is join the Marines. But the Marines don't have their own medical personnel. Someone suggested I be in the Corp reserves. I am 22 years old, if I join the Corp now with basic and MOS training it would be about 1 year and a half before I carry out my 4 years of service for my MOS. But if I am doing the reserves (Im really not sure how it would work)....I already finished my pre-reqs I just have to finish 2 years of nursing school.....Im assuming that I'll be in the reserves for 2 years after MOS training to finish nursing school, Ill be 25 years old when I'm done with schooling and I can carry out my 4 years of service. So I'll be 29 by the time I can work as a nurse. I guess my biggest question is, will hospitals hire me if i serve for 4 years after finishing nursing school. I wouldn't have any experience and Im worried I'll forget things. Also........ I really want to join the Marine Corp and I know in my heart of hearts if I joined any other branch I would always wonder how it would have been if I had joined the Corp and regret will lead to bitterness. BUT if you were me, and you were thinking reasonably, leaving out emotion, which branch would you suggest I join? Air Force not included (I know I don't want to join the AF). So Navy, Army, or Marines (I know the Marines are part of the Navy but still different). This is what I want: A life changing Boot Camp, I want to learn discipline, I want to have a rude awakening to life. I want comradery, as sense of belonging. I want to travel, actually travel the world not just breeze by it (Ive heard the Navy travels alot but mostly only see the shorelines, and the Army has many bases but in the middle of nowhere/remote areas). I want to deployed and get as close as a female can get to the frontline or combat. This is the hardest decision I have ever needed to make (that sounds pretty lame ,I know), Im exhausted going back forth, forming a plan and then trashing it. Im getting so much information left and right I don't know what to believe, everyone's experiences are all so different and depends on their specific circumstance. Ive talked to multiple recruiters but I don't trust what they say, they are all so biased. Please HELP ME. I know what I want I just want the branch that will get me closest to what I want.

I looked into the Air Force Para-rescue and though its sounds awesome it is not open for women to join. I've actually made up my mind to enlist in the marines. Also like someone advised previously if my ultimate goal is to be a PA then I might as well just go directly for that instead of doing nursing first. So after MOS school I plan on joining the MSC-IPP PA program through the Navy. I won't need a bachelors degree to be eligible, just need the required course credit, citizenship, and good SAT score, which I do have. It might take a while for all of this to happen but it is possible to be a marine and be in the healthcare field I think.

This might sound selfish but I'd rather be honest. I'm not joining the marines for my country, I'm joining for myself. And I'm not joining so that I can brag about being a marine to people as I see them. I don't care if anyone in the world knows whether or not I became a marine. I want to be a marine to prove it to myself, it is completely for me and I know for sure its not just a title, I respect it too much. Being a healthcare personnel in the military is that much more gratifying. I would get to save lives in need of immediate care, my fellow military brothers and sisters, I get a chance to travel to other countries and help people out there in the world, and that is why I want to be a marine in the health care field. The reason I picked marine out of all the branches is for sentimental reasons. To answer the question do I want to be a nurse......I don't hate the job? I love certain aspects of the job, how nurses get closest to the patient and I don't mind the grunt work the smells or sounds. The only thing is that I find it is limiting. I love the healthcare field and I've always wanted to go further than stopping at nursing. Before deciding to join the military I was first going to be a nurse so that I could help pay for medical or PA school or even something else....I am still not sure what I want in life so in my mind I thought first I can be a nurse and have a secure job and see where I go from there. So thats why it was my stepping stone. I know nothing about the military and the healthcare field which is why I'm here, someone mentioned here that PA's get more of a chance on the field then nurses. Would I rather be a marine or a nurse.....I've asked myself that one alot......I can't answer it right now. If I join the military I want to feel useful in it, bring them what I'm good at, my talents.....if I can't be in the healthcare field and in the military I don't know exactly what I would do.

I am actually very interested in PA school, I did not plan on stopping at just nursing, I thought maybe I would first do nursing as a backbone then later go into PA or something. This was before deciding I wanted a military life. I know everyone keeps telling me to talk to a navy healthcare recruiter but Im kind of scared to invite yet another recruiter in to the mix. I guess I'm really putting a lot of trust in the first recruiter I went to, I know he wants me to enlist but I was very candid with him that I'm still not sure and I don't want to waste his time, I told him that I might join the navy to do Hospital Corpsman instead. He assured me that I was not wasting his time and that I have alot of time before coming to a final decision. The SSergeant is helping me train to meet the physical requirements and I feel comfortable and trust my recruiter, even though I'm not sure I should haha. I do want the title of a marine. I have asked around and found that Hospital Corpsman do not go through the same bootcamp training as marines. Not to put down any other branch, but I feel like the Marines have to go through one of the roughest training, something about that, something about them I am drawn to it, and I feel like I would regret it if I joined any other branch first. I think my biggest problem is that I feel like I'm 21 and after going to bootcamp and MOS and coming back Ill be around 23 and STILL not have a degree, I'll be trying to finish nursing school while all my friends and colleagues are well into their careers . I feel like I've been in college forever, and Im worried what my parents will say, they have helped with tuition and my apartment bills and I'm worried they won't be supportive of my decision to join the marines. I know I should do whats right for me and ignore what others think, but I feel so dumb! I wish I had known I wanted to Join the marines at 17. I think however that I have come to the conclusion for now that I'm going to enlist in the marines, and then afterward I will decide whether I want to pursue PA school or Nursing School through the Navy. Im finishing up pre-reqs for both. If what you say is true about PA's being more in the battlefield then I'm probably leaning towards that. I have also heard that marines are working to have their own medical personnel by the end of 2016 so perhaps ill be able to just stay within the marines. I would love to get your feedback on my (for now) plan!

So I have decided to enlist in the marines after finishing my undergrad prereq's and then afterward go back to nursing school. The marines will at most take a 1 year and 5 months to finish boot camp, and MOS training. I want to take my teas during my undergrad like this August so that all the things I learned are fresh in my mind when I take the test, but a year and 5 months from then will I have to retake the teas test or can I use the test score that I take now for after marine training? I go to TWU so thats why I said TEAS but I guess Ill be taking the HESI as well.

Everything Ive read keeps saying that most of the time you can have a RN license but you would be given the role as a LVN or CNA. Maybe I just didn't understand what they meant. So if the marines is part of the Navy, can't I do my basic and graduate as a marine and then transfer or something. Joining the marines is very important to me, I'm not sure why but I know thats where I belong. Is there really no way that I can be a navy nurse and a marine or something??

Hi, I've read up a lot on here about military nursing and how there isn't really a job as a nurse in the military. I guess I am very confused as to what to do. I am a junior in a 4 year university, I changed my major multiple times before deciding I wanted to do nursing. I finish my undergrad in December and then I have two more years in Nursing School before I can get my BA. Right now I am 21 years old Ill be around 23 or 24 when I'm done with my BA in nursing. What I'm confused about is I want to join the Marines. I went to a recruiting office and talked to one of the enlistment recruiters and he was nice enough, not too pushy but I don't think he knows much about how I would be a nurse in the military. He told me that the Marines get their Medical team from the Navy. I really want to go through the Marines, and then maybe transfer branches to the Navy. Simply said my dream job is to be in the field as a nurse helping the military, like I mean in combat. I want to be there to fix someone up right after they got shot etc. I'm not sure if my dream job even exists at this point, because I know war is different now and also I am a woman, I'm not sure we're even allowed in the field. I have also talked to an officer recruiter on the phone and he told me about the Platoon Leaders Course that I can take while I am in Nursing School, it is 2, six week summer training programs. This way I will be done with my BA and my training together and be an officer from what I understand. The problem with that however is, I'm definitely not where I need to be for the physical demands of PLC to go straight from civilian life to Marines. For Basic I hear it is easier and they help you to succeed while in PLC you are really more on your own and its easier to get dropped. I really don't care about my pay or even my rank, I just want to be able to be a nurse and a marine. I don't know what to do. I'm not sure whether I should enlist or go the officer program. Someone talked also about being commissioned as a nurse. I'm not sure how that works either. I really want to go through the "brotherhood" of the marines, the feeling of accomplishment and belonging somewhere and going through something very tough and making it through, the strength and the pride, but I also want a sturdy job that I love doing. After my years in active duty I would love to work a civilian job as a nurse for VA or something, or go further in my career to become a nurse practitioner or even Physician Assistant. I just feel overwhelmed in how to go about doing this in the most effective time saving manner. I don't know who to talk to about nursing in the military.