Advice from Nurses or Nursing Students

[hoping]

Hi. I am married to an addict with 3 kids, aged 19,17,and 10. I am hoping for advice. Over a year ago, I decided enough was enough and enrolled in school. I had been a psych major over 20 years ago. I loved it! I made straight A's in everything and enrolled in nursing school in the RN program. However, I did great until A&P and then I flunked big, big time. I am out of the program. It is a 15 month RN program. The school has offered for me to attend the LPN program. I hope I would pass that. My question if regarding LPN employment, opportunities, salary, and difficulty becoming an RN afterward. I am 43. Meanwhile, I have dealt with my husbands addictions and we are broke! He is on probation after getting arrested with pot. All these years and he was caught with pot. That is the least of things he could have been caught with. Our lives have gone so downhill and we are in such debt. I am thinking that the 15 month LPN would at least give me a job, but I had hoped for a job that could provide me an income to care for the kids and life in case the worse happens. I need to be able and live. We used to have such a fantastic life. My husbands parents are well off and threatened to take the kids if I left him. That is what they did to his daughter, my 17 year old step daughter. It is amazing what money can do. However, after everything I don't think it could happen. 5 rehabs since the beginning of our marraige and now an arrest. I only found out about it because it had been published in a little local paper and he told me because he was afraid someone else would. Lord knows the whole story. If anyone at all can give me advice, I would be so grateful. Thanks everyone.

[laurie6781]

LPN's make decent money. Get your LPN, work in the field, then go complete the courses you need for your RN (they will be easier, honest).

Hope that helps.

Love and hugs,

[liesagain]

LPN's don't make that much less than the RN's here in Florida.

As for school, once you have your LPN the transition program to RN is shorter

I have been an LPN for 17 years, have a great job make more than some RNs in my area and dont work all that hard.

I say go for it.

[JMFburns]

hoping,

Good luck and prayers & hugs going out to you and your family what ever you decide to do.

[cassandra2]

Go to salary.com and look up your area. That will give you a pretty good idea to what kind of pay you can expect with your LPN.

[whereami]

To be honest the Nursing programs in the local colleges are awesome because they are offering contracts right now to pay a portion of your school. Call your local college of Nursing on Campus and go in for a meeting, they can tell you the local grants too...sometimes there is a 350.00 grant just for being a first year nursing student. Don't know if you are eligible for TOPS but find out and also fill out a FAFSA form online...you can find it at fafsa.gov I believe. I also know that if you work for the local hospital they have LPN training built into your CNA work...just call and ask I know they need nurses...Good Luck!

[littlebird77]

I would go into ultrasound technology.
The reason I suggest this is because it is a concentrated area. With all around you, it may be a thought. Nursing maybe to broad of a subject if you feel you are not doing well.

An ultrasound tech is normally a two year program and people make around 80K in New York. You would need to look into salary ranges salary com to see if it would work in your area.

-I work in a hospital, computer stuff though, but I am looking into the ultrasound or RN program myself as well.