BrendanO

Search for Rush University GEM Cohort 21... that's us! Congrats on getting in!

Read the textbook now, so by the time you're taking the class again, you'll already have seen all of the material at least once.

You only need PPD and two titers? Yes, get them done at the same time! If they draw the tubes before they stick you for PPD, you are correct, they will have no effect on each other. You'll go back to get the PPD read before you even get the titer results, most likely. My titers took 4 business days to come back, PPD gets read after 48 hours. I think the health department woman was confused about what you were having done.

Chemistry isn't a nursing pre-requisite? Why would you switch to the Education school for a child development degree and not finish your biochem program? You generally have to become an RN before you can be an NP, so it's not really "instead of". You have a three main options: 1. transfer into a BSN program at another school; 2. finish your BS in Biochem and apply for ABSN/RN or 2nd bachelors BSN programs; 3. finish your BS in Biochem and apply for MSN/RN programs. All of these will prepare you to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam, which is required to get a nursing license. After that, then you can either apply immediately to an MSN or DNP program to become an NP, or (more likely) work for a few years to gain experience before applying to MSN or DNP programs. Rather than trying to talk to the academic advisors in the nursing program itself, you might get more information from talking to the admissions office for the nursing program. But none of them are going to be able to tell you the "best" course for you... they can give you options, but the determination of what is "best" is yours to make. I would imagine the merits of the various options will vary based on your finances, the amount of time you'd like to spend in school, whether you can/want to move out of state, and your grades in the rest of your undergrad program.

The fastest and cheapest non-CCC option to become an RN is the Loyola ABSN program. It's 16 months (four semesters) and $52k. I think it would be very difficult to work while in it (it's 18 credit-hours per term).

No, many schools have non-degree certificate programs for practitioners who are already an APRN in one specialty but are looking to add/switch to another. The ones at my school are 8-12 months long. There are also joint programs that train for two specialties simultaneously, like AGACNP and FNP.

Do you have evidence (not anecdotes) that RNs from two-year MSN programs have any more or less trouble finding a job than graduates of 15- or 18-month ABSN or two-year BSN programs? All three direct-entry MSN programs in Chicago say that they have 90+% employment rates at 6 months post-licensing. Do you think they're all lying?

Are you still looking to go to school in Chicago? There is no "best path", really. The programs you were considering back in April are all different in length, cost, and size. Personally, I picked Rush because it's a semester shorter than UIC, cheaper than DePaul (and DePaul requires orgo pre-req), and less intense than Loyola. I also liked that Rush prepares students for CNL certification, for whatever that may be worth. I couldn't see the value going back to get an ADN, as I'm probably headed for APRN eventually, and that would require a BSN/MSN at some point later. CCC is definitely much, much cheaper than the others, though. Did you apply for the spring 2017 cohorts anywhere, or still just thinking about it?

JABSOM doesn't require a bachelors degree, just a minimum 90 credit-hours in specific areas.

Sorry to read about your unpleasant experience. In the ED you are often seeing patients and families on what is possibly the worst day of their lives. They are scared, confused, and in physical and emotional pain. It's a normal reaction for patients and family members to lash out at people around them who have done nothing wrong. There's literally nothing you can do to completely prevent it. I've had family members screaming in my face one minute, crying on my shoulder the next, and thanking me the next. Just keep your head up and keep doing the best job you can, with a balanced mix of compassion, empathy, and clinical detachment.

If you're open to relocating, look into the Indian Health Service. There's also the Global Health Service Partnership (the medical branch of the Peace Corps). Or, after you have a few years full-time experience, structure your work in the US in such a way (with PRN/locum and/or travel jobs) that you can spend part of your year volunteering overseas. There are TONS of opportunities for folks to provide direct care and train local human resources in healthcare, all over the world.

So you already have a bachelor's degree with organic chem, biochem, statistics/calculus, physics, etc. coursework completed? Have you considered an MSN/RN program and then a DNP? Some DNP schools have didactic courses you can be doing online while you working, before you entering the program full-time. Or, as PP said, PA school? If you want to be working as a "mid-level" provider in as little time as you can, PA will get you there at least as fast as BSN-DNP (and likely a few years faster, depending on your specialization area for the DNP).

These types of threads (and there are several on here) are fascinating, especially given the diversity of geography, experience, and credentials of the participants. Here's what I think I've learned from reading many of them: - scope of practice matters (LVN/LPN market is not the same as RN market, which is not the same as APRN market) - education matters (ADN/RN and BSN/RN markets are different, MSN vs. DNP seems less so) - specialty/unit matters (LTC or Psych may have a severe shortage, ICU/high acuity may not; or vice-versa) - location matters (even different parts of the same city/metropolitan area can have different job outlooks) - experience matters (1-2 years is a "magic" threshold to unlock many positions) - professional networking matters (some positions are filled before they're posted) - working conditions matter (crappy employers can't retain workers, great employers can be more discriminating in their hires) Sounds like every other industry I've worked in (skilled trade, IT, and K-12 education). A music teacher with 15 years experience and a doctorate faces a completely different market than the BA-credentialed English teacher with ESL endorsement, yet they're both in "education". The program I'm starting in January says that 90+% of their grads are employed within 6 months of graduating, and 100% within 12 months. Here's hoping their statistics continue to be accurate!

Sounds like you're in a relatively good place to take on more. While working full-time, I took Bio and Chem in the same semester, and then Microbio, A&P1, and Psych the next semester. I think I averaged 3 hours a day of studying (more on weekends, less on weekdays). If you can get a flexible class schedule, that might be helpful. My A&P1 was a 6.5-hour class on Saturday, which I found way easier to deal with than 4-hour classes on MWF nights (and less travel time to deal with). But I didn't have a child to care for, so... Good luck to you, whatever decision you make!

Which is an illegal policy and should be politely challenged, when possible. Although in a right-to-work state, that's not going to matter much, they'll just find another reason to fire you if you stir the pot too much. Seems to me that the strongest pressures for higher wages are unionization and strong state labor laws. Don't forget to research candidates and vote on Nov. 8, everyone!

As far as I'm aware, Pell (it's not an acronym, it's a dead Senator's name) grants are only given to US citizens or resident aliens attending college in the US, so I don't think you'd qualify for that. According to Columbia's website, your Admission Advisor should be the person helping you figure out how to finance your schooling. Some schools don't have a separate FA office; they handle all of that in their Admissions department.

If the prof is a stat-head (and you understand stats well), read up on manipulation of p-values. Lots of studies are easy to pick apart if the strength of their conclusions is based mainly on the p-values of their data distribution. Similarly for any regression study that does not properly contextualize their R-squared values (in some studies, R-squared of .3 is great, in others it's garbage). Look for high-leverage outlier data, particularly if excluded or not explained. Look for unsupportable conclusions drawn from studies with non-placebo control groups, especially if the control is just "usual care", "waiting list", "educational material" or other non-intervention. Any intervention has an effect, so studies without some kind of sham treatment in their control group have limited power. Look for studies that cannot be double-blinded, or where data analysis was not blinded. Look for high or disproportional rates of subject disqualifications or drop-outs from either experimental or control groups. Look for social biases related to subjects' lifestyle, social position, environment, or wealth that correlate with subject selection criteria or demographics of study group (e.g. an all-white group is statistically likely to have a higher income than a majority AA group, which can affect access to routine/preventive care; subjects solicited via advertisement in newspapers skew older; etc.) Look for possible unmeasured/uncontrolled confounding variables related to the dependent variable, particularly in any out-patient study group (e.g. dietary interventions with only self-reported intakes, exercise regimens with variable scheduling, etc.)

What's your starting point? Graduation from high school?

There's a video that I found helpful for avoiding valves. Nothing sucks more than finding a good vein, getting a good flash, and ending up with a catheter tip stuck in a flap of tunica intima. There's also a book I found pretty helpful, called The Art of the IV Start. Nothing groundbreaking, just a good, compact reference that covers the major tricks and tips. The Art of the IV Start I definitely was not at all confident at IV starts until I had done 25-30 of them, and I still wouldn't say I'm "good" at them. In most of my experience, difficult UE sticks just turned into EJs or IOs, so I'm a bit apprehensive moving into an environment where those wouldn't be part of the normal protocols.

What? iStat cartridges work with venous or arterial blood for electrolytes, glucose, and BGs.

My program (a direct-entry MSN in Chicago) only has an time limit on A&P (five years).

That's not true. We trade labor for wages. That is completely different than "profit", which is surplus value extracted from labor. Corporate profit is, in fact, a dollar-for-dollar competitor with labor, future R&D, and production costs on a company's balance sheet. It is entirely possible to deliver healthcare under a non-profit model, as Kaiser Permanente, many community hospitals, university medical centers, the NHS, VA, and many other publicly-financed health systems around the world demonstrate. That these organizations have historically been major developers of new therapies and interventions should put to rest the myth that innovation does not happen without a profit motive. How many new surgical techniques have been developed at Johns Hopkins, without any profit motive? Whether that model can work in pharmaceutical development is an open question. A fair number of universities have opened drug-development research centers in the past decade or so, in some cases because they recognize that new treatments for certain health conditions will never be profitable without extraordinary costs to individual consumers, or that potential margins are too low to attract investors in the private sector. Time will tell what kind of drugs these groups can produce. Given that healthcare is driven primarily by highly inelastic consumer demand for not getting sicker/not dying, I think it is a perfectly valid question whether profits belong in the picture at all.

Sounds to me like you should look into health education or community health programs.

Why is nursing not for you? The poop? The work hours? The hard hospital floors? Touching strangers' bodies? Knowing your reasoning might help people make better suggestions for you. Fields/majors/degrees that could use the science classes: PT, RT, PA, OT, medicine, paramedic, biomedical engineering, public health, nutrition, speech pathology, athletic training, massage therapy, etc. I doubt any other program will transfer in nursing clinical as credit for anything; they're too specific.

Regarding textbook vs. ppt content, that's likely going to vary from one professor/class to another, and will be reflected in what you are tested on. My Microbio teacher expected us to know all the content in the textbook, whether he covered it in class or not, and he also covered a lot in class that was not in the book. In my A&P 1 class, the professor only tested us on content we saw in lecture. It's something I think you'll need to work out on a case-by-case basis. However, do consider that you are now taking foundational classes, and your success in future courses will depend on your understanding and recall of the information you're learning. Taking 18 credits in one semester is a heavy load, so your struggles are for a good reason. A typical BA/BS has 14-16 sem-hours as an "on-track" four-year graduation pace, so you're doing 15-30% more than your non-nursing peers (and 50% more than students doing the minimum 12). Given the load you're taking, it sounds like you're doing great! I would be really surprised if you have to keep that up for 7 more semesters, as that would be a 144-credit degree, which is way beyond even engineering programs. You might want to sit down with an advisor in the nursing program to plan out your future semesters. See if you have any options for taking gen ed requirements (like English or the electives) in the summer, maybe? Then you can concentrate on the core nursing classes in the fall/spring semesters (and get more sleep).