We at the second career nurse are happy to have partnered with MaleNurseGear.com! This site is specifically geared towards men in nursing and has some really awesome tools that any nurse, especially male nurses, should check out. Take a look around and tell them I sent you!!
Stay tuned for more blog posts to come shortly and sorry for the delay, I have been studying for the NCLEX and just took it in July 24th. Really hoping I passed, so wish me luck!

Sincerely,
Dylan

The Personal Statement Essay: 5 Tips for standing out from the crowd and getting into nursing school

Most nursing schools require you to write a personal statement as part of the application process. This can be a daunting task because it is both very personal and very high stakes. I truly believe that my strong personal statement was a key reason why I was accepted into every one of the second career nursing programs I applied to. These included VERY competitive schools such as UC San Francisco, UCLA, and the University of San Diego.

Friends have asked me to review and edit their personal statement essays since then and there are some common mistakes that many people make, which I want to help you avoid. So, without further adieu, here are my top 10 tips for writing a winning personal statement:

#1 Highlight your experience

As a future second career nurse, you have life experiences that have shaped who you are. Ideally, focus on direct patient care experiences and how they effected your choice to apply to nursing school. If you do not have this particular experience, then tie whatever it is you have done to nursing. Avoid talking in generalities about personal attributes such as “caring” “compassionate” or “a people person”. The person reading your essay wants evidence that you are these things and that you know what you are getting into. Personally, I highlighted my experience as an emergency medical technician working in the emergency room and played this up in a big way. Find your most applicable experience and sell the hell out of it!

#2 Avoid the word “unique” like the plague

I have heard over and over again from nurses and administrators that this word is so overused in personal statements that they will literally stop reading your essay. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ever ever ever use the word “unique” in your personal statement for any reason, whether you are describing yourself, your experience, or your background…. EVER!

#3 Tell a story

Nursing school personal statements are generally fairly short so this tip can be a challenge, but you want to tell a cohesive story with a beginning middle and end that engages your reader and makes them care. The beginning will often be either in your childhood or an early formative experience that started you down the path to applying to nursing school. The middle will be all the hard work you have done thus far to make yourself the most amazing applicant that has ever sent in their application to this fine institution. The end is where you involve the reader by implying that your desired end is to go to this amazing nursing school and go on to be a world-changing nurse. Let the reader feel like the decision they make will determine they outcome of your story. If you can pull this off, you will make it very difficult for them to say no to you.

#4 Follow instructions

This seems self-explanatory but if the personal statement directions say 2 pages, 2 pages and 3 lines is NOT OK. The ability to follow instructions is an important skill in nursing school and you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot by demonstrating a lack of ability to do this. Prune your essay by giving to someone else, who is not so close to the essay and ask them to mark the 3 least important sentences and take them out. Read the instructions and follow them.

#5 Absolutely no grammatical or spelling errors

I consider myself a pretty good writer, but if you take a close look at this blog, I am sure you will be able to find some grammatical or spelling errors. Keep in mind, this is EVEN THOUGH I am using Microsoft Word’s spell-check feature. But this is a blog, and your personal statement is your career as a nurse, so take the time to show it to other people and read it over many times, especially after you change something. Spelling or grammar mistakes can kill an otherwise amazing essay. 

I really hope these help you as you begin to craft your nursing school personal statement. Please leave comments and become a member of my blog!

2 Items I Wish I Had Before Starting Nursing School

Nurse’s Pocket Drug Guide 2012 by Judith Barberio

Why I wish I had this before nursing school:

Being a nursing student is stressful! One of the absolute biggest worries you will have is messing up on medication administration. Believe me when I say that this is the most likely place for you to make a mistake that could actually hurt a patient. Ideally, your preceptor will be watching what you are doing, but when it comes down to it, you the student nurse are ultimately responsible for any medications you pass to your patients. If you’re tech savvy like me, and you own an iPhone or Android phone you might be thinking why not just download an app for that? I can tell you from personal experience that pulling out your iPhone or iPod Touch on the unit has several disadvantages. For one, nurses may see you with your phone out and assume you are texting or checking emails. It is not always possible to explain that you are actually not a lazy nursing student and are actually using it for a legitimate purpose. Another disadvantage is the fact that there are a lot of nasty bugs in the hospital and you will inevitable end up using your device with less-than-clean hands at some point as you scramble to look up a medication while your preceptor waits. Yuck!!

So why do I recommend this particular drug guide? First and foremost, it’s small, measuring 5.3 x 0.7 x 5.4 inches and fitting easily into your scrubs pocket. Second, it is comprehensive but nursing oriented. This guide has pretty much any drug you are ever going to be giving as a student and it focuses on nursing considerations such as adverse reactions, interactions, and whether to give it with food, rather than going into pharmacological information you don’t absolutely need at the bedside. Finally, and maybe most importantly, IT’S CHEAP!! At $9.99 you really can’t get any more bang for your buck. I can’t even tell you how many times this book saved my life in nursing school and I highly recommend it.

RN Notes: Nurse’s Clinical Pocket Guide by Ehren Myers

Why I wish I had this before nursing school:

If Nurses Pocket Drug Guide was my “Ying”, then RN Notes by Ehren Myers was my “Yang”. This is a classic pocket-sized nursing bible that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that if there is something you could conceivable be “expected” to know as a nursing student, it is probably in here. This guide has lab values, procedure set-ups, ACLS protocols, assessment tools, and more. A registered nurse who used the 2010 version of RN Notes gave it to me as a gift early on in nursing school and I liked it so much I bought the latest edition just for the updated content. This one cost more, at $22.17, but honestly, for what you get this is a great price.

*Note:

 While my primary goal is to provide potential second career nurses like yourself with information that will help them to succeed, if you do decide to purchase these items through the links on my blog, it will cost you exactly the same amount, but The Second Career Nurse will receive a small commission on the sale. Thank you. 

Educational requirements: Nurse Practitioner vs. Physician Assistant

Nurse Practitioner

Degree: Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

License: Provided by the Board of Registered Nursing in the state the nurse practices in. A Nurse practitioner, in addition to holding a license as a Registered Nurse, also holds a separate license issued by the BRN upon completion of a licensing exam, allowing them to practice in the advanced practice role.

Length of programs: 1-2 years

Pre-requisite requirements: Generally, Nurse Practitioner programs require you already hold a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (BSN). However, there are a number of programs which allow you to earn a Masters Degree in Nursing and a Nurse Practitioner license if you hold a bachelor degree in ANY field. These are often called “direct entry” programs.

The following is a list of these direct entry programs I know about in California, however a simple google search for “direct entry masters in nusing” will find the ones in your state.

University of California, San Francisco Masters Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN)

http://nursing.ucsf.edu/programs/masters-entry-program-nursing-mepn

Cal State Long Beach Direct Entry program

http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/chhs/departments/nursing/studentinfo/ApplicationsHandbooksandHand-outsforUndergraduates.htm

Western University of Health Sciences Entry Level MSN program

http://prospective.westernu.edu/nursing-msn-entry/welcome

Physician Assistant

Degree: Generally, a Masters Degree in Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS), Health Science (MHS), or Medical Science (MMSc). While there are Bachelors Degree programs and even non-degree programs, these are quickly dying out and are not recommended.

License: Licensing of PAs is regulated by individual state medical boards, in other words the same body that regulates medical doctors. PAs are required to work under the supervision of a medical doctor. PAs must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam before being able to practice as a PA-C, or certified Physician Assistant.

Length of Programs: Generally 4-7 years of post-secondary studies. This is often accomplished by first obtaining a bachelors degree in another field, as well as the PA pre-requisite classes (discussed below), and then applying to a 2-3 year PA Masters Degree program.

Pre-requisite requirements: Pre-requisites vary by school but generally a bachelors degree in any field, along with the following courses:

Human Anatomy with lab
Human Physiology with lab
General Chemistry with lab
Microbiology or bacteriology with lab

Algebra, Calculus or Statistics
English Composition
Two courses in Social Sciences (e.g. Psychology, Sociology or Cultural Anthropology)

Biology (this requirement varies by school)

Applying to PA schools is done through the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA)

https://portal.caspaonline.org

Nurse Practitioner versus Physician Assistant

I decided to write this post because I know that I was confused about the difference between these two healthcare professions when I first started out. Some of you may be considering one or the other of these and are not quite sure exactly what each of them do. I will break down the main differences between these two roles.

PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT

Physician Assistant’s, like nurse practitioners are what are referred to as “mid-level practitioners”. These are non-physician healthcare personnel who provide some of the same services as a physician. They order and interpret diagnostic tests, diagnose and treat certain diseases, and prescribe medications. They also conduct physical exams and give medical orders. The first Physician Assistants were former navy hospital corpsmen, trained according to the curriculum, developed during World War II to quickly train Medical Doctors. While the role of the Physician Assistant is similar, in ways, to that of a Nurse Practitioner, there are some important differences. Perhaps the most important difference is that the Physician Assistant must always practice under the supervision of a Medical Doctor. Why is this important? Because every service that the Physician Assistant provides is, technically, being provided under the supervision of a physician, the PA is reliant on his or her supervising physician in a way that the NP is not. While, in practice, the PA is often quite autonomous, he or she is reliant on the Physician for their license. This means that the PA cannot ever practice completely independently, for instance setting up their own practice.

NURSE PRACTITIONER

This contrasts with the Nurse Practitioner, who can practice independently under their license and so can be considered more professionally independent. In fact, in some states, namely Arkansas, Arizona, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Washington D.C., Nurse practitioners can function completely independently from a physician, setting up their own independent practices and billing Medicare or insurance companies directly for their services. Other states regulate NPs more strictly and often they require them to have an “agreement” with a physician, who will often sign off on their charts. In these states, the NP ultimately ends up with a similar level of autonomy in practice.

There are some other important differences between PAs and NPs. One is that they have different philosophies of care. Nurse Practitioners, being registered nurses themselves, approach patient care from a holistic, patient centered standpoint, while Physician Assistants are trained in the medical model of disease treatment. This difference can be subtle and hard to pin down in practice, however it is something to keep in mind if you are deciding which path to take. Check back soon for an explanations of the different education requirements for each of these two professions!

The Nursing Site Blog: Is a Second Career in Nursing Worth the Wait?

The Nursing Site Blog: Is a Second Career in Nursing Worth the Wait?: "Nursing as a second career is a terrific choice. Of course my opinion is biased, but anyone giving nursing a chance deserves to be respect..."

A nurse is a nurse is a nurse…? Not exactly

Many people are confused by the many different kinds of nurses, and there are a lot. You may not understand the difference between say a nurse with an associate’s degree from a community college, and a nurse with a bachelor’s degree, or how they compare to a nurse practitioner. To allay any confusion, I thought this would be an excellent time to lay out the various types of nurses and explain the differences between them in terms of education and role.

Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA)

Certified nurse assistants may be known variously as CNAs, nurse’s aids, patient care technicians, home health aids, or home health assistants (HHAs). CNAs are entry-level health professionals responsible for assisting patients with their activities of daily living, such as bathing, eating, and using the bathroom. The education requirement is usually a certificate program from a community college, often taking only a few months. A CNA works under the supervision of a registered nurse in a hospital, nursing home, adult living facility, or private home. Their intimate physical contact with the patient makes them a valuable resource for registered nurses to learn more about the condition of their patient.

Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) / Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN)

You can think of LPNs or LVNs (which are the same, just different names given to them in different states) as registered nurses light. They provide basic bedside care including taking vital signs, preparing and passing medications, providing wound care, and assessment. LPNs are trained to monitor patients for reactions to drugs, help patients with activities of daily living. The education requirement for these nurses is a certificate program at a community college or technical school and generally takes about a year, at the end of which they take the National Council Licensure Examination – Practical Nurse (NCLEX-PN). LPNs are somewhat limited in their practice, working under the supervision of a physician or registered nurse, often requiring supervision while administering medications. For this reason, I highly recommend pursuing at the very least an associate’s degree in nursing, which I will discuss next.

Registered Nurse (RN) with an associate’s degree (ADN)

In the medical community, when someone is referred to as a “nurse”, it is assumed that they are talking about a nurse at this level or above. This is because an associate degree nurse (ADN) or associate of science in nursing (ASN) has taken the National Council Licensure Examination – Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN). This is the exact same license under which a nurse with a bachelor of science degree (BSN) practices. In fact, it is often the exact same degree that a nurse prepared at the master’s level will practice under. Right now, 50-60% of practicing nurses in the United States are educated at this level. If you were to walk into a typical hospital, you would not be able to tell an associate degree nurse from a bachelor’s or master’s prepared registered nurse because, as mentioned, they are practicing under the same license and are, technically speaking, equally qualified. However, an ADN has a 2 year degree from a community college or online program, while other RNs typically have obtained a 4 year bachelor’s degree or have pursued on of the unique routes to a bachelor’s or master’s degree discussed later. ADNs provide direct patient care at the bedside, carry out physician orders, and initiate independent nursing interventions on their own authority. They can administer medications without supervision and work under their own license.

Registered Nurse (RN) with a bachelor’s degree (BSN)

Registered nurses with a bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN) make up the core of nursing. These nurses have generally completed a 4 year nursing degree program at a university and have taken and passed the National Council Licensure Examination – Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN). However, as you will see, there are accelerated BSN programs that train non-nurses who hold bachelor’s degrees in other fields to be BSNs in as little as 12 months. So if a BSN and an ADN are practicing under the exact same license, why would anyone go to school for those extra 2 years? The answer is marketability and opportunity for advancement. A BSN has an advantage over an ADN in the job market with many employers, especially large academic medical centers, preferring to hire BSNs over ADNs. In fact, I know for a fact that more and more hospitals are exclusively hiring nurses with a bachelor’s degree or higher, with the exception of current employees (for instance CNAs who have earned an associate’s degree in nursing); and even these in-house hires are expected to earn a bachelor’s degree within a specified period of time. This is because the percentage of nurses with a bachelor’s degree or higher increases a hospital’s national rankings as well as helping them to obtain “magnet” status, a designation given to hospitals which meet certain requirements including level of nurse education, patient outcomes, and nursing staff job satisfaction. Nursing organizations also have the goal of increasing the percentage of nurses in the work force who hold a bachelor’s degree and to eventually make this the minimum entry-level education requirement to enter the profession. I recommend anyone entering the nursing field to obtain at least this level of education. Why? Because not only will you find it much easier to find a job, having this degree or higher will make it much easier for you to advance to positions such as charge nurse, preceptor, or nurse manager, should you desire that in the future. It also serves as a great foundation for obtaining the higher nursing degrees that will be discussed next.

Registered Nurse (RN) with a master’s degree (MSN)

This is where nursing education and roles really get confusing. This is because there is a distinction between a nurses’ education level (i.e. master’s degree), the license they practice under (i.e. Registered Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse Practitioner), and their role (i.e. their day to day responsibilities). This will be much clearer to you by the time you are finished reading this guide, I promise. To help make it clearer I have divided this section according license type and will then discuss the role of the nurse practicing under each type of license. Keep in mind that all of the nurses I will discuss in this section are educated at a master’s level and have a master of science in nursing (MSN) degree. Ok here we go!

            Registered Nurse (RN) / Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL)

             Clinical nurse leader (CNL) is a relatively new nursing role. It was developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in 2005 with the goals of improving patient care and training nurses competent in the translation of research evidence into clinical practice. Clinical nurse leaders are educated at the master’s level and are considered advanced nurse generalists, meaning that they are not specialized in a particular area of nursing. This distinguishes them from other master’s prepared nurses that are considered advanced practice nurses (APNs) due to their specialization in a particular clinical area and expended scopes of practice. CNLs practice under their RN license, the same license under which associate degree nurses and bachelor’s degree nurses practice. So what is the difference between a CNL and these other nurses? First of all, CNLs are educated extensively on evidence based practice and quality improvement as well as given a strong background in research. This makes them better prepared to deal with a changing healthcare environment by training them to think outside the box and be constantly looking for ways to improve the unit on which they work, be it improvements in clinical safety or cost effectiveness strategies. These skills are verified through an examination at the end of every CNL program which grants the nurse a clinical nurse leader certificate. These skills make the CNL very attractive to potential employers and the fact that they hold a master’s degree makes them much more “promotable” within the organization. I highly recommend this route to anyone who holds a bachelor’s degree in another field and wants to become a nurse. Programs that offer the CNL degree will be discussed later in this guide.

Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS)

            A clinical nurse specialist, as the name implies, is a clinical expert in a specific area of nursing practice. Aside from having a master’s degree in nursing (MSN), they are also certified as clinical nurse specialists through their state’s board of registered nurses. CNS’s, along with nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists, are considered advanced practice nurses (APNs). What distinguishes an APN from other registered nurses? APNs are legally granted an expanded scope of practice, meaning they can perform procedures, order tests, prescribe medications, or other actions that other registered nurses are not legally allowed to do. Don’t worry, it will become a lot clearer as you move through this guide. The clinical nurse specialist is often in charge of training and education of registered nurses practicing in their clinical area within a hospital. So what specialties can a clinical nurse specialist go into? Here is a list of the most common CNS specialties:

Acute Care

Adult

Family

Gerontology

Pediatrics

Women's Health

Psychiatric/Mental Health/Adult

Psychiatric/Mental Health/Child

HIV/AIDS

            Nurse Practitioner (NP)

            Nurse practitioners have a drastically different role in healthcare delivery than the types of nurses discussed so far. The primary role of the NP is not providing bedside care and safely implementing physician orders. Instead, the NP acts a lot closer to the role of the physician, ordering and interpreting tests, diagnosing disease, and prescribing medications. Keep in mind, depending on the state in which the NP works, they may have more or less independence in their practice. For instance, some states require NPs to be directly supervised by a physician while other states allow nurse practitioners to open independent practices and directly bill Medicare and insurance companies. In addition to the master’s degree, NPs hold a nurse practitioner certificate. This is earned after completing an approved nurse practitioner program and then taking a board certification exam. It is important to note that nurse practitioners are also registered nurses and can perform all of the bedside care performed by any RN. Nurse practitioners, like CNSs, choose a specialty. These include:

Acute Care

Adult

Family

Gerontology

Pediatrics

Women's Health

Psychiatric/Mental Health/Adult

Psychiatric/Mental Health/Child

HIV/AIDS