Patient, Nurse, and Technology Advocate.
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Choosing the right nursing school is one of the most important decisions you will make regarding your career. Potential employers want to ensure that you are qualified to properly care for clients, so you will want to choose a program that offers quality education in current nursing practices. When making your decision, here are some things to look for.
Although it’s generally never been uncommon for many to enter into the profession of nursing after receiving post-secondary educations and degrees in other fields, the number of middle-age nursing students appears to be on the significant rise lately. In fact, the number of people pursuing later careers in life sciences in general today appears to be increasing. But as a direct case in point for nursing, the next graduating class of 40 from Heartland Community College’s two-year nursing program in Normal, Illinois, has zero “traditional” students scheduled to become RNs on May 18th.
There are several ways to start out on your journey depending upon your academic and financial standing right now. If you’re not sure if you’re ready to jump right into a traditional 4-year Registered Nurse (RN) program you can get an Associates Degree in Nursing (ARN) at a Community College, which takes about 2 years, or start out as a Licensed Practical Nurse (or Licensed Vocational Nurse in California and Texas). LPN programs can run as short as 12 months and make a great place to get your feet wet and possibly work while you go back to school to get a higher degree. To be honest, with the high interest rates of student loans and tough admission standards, starting out by getting your LPN or ARN is a good way to see whether or not you truly want to be a nurse, make a little money while you’re going to school, or even get your job to help subsidize your tuition for further education.
Technology improves the practices of medicine, and nursing. It will continue to advance year after year. In order to prepare students to handle such changes, nursing education needs to evolve accordingly. Embracing these new technologies enables us to become nursing professionals who are prepared to provide the best possible patient care.
New grads are entering the field during the perfect storm of a bad economy, job shortage, and nurse retirees who are back to work because their retirement portfolios are no longer robust enough to support their retirement. So, the problem becomes how to stand out in the sea of applicants?
Let’s face it. Some managers will just toss any new grad’s resume right in the trash, no matter how concise, how detailed, or how well-thought out. Well, if they’re that biased, you didn’t want to work for them anyway, trust me. So don’t worry about the no-callbacks (easy to say, hard to do, I know). DO worry when they call you back, and you’re up for an interview. That’s when the pucker factor can really kick in, because now you can no longer hide behind a piece of paper…it’s show time!
If you’re scheduled to work the night shift as a nurse, you better start saving up on that sleep and getting ready for long nights that will switch between being arduously boring and tremendously busy, seemingly at random. Unlike the day shift in hospitals and medical clinics, the night shift often sees a less steady flow of traffic, though things can get really messy and hectic should an emergency occur overnight. Below, read through 10 tips that can be helpful to you as you prepare for the night shift routine, so you’re not instantly overwhelmed whether you’re rotating from the day shift or starting a brand new position entirely.
Mustaches are a masculine symbol—perfect for a disease that only occurs in men. And since most men secretly want to grow a mustache anyway, Movember gives them the opportunity—at least for a month—to see how much they can sprout on their upper lip in a month long mustache growing competition. The mustache may end up doing as much for prostate cancer awareness as the pink ribbon did for breast cancer. And that would be a great thing.
Do folks realize that I need to concentrate on important details when I am administering medications?
Do they understand that interruptions are a source of medical errors? Sometimes catastrophic ones?
Does anyone care that an environment of endless interruptions can cause horrible stress on caregivers?
Last May, I took a trip abroad to Nairobi, Kenya, with fellow classmates for one of Chamberlain College of Nursing’s international nursing service projects. The two-week trip is designed to immerse nursing students in an impoverished community outside of the U.S. to provide healthcare to people in need. As a Bachelor of Science in Nursing student at Chamberlain’s St. Louis campus, the project also fulfills my multiculturalism and community health course requirements.
High Technology scrubs are great for nerdy doctors and nurses who understand the importance of infection control in their offices, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics. They understand that these medical uniforms will protect them, their loved ones and their patients as well as save their hospital money from costly infections and lawsuits.
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