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Working in Nursing School

I got another question via email.

“I’m getting ready to start nursing school and wonder if I should work while I’m there. I don’t have to work technically, but I don’t like relying on my parents to pay for everything even though they said it is fine. What do you think? I know you work on the weekends…”

Well, to be perfectly honest- if I didn’t have to work, I wouldn’t. First semester I worked 36 hours a week plus school and clinicals….and nearly burnt out.

Last semester and this semester, I go to school Monday through Thursday and then work 8am-8pm Fridays and Saturdays. Last semester wasn’t so bad, but I’m already burning out this semester and its only midterms!

They always told us in the first week of school, “Don’t work in nursing school!”, but when you’ve got a mortgage, that really isn’t an option. If you don’t HAVE to work, but maybe want a little extra cash to help out or for spending, I’d suggest getting a perdiem NA position at the hospital you’re interested in working at once you get your RN. Per-diem only requires something like 24 hours a month which is very doable. If you haven’t got your NA yet, there’s always the HUC position.

I’ve come to find that the topic of working while in this level of schooling is a very personal question and sometimes real touchy. I’ve seen divides in first semester from those who had to work and those who didn’t have to work. It was like those who had to work scoffed at those who didn’t have to work complaining about how they didn’t have any time to study.  I know I thought that in like the first month, but you know, everyone’s got their own issues- working and otherwise.

Anyhoo, that was kind of rambling at the end. Sorry about that. Best of luck to you!

How about you guys? Any thoughts on this? Do any of you have to work or do you do it because you want to?

Love,

Laney

PS- Keep the questions/emails coming! You can see other questions answered including those about how many hours to study in nursing school and the worst [and best] parts of nursing school.

2010
03/02
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS







5 comments

It’s March Already

Can you believe it?!?!

I graduate in NINE months.

Woah! I’m ready. And I’m exhausted. Blahhhhh.

Love,

Laney

2010
03/01
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS





3 comments

Mid-Semester Slump

I feel it coming on. The mid-semester slump. My house is messy, my books less organized, my mind is foggy. It’s awful. Spring break is [thankfully] only a week and a half away.

And then, I can pull my life together I hope.

How about you guys? When you’re about halfway in, does your energy dip a little?

Any cures? Fixes?

Blahhhh.

Hope you’re having a happy Tuesday. Clinicals tomorrow = fun stories to come.

Love,

Laney

PS- Looking back at old posts, I found this- which leads me to conclude that dealing with medicine makes for a tired nursing student/HUC/NA. Le sigh.

2010
02/23
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS






8 comments

PNA program

I’m waiting to hear if my application was accepted for the PNA program. I applied to two hospitals and it is extremely competitive. Basically, the program runs for about 8 weeks and it is a paid externship. You get to work hands on with a nurse, like in clinicals, on an assigned floor and get paid to do it. How awesome, right?
At one hospital, there are about 80 positions. At the other hospital, they aren’t sure yet. But last year, there were close to 200 people applying for less than 70 spots. Ahhh.
You got to rank your preferred floors although it is never guaranteed where you’ll be. I chose PICU, PACU, Peds PACU, ER, ICU
[After this last rotation, I wished there was an L&D option too...doh!]
The waiting game is the worst part I think.
Love,
Laney
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2010
02/22
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS






4 comments

Financial Aid- Or Lack Thereof

I just filed my taxes and did my Fafsa. And I’m broke. I’m a married college student living paycheck to paycheck…and the calculators for the federal government on the other end of FAFSA are telling me that my estimated family contribution for next semester is over $9,000.
Tuition for the semester is only a little under $7,000. Doesn’t it seem weird that I’m applying for help and they say I should expect to pay MORE than the tuition itself?!?
 
How do they get these numbers? I don’t understand!
Yes, we made, X amount of dollars last year. But between house payments, car repairs, and general bills there isn’t a lot left to spare for tuition. And certainly not nine grand left to spare.
 
Flabbergasted.
 
Love,
Laney
2010
02/20
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS







3 comments

Evaluations

It’s that time again. Evaluations at work AND at school.

I’m not against evaluations…they lead to my pay raise. It’s just that there is such a long process before I get to my evaluations. In the hospital setting, you have to do all of the annual modules on the computer for compliance showing that you’ve read the policy for things like proper hand washing, or Accucheck policies. I was talking with some nurses at work and it seems as though the self-evaluation; thing never ends! You’ve gotta do annual ones and sometimes there are more as a new grad depending on your facility (i.e.- 30, 60, 90 days). So draining!

At school, it’s a little different. My clinical instructor from Postpartum is big on evaluations though- she used to be a nurse manager. Every week after clinical, we have to do a self-evaluation in clinical to talk about our strengths and weaknesses. I guess they’re trying to prep us now. But, I’m starting to find this semester while doing my own weekly evaluations the growth that is really taking place. I found this nifty article on why self-evaluations are so important, something I hadn’t really considered before this semester. When I compared them with my evaluations from first and second semester…it’s amazing to see how much I’ve crammed into my head in the last year and a half.

Examples:

First semester:

Strengths- Good communication, improved basic assessment

Weaknesses/Improvements- Will work on doing quicker, focused assessments.

Second semester:

Strengths- Medication administration, quick and focused assessments, tying in the Pathophysiology with the care, dosage calculations

Weakness/Improvements- Will work on time management and handling multiple patient load (two patients max), keep learning pathophysiology

Third semester:

Strengths- Improved patient education, handling more patients, more pathophysiology

Weakness/Improvements- Quicker analysis, build more confidence b/c we’re doing different aspects of patient care now (i.e- patient education and discharge) and are responsible for just about everything, and of course- more pathophysiology

What about you guys? Do you have to do self-evaluations for your clinical or for each instructor?

Sidenote: I hate doing evaluations at my work. It’s this long laundry list of the same questions that are worded differently and it kills a bunch of trees. After reading the other article I mentioned earlier, there was a link talking about this nifty online evaluations program. If you’re reading this nurse-manager-at-the-hospital-I-work-at, I wish you would get with the program because this would make my life a lot easier every year. Thanks.

Love,

Laney

2010
02/19
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS



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I’ve Gotta Fever

I’ve gotta make a confession or two here.
 
See, I’ve never been the type of girl who grew up planning out baby names or knowing exactly what my future kids would look like. I didn’t even know if I would want that many kids in the future! And if I did, it would be a long, long ways away.
 
But then I entered N-3000…the mother and baby semester.
 
And now, babies are occupying my mind 6 days a week. Four at school and two at work on Fridays and Saturdays.
I’m not the only one. I’ve been asking around in clincals. Other girls in my class are coming down with the same thing.
BABY FEVER.
 
Oh yes. It’s a-raging.
 
If you recall, the first three weeks terrified me and I thought I would never have a baby. Why? Giant cervixes, that’s why. Not a big pain person, ya know? But now, the further along we get, I keep thinking about how cute and amazing babies and birth are. All sorts of reasons- most of which I don’t want to go into because, well, I’m not sure how I feel baring that whole part of myself online.
Let’s just sum it up with, I keep thinking about babies. Baby clothes, baby names…it’s starting to freak me out.
 
Nevermind the fact that I’ve been married two years now and everyone is asking when the babies are going to start coming.
 
Don’t be mistaken though. I don’t want babies any time soon. I have school to get through! Gotta have some baby money saved up.
 
But still. Snuggling a newborn is pretty awesome.
 
Just saying.
Did anyone else feel baby crazy in the mom and baby semesters?
 
Love,
Laney
2010
02/13
CATEGORY
The Random.
The School.
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4 comments

When I Graduate: OR Nursing

As some of you know, my mom is an Operating Room Nurse. Which is pretty darn cool if I say so myself. She’s actually training to be a preceptor now and got promoted to the next clinical level yesterday!! So congrats Mom!! I’m super <strike>jealous</strike> proud of you.

=]

So I’ve decided to ask her about some of the pros and cons for the next installment of When I Graduate. I’m talking with a bunch of nurses in other units too (Mental Health/Psych coming soon, I promise!) so keep a look out. We’ll find the perfect nursing units to work on soon!

Sidenote: If there is a unit you’d be particularly interested in laying out the pros and cons for, lemme know! I’ll push it up in the list.

With further ado…here are the pros and cons from the mouth of an OR nurse.

Pros-

Get to see some cool things other people don’t get to see, one patient to focus on and advocate for, making a huge difference in the quality of someone’s life whether it’s by improving the quality or extending that patient’s life, it’s a whole different world- it’s like it’s own little world and everyone is like family, it builds up thick skin, working with the latest technology, a lot of fast thinking on your feet- use that brain, flexible, if you’re not a big people person- your patient is knocked out half the time and you don’t have to deal with families and poop.

Cons-

Sometimes exposed to a lot of chemicals (bloodborne pathogens/bodily fluids), dealing with temperamental surgeons at times, view from others sometimes that it’s not real nursing (but you do work hard and it’s very physical work), can be difficult if you don’t have thick skin, if you aren’t strong this isn’t good for you because you have to lift heavy trays and case carts (ie-40 lbs or so ), not for shy personalities, need a strong stomach or else that’s awkward, you don’t get to spend a whole lot of time with that patient because they get knocked out, may lose some bedside skills from school BUT you gain a whole other set of skills

I asked her if it was cold in there (because I like to stay warm) and she said surprisingly it isn’t that cold because you’re moving around so much!

She also wanted to let everyone know that it’s getting harder to get into so she recommends going into a residency program. There are specialties within OR nursing (ex: she’s an Ortho nurse) AND you can go anywhere in the whole wide world with it. There’s a huge need for OR traveling nurses.

“I love it and I wouldn’t want to do anything else”- Mom

Thanks for answering my questions! I don’t care what she says though…on my OR rotation, I was cold. Con. But I liked being able to comfort that person in what is potentially one of the scariest times of  their life. Pro.

Add more if you got ‘em!

Love,

Laney

2010
02/11
CATEGORY
When I Graduate
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4 comments

When I Graduate: Postpartum Nursing

I’ve been getting questions on the pros and cons of various types of nursing. Which is totally fitting because now that I am in the home stretch (only 10 more months!!), everyone around me is trying to figure out what kind of nurse they want to be after graduation.  So, I’m  going to start trying to add in different units of nursing and take an unbiased view of the pros and cons. This will be from lecture, observation, clinical experiences, answers from nurses in that unit, and posts on the interwebs.

Feel free to add your own!

Since I just left this floor, I’m gonna start with:

Postpartum Nursing

Pros: Get to see babies, care for mom and dad in a stressful time, lots of patient education for newborn care and postpartum care, monitor for signs of postpartum blues/depression, lots of teaching, patients are healthy (if you don’t like overly sick populations), since it is more education it isn’t as physically taxing as other areas of nursing, slower paced

Cons: Patients are generally healthy (if you want a sicker population), there are not a lot of skills done (such as IVs), most of the job is doing assessments and monitoring for complications followed by sending mom/baby home, not incredibly fast paced.

Please add some more! It’s almost 1am and I can’t think of anything else. My brain is dead.

Love,

Laney

2010
02/09
CATEGORY
The School.
TAGS









6 comments

It’s Official

Thanks for all your support!

Love,
Laney

2010
01/25
CATEGORY
The School.
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3 comments

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