More Good News For TX Wannabe Nurses

 Sounds like our state is finally doing something to try to alleviate the nursing shortage and increase the # of students.      (btw, I wasn't aware that Baylor has a one-year fast-track  program for applicants that already have a college degree!      ):
   http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/yahoolatestne ws/stories/070909dnmetnursing.3df43a4.html

Not everyone who has a nursing "degree" has the HEART to be a nurse. It would like ME trying to be a lawyer, accountant or teacher...those things are NOT my "calling". I would totally suck at those things. I have seen far too many "nurses" who think they are "too good" to "touch the patient"...WTF???....If you're thinking of going into nursing for "security and a paycheck"....please don't work with me...cuz I'll throw a poop filled diaper at you (and "YOU" is a generalization here, PAUL, I didn't mean YOU, literally)

This has been on my mind alot lately, as I hear this hear info on the news, regarding the economy, etc. In nursing, it usually works: The more education you get, the further AWAY from the patient you get...meaning "The Boss" may have have very MINIMAL experience with pt care yet he/she THINKS he/she will have a better way for ME to do MY job and he/she THINKS can impose those ways on ME.....

Good luck with that...

Ok...speech over...thank you for the use of the podum...

I totally agree with you.  There was a nurse (LVN) I worked with at  Long term rehab center and she was always listed as the Medicatine Aide ( she was a 6 month grad from LVN school). I asked her why she only passed med's . She said " Well I am in Rn school and I cant stand to TOUCH the people. So that is why i am getting my Rn" I was flabbergasted. I said  you are a Nurse and do not like to TOUCH people. Why did you ever go into this. She said " For the money." Well the money isnt that great , and if i didnt love doing what I do as a Nurse I would not have went into this field.

GO figure,
We need nurses who care and have compassion taking care of peopel not ones doing it for A JOB....

Jenn

JENN--and you and I both KNOW "nurses" who will NOT "touch the patients"---don't we??? grrrrrrrrrrr......That what burns me when I hear the commercials, news reports, etc offering the "special schooling for retraining for the work force"....People who go into nursing for the money are going to be very VERY disapppointed-aren't they??...lol

Hey Gina,
Couldn't agree more!  It definitely has to be "in" you to do it.  My 16 year old daughter has wanted to be a nurse since she's been about five.  She is definitely one of "those" kind of people, the hands on, caring type.  When she was in elementary school, when a kid would fall down on the playground, she's stop doing whatever it was she was doing/playing with and go sit with whoever it was telling them it would be ok and trying to calm them down until the teacher and/or school nurse got there.  That's just her.  This fall, she is taking the second HST (Health Science Technologies) course in high school.  She gets her scrubs (which for her is SUUUUCH a big deal) and then two days a week she will get to do rotations at the hospital with her teacher who is also an RN.  I love the idea of her doing it at school because she will QUICKLY figure out whether or not she likes it!  They also will have days when they go to a nursing home as well.  I just hope she can hang with it!!!

JILL--that's exactly what I'm talking about--it's obviously IN your daughter to be in the health care field. Any child who will stop PLAYING to attend to an ailing peer has something "special" IN them!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they will go to a nursing home. I know they can't let the students do a whole lot (because of laws, etc), but it will stil be good experience. My first job, after high school, was as a Nurse Aide in a nursing home-hardest job I ever had. I have the UTMOST respect for them.

Kudos to your Kiddo!!

Gina,

I TOTALLY agree with you on this point.  I used to do lab/x-ray and the first thing my boss told me when she hired me was that the patient comes in here feeling yucky and it is our job to be pleasant and helpful no matter how we felt that day.  No personal conversations, no complaining about our bunions, etc.   That advice carried me through some very rough days.  When you can put the focus back on the patient, your day just goes better.

My son-in-law, God love him, got his CNA and planned on going into nursing.  He is 6'9" tall and way over 200 pounds.  He complained constantly about his job because all the nurses wanted him to do all night was lift patients.  He kept saying he wanted to go to nursing school so he could sit around all night and work on reports!  HUH???  Like that is what life as a nurse is like!   I prayed continually that he would change his mind because I knew that all he saw were little dollar signs in his future, but he wasn't picturing the reality of it.

Well, my prayers were answered.  He worked in the Cardiac ICU and was with a patient that had asked his family to let him go.  They pulled life support and he was holding the man's hand as he died.  Shook him to the core!  He very quickly realized that nursing wasn't for him when he had to clean the body!  He is now a student at UNT in computer something or other! LOL!

Nurses are very special people and I have always appreciated their help when I was in the hospital.  I tried to make their job as easy as I could by being patient (knowing I wasn't the only patient they were caring for), only complaining about pain and not the pudding I was served, LOL! and thanking them anytime they did ANYTHING for me.  So, yes, I am glad that Texas is making it easier to be a nurse, but I agree that you really need to make sure that is the profession for you.  It is not all money and roses, it is a LOT of work, a LOT of mess and ugly at times and very little appreciation at best.

To all the nurses on this board: THANK YOU!

TONI (I'm guessing that's your name by your siggy line-sorry if I'm mistaken)--love the story about your SIL...I CAN see the nurses taking advantage of your SIL for "lifting purposes"--sure wish I had had him this past week..lol...I do "one on one" hospice, and this particular patient was not my "usual" type client, meaning he was not in his "last days", so we were up and down ALOT...potty..geri chair..potty...geri chair....wore ME out...but he got LOTS better, so they were able to "graduate" him back to regular care and he'll probably live longer than I will...but...yesterday he CRIED when I left...all his confusion lifted for a few minutes and he said "Everyone I ever cared about has left me"....Has an accountant ever gotten warm fuzzies like that? Probably no! Now...watch some accountant come flame me...(ducking here!!)

Best of luck with your SIL's education...we all have different talents. I would totally suck rocks at anything computer science related. God made us all different..and aren't we glad???

I plan on going to nursing school after I get two pre-req's out of the way.  This is the only positive thing from being laid-off, being forced to do something I've wanted to do for years but let it go due to the wait list of getting into nursing school and settling on being a staff accountant.  NOW, I am pursuing my dream.  I'm leaning towards L&D, would love ER Trauma, but I hear there's rotation in the ER so you wouldn't always get the trauma stuff.  I'm sick, I know, but bring it on. 

JERI-Congrats!! One of the greats things about nursing is the diversity. As you do your rotations you may change your mind about a specialty a million times...just roll with it and have fun!!