Really hating school right now...

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2013

You are learning, even though it might seem as if you are not.

Here's a nasty truth for a lot of students: real learning of skills does not take place in clinical rotations. You learn the most during your first year of real world nursing. I attended three days of clinical rotations per week while attending an LVN program and one clinical shift per week while going to an RN bridge program, and not much came out of it. The workplace is where you'll learn your skills.

Your profile indicates you're in southern CA. I'm originally from southern CA and do not know of any hospital ERs, trauma ICUs, or outpatient surgery centers that hire LVNs in that area anymore. As much as you dislike geriatrics, that's where the few LVN job opportunities in southern CA remain. SNF/nursing homes, private duty, home health, and hospice are the main employers of LVNs in your area, and these jobs are competitive to get into due to the slow economy. Good luck to you.

MedChica · Jun 25, 2013

Everyone gets sick of nursing school. I was done with nursing school, too. Towards the end, I was just like, "Gimme my genie lamp and let me get the hell outta here!"

I understand.

A fish out of water?

No. You're malleable. Trainable. You can be hired on anywhere because you're a student.

No, you don't have 'geri nurse experience'. You don't have nursing skills. You have book knowledge.

Anyway, I work geri-psych (LTC). Our residents aren't there to die. You're mistaken. That is their home and we fulfill a role that their families cannot. We actually have long-term relationships with our pt's...unlike the nurses who work in hospitals.

I feel in geriatrics these people don't get better they are there to die..and hospice...well you know those people are dying.

I don't understand why some people have so much negativity to spread about LTC and hospice. I'm talking about people who've never even worked in LTC!

As if the hospitals so great? Great for the exp. Anything else? Please - I worked there for years in the rad dept and I'm not exactly looking fwd to returning for another dose of that toxic 'hospital culture'...this time, from the nursing sector.

Anyway, death is a transition. Hospice nurses (and CNAs) are there to ease it. They're there in the final moments giving the actively dying their peace and their dignity. When you speak of hospice work? More respect is due.

"I don't wanna work" here. I don't wanna work" there.

What is with some students? It was the same when I was in nursing school not to long ago.

I don't think you guys get it: You're ALL about to be L V Ns! LOL

Where else ... in the freakin' world ... do you think you're mostly likely going to end up working to gain that first year of nursing experience?

The Emergency Department? LOL! The ICU? LOL

It's like this: If you're not currently working as a PCT in these areas - if you're not out there networking your way into these nurse positions?

You don't get to be a choosy beggar.

Furthermore, you're a new nurse. There's no demand for new nurses. And...if you're not living in an area with a relatively stable job market?

Good luck!

It took a few of my classmates months to find positions and we're in TEXAS.

The 'land of milk and honey'. LOL

Yeah...we've got jobs a-plenty down here. Haven't you heard? You get a job interview and a fruit-basket with a complimentary .45 at the border. LOL

No, as THECOMMUTER said, hospice, HH and LTC are opportunities. The pay isn't too shabby, either. For LVNs or RNs. We have a hospice nurse who comes for one of my residents. She earned $62,000 last year. First year. Another RN in her facility is on her second year and earns in the $70,000's. Both were turned away from the hospitals down here because they aren't BSNs, I might add.

Iâ™¥Scrubs, LPN · Jun 25, 2013

I agree with the above poster that most LPN grads will end up in LTC first to gain experience but that is not the route everybody goes. I had clinical in some clinics and they had grads who graduated from the previous year working there. I asked them about their route after grad and some of them got hired right away. So to say that everyone will work LTC is simply a misconception.

manique · Jun 26, 2013

I live in ATL and there are lots of LPN jops at clinics like "Wellstar" and "Kaiser" and I believe they have one in Southern Cali. I use too stay out there. In Escondido and Oceanside. So try looking into a clinics and doc offices, if you dont want to work at an LTC. I agree with the other post who said you probably wont get a job in a Hosp. I work at a very good, well known hosp in Atlanta, Emory. and they do not hire LPNs in their hospitals. But they do in their clinics and LTC. So just keep lookin, keep your head up, and sometimes you have to roll with the punches. Good Luck too you!!!

Stethoscopes&Scrubs · Jun 27, 2013

Being a great nurse should be your goal, and in order to become that a nurse needs to understand all aspects of nursing! Your comment of...

"I feel in geriatrics these people don't get better they are there to die...and hospice...well you know those people are dying. I'm the type of person that needs to see results in the things I do. I want to see people get better. "

proves that although you think you know geriatrics you are mistaken. The goal for hospice is to provide comfort and care through out the dying process, and this is no light task.. How would you feel if your loved one was in hospice care and the nurse acted the way you are coming off?

LTC is a residents home.. although there are some that's less then grand, the nurses and aide's there bond with the residents and become family.. True Nursing at its finest, yes it is less then exciting but seeing the smile on the residents face when you say "good morning" to them is worth it! Do you realize that many of these elderly people have spent there lives providing care for their family and many have held respectable jobs (unlike most of society today) to be taken out of their homes and left at a retirement community, where very few ever get visitors.

To me working in the hospital isn't all that its chalked up to be, there is no real connection and bedside care has gone out the window. Pt's lose there identity and become a number, (much like in a prison..) and now they are being pushed out of the hospitals before they are actually healed..

Stethoscopes&Scrubs · Jun 27, 2013

MedChica- Well Said!

pnkgirl25 · Jun 28, 2013

I understand what you all are saying however I also don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to NOT work in a particular area of nursing. I for one would love to work psych or in in the jail system while there are many nurses out there that would never in a million years consider this. These people need care too. All I am saying is I would have liked to have gotten a broader clinical learning experience which I feel I was not able to do so I'm feeling a little short changed.

With that said, I do plan to continue my education and either go the NP or PA route however in the mean time if working in geriatrics is all that is available to me as an LVN I also have a background in other areas (both medical and non-medical) that I can fall back on and will while I wait for something that I might actually enjoy doing. I don't feel that just because I am a student/new nurse I should have to hate my job every day. IMHO that is what makes awful nurses. Do I expect to graduate and land a job in an ER...Heck NO...I'm not crazy but am I willing to hold out for something that wont make me want to hate getting up in the morning. I remember one of the places I did my clinicals at had a few nurses like this. They treated the p's awful and I could tell they didn't want to be there and many of them even said they were there to "get their year and get out". THAT is the nurse that I don't want around my family member who is passing away. There are nurses out there that have a heart for hospice and geriatrics...KUDOS to those nurses...however I am not one of them.

My biggest issue is I feel I was not exposed to as many different areas of nursing as I though I would be and since I paid for this out of my own pocket I really want to get my moneys worth and feel kind of short changed.

loriangel14, RN · Jun 28, 2013

You have a poor attitude.

pnkgirl25 · Jun 28, 2013

How does what I said come of as me having a poor attitude? How is this any different from any other career that I choose not to work in because it is not something I enjoy doing. I feel I am being honest instead of taking on a position that I will be unhappy in. I prefer to be honest in a n interview and when they ask why I want to work her be able to tell them because I love what I do....instead of.....well I just want to get my 6mon-1 year of experience then I'm leaving. I think that's the problem. Too many people are unhappy in what they do and pt's suffer and its shows all over a nurses face when she is unhappy.

manusko · Jun 29, 2013

Always remember. If it was easy everyone would do it.

mingorn · Jun 29, 2013

How does what I said come of as me having a poor attitude? How is this any different from any other career that I choose not to work in because it is not something I enjoy doing. I feel I am being honest instead of taking on a position that I will be unhappy in. I prefer to be honest in a n interview and when they ask why I want to work her be able to tell them because I love what I do....instead of.....well I just want to get my 6mon-1 year of experience then I'm leaving. I think that's the problem. Too many people are unhappy in what they do and pt's suffer and its shows all over a nurses face when she is unhappy.

I agree that you should take a job that makes you happy! With that being said the scope of a LVN is VERY limited so the places you will most likely work will be clinics and LTCs. The jobs you want are going to BSN grads with even ADNs being shut out. My advice is get experience and go back to school.