With my health issues and lack of getting 40 hours in a week for 2 years now. I'm just at my wits ends when I first got into nursing had the hours and didn't struggle with bills. So now I'm seeing 64-72 every 2 weeks. Not to mention the patient load... I won't even go on about that.
Even tried to take on 2 jobs being in a PRN spot (as needed) but that is hard to do when I have to schedule around my main job.
I really enjoyed when I first became a nurse hours like crazy.. Now I can't even hit 80 in 2 weeks. Then of course i have friends telling me to get my RN, well kind of hard when I'm juggling pay checks, and I'm sure many know school is NOT cheap.
I have an RN(with BSN and possible plans to get her MSN in the distant future) friend in Vermont and there isn't enough nurses to fill those positions. She just got a second part time nursing job making $30/hr and they gladly scheduled her around her full time job where she makes almost $40/hr.
If you can, look into moving to find a job. It's not that way everywhere. When I worked there, St. Vincent Hospital in Indy couldn't find enough nurses and was paying moving stipends to get nursing staff. I don't know if they still are or not, but having your BSN and RN will open an untold number of doors and possibilities for you.
[This message has been edited by Rallaster (edited 05-13-2014).]
Don't blame you for bailing out of MI, a lot of people have. We have 3 of the top 10 most dangerous cities, and they're still cutting the police force and fire depts. Although the Flint officials are still getting their raises.
Have you looked into becoming a travel nurse? My wife is an RN, and she traveled for a year and a half. She worked in Texas, Kansas, and Vermont. If the state you are going to work in doesn't accept your license from Michigan, you can apply for their license...you don't have to test, but you will have to pass a background check and pay for the license. I don't remember if you're married or not. If not, then it could really be a good move for you. If you are, it's harder, but if your wife is up to traveling to different places, and you don't have to depend upon her having a job, then it can also work. In our case, my wife went off traveling, and I stayed home. That's not the best way to do it, but in our case, it was the only way we could. The wages differ between jobs, but it can be pretty lucrative. Plus, most of them pay for housing, and you get a tax break, due to the way they pay you. There ARE drawbacks...if you work in a state that has no income tax, and your home state has income tax, you will have to save money to pay the taxes on what you made in the other state to your home state. But it's not insurmountable, and the nice thing is, they are short term assignments....usually three months at a time, with the option to extend if you and the hospital agree on it. If you don't like where you're working...at the end of your contract, you move on to another place. Something to look into, anyway.
Check into the Northeast Ohio area. It's totally booming around here in the medical industry.
Cleveland--and Northeast Ohio--are blessed with some of the best health care facilities in the world. The Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals, and University Hospitals' Rainbow Babies and Children's facilities in the United States. Below is a summary of the area's many health care centers.
Both my nieces just graduated with nursing degrees. One has already paid off her student debt! Both have great jobs in Cleveland. You gotta go where the work is.
Just to add, a shout out to the Clinic and it's doctors for treating my girlfriend's breast cancer. They have the best in the world in my opinion. They treated us like royalty there. The nurses were just awesome! I'm sure you would fit in great there LoW_KeY. Sounds like you are a hard working a dedicated.
Might try the Big 3 (Chrysler, Ford, GM) for regular production jobs. The transmission plant down here in Kokomo is hiring about 600 and they're working 4 days/week (40+ hours). That might give you time (and money) to complete a BS degree. (Not sure I'd tell them that was your plan.) I applied this morning. I guess, you have to be pretty much perfect for the first 6 months then you can be a "normal" employee. We'll see if I even get an interview.
I Know that the Cleveland area is really short on practitioners. Most of the urgent care and well clinics are run with them. At one point contracts where made to build clinics and still having trouble staffing those clinics after there built. My companies still has built clinics in our stores that were never opened because they can not find enough to fill the locations. Cleveland clinic is still expanding and university hospital is starting some major expansions. Than our third health facility metro health is opening large facilities. These hospitals are huge metro health and the Cleveland clinc have there own police not security there full on officers. The joke around is these facilities are so big they have there own zip codes. Metros main campus is 250,000 square feet and the cleveland clinic is even larger. When my father had his last heart attack I literally lost 5 lbs over the few weeks he was there and I kept going to see him at the clinic. Took me 15mins from parking garage to his room one way. plus ohio is not extremly far from Michigan. i visit my friend outside of flint and its roughly 4hrs,
