For anyone that was following my nursing school drama...

[SeaConquest]

It appears that we have a final resolution with Western Governors. They were going to have to put us on a 5-month term break because our clinical hospital partners are now requiring that our instructors be on site at all times because of Covid. WGU simply does not have the staffing at present to accommodate that requirement, as most of our instructors are ICU nurses -- many of which are presently busy dealing with the pandemic -- and they do not want to approve us doing further volunteer placements outside the hospital for a variety of reasons.

So, they have agreed to transfer our entire cohort to Texas. Under the Texas Board of Nursing rules, Term 4 (OB, Peds, and Community Health, which started August 1st) would be conducted entirely virtually from home (California does not allow simulations to the extent that Texas does). In Term 5, which begins in February, we would fly to Texas for our labs and clinicals for Critical Care and Role Transitions -- so 3 trips to the Houston and Bryan/College Station areas. We would be licensed initially by Texas and then would apply to California for reciprocity. This would enable us to graduate on time in July 2021, take the NCLEX very soon thereafter (California currently takes about 3 months to give you permission to test; in Texas, it takes about 2 weeks), and then transfer our licensure to California (which currently takes about 2 months to transfer in). In the end, it will not take us any longer to get our license in California (it may even be faster this way) and we would also be licensed in Texas, which is a compact state, enabling us to work in the 33 other states that have adopted reciprocity with Texas (great for working with travel nursing and telemedicine agencies, which usually want nurses with compact licenses).

It's not exactly the ending for which we had hoped, but it's a compromise solution that we can live with and will keep our cohort together. One of the reasons that we were pushing so hard to maintain our July 2021 graduation date is so that we can apply to grad school with the fall admission deadline. For me, I am hoping to complete a doctorate in nursing program, which will likely take me another 3 years of schooling while I am working as an RN. So, pushing back graduation would delay me another year before I could apply, and at my age, I don't have time to waste! There are many of us in our cohort that plan to go on to graduate school, so we were really hoping we could keep our July graduation. So, we fought the University over the term break and came to a compromise. So Cal 51 is now Texas 133 -- Yeehaw! 🥰

Edited August 15, 2020 by SeaConquest

[Xahm]

Wow! Sounds like they've done some creative problem solving. Glad they've kept you on track.

[sassenach]

WOW. What a saga. I'm glad that you have a solution that works for you. Nursing school in a pandemic better give us some sort of street cred! How long will each of your trips to Texas be? 

[vonfirmath]

Bryan/College Station -- So are you going to be working with the Texas A&M college of nursing?

 

It's a much nicer area to drive in Than Houston. (I learned how to drive there and am still there regularly with family in the area)

[TheReader]

Oh, wow! Welcome (in advance) to TX! 

Houston driving is.....interesting. I don't know how long y'all's stay will be each time in TX, or how housing/lodging will work, but....if you have to find your own, be sure and ask locally as to where to stay in relation to where you'll be doing clinicals and such. Traffic is.....:shudder: 

But, yay for a solution! 

[SeaConquest]

6 hours ago, xahm said:

Wow! Sounds like they've done some creative problem solving. Glad they've kept you on track.

 

In all honesty, we did have to play hardball with them, as the other California cohorts just laid down and did what they were told. Having a former federal litigator in the cohort may have had something to do with that. 😎

[SeaConquest]

6 hours ago, Seasider too said:

Yep! It shows they recognize your contributions as care giving professionals and value their students. 
 

This honestly sounds very exciting for you and your cohort. You are going to be a unique bunch and I hope your futures will include reunions, and so much trickle down to younger students about resilience and creative resourcefulness. 
 

May God bless you all with good health, energy, and good personal logistics to allow everyone to travel as necessary. 

 

Aww, thank you. That is very kind of you to say.

I am pretty excited, actually. It's always cool to be able to work in different environments, and it will be fun to see how they do things differently in Texas. We are all pretty psyched.

[SeaConquest]

6 hours ago, sassenach said:

WOW. What a saga. I'm glad that you have a solution that works for you. Nursing school in a pandemic better give us some sort of street cred! How long will each of your trips to Texas be? 

 

Right!?! We have one trip to Houston for our critical care lab, which will be 4 days of actual labs. Then, our critical care clinical rotation I want to say is around seven 12-hour shifts. So, assuming 3 days on with a break of a day or two in between, let's call it 10ish days. Then, role transitions is fifteen shifts in California, but they said that it might be less in Texas. So, probably 2-3 weeks for that final one. We will likely share rental cars and AirBNBs.

[SeaConquest]

6 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

Bryan/College Station -- So are you going to be working with the Texas A&M college of nursing?

 

It's a much nicer area to drive in Than Houston. (I learned how to drive there and am still there regularly with family in the area)

 

No, that is just the hospital system that we are tentatively assigned to right now. But, they told us that it could obviously change since it isn't until Spring 2021.

[SeaConquest]

4 hours ago, TheReader said:

Oh, wow! Welcome (in advance) to TX! 

Houston driving is.....interesting. I don't know how long y'all's stay will be each time in TX, or how housing/lodging will work, but....if you have to find your own, be sure and ask locally as to where to stay in relation to where you'll be doing clinicals and such. Traffic is.....:shudder: 

But, yay for a solution! 

 

I am a Los Angeles native, so I think I am ok on the traffic. We will hopefully share an AirBNB that will be close to the hospital or lab to cut down on the commute. There are only 7 of us in my cohort, so it is doable to rent a house or something.

[sassenach]

1 hour ago, SeaConquest said:

 

In all honesty, we did have to play hardball with them, as the other California cohorts just laid down and did what they were told. Having a former federal litigator in the cohort may have had something to do with that. 😎

Good for you! I have a really young cohort and it’s the handful of us later in life students who have been pushing our administration. The young’ns don’t know that they can make demands. 

[SeaConquest]

1 hour ago, sassenach said:

Good for you! I have a really young cohort and it’s the handful of us later in life students who have been pushing our administration. The young’ns don’t know that they can make demands. 

 

My battle buddy is an LVN who took time off from working to homeschool her kids and now is returning to school in her 'old' age to get her RN. She and I are teaching the young'ns some life lessons about how to get things done when kinder/gentler negotiations break down. They kinda marveled at my audacity in threatening these national level PhDs/DNPs with legal or board of nursing action on behalf of California cohorts, but I'm like, 'There's nothing the administration could say to me that I haven't heard from opposing counsel already.' 😂 Thankfully, they don't seem to hold grudges. After we finally came to a resolution, the national head of nursing was like, 'I guess ya'll *really* want to become nurses!' She's actually been quite kind to me since we resolved matters, but I was definitely sweating grad school letters of recommendation there for awhile! 🤣

Edited August 15, 2020 by SeaConquest

[SeaConquest]

Since I made my own little post, I want to put in a plug for this video from the Wall Street Journal. I don't believe it is behind their paywall. I volunteered for 6 months in the MICU at UCSD and have spent 2 of my clinical rotations (so far -- I have a strong interest in critical care nursing) in the ICU at UCSD and another hospital in Orange County, spending time with Covid/ECMO nurses. As I mentioned above, most of our clinical instructors are also ICU nurses. Because people are not allowed into ICUs, it is hard for the public to hear first-hand what is happening. This is a non-political, 10 minute video that everyone should see: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-films/covid-chasers-the-nurses-fighting-coronavirus-from-hot-spot-to-hot-spot/E05FF3C1-0873-4AF9-ADA1-9F1CECE24065?fbclid=IwAR2k_6FTFPsrJCnnFs-9xn2fn8kOMyOtJ6-WK6k2Y_mRAp68-Bs0yPE-K58

Edited August 15, 2020 by SeaConquest

[sassenach]

18 minutes ago, SeaConquest said:

Since I made my own little post, I want to put in a plug for this video from the Wall Street Journal. I don't believe it is behind their paywall. I volunteered for 6 months in the MICU at UCSD and have spent 2 of my clinical rotations (so far -- I have a strong interest in critical care nursing) in the ICU at UCSD and another hospital in Orange County, spending time with Covid/ECMO nurses. As I mentioned above, most of our clinical instructors are also ICU nurses. Because people are not allowed into ICUs, it is hard for the public to hear first-hand what is happening. This is a non-political, 10 minute video that everyone should see: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-films/covid-chasers-the-nurses-fighting-coronavirus-from-hot-spot-to-hot-spot/E05FF3C1-0873-4AF9-ADA1-9F1CECE24065?fbclid=IwAR2k_6FTFPsrJCnnFs-9xn2fn8kOMyOtJ6-WK6k2Y_mRAp68-Bs0yPE-K58

Do you want to go into critical care? I don’t think I do. I spent some time volunteering in the ICU (precovid) and I don’t think it’s for me. 

[SeaConquest]

28 minutes ago, sassenach said:

Do you want to go into critical care? I don’t think I do. I spent some time volunteering in the ICU (precovid) and I don’t think it’s for me. 

 

I am super torn. I love the ICU. I would love to be an Acute Care NP, but there's just no day shift for years and years around here in the ICU. And I'm almost 46 years old with bipolar disorder that is triggered by sleep deprivation. It's a bad combo. Even if I managed to find an RN job on days, and made it through NP school, I'd likely go right back to nights as a hospitalist for awhile once I became an NP. It's just untenable.

So, my other love is Psych. They're my people. I went into nursing to become a Psych NP and to work with other vets and folks with severe mental illnesses. I just got a PRN job at the County Psych Hospital here and I am super stoked about it because it is a locked facility with very high acuity patients. Exactly what I wanted. Wee! I talked with one of the ICU nurses who is an FNP in the ED at a local hospital, but still moonlights under her RN license PRN in the CVICU at UCSD because she likes critical care so much. I had never thought about doing something like that, so she planted that seed in my head. Another option is one of the hospitals here has an acute psych unit for folks that have severe medical and psych issues. I am trying to see how I can possibly blend my two interests. But, I think realistically, I will probably do a PMHNP. Still trying to figure it out. That's why I didn't do a direct entry program and went the slower path with the second bachelor's. I really wanted to figure out nursing first -- work for a few years -- and then become an NP. I was hoping that by the end of my BSN program, I'd have a better idea of which NP I wanted to be, but I am still torn. But, psych just has way more options for a better lifestyle with day shift, telemed, etc. The need is so great in psych. It's such an underserved population and I really enjoy working with psych patients (usually).

What about you? What are you thinking? How is it going for you?

[sassenach]

22 minutes ago, SeaConquest said:

 

I am super torn. I love the ICU. I would love to be an Acute Care NP, but there's just no day shift for years and years around here in the ICU. And I'm almost 46 years old with bipolar disorder that is triggered by sleep deprivation. It's a bad combo. Even if I managed to find an RN job on days, and made it through NP school, I'd likely go right back to nights as a hospitalist for awhile once I became an NP. It's just untenable.

So, my other love is Psych. They're my people. I went into nursing to become a Psych NP and to work with other vets and folks with severe mental illnesses. I just got a PRN job at the County Psych Hospital here and I am super stoked about it because it is a locked facility with very high acuity patients. Exactly what I wanted. Wee! I talked with one of the ICU nurses who is an FNP in the ED at a local hospital, but still moonlights under her RN license PRN in the CVICU at UCSD because she likes critical care so much. I had never thought about doing something like that, so she planted that seed in my head. Another option is one of the hospitals here has an acute psych unit for folks that have severe medical and psych issues. I am trying to see how I can possibly blend my two interests. But, I think realistically, I will probably do a PMHNP. Still trying to figure it out. That's why I didn't do a direct entry program and went the slower path with the second bachelor's. I really wanted to figure out nursing first -- work for a few years -- and then become an NP. I was hoping that by the end of my BSN program, I'd have a better idea of which NP I wanted to be, but I am still torn. But, psych just has way more options for a better lifestyle with day shift, telemed, etc. The need is so great in psych. It's such an underserved population and I really enjoy working with psych patients (usually).

What about you? What are you thinking? How is it going for you?

So much to think about! I can really hear your enthusiasm for psych and I definitely think NPs are needed in that field above most others. Are you following AB 890? I think there may finally be a California NP bill with wheels! 

I am DONE with school after my BSN. I have no ambition (at least as of right now) to take things any further. Last semester was my first of nursing school and I'm still finishing up clinical hours to get the book shut on those classes. I start by psych and ob rotations this fall. I am more aware of what I think I won't end up doing than what I think I will. I don't think psych, OB, or critical care is for me. I *think* peds may be my jam but I'm waiting for those clinicals to know for sure. Weirdly, I also think palliative/hospice may be in my future but I think I'll want a few years bedside first.

We have our clinical sites secured (an absolute miracle) for the fall. Several big systems closed to us (including Kaiser!) and I was thinking that we were toast. But Stanford and a few others came through so I think we may be ok (barring a big surge). I heard we just got UCSF placements 3 days a week for med-surg and peds (next semester for me). I'm feeling increasingly hopeful that we may just make it.

[SeaConquest]

2 hours ago, sassenach said:

So much to think about! I can really hear your enthusiasm for psych and I definitely think NPs are needed in that field above most others. Are you following AB 890? I think there may finally be a California NP bill with wheels! 

I am DONE with school after my BSN. I have no ambition (at least as of right now) to take things any further. Last semester was my first of nursing school and I'm still finishing up clinical hours to get the book shut on those classes. I start by psych and ob rotations this fall. I am more aware of what I think I won't end up doing than what I think I will. I don't think psych, OB, or critical care is for me. I *think* peds may be my jam but I'm waiting for those clinicals to know for sure. Weirdly, I also think palliative/hospice may be in my future but I think I'll want a few years bedside first.

We have our clinical sites secured (an absolute miracle) for the fall. Several big systems closed to us (including Kaiser!) and I was thinking that we were toast. But Stanford and a few others came through so I think we may be ok (barring a big surge). I heard we just got UCSF placements 3 days a week for med-surg and peds (next semester for me). I'm feeling increasingly hopeful that we may just make it.

 

Oh, that's awesome! What a relief that you have your clinical sites, and good ones at that! I hope that you have a great semester. Even though I already knew a lot about psych, I found the exam very tricky. We use HESI and the whole test was basically therapeutic communication. It was a lot of scenarios where you really could go with two answers and it was hard to know which was the best of the two answer choices. I hate that! So subjective! We can commiserate over OB together. I'm just glad I had kids (and a nervous breakdown) before going to nursing school! It's really helped with knowing the material in OB and psych. 😂

I have a friend that is a peds nurse and she told me that what she likes about it is that kids always want to get better. You tell an adult that they have diabetes or lung cancer and they often turn around and still eat donuts or smoke a cigarette. Kids are fighters. That was her perspective. I know that I cannot do peds. 100% It's the only time that I get emotional. Happens every time I have a kid patient (I used to volunteer in the ED). I lose the detachment. It's like my mothering instinct immediately kicks in and I just ache for them. It's horrible. It's not that I don't care about my adult and geri patients, or feel for their families when they get devastating news, but I can maintain the necessary detachment to do the work, which is especially important in critical care when the sh*t is hitting the fan. Kids though, it's just this visceral level of pain transference; I can feel my eyes start to well up when they're in pain and it's almost like my boobs start to hurt in that letdown feeling. I can't do it. If you can do it and love the work, then you're awesome.

Anyway, good luck this term! 🙂

[SeaConquest]

Oh, I forgot to answer about AB 890. YES!!! I have been following it and I hope that FINALLY it is getting traction because of the pandemic. But, the physician lobby is very powerful and has defeated similar legislation many many times before, so I am not counting them out just yet. They really don't want to see this to go through. It is such a turf war, and all about greed. It is unfortunate. One of the reasons that I have been looking at working at the VA after graduation (besides wanting to work with other vets) is because NPs already have full practice authority under the federal system. So, if I can get into the VA system, I can get credit for my military service time towards retirement, I can get a letter from the department of rehabilitation for bipolar and my veteran status to help me get preferential hiring, the full practice authority if I become an NP, and I think working for the federal government (vs a private employer) would provide me with better protection in the event that I needed to take time off for my own mental health issues if I had a relapse to get things back under control. I tried getting accommodations when I was a lawyer when I was in crisis and needed help and it was horrific. I don't want to go through that again.  

Edited August 16, 2020 by SeaConquest

[sassenach]

1 hour ago, SeaConquest said:

 

Oh, that's awesome! What a relief that you have your clinical sites, and good ones at that! I hope that you have a great semester. Even though I already knew a lot about psych, I found the exam very tricky. We use HESI and the whole test was basically therapeutic communication. It was a lot of scenarios where you really could go with two answers and it was hard to know which was the best of the two answer choices. I hate that! So subjective! We can commiserate over OB together. I'm just glad I had kids (and a nervous breakdown) before going to nursing school! It's really helped with knowing the material in OB and psych. 😂

I have a friend that is a peds nurse and she told me that what she likes about it is that kids always want to get better. You tell an adult that they have diabetes or lung cancer and they often turn around and still eat donuts or smoke a cigarette. Kids are fighters. That was her perspective. I know that I cannot do peds. 100% It's the only time that I get emotional. Happens every time I have a kid patient (I used to volunteer in the ED). I lose the detachment. It's like my mothering instinct immediately kicks in and I just ache for them. It's horrible. It's not that I don't care about my adult and geri patients, or feel for their families when they get devastating news, but I can maintain the necessary detachment to do the work, which is especially important in critical care when the sh*t is hitting the fan. Kids though, it's just this visceral level of pain transference; I can feel my eyes start to well up when they're in pain and it's almost like my boobs start to hurt in that letdown feeling. I can't do it. If you can do it and love the work, then you're awesome.

Anyway, good luck this term! 🙂

I guess the emotions of peds remains to be seen. I’m waiting for my clinicals to know for sure. But because of my son, I’m practiced at having to watch an innocent kid go through hard stuff. If I can keep it together for him, my guess is I’ll be able to do it with other kids. But I do wonder if I can handle the crying all day, sensory wise. Not sure. 

 

1 hour ago, SeaConquest said:

Oh, I forgot to answer about AB 890. YES!!! I have been following it and I hope that FINALLY it is getting traction because of the pandemic. But, the physician lobby is very powerful and has defeated similar legislation many many times before, so I am not counting them out just yet. They really don't want to see this to go through. It is such a turf war, and all about greed. It is unfortunate. One of the reasons that I have been looking at working at the VA after graduation (besides wanting to work with other vets) is because NPs already have full practice authority under the federal system. So, if I can get into the VA system, I can get credit for my military service time towards retirement, I can get a letter from the department of rehabilitation for bipolar and my veteran status to help me get preferential hiring, the full practice authority if I become an NP, and I think working for the federal government (vs a private employer) would provide me with better protection in the event that I needed to take time off for my own mental health issues if I had a relapse to get things back under control. I tried getting accommodations when I was a lawyer when I was in crisis and needed help and it was horrific. I don't want to go through that again.  

I really hope this all works out for you! I watched the Business and Professions committee hearing and got the real feeling that this bill is going to get the support it needs. The only nay was Pan (of course) and the support was quite vocal. The bill’s author is impressive in his ability to rebut the opposition. 
 

Please keep us updated on your progress through the program! I graduate December 2021.