BURNING SEETHING ANGER

[trailerparkmedic]

I start nursing school this fall. A few weeks before nursing school there is a mandatory (8 hour???) orientation. It was supposed to be on August 18th. I was going to quit my job, go to orientation, get married on the 19th and go on my honeymoon starting the 20th. I've put down money for a nonrefundable hotel and kinda refundable airfare; my family has requested vacation time and booked tickets as well since they're flying HALFWAY ACROSS THE COUNTRY to see me.

Today I got a letter in the mail saying they have changed the date of mandatory orientation to the 20th. The wedding is in Dallas but I have to be back in Houston at 8 am for orientation the next day. Um, how about a big FUCK YOU to my nursing school?

Look, I understand that nursing school is the hardest thing evar. It will suck up my life, include teachers who torture and belittle me and make everything else I've ever done look like a piece of cake. Even if I buy into this (I stayed in Houston during Ike so I could work 5 days straight of 12 on, 12 off with only energy bars for food. I worked 80 hour weeks when my fiance was unemployed and still kept a 4.0 while taking 11 credits. I was in the Army.), I REFUSE to sign over my life before classes start. It is NOT MY FAULT that the school is so damn disorganized that they can't even honor a simple orientation date that was given to us two months ago.

I left a message with the head of undergrad nursing asking what I should do (I might have bent the truth and told her that the 20th is my actual wedding day). If she tells me anything other than "We will work with you," I am so out of there. There is another very good BSN program in the medical center at the same cost and if I got into the program I'm in now, I will get into their program for Spring '11. It will take me an extra year to graduate but at least I will get an extra 6 months of work at my current job (that just gave me a $2/hr raise! I hate it but they're making it hard to leave) to save even more money... and I might get to go to a school that knows how to schedule events more than a month ahead of time. I might get to graduate when I finish my classes instead of 6 months later. I'll have summers off to get externships at local hospitals for great experience and job leads.

I'm sorry, I am just so angry right now and I needed to vent to someone who cares.

[Ree]

I'm so sorry about the wrench that got tossed into your plans.
I really hope they're willing to work with you on this.

Good luck with everything.

[Exaspera]

DAMN I hate when crap like this happens! Probably had a meeting and one of the folks who runs orientation has vacation time or something, so they had a meeting and changed it.

Their applicants have no lives, so what does it matter?! /sarcasm

I sure hope it all works out for the best for you.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Frankly, Plan B kinda sounds like the better deal.

If they're disorganized in more areas than this, it sounds like a red flag...

Good luck.

[Plaidman]

.... Personally, I too would go with plan B. Even if it's six months later to go, that's still damn near an extra $1920 from your new raise. (assuming you work 40 hours each week for six months).


Plus come on, they had two months to tell you, then its like BAM! It's this day sucka!!

[Green_Fairy]

.... Personally, I too would go with plan B. Even if it's six months later to go, that's still damn near an extra $1920 from your new raise. (assuming you work 40 hours each week for six months).


Plus come on, they had two months to tell you, then its like BAM! It's this day sucka!!

i tend to agree. them rescheduling is not a good sign...who knows what else they'll try to pull.

and...congrats on the wedding? hope stuff sorts out for ya.

[Jangles the Moon Monkey]

I agree with everyone about plan B. Hope everything works out for the best.

[phantasy]

I also agree that plan B sounds like a better idea. The first school sounds like they're going to give you a hell of a time farther (further?) down the road.

[trailerparkmedic]

Honestly, I don't know if the other school is Plan B. Maybe I should just stay away from nursing altogether--the other school is likely to pull the same shit, and seriously, what other college program advertises that it will suck up your free time to the point you should just say goodbye to your family members now? All for a career that is becoming more customer service and CYA paperwork and less about actually helping people back to health.

I know it's partly hormones and partly anger talking, along with my ADD in choosing majors, but I'm having a hard time trying to remember why I thought leaving engineering was a good idea (I was taking prereqs, since I needed to get back up to calculus). I'm also having a hard time trying to remember why I decided against getting a programming/networking degree from the local community college.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Honestly, I don't know if the other school is Plan B.

Ask them. Find out. With any luck they'll love to have you. Plan B does sound better. So before you decide, find out if Plan B would work.

[Amina516]

So, now..deep breath in.

Ok, better?

Now, i agree with the rest. Thats BS that theyre that disorganized they cant even commit to a date they gave you 2 months ago. Check of the the letter you got before and see it it says anything about "tentative" orientation date. If not, they Id be pissed and its most likely a precursor to how the rest of the program will go.

Nursing school is doable, yes it sucks a chunk of time, but do you think people just sit in their houses for 1.5-2 years just doing work and nothing else? No, they dont. I think nurse educators would like to think that your life revolves around school because it is a very important job and you have to do and know alot. Some are around to torture you, and suck your will to live, i agree but its worth it if you hang on.

I personally worked every weekend, 12 hour shifts while in school. This was after getting the recommendation to quit my job from the advisors. Yeah, a big WTF right? Lol. If you manage yourself well, you will have lots of time with your family and able to enjoy yourself every once in a while.

Good luck with any decision you make. PM me if u wanna talk or if u wanna vent.

[draftermatt]

I didn't go to Nursing School, my wife did, she graduated with her AAS in May 2008, passed her boards and has been an RN since October 2008.

It takes time, you won't want to work as much, but the job isn't all paperwork. All the nurses I've talked to say it's worth it.

Don't give up on everything because of an orientation change.

I will say that last minute things can be common in nursing school. For example, when my wife first got in they had an optional "Dosage Calculation" class. Because it was optional she didn't sign up for it.

We were on the beach (3 and a half hours away) when her cell phone rang, they wanted to know why she wasn't in class today. "Um it's optional and I'm on the beach"

"Well we still want everyone to take it even though it's optional, make sure you sign up when you come back and come to class next week"

She did, and now it's no longer optional.

[trailerparkmedic]

After some hemming and hawing on their end and me asking that they didn't make me choose between getting married and going to school, they decided to "allow" me to skip orientation.

I think I'm going to stick it out with Plan A. Plan B would have me graduate a year later and would cost more because it would involve 1 semester of 2010, 2 semesters of '11 and 1 semester of '12 (vs 2 sememesters of '10 and 2 of '11) prices. I'm trying REALLY hard not to fratch here but state budget problems = climbing tuition. From when Fiance entered school until he left 5 years later, tuition more than doubled, and that was before the economy really tanked. Plus, fiancial aid doesn't know I'm getting married so I get (some) subsidized loans this year.

I don't buy into "nursing school will inhale your life OMG" and I don't even really buy into "nursing school is THE HARDEST SKOOL EVAR" arguments. Any upper division program is difficult and involves tons of time. You can't tell me that clinicals and care plans are that much more time consuming than a class Fiance had where they had to pitch an ad campaign (that they created) to clients every week or a film class that a friend took where he had 30 minute films due monthly. "OMG You have to read like 200 pages a week!" "You have to write these super long papers!" "You need to use critical thinking!" Yeah, because no other college program out there requires ANY of that. I'm especially annoyed that people who are already students have invaded our facebook page to tell us it's really gonna b hard ok like omg 4 realz. I'd been holding out home that nursing school students wouldn't be as annoying as some of the people in my gen ed classes.

I think a lot of my conflict right now is because I'm going to have to give up something in my future career. I love playing with computers and electronics on the large scale but I don't think it would be fulfilling over the long term. Maybe I'll get my uncle (Doctor developing new charting software) to hook me up with something in informatics in a few years when I know what I'm doing as a nurse. I just dislike having to compromise.