My daughter graduated from her CNA class tonight. One of the speakers was an administrator from the LTC where she did her clinicals. This woman gave a motivational speech about reaching your dreams, doing whatever you want, etc. Then she said that "You girls should consider going on to get your LVN. It only takes a year. Think about it: you will make about $12 an hour now as a CNA, but one year from now you can be licensed and making $24 an hour."
Hubs had to step on my toes because I was literally having to bite my lips to keep from yelling out "WHAT?????"
:firedup:
I'm not saying that one-year programs don't exist, but she made it sound like, "Go down and enroll tomorrow and a year from now you'll be licensed!" These are 17- and 18-yr-old kids who were hearing this!
It sounds about right to me but they wouldn't make $24 out the door around where I live...maybe 18 months maybe she was just trying to get them to keep going....maybe not the best time it does kind of put a damper on what they've just finished "you did good but you can do better"
Its like ADN programs saying you can get your nursing degree in two years.....yea right........unless you already have your prereq's done I don't know anyone who completes a 2 year ADN in less than 3 years.......the money issue was exaggerated for sure.....the CNA's and PCT's I know make betwee 6 to 9 dollars an hour but of course that varies by type of job and location........our LPN's make from 14 to 20 dollars an hour.......i'm sure that speaker was trying to be motivational........your right on the 17 and 18 year olds......they believe what they hear and now they have cell phoned that information to about 1000 people........:39:
Wow- thats good pay for CNAs too. I know many LPN's who did their program in a year. At 18 with no family or spouse it was much easier for them.
Of course...for me..with 3 kids, a husband and a job..it took me 4 years to get my ADN
The pay is about right for northern CA. It was the no pre-reqs and walk-in-tomorrow-and-say-"Enroll-me-now" attitude I had a problem with!
My LPN program was a year long one; had no pre-req's, as the A&P, Nutrition, etc., was incorporated into the 8 hour days we had. If you can do it, you can do it.
Some people do need to have that little push in the right direction. Heck, it took me 17 years to get my BSN, and the 'push' was from my main LPN instructor.
'Cat'
The LVNs here make more than that & can become one with one year of schooling. After the first year of RN schooling, the student can sit for the NCLEX-PN. It's meant to be sort of a transition position on the road to becoming an RN here.
I don't think the speaker was purposely trying to mislead the graduates. I do think that she was just trying to motivate them to continue their education and go as far as possible in their new profession. Most nurses aren't in it for the money anyway, especially those in education; so, I wouldn't expect her to be 100% accurate with the financial end of nursing in the first place. Lighten up a bit on her or your daughter may get the impression that the $$$$ is more important that advancing her education. It's a minor issue and not really worth getting so upset about, especially if she motivated your daughter to continue on the path to being a nurse.
NavyJim58 wrote:Its like ADN programs saying you can get your nursing degree in two years.....yea right........unless you already have your prereq's done I don't know anyone who completes a 2 year ADN in less than 3 years
You got that right, Jim. It took me 3 1/4 years to get my "two-year" ASN. The quarter year was because I had to repeat a half semester module that I flunked (GASP!!). -I missed a clinical. :frustrated:
it also took me 4 years to get my ADN. I worked full time (12 hrs/day 7 days per week and had 3 kids ages 1-3) and took 2 classes of pre-reqs at a time for 2 years and then 1 summer class (quit work during that) then started the ADN classes in the fall,(went back to work after 1 semester working every weekend as a student) and took 1 or 2 BSN pre-req classes while doing the ADN nursing classes. After finishing the ADN went to work full time + perdiem (stupid me worked everyday June-Sept after graduation)...by the time I finishied all of my BSN pre-reqs and the BSN classes it was 4 more years after my ADN. I look at MSN every now and then and get info together but...no I really don't want to I'm happy where I'm at :)
TomB wrote:You got that right, Jim. It took me 3 1/4 years to get my "two-year" ASN. The quarter year was because I had to repeat a half semester module that I flunked (GASP!!). -I missed a clinical. :frustrated:
Hey Tom....we've all been there at one time or another.....I won't embarrass myself today but I had a "buddy" in nursing school who had to repeat a clinical semester because he "hit" on the nurse he was assigned to shadow during a clinical day at a local hospital.......she wrote him up for it and the "witch" who was our clinical instructor tried to get him thrown out of nursing school.......he was lucky he only had to repeat the semester.......he finally did graduate :houra:
