A suggestion for the newly Laid off:

[Lance31]

Retool your skill set. This is a quick way to do it, it's not very glamourous but it will give you breathing room while you work out what to do.

This may not be much, but get your CNA, Certified Nurses Assistant. The course is only eight weeks long in most places. You can make 12-17 an hour. Not great but it will put food on the table while you work out other options. Like becoming a full nurse or something else.

With the shortfall in Nursing. It is very easy to get assistance to become a nurse once you are in as a CNA. For example: The VA, once you work a year for them, will pay for your education in Nursing if you contract with them for so many years after you finish. lot of programs like that around.

I myself am a Respiratory Therapist. As an example, I make around 26 an hour with shift differential, plus I get special incentive pay for any overtime which is another 10 on top of my total overtime; pay overtime is the usual time and a half. Nurses can make even better.

Currently I am also working on my Nursing degree compeletly online. Should have by the end of this year. Then I will work on my Nurse Practictioner which can ALSO be done online.

NP guarantees me a six figure income and the ability to get out of the country (so does nursing, when I get that) if the Sh*t hits the fan and the country goes Mad Max.

What it really boils down to, is when you finish your retooling you dont want to go searching for jobs. The jobs should literally be tossed at you. I have two degrees in Finance and Intl Economics. It would take me months to find another postion. When I finished RT school, I had forty job offers in the first week. This last time was even more overwhelming due to my having experience. I could go anywhere in the country. Something to think about.

Hope that helps

[AwakeAtLast]

1. I think that could be helpful to a lot of people

If I could stand the site of blood, I would have become a nurse.

I became a teacher instead. Still some blood involved, but not as much. :D

:hi:

[Lance31]

2. heh, I like teaching in the service.

However I could not do civilian. Teaching though is another good profession, unless our tax base truly dries up.

[mwooldri]

17. Then be sickened at this...

My son is on a catheterization regimen, through a stoma where the belly button would be. Has to be done every 3 hours, give or take a bit.

Probably for their liability reasons, the school system decided to get a contract nurse (Bayada is supplying the nurse) just for this 1-2 minute routine that gets conducted at 10:30am and 1:30pm. The crazy thing is that my son can actually do the cathing himself, he just needs supervision, to make sure he washes his hands, changes his pullup, open the catheter package (the one he has is a bit tricky). I'd trust anyone at that school to oversee him do it... anyone from the janitor to the principal and everyone inbetween. But no, the school system says "got to have a nurse". And a RN at that too...

I don't know how much Bayada would pay their nurses but my bet is that the school system is paying the nurse more than the kindergarten teacher. However her skills aren't lost... the school in their wisdom have decided to put my son's nurse to use: helping the class!

Mark.

[AwakeAtLast]

33. As long as I don't see it, lol!

All of our nurses are R. N.s, so if he were in our school, it would be a moot point to hire someone from the outside.

We have 900 K-6 students, so the need for a nurse is important! I wish all school systems felt that way. x(

[Duer 157099]

3. You know, I've actually been thinking about this, thanks for posting

it just seems like it'd be a good skill set to have.

Don't know if I could actually do it, but your post might have just given me incentive to look into it!

:thumbsup:

[Coyote_Bandit]

4. Great suggestion unless

one has absolutely no aptitude or interest in working in the medical field.

Example? Someone I know who has a high functioning math related learning disability and a tremendous reluctance to deal with sick and dying people after having witnessed the death of a younger sibling as a child.

[Lance31]

8. True, unfortunately we

are starting to look at an almost Darwinian model here. Adapt or Die. I didnt say it was for everyone. Just a suggestion.

[liberalhistorian]

24. Or if you live in a very rural, isolated area, as I do,

where there's little or no such schooling opportunity around. Not all of us live in urban or well-populated areas where such training is available. Of course, I was a nursing assistant one summer during college and was fired after about a month for no aptitude at all, but that's neither here nor there.

[DesertRat]

5. New nursing grads are having trouble finding jobs in AZ

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2009/01/25/20090125biz-nursing0125.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Oh man! Hospitals have been having dangerously low nursing staffing and now ....

...they're purposely keeping it that way. :banghead:

[Lance31]

7. Well they have to look in other states. That sort of thing happened to

Me in the fact I graduated from a RT school.

Well guess what, the RT jobs in that area were full up. Due to the school dumping RTs in that area. Once you look at the country as a whole its no big deal, or your area might be lucky that the market is lean for Nurses, CNAs etc:

I typed "nurse" in monster.com. 5000+ hits.

Try it at any job search site.

Also, you can go overseas.

[Lance31]

9. Also something else

its quite freeing to know you can quit and have another job in a week or too.

Travel assignments are pretty cool to and pay even better.

You do 12 weeks at a facility then are sent to another at the end of the first assignment.

Great way to tool around the country.

[Mojorabbit]

10. How can you get your nursing degree

Online? Half my education was clinicals. There is no way you can learn what you need to online without hands on.

[Lance31]

11. I do clinicals too,

at the hospital I work. Also the school requires one weekend for clinicals too. They are also taking into account that I am an RT, this would apply to paramedics and other critical care types.

Its really pretty nice. Considering I dont intend to be a floor nurse, just stay RT all the way through to NP. Doing whatever required clinicals are needed.

[Lance31]

13. Thought I said I would

be doing clinicals at the hospital I work at.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

12. Our area is so hard-up for nurses

that they will help pay your way through vo-tech and have you working within THREE MONTHS as you continue with your studies. This is in FL, but I bet other areas offer similar deals.

There are actually quite a few health-related fields that are quick to get into and offer job security and benefits. I seriously considered phlebotomy and found the course was only 160 hours total.

[Lance31]

14. Also this is about CNAs,

getting your CNA as a stopgap or springboard till a person can figure out what to do next. If you go on to Nursing, cool if not, thats cool too. CNA just gives the person in a tight spot something as a skillset, they can get work in as opposed to sending out hundreds of resumes, feeling like the clock is ticking on them and they have to find SOMETHING. Where the desperation is breathing down your neck.

Having a simple skillset like CNA can remove a bit of that despair. You can work at that and job search, go back to school, whatever.

:)

[Ilsa]

15. NP without practicing for a few years in med-surg nursing?

Sounds pretty slick, if you ask me. The college professors at my nursing school recommended we spend a minimum of six months full time med-surg nursing before going into home health nursing or any other situation where you practice your skills independently. That is experience you don't get from only a hundred hours of clinical work for the right to take the exam.

Good luck to you and your clients.

[Lance31]

16. Well I am planning on that.

I simply said I wasnt going to work as a floor nurse. I will work whatever clinicals and/or positions needed to get to the NP.

Wow, talk about sidetracking a simple suggestion with sarcastic BS.

[Ilsa]

19. Who is being sarcastic? What is the BS? You are stating you are going to do

the minimums to move ahead with your plan. I am saying that the clinicals are a supervised bare minimum to ensure you are a safe practitioner at that level. It isn't the same as an year or more exposure as a full time nurse. The NPs I know have had years of experience in broad areas of nursing, or several years in a specialty, before starting their NP education and taking the exam, and they recommended extensive med-surg experience before applying to grad school or an NP program.

The original suggestion of working as a CNA is quite good, especially for people who have never worked in health care before. I know it isn't for everybody, and we need tons more clinicians, teachers, and working nurses. I also worked in the financial sector before getting my RN.

[Lance31]

20. This is sarcastic BS

After going on about the hours needed.

"Good luck to you and your clients. "

[Ilsa]

21. I'm sorry if wishing-well offends you. nt

[Lance31]

22. Not the way it was written.

Lipstick on a pig

[uppityperson]

28. Lesson #134 in nursing, don't assume someone is being negative and don't react back if

they are. Go above it.

Sincerely, uppityperson RN.
ps, yes, somewhat sarcastic but also serious.

[Tsiyu]

18. Not a bad suggestion

except I did that nine years and there's such a thing as burnout.

I learned a lot doing RT but would not want to go back into it.

For others, it isn't a bad job at all and there is job security if you are flexible about where you live.

Good luck with your endeavors :hi:

[Withywindle]

23. But what if you faint at the sight of blood?

Seriously - when I was 9 I had a gerbil that lost part of its tail in the exercise wheel and the skinless bone bit had to be amputated. I begged the vet to let me watch because I had fantasies of being a veterinarian.

Next thing I knew, I was laid out cold on the floor with a vet tech holding a wet paper towel to my face. So much for that career goal.

To this day, I have to walk out when co-workers start talking in too much detail about their illnesses or surgeries. I CAN. NOT. look at medical photographs.

It's not like I'm overly sheltered. I witnessed a decapitation in a traffic accident once, and got through it OK as long as I was allowed to go home early from work (as the whole office did, pretty much).

This is NOT a job that anyone can do.

[Lance31]

25. Well, true its not for everyone, but

given a choice between having no prospects and having a job. I know alot of people that "got" used to it. We had one girl who fainted at the sight of needles. She worked on that and overcame it.

Comes down to Adapt or Not. Look at the big picture, if you think you can deal with it or you want it badly enough, you can overcome anything. I started out as an RT instead of a Nurse when I thought I couldnt handle feces or lower body stuff. Now its no big deal.

[leftstreet]

26. Seems like a risky field. No one can afford health care

1,000s of people getting laid off each week, more loss of insurance.

:shrug:

[Lance31]

27. Well seems that will force Universal Healthcare then.

The govt will be forced to act or have people simply dying in emergency rooms in larger and larger numbers.

It may take a while but they cant ignore the mounting numbers.

[leftstreet]

29. I think you meant to say Universal Health Insurance

Right?

:shrug:

[Lance31]

30. Well it could go that way.

However if the depression ravages the average American's ability to pay for it. Its back to square one.

I think it will start out as Insurance. But as the depression deepens, it will evolve into a VA style system, except for civilians.

[pacalo]

31. This could really help someone out of work find their calling.

Welcome to DU, Lance31!

:hi:

[byronius]

32. Frankly, the skill set serves on its own. I wish everyone had basic med training.

The higher the population's skill set in all directions, the better. John Adams would agree.

Inspiring post.