The long and winding road

Do you ever wonder how in the world you ended up where you are now? I do all the time.

I know there are a lot of folks out there in this worsening economy who say, "I need a job that lasts like a healthcare one." For them, I'd like to pass along a few things about my experience.

First of all, yes, healthcare is indeed a necessity. Unlike sales or marketing or computers, everyone needs to have access to a doctor and/or hospital. With that access comes access to a variety of other assorted healthcare professionals, namely nurses.

Nurses are in a lot of places from schools to hospitals to local, state and federal health agencies. Nurses do lots and lots of paperwork in addition to doing patient assessment, administering drugs, general patient care and patient education.

Second, before you go jumping into the nursing school pool, be prepared to wait. Some nursing schools have waiting lists of two or more years. Do your homework!

One of the best books I've encountered that discusses many of the nursing specialties out there is Opportunities to Care: The Pfizer Guide to Careers in Nursing. It has a general overview of issues in nursing and a general overview of the role of nurse in the healthcare setting, as well as career planning and words of wisdom. The most valuable part is that it has lots of little vignettes that describe different specialties. (Shameless plug: you can find the rehabilitation nursing story on page 132 in Chapter 27.)

Third, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention something that LaTonia Denise Wright is always talking about in her blog, My 2 cents. Please, please, please consult a lawyer if you have any legal issues in your past. You might go out and get a degree in nursing, but no school on earth will guarantee that your state will license you if you have certain convictions, which is why you need to get an attorney who knows what will and will not work in your state before you start. Your state Board of Nursing is out to protect the public, not your investment in nursing school.

Finally, if visiting hospitals, talking to people and checking out the nursing program of your choice and its statistics and everything else I've mentioned above hasn't scared you away, and you've got all your prereqs in order, dive in. It's an experience you'll never forget.

Nuggets for April 8

Here are a few of my favorites from my recent ventures out on the 'net.

Nursing 101 (from ERNursey)
ERNursey, thank you for this post.

Don't buy liability insurance (from My 2 cents)
This is one of my favorite blogs, discussing a very important issue that, for some reason, people tend to gloss over.

Give it time (from tex at weirdnursingtales)
A good, short piece on ED nurses. I'm not there yet, either, Tex, but boy, my BS radar is gettin' pretty sharp!

Chez Recovery and Beyond (from pixelrn)
Boy, Beth, I sure feel for you...been to the IT promised land, escaped to nursing school, and now I'm wondering if I should ever go back. It's just TOO tempting!

Keeping priorities straight, even at the end (from nytimes.com)
The NY Times article about Carnegie-Mellon prof, Randy Pausch and his last lecture.

Nuggets this week

Since I just mentioned a few of the interesting infractions noted in my latest State BON newsletter, I thought I'd point you in the direction of some interesting legal-oriented blog posts I've run across this week.

More nurses in trouble with the nursing board
A great post by Taralynn Mackay. Don't miss this if you live/work in Texas.

Will it anger the board if I have an attorney?
A great post from My 2 cents, a nurse attorney blog

On another note, here are some goodies from some other blogs.

Revenge is sweet (from highlytrainedmonkey)
Phone triage (from atyourcervix)
Professional Respect (from traumaqueen)