Well that was a right pain in the arse, but it's over and I'm licensed and employed. I hope everyone is doing well. Anything new and interesting?

Congrats!

Man, I'd make some EQ healer joke but I can't even remember enough about it to try. Congratulations!

Wewt! Glad to hear it. Congrats!

Martha (Iphygenya) asks about you all the time, she really seems to dislike any new game I try - keeps trying to pull me back into EQ2. She's equally thrilled about you finishing up and says congrats as well :)

Congratulations Thormir! So glad to hear that you made it through and are doing well. I got out of Laredo in the nick of time on multiple counts and just finished up my third year on the tenure track for a community college district here in San Antonio that is hell bent on abolishing it ;)...

Things have been winding down a bit here for multiple reasons (some of which you're aware of) but most of us at least lurk here every now and then to keep up with each other, my posts have been few of late, largely because I seem to have less of an ego-driven need to hear myself rant these days and the days of pithy arguments seem to be mostly past here with so many of the firebrands gone ;)...

Congratulations on some hard work well done (I teach microbiology to nursing students and just what they have to get through in A & P to get to me is quite a grind) and hope we'll see you around a bit more often?

Warm regards,
Nydia

Wewt! Glad to hear it. Congrats!

Martha (Iphygenya) asks about you all the time, she really seems to dislike any new game I try - keeps trying to pull me back into EQ2. She's equally thrilled about you finishing up and says congrats as well :)
My best to you both. I think she has the right idea about EQ2 ;). The guild is quiet but has its share of regular, and several members have joined a raid guild but keep their alts in Prism. Come on by!

Congratulations Thormir! So glad to hear that you made it through and are doing well. I got out of Laredo in the nick of time on multiple counts and just finished up my third year on the tenure track for a community college district here in San Antonio that is hell bent on abolishing it ;)...
I seem to know a lot of people in San Antonio all of a sudden. Some guildies and, I think, one of my fellow students are all from there.

Congratulations on some hard work well done (I teach microbiology to nursing students and just what they have to get through in A & P to get to me is quite a grind) and hope we'll see you around a bit more often?
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I may be about now and then, though I won't be one of the firebrands, I think hehe. My new job won't allow for websurfing and forum posting, I'm afraid. But it's good to see familiar faces and such! Take care,

Grats on both accomplishments!

Well done Thormir! Big congrats.

Does that mean you can post more now? We're down to 45 members, and sinking fast!!

Congratulations!

Thanks all, much appreciated :)
Well done Thormir! Big congrats.

Does that mean you can post more now? We're down to 45 members, and sinking fast!!
I'll poke around a bit. I've been reading a bit more and getting out to the occasional movie, so I might post about that sort of thing when I have time. For now it's another day of orientation (wooo...!) and plotting survival until that first paycheck comes through.

Congatz to you!
How are nursing needs in your area? We seem to be full to the brim here which is really odd since it wasn't that long ago that we couldn't find nearly enough. Leah started school recently herself she was going to do nursing but instead is looking at more the administrative side of medical stuff first given the total lack of nurses around here.

Congatz to you!
How are nursing needs in your area? We seem to be full to the brim here which is really odd since it wasn't that long ago that we couldn't find nearly enough. Leah started school recently herself she was going to do nursing but instead is looking at more the administrative side of medical stuff first given the total lack of nurses around here.
This area has around 8 major hospitals but also 6 or 7 nursing schools, so there are always plenty of new graduates. Normally, however, there is still a fair amount of competition among employers to draw new hires. I benefited from a UNC program that offered very nice loan packages repaid merely by working at UNC. They dropped the program after my cohort entered school.

UNC Hospital had 400-500 applications for around 50 positions. I was somewhat lucky, as the departments I applied to (Oncology, Peds Oncology/Hematology) had only provisional openings, and the Peds spot was snatched up by a fellow student who had worked on that floor as an NA. Someone in Radiology saw my resume`, and they called me up out of the blue to interview -- ultimately they hired me.

Nursing is often described as recession proof ("nursing shortage" has been a buzz-phrase for years), but retirees are returning to work, and some who could retire are hanging on. The biggest hospital in Raleigh dropped their new grad program entirely this year.

I received no sign on bonus, and I won't make as much as I anticipated. Still a good field to enter into, but not unscathed by the current economic woes.

I wouldn't worry about not making as much as you anticipated. The baby boomers are going to retire en masse soon enough.

In 2 years I'll have worked my loans off, and I'll have the chance to look at other hospitals. Staying at UNC might be best -- I'm already vested in the state from previous work and could accrue further benefits -- but there's another local hospital I did clinical time at that might be a good target for transfer. And yes, the baby boomer retirement will keep all of us very, very busy.

That is awesome and gives hope that things will turn around here too hopefully :)

We have several hospitals around here as well though nothing like those big university ones in your area. Mostly things like Hershey Med, York, Lancaster, and a few smaller ones. Some of the people we know were sitting around for months after graduating until getting hired b/c fewer and fewer older nurses are retiring. My employer recently decided to phase out all LPNs and only have RNs they offered current LPNs the opportunity to get thier RN if they wanted.

We are moving to CPOE in a huge way and it is changing the way the floors do business. Even the clerks and unit secretaries need formal education. Hopefully in two years it will be better and she'll get a job.

I certainly wish her luck. CPOE is the standard here, and education is increasingly vital for all healthcare roles in this area. I'm hoping to find out how many grads from my class are still job hunting, as well as how many failed the NCLEX (the difficulty of which was increased in May -- a completely miserable test I'm happy and relieved to have passed).

Grats!

Thats awesome Thormir!! Congrats on your certification, a wonderful accomplishment!

Grats )

Thanks much, folks =)

Been gone a bit. Grats to you Thor!!!

Hey Fanny, I hope things are going well!

Gratz to you :)

But the reality is that the older nurses can't afford to retire due to many reasons, Or choose to keep working with the uncertainty of what is to come.

Couple that with most of their spouses/significant others are out of work which makes their income that much more precious.

Also, admissions to hospitals is WAY down. There is debate on whether it is due to people not wanting to have elective surgeries which are usually some sort of drain on their monthly income, or not wanting to miss work and have their employers figure out they aren't needed.

Another reason I have heard is people are going to high deductible plans so as to make them more affordable.

But in any case the jobs are there, but we can't be as picky as we once were :(