Prospective male nurse with a lot of questions.

elkpark · Feb 10, 2010

The Federal and state laws requiring schools to make accomodations for disabilities are much tougher than those for employers -- I would not be concerned about getting into school (any more so than anyone else, that is), if I were you, but you may have more difficulty finding employment after you're licensed. Not that I'm saying I think you would have trouble -- I'm just saying that the laws regarding education pretty much require schools to do whatever is necessary to make it possible for anyone who wants to go to school to be able to, regardless, while employers are only required to make "reasonable accommodations," which ends up meaning "not much." Nursing, in general, is a physically taxing occupation -- and, while there certainly are jobs that aren't physically taxing, there is a lot of competition for those jobs and they typically require a fair amount of clinical experience to be considered qualified/eligible.

Given your status as a disabled vet, you may well want to look into (when the time comes) working in the VA system -- they give preference to vets in general and disabled vets in particular when it comes to employment. The VA is also a terrific and highly desirable employer. Lots of other nurses are dying to get hired into the VA system -- and you would go to "the front of the line". Some VA hospitals have programs that pay for employee RNs to become NPs, also (in return for agreeing to keep working for the VA for a specified amount of time).

There are a bunch of existing threads here about tattoos that you could find with the "search" feature if you want to review them. Basically, they certainly aren't a plus re: employment, but they aren't necessarily a handicap. Tattoo acceptance seems to be largely a matter of geography -- in some parts of the country (major cities, CA, the places you can pretty much predict ...) they are no big deal; in more conservative parts of the country, many employers require that they be covered at work or you might have difficulty getting hired. Bottom line, though, plenty of people with tattoos are pursuing successful careers in healthcare. In general, though, schools tend to be much stricter than employers about tattoos -- it's pretty safe to assume you would be required to cover your tattoos for clinicals in school.

BTW, you may want to look at this thread, if you haven't already:

https://allnurses.com/government-military-nursing/corpsmen-medics-become-270082.html

Best wishes for your journey! :balloons:

DirtyBlackSocks · Feb 10, 2010

Thank you for the link Elkpark.

Unfortunately I've been out of the military for a few years now, and while I may be able to still challenge the LVN - I feel that I would benefit from going through a more traditional route to shake the cobwebs off.

All of your feedback is appreciated, though. I was actually planning to apply at either free clinics or the VA after graduation because of my disabled status.

What concerned me more, despite listing them last. Were my tattoo's and prior history record. :)

Rednights · Feb 11, 2010

Technically .. by law i think? ..... Nurses are not allowed to manual lift anything greater than ... 25-35 lbs in NJ ... this includes even sliding the patient up .. you must use a maxislide ... if you get caught doing super man lifting you get some sort of punishment ... well that's what the occupational health nurse told my class yesterday ... the hospital spent mucho $$$$ so nurses are suppose to use it

edogs334 · Feb 11, 2010

This "advice" is coming from someone who just graduated and passed their boards, so take it with an extra grain of salt. Given your physical limitations, if your goal is to become an NP, you might want to consider a direct-entry MSN program- although you'd have to work with the school (and whoever agrees to employ you after you pass NCLEX-RN) to reconcile your disabilities with the requirements of clinicals and work experience during the RN portion of the program. These programs all require that you have a bachelor's degree in a non-nursing field, so direct entry wouldn't be an option if you don't already have a BA or BS. ElkPark may be able to comment on this more accurately than I can, but a growing number of hospitals (esp. large teaching hospitals) are investing in "no lift" technology that is at least supposed to ease the physical strain required to transfer patients. Maybe that technology could be part of how a facility makes reasonable accommodations for you. Also, if you want to go the mid-level provider route, you might also want to consider PA school. There are more pre-requisites involved, but I think you might fare better in a PA program since PA's aren't required to lift on a regular basis and have significantly more clinical hours than some NP programs. In other words, you wouldn't have to rely heavily on bedside RN experience to go the PA route, whereas having 3+ years of beside RN experience would make you a much stronger NP. Plus, you were a ranger medic in the army, so that experience may very well count toward the admissions requirements of many PA programs (ie- that you have so many hours or years of experience in a health care occupation providing direct patient care). Anyone with more experience than me is free to correct any factual inaccuracies I may have written. Hope this helps.

ItsTheDude · Feb 11, 2010

Basically I'm wondering if I will be discriminated against based around my disabilities, or my tattoo's. From Nursing School and on.

in general, nursing schools are much tougher (they want them all covered up) on tattoos than employers (some employers don't care much, as long as, they're not satanic, nude, etc).

with that said, even with nursing schools, they're not really worried about them until you hit labs/clinicals.

elkpark · Feb 11, 2010

Also, if you want to go the mid-level provider route, you might also want to consider PA school. There are more pre-requisites involved, but I think you might fare better in a PA program since PA's aren't required to lift on a regular basis and have significantly more clinical hours than some NP programs. In other words, you wouldn't have to rely heavily on bedside RN experience to go the PA route, whereas having 3+ years of beside RN experience would make you a much stronger NP. Plus, you were a ranger medic in the army, so that experience may very well count toward the admissions requirements of many PA programs (ie- that you have so many hours or years of experience in a health care occupation providing direct patient care). Anyone with more experience than me is free to correct any factual inaccuracies I may have written. Hope this helps.

PA (physician's assistant) is a good option that I didn't even think of (I guess because I'm a nurse and the OP was asking about nursing :)). No bedside nursing component at all. And the OP's experience/background would be desirable -- the whole PA concept was originally developed to capitalize on the skills of medics returning from Viet Nam and give them a way to translate those skills into civilian employment.

EquuszARNP · Feb 12, 2010

However, Nurse Practitioners are more autonomous than PA's. At least in the western states, they don't need physician oversight to open their own practice or prescribe meds within their speciality.

I think you can find nursing work that doesn't strain you too much, as you continue on the route to nurse practitioner. That's my goal, as well.

DirtyBlackSocks · Feb 12, 2010

Thank you for the replies.

I'm married with a son, so the PA program is out of the question simply because of the wait list coupled with the additional school.

I can't be in school forever. I need to find a field that yields a job within the next 3 years, but still offers room for growth through school while working.

1HOTTSHOT · Feb 17, 2010

Thanks for your time!

Thank you for your service.

313RN, BSN, RN · Feb 17, 2010

Nursing schools may or may not have a problem with the tatoos, it will just depend on the culture of the particualr program.

I went to a Jesuit school in an ASBN program and they didn't want visible ink. That being said, the ASBN program cut us some slack when compared to the traditional students, probably because we all had at least a bachelors degree already and it was a very intense program.

If it's an issue I would say get some long sleeved plain white t-shirts and expect to be hot from time to time.

The subject of lifting is near and dear to me. I'm 39 and have had a bad back since I was 17. I look like a small, balding, overweight ape so lots of times people expect me to just give a patient the old heave ho. I go looking for a lift.

I did my immersion/preceptorship/extern at a VA. They had a no-lift policy too. Overhead lifts were in all the rooms and there were lifts that could pick a patient off the floor or get them from a chair back to bed. I've been to other no-lift hospitals as well. I'm a huge proponent of not hurting myself of a patient or a team member by trying to be superman.

You should have a great shot at a VA job with your veteran status. The one I worked at as a student was great. There was a lot of autonomy and they let me do a lot of things that my peers never did. The benefits are fantastic and job security is excellent.

They will even pay for your NP if you promise to stay there for a year.

Good luck.

DirtyBlackSocks · Feb 19, 2010

Thank you for your service.

Thank you. :)

You'd be surprised how many people look at me like I'm a psycho when they find out I was military - living in California, we never receive any thanks outside of our VA treatment.

Now that I'm in college, with a bunch of liberal students, anytime the military comes up I'm in an uphill battle against conspiracy theories.

I actually had a student today accuse me of being a rapist simply because I was in the military - after we had a discussion of why 1 in 3 women in the military report being sexually assaulted! :eek: