Refresher Course

I am currently enrolled in a refresher course in Fl and I am enjoying it and finding it extremely helpful and informative i will begin my clinicals in a week. good luck!

I took a refresher course that included class lectures, "lab" practice and clinical experience with patients. That was very helpful for me because I had been out of the field for 13 years. The lectures, lab practice and clinical gave me much more confidence in my ability to get back into nursing and do a good job. It was also very helpful for me to be able to talk to the instructor and ask questions. I am so glad that I did not take an online course because the hands-on practice and the one-on-one relationship with my instructor taught me a lot.

Best of luck!

Pooksmom

Luv2swim,

I would definitely take the course with the clinical component. I took one that I thought would have a clinical portion (it was much less expensive), and it turns out it did not. The clinical practice would've given me the extra confidence I need in finding employment. At the time, I didn't think the price (almost 3 x the cost of the course I took) was worth it. Now I regret it. Best of luck to you! (I, too, have been out of nursing >12 years.)

Bakermama

I am enjoying my refresher course in fact I love it . But I have one question why is it there are some nurses that welcome you with open arms and embrace you and others don't? I have worked with a wonderful intelligent RN willing to spend time and teach but today she was the charge nurse so could not work directly with me and was very hesitant to assign me to another nurse so I asked her if I could work with the CNA( I am an LPN) I needed to see exactly what there duties were. The other nurses on the floor were not willing to be as helpful. As it turned out I had a great day . Got some real patient care done( which I really enjoyed) But I think it is sad that everyone doesn't want to help you. I also got to help my RN with her duties, so I feel like I got the best of both that RN and The CNA.

I signed up for a clinical refresher course in Oakland this month, looking forward to it!

Curious what the OP ended up doing.

I took an online refresher course last year. I used Consolidated Learning based in VA. I arranged my clinical with a local school nurse because school nursing is what I wanted to do with this later part of my career. Being a peds nurse, I did not want to do adult med-surg as my clinical.

Also, in order to pass some courses, you need to do some specific clinicals according to state regs. ---something to consider.

I'm going with the 2/days week for 6 weeks refresher course in the Fall-1day-theory, 1day clinical. A little expensive but I think it will be worth it!

It is def worth it ! You will be glad you did it good luck and keep me updated. i only have 22 hours clinical left will do 12 hours fri 6/12 and finish the rest in a simulated lab. only two weeks left online . I am getting all my paperwrk together now to send to Fl BON for license by endorsement. I will keep you updated

definitely go with the hands on in real life time refresher, not only will the content etc. be good, but the "peer association" is confidence building... go for it, and Good luck to you........ you will be fine....

I have applied for a 10-week refresher course with clinicals. It is really expensive at $2900, but it will be worth it if it gives me the confidence to care for patients again. I have been following this dream of returning to nursing for awhile now (I retook the NCLEX and passed!), but the current economic conditions scare me. New grads are having trouble getting jobs, and I hear that hospitals prefer them over returning nurses, so I'm worried about investing even more of my fast dwindling savings. Things have changed so much here in California even in the past six months. Hospital sponsorships for the refresher program have disappeared.

Has anyone recently finished a refresher program and been welcomed back into the profession? How did you do it? Because I gotta tell you...that 15 year absence on my resume just doesn't put me at the top of the heap and I know it.

What else should I do to make my resume look better? Classes, etc??

Thanks for any advice

If you do not get what you want, ie: like med surg hosp. etc......... there are some quick fixes ( well I say quick, but it may take a year or so) for me it was LTC, seemed like a field facing some real challenges, esp. with us baby boomers knocking at the door........ there is home health, there is hospice........

just because you were not on the "clock" for 15years, does not mean you lost intellegence. Maybe some current trends, methodologies etc....... but you are taking care of that with the refresher course.... also the clinical sites are a great source of "self marketing" everyone loves to hear, "I just love this unit etc., and you all work so good together"......... (even if you do not 100% mean it). There is nothing wrong with "I would love to work here either." I tell students to start selling their work worth and self early in clinicals....... Freq. they do not do it, but

us older........ why excuse me... more experienced have not problem.

Good luck, and welcome back !!!!

Hi Sally, Thanks for the response and for the much needed encouragement and advice. Yes, I know that I can network and sell myself while doing clinicals, but there are only about 10-12 clinical days and they are on weekends. So I'm hoping that my skills come back to me and I will impress someone. I hope those clinical days are enough...I wish it were more. (I must say I was an excellent nurse back in the day-hope I haven't lost it in the way that I have lost my vision :wink2:). If there are no jobs, at least maybe I can get a recommendation.

It's funny that you mention home health and hospice because that is my end goal. Hospice is the whole reason that I started on this journey, but I figured I'd have to do acute care first. Hospice around here is asking for two years of current acute care clinical. I've done home health before and loved it, loved it, loved it...but I feel that you need a lot of confidence because you are out there alone and you are often the only one that will notice that a patient is deteriorating. I wanted to do acute care, not because I like the environment, but because I think there is no safer way to develop/renew one's skills ....there is so much support around, unlike out in the field.

Just talking about it makes me smile. I've missed nursing so very much. So you think there's hope for me?

Thanks for the welcome back,

Karen