do we have any atot nurses?

[nageov3t]

I've always been a little curious about the process to become one.

I feel like my greatest attributes are my ability to take untold amounts of abuse with a smile and my capacity to just about never get stressed out, and I keep trying to think of ways to translate what I'm actually good at into a career instead of moving from one j-o-b to the next. I actually gave a lot of thought to the cop route, since (my parents' generation excluded) I come from a big police family, but I have an eye problem that isn't correctable, which I think squashes that idea.

I kinda got big into bio and chem in college (when I finally experienced good teachers, instead of the mindless science teachers I had in grammar/high school) but by that point, it was too late in my college career to financially think about changing majors.

 

[Kirby]

pliablemoose is a nurse

 

[Pliablemoose]

I tend to encourage people to not become nurses for a variety of reasons...

 

[nageov3t]

I tend to encourage people to not become nurses for a variety of reasons...

why?

 

[ScottSwing]

First, you have to be a woman.

 

[ScottSwing]

Get at associate's to be an LPN, bachelor's to be an RN, or master's to be a MSN or NP.

You could assist with heart surgery in Iran, or just serve medicine to old people in Wyoming.

 

[GeneValgene]

I've always been a little curious about the process to become one.

I feel like my greatest attributes are my ability to take untold amounts of abuse with a smile and my capacity to just about never get stressed out, and I keep trying to think of ways to translate what I'm actually good at into a career instead of moving from one j-o-b to the next. I actually gave a lot of thought to the cop route, since (my parents' generation excluded) I come from a big police family, but I have an eye problem that isn't correctable, which I think squashes that idea.

I kinda got big into bio and chem in college (when I finally experienced good teachers, instead of the mindless science teachers I had in grammar/high school) but by that point, it was too late in my college career to financially think about changing majors.

nursing is an excellent career. you get to help people, jobs are in high demand, good pay, and some only work 3 days a week in 12 hours shifts...

and if you ever decide to pursue further learning, you can become an NP with additional schooling and operate in a role with more responsibility.

 

[nageov3t]

First, you have to be a woman.

I'm gay, that's stereotypical enough, right? I've got a rainbow belt and everything :hmm:

 

[Pliablemoose]

1.) Workload, IMHO, CA is one of the few places it's safe to be a nurse, management sets your workload according to budgetary constraints everywhere else, at least in CA, they have mandatory staffing ratios.

2.) 24/7 shift coverage, try to raise a family working nights or evenings.

3.) A few days a month, you may as well just kill yourself or hide in the closet when all of your co-workers have PMS.

4.) Nurses eat their young and kill their old. Doctors don't do that.

5.) Wages, if nurses were paid what their worth, there would be no nursing shortage.

6.) Being a female dominated profession, they focus on shit like "nurse empowerment" WFT is nurse empowerment, being pushy and complaining so you have more duties tacked on to the "other duties as indicated" clause? Paging the doctor every 2 hours to bitch at them to do their job? Playing one upmanship with physicians about who's smarter?

7.) No standard entry level for nurses, 2, 3 and 4 year degrees to be an RN? WTF, the 2 year grads are always sensitive about their education & skills, the 3 year grads are just crazy and us 4 year grads just freak out on the others and wonder WTF their problem is.

8.) The patients, (I'm pretty happy with them at my current employer), but you have to be fucking multilingual to care for patients nowdays, heaen forbid you ask them to actually care about their disease process or the particular hospital rules management expects us to be mini security guards...

9.) The first responder problem, I promise you you'll be exposed to every damn infectious illness on the books, and likely a shitload of viruses that haven't been categorized or ID'd yet.

Every scenario for bio weapons includes "Most of the hospital employees will be killed by such an event." in the assessment...

10.) Managers that think you need to come in to work on your days off or early because they've staffed your unit for the bare minimum, so one person calling in sick is a crisis, that you have no life, no relationships, no child care responsibilities, I can't tell you how many holidays I've worked over the years, how many birthdays and funerals I've missed...

11.) The "rabid chihuahua" nurse, typically found in ICU or ER is particularly annoying. They're hyper assholes who think they're physicians and make up the rules as they go along...

12.) And as long as I'm on a roll, I think gay male nurses are just fucking peachy, we need 20X more to make me oh so proud to be a male nurse.

Meh, I'd pass given the opportunity to do it over...

 

[amdhunter]

I'm gay, that's stereotypical enough, right? I've got a rainbow belt and everything :hmm:

Hi.

 

[ScottSwing]

I'm gay, that's stereotypical enough, right? I've got a rainbow belt and everything :hmm:

Rainbow belt? No gay man would be caught dead wearing that. You lose your gay card.

 

[nageov3t]

Rainbow belt? No gay man would be caught dead wearing that. You lose your gay card.

I bought it to wear to a goth club

 

[SKORPI0]

Get at associate's to be an LPN, bachelor's to be an RN.

Care to elaborate the differences between the two in terms of duties/career advancement? :\

 

[Powermoloch]

There's no reason that you have to be a "gay" to be a nurse. It's a rewarding career, especially if you are a person who likes to take care of peeps back to health or just a caring person. I'm working on my BSN as well and currently work at home with elderly care.

Why the hell not ? lol !

 

[StageLeft]

Mrs is a nurse.

they have mandatory staffing ratios.

They do everywhere AFAIK, certainly AL and NY.

24/7 shift coverage, try to raise a family working nights or evenings.

Funnily enough despite you saying how nice the union is, I infer from your statement that in fact being part of the union--as like being part of the union in Canada--you have to actually work nights. Mrsskoorb never, ever has had to. It's always been a choice. Right now, for example, she works saturdays only and some evenings. That's it. Others work nights and get more money to do it. In Canada it's not so easy, when you enter the union I understand you're forced into some nights.

In actual fact nursing is one of the absolute best careers to raise a family. Mrsskoorb picks her days when I can be at home. We know others who do the same. It is an absolute blessing and we do not have to use much or any day care. 99% of careers lack this flexibility.

Nurses eat their young and kill their old. Doctors don't do that.

Heard the same from Mrs. Many nurses appear to act like catty highschool bitches.

Managers that think you need to come in to work on your days off or early because they've staffed your unit for the bare minimum, so one person calling in sick is a crisis, that you have no life, no relationships, no child care responsibilities, I can't tell you how many holidays I've worked over the years, how many birthdays and funerals I've missed...

Mrs is called often, says no 95% of the time. I really think that union may be fvcking you if you actually don't have options in this.

Care to elaborate the differences between the two in terms of duties/career advancement?

RN has more training, more pay, more career advancement. LPNs can do only a minimum of medical procedures and spend a great percentage of their time wiping ass and cleaning out fat people's stinky sweat-rolls. Not that you won't get to do that as an RN, too--cause you will.

If you become an RN it is a good career from a reliability standpoint and at least in our experience is fantastic, Grade A for flexibility. Another year or school and you can be a nurse practitioner. If you keep on going you can be a nurse anesthetist and start banking even more coin.

I would personally hate to do it because people's bodies disgust me. It is not like TV. At least not the TV I've seen. You will be wiping sh*t, cleaning out smelly pussy wounds. You will remove colostomy bags. You will put them back. You will clean old men's filthy scrotums and you will help lift morbidly obese fat women around the bed and then clean their bed sore. That's just some of the negatives. There are more. There are some positives, too. Some people do like nursing and it is a skilled profession.

BTW if you're a guy prepare for gay male nurse jokes. Because, let's be honest, chances are very good you ARE gay.

 

[Powermoloch]

Mrs is a nurse.

I would personally hate to do it because people's bodies disgust me. It is not like TV. At least not the TV I've seen. You will be wiping sh*t, cleaning out smelly pussy wounds. You will remove colostomy bags. You will put them back. You will clean old men's filthy scrotums and you will help lift morbidly obese fat women around the bed and then clean their bed sore. That's just some of the negatives. There are more. There are some positives, too. Some people do like nursing and it is a skilled profession.

.

It's pretty much a given ~_~

 

[StageLeft]

It's pretty much a given ~_~

BTW when I wrote "pussy wounds". I mean as in puss, not as in the vagina, although in actual fact you could very well end up cleaning out pussy pussy wounds.

 

[boomhower]

1.) Workload, IMHO, CA is one of the few places it's safe to be a nurse, management sets your workload according to budgetary constraints everywhere else, at least in CA, they have mandatory staffing ratios.

2.) 24/7 shift coverage, try to raise a family working nights or evenings.

3.) A few days a month, you may as well just kill yourself or hide in the closet when all of your co-workers have PMS.

4.) Nurses eat their young and kill their old. Doctors don't do that.

5.) Wages, if nurses were paid what their worth, there would be no nursing shortage.

6.) Being a female dominated profession, they focus on shit like "nurse empowerment" WFT is nurse empowerment, being pushy and complaining so you have more duties tacked on to the "other duties as indicated" clause? Paging the doctor every 2 hours to bitch at them to do their job? Playing one upmanship with physicians about who's smarter?

7.) No standard entry level for nurses, 2, 3 and 4 year degrees to be an RN? WTF, the 2 year grads are always sensitive about their education & skills, the 3 year grads are just crazy and us 4 year grads just freak out on the others and wonder WTF their problem is.

8.) The patients, (I'm pretty happy with them at my current employer), but you have to be fucking multilingual to care for patients nowdays, heaen forbid you ask them to actually care about their disease process or the particular hospital rules management expects us to be mini security guards...

9.) The first responder problem, I promise you you'll be exposed to every damn infectious illness on the books, and likely a shitload of viruses that haven't been categorized or ID'd yet.

Every scenario for bio weapons includes "Most of the hospital employees will be killed by such an event." in the assessment...

10.) Managers that think you need to come in to work on your days off or early because they've staffed your unit for the bare minimum, so one person calling in sick is a crisis, that you have no life, no relationships, no child care responsibilities, I can't tell you how many holidays I've worked over the years, how many birthdays and funerals I've missed...

11.) The "rabid chihuahua" nurse, typically found in ICU or ER is particularly annoying. They're hyper assholes who think they're physicians and make up the rules as they go along...

12.) And as long as I'm on a roll, I think gay male nurses are just fucking peachy, we need 20X more to make me oh so proud to be a male nurse.

Meh, I'd pass given the opportunity to do it over...

Or you could work in a high income retirement village and avoid 99% of those issues with the same pay.

 

[ScottSwing]

Be a pharmacologist. Or a biochemist. Or a psychologist.

 

[ebaycj]

1.) Workload, IMHO, CA is one of the few places it's safe to be a nurse, management sets your workload according to budgetary constraints everywhere else, at least in CA, they have mandatory staffing ratios.

2.) 24/7 shift coverage, try to raise a family working nights or evenings.

3.) A few days a month, you may as well just kill yourself or hide in the closet when all of your co-workers have PMS.

4.) Nurses eat their young and kill their old. Doctors don't do that.

5.) Wages, if nurses were paid what their worth, there would be no nursing shortage.

6.) Being a female dominated profession, they focus on shit like "nurse empowerment" WFT is nurse empowerment, being pushy and complaining so you have more duties tacked on to the "other duties as indicated" clause? Paging the doctor every 2 hours to bitch at them to do their job? Playing one upmanship with physicians about who's smarter?

7.) No standard entry level for nurses, 2, 3 and 4 year degrees to be an RN? WTF, the 2 year grads are always sensitive about their education & skills, the 3 year grads are just crazy and us 4 year grads just freak out on the others and wonder WTF their problem is.

8.) The patients, (I'm pretty happy with them at my current employer), but you have to be fucking multilingual to care for patients nowdays, heaen forbid you ask them to actually care about their disease process or the particular hospital rules management expects us to be mini security guards...

9.) The first responder problem, I promise you you'll be exposed to every damn infectious illness on the books, and likely a shitload of viruses that haven't been categorized or ID'd yet.

Every scenario for bio weapons includes "Most of the hospital employees will be killed by such an event." in the assessment...

10.) Managers that think you need to come in to work on your days off or early because they've staffed your unit for the bare minimum, so one person calling in sick is a crisis, that you have no life, no relationships, no child care responsibilities, I can't tell you how many holidays I've worked over the years, how many birthdays and funerals I've missed...

11.) The "rabid chihuahua" nurse, typically found in ICU or ER is particularly annoying. They're hyper assholes who think they're physicians and make up the rules as they go along...

12.) And as long as I'm on a roll, I think gay male nurses are just fucking peachy, we need 20X more to make me oh so proud to be a male nurse.

Meh, I'd pass given the opportunity to do it over...

Why not just go to friggin' med school and be a doctor, if you hate nursing so much?

 

[CKent]

BTW when I wrote "pussy wounds". I mean as in puss, not as in the vagina, although in actual fact you could very well end up cleaning out pussy pussy wounds.

:biggrin:

 

[DrPizza]

Wow, Pliable, it must suck to work where you work. My wife is an RN. 2 year degree, but the school that she got her degree from has a HIGHER pass rate on the state boards than any of the 4 year schools in the area, including some very highly rated private schools. (Can't get any higher than 100% on the first time; and they're very picky about who they accept into the nursing program.) But, she is 1 month and 10 days away from her bachelor's degree in nursing, and from what I've seen, I think she might agree with my assessment that it's just a piece of paper - the difference in her nursing skills is pretty insignificant. (and the salary increase is also relatively insignificant where she works - just a few hundred more per year.) However, she's done a lot of specialized training at different conferences (wound care, etc.) which have greatly increased her nursing skills & role within the hospital where she works.

My wife used to work on one of the floors & was scheduled for 7 12 hour days during 2 weeks - she had the option of working 3 on, 3 off, then 2 on, then 2 off, or working 5 days per week, 8 hour shifts (30 minutes for lunch/dinner.) Her choice gave her overtime, plus a bonus for working an extra 4 hour block. (an extra $30 on top of her time and a half, I believe.) With that policy a lot of nurses were more than happy to get overtime. She did have to work every other weekend though. If we needed extra money, she could easily have "no life" for 2 weeks & pick up a shitload of overtime.

There was never any problem with working different shifts, unless she wanted to for overtime. i.e. it was fixed at 7am to 7pm, never any night shifts, although for the first couple months, she did work a night shift until a day position opened up.

Now, she's taken on a new nursing role in the hospital. Her hours are 8-4, M-F. I can't recall the last time she worked more than a couple hours of overtime. But she would probably recommend to other people considering going into nursing to do so.

 

[DrPizza]

Oh, and OP, if you decide to move out of that hole of a state into this hole of a state, she might be willing to recruit you for her hospital. (sign on bonus for you & for her.)

 

[TheVrolok]

I think nursing is a GREAT profession as long as it's something you WANT to do and WANT to be good at it. However, it is definitely a career where your experience can vary significantly. I know nurses, like Pliable, that absolutely loathe it.. and others that love it. I know nurses that make next to nothing, I know nurses pulling in 90k/year working 36 hours a week. There's just so much room for different experiences, advancement, education, pay, etc.. If you have an interest in it, I'd say go for it.