apprenticetoflo

taste_buds
Holidays provide a built-in excuse for indulgent entertaining. This all-purpose foodie community covers everything from homemade hangover cures to dinner party menus. Need quick advice? Get five-minute snack suggestions, low-fat ingredient substitutes, and even measurement conversions. Delicious recipes garnished with humorous advice. Yum.

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

Heya

New so I thought I should introduce myself, 21, I am applying to nursing school this month, I'll find out in April if I get in or not. So wish me luck!

Just finished A&P and Micro, tough classes but I managed to pull it off. Thank god Christmas season is here! ^_^

Anyone have any interesting plans for winter break?

Thanks!

How difficult is it to find part-time work as a new grad? After I get my ASN, I want to start working on my BSN right off and don't want to work full time while I'm taking classes.

Hi everyone I wouldn't be asking this but we’re running out of options.

The back story:

A very good friend of mine (dr_is_in ) husband is very sick a couple of weeks ago he was in ICU in an advance stage of shock and was not expected to live. He recovered only to be diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. Thanks to the lovely American healthcare system they sent him home!!! The main treatment for Pulmonary Hypertension is sildenafil aka Viagra. The problem for this of course is that Viagra is marketed as a sex drug and the insurance will NOT cover it with out a dr’s note and they cannot get into see the dr until January. (He's also in end-stage renal failure and it honestly still does not look good)

So she is paying $40 a pill and he needs it twice a day! ($400 for a 10 day ‘script). They don't have a lot of $$ and because he’s been in the hospital she hasn’t been working. So flat out she cannot afford the ‘script.

I’m NOT asking for money rather than if you know of a way to get sample packs! (I know in Canada we can get a sample pack with four pills in it!) just one sample pack is two days worth of meds!

She lives in New York state so if anyone in the US can get Viagra sample packs (I’ve already made some calls and am trying to track down some) most family Dr’s have it and even some free clinics and sexual health clinics as well. (or if you work in an office where you can get some) every little bit will help her until January when she can get the insurance to cover it!

If you can get some either PM me or e-mail me angel.stone@gmail.com and I’ll get you her address. All I ask is that you mail it to her. (because it’s a sample pack it’s legal to mail with-in the US, checking to see if I can get them sent over the boarder from Canada as well)

I’ve also put her in-touch with Pfizer they have a program that helps people get their meds/pay for them but it can be a slow process and he needs the meds now.

Thank you so much for your help guys- any suggestions as to how I can help get some meds is greatly appreciated.

Angela

Link to my plea post on my LJ
Link to her original post

ps. please re-link and re post at will!

Hello! I'm graduating this upcoming Tuesday (yay!!) and I need help with two job offers I have.

( A little history: )

What do you guys think? I need advice! Are my two cons for MICU a big enough deal to break it? How was it in your experience (doesn't have to be the same situation obviously). I'm looking to hear from RNs who immediately went into a more intensive unit right out of school and how they dealt with it.

x-posted

Hello! I'm graduating this upcoming Tuesday (yay!!) and I need help with two job offers I have.

( A little history: )

What do you guys think? I need advice! Are my two cons for MICU a big enough deal to break it? How was it in your experience (doesn't have to be the same situation obviously). I'm looking to hear from RNs who immediately went into a more intensive unit right out of school and how they dealt with it.

x-posted

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're tall on adventurous spirit, but short on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about bargain hotels and hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!

I'm in a dilemma. It seems like I change what I want to do everyday based on what's going to be the right decision.

I'm a junior at Hunter in NYC majoring in nursing, or trying to. The program is designed so that you take all your pre reqs the first 2 years then apply spring of your sophomore year and then 2 do years clinical and graduate with your bsn. It's really competitive, and I don't know if it's working out.

I couldn't apply in the spring sophomore year because I had to retake a couple classes, they won't even consider your app unless you have at least a C in all your pre reqs and a min. 2.9 GPA, though they say not to even apply unless you have a 3.6.

My GPA is a 2.6. I'm not done retaking what I have to retake so when I do it will be a little higher. Still, the nursing program won't replace the lower grade, they will average the 2, so I'm thinking by the time I apply my gpa is going to be a 3.0...still a long shot for me to get in. Your application is 50% cumulative GPA and 50% your score on the NLN.

And here's the thing. I really want to be a mental health nurse practitioner. I don't see myself working in a hospital. I think of myself doing counseling for the most part. The whole reason I want to be a nurse practitioner is so I can have the hollistic medical background and also to be able to prescribe if needed...though the bulk of what I WANT to do is more counseling/psychology based. Also, I want to work in an urban setting. Maybe a rehabilitation center for people recovering from drug addicition and substance abuse, possibly a jail or prison for women or incarcerated youth. On that measure.

I just want to be a mental health nurse practitioner so I can go into it with the max. education possible..I think that's important. This way I can take all things into account when helping people and my knowledge and resources won't be as limited as they might be if I was to just be a counselor, for instance.

So, I don't know what to do. I don't want to transfer schools this late in the game. I was thinking of declaring my major at Hunter in urban studies, while completing my nursing pre-reqs. This way I could graduate on time and still have taken all the nursing pre reqs..only I wouldn't be in the program and have clinicals. Then I was thinking of applying to a nurse practitioner program for people who have a non-nursing bachelors.

Honestly, this seemed like the smartest approach given that I am not so great in science, AND the fact that it might just better suit my interests. I'd much rather major in urban studies than nursing as far as my interest go. It's just that solely a degree in urban studies would never allow me to do what I want to do. I need the nursing componenet, or at least the mental health nurse practitioner component.

So, I did a search for mental health nurse practitioner programs for people with a non-nursing bachelors, thinking I had it all figured out. I felt really confident about doing it this way...until I realized the only schools that really offer these types of degrees are university of rochester, seton hall university, and upenn. I live in NYC and would like to continue going to school here, but PA and NJ are possibilities as well.

Rochester is all the way upstate, I'd have a lengthy commute to seton hall, and I don't think my 2.6 gpa from Hunter is getting me anywhere near UPenn. Additionally, all three of these schools are private and expensive.

I really don't know what to do. I thought there would be way more choices. It seems like there are so many types of nursing programs for so many types of degrees, I was shocked to see that these were the only 3 close to me offering this degree. Does anyone else know of any more mental health nurse practitioner programs for non-nursing majors?

Otherwise, I'm stuck. Otherwise I should maybe transfer to another school where I can complete my BSN...if only because that will at least allow me to chose from a lot more schools, there are way more MHNP programs for people who complete their bsn in nursing.

But sometimes I think the reason I'm not doing well is because I'm not passionate about this stuff. I try, really hard, knowing that I have to do well in these classes in order to get to where I want to be, and to do with what I want...to get to the stuff I really AM passionate about. But nursing is a really big commitment and I don't know if it can be a stepping stone to where I want to get to anymore.

I'm not doing that great in my classes. I'm doing okay, but I'm used to being a really good student. I feel like my self esteem is lowered because I'm not doing as well as I want. I also work full time doing medical billing so I'm always stressed about studying and the demands of the difficult nursing pre req classes. I try to balance it out by still taking electives of things I'm interested in, like a class on aids or one on prison systems, but that's expensive if it's not going to be what my degree is in, and it's more time and more work.

I'm not a lazy person. I've always worked really hard. I just hate putting my energy somewhere when I don't even have a clear vision anymore of where I should be going. And I think it's much easier to motivate yourself when you have a clear plan. The more I don't meet the goals I set for myself, the less clear my plan becomes, and the less motivated I feel to attempt the work because I feel like it's all becoming so far away. I'm really overwhelmed. On top of that my dad keeps wanting to know if I'm going to graduate on time because pretty soon it's going to be time to pay off my two $10,000 private loans I too out for my first 2 years of college. This also makes me feel like I have to figure something out quick.

I always say I know what I want to DO. I know the population I want to work with and what I want to accomplish while I'm there. I just don't know the best way for me to get there, given my strengths, weaknesses, and interests.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

**FINAL EDIT Thu Dec 10 02:15:47 UTC 2009**

So there is the final update... Over the past day we have processed around 11 million jobs out of the 12 million that were in queue at that time. Please bear in mind that over this past day, more jobs for notifications are also created. So while the queue has been dropping, we are still not fully caught up at this point, due to backlog and new jobs. We have roughly 3 million jobs still pending that involve the notification system in some manner. We had hoped we could have fully cleared the queue in a day, but unfortunately we can't clear it too quickly, since we need the rest of the site to operate normally. From our current perspective on the amount of jobs that are left in queue, and how many it has processed thus far, we believe it will take around another 8 - 12 hours to process everything.

And finally some answers to some questions:

( Read More and Get Some Answers... )

freeskiers
While some of us long to escape the cold, dark stretch of winter for hot tropical beaches, for others, there's nothing quite like whoooooshing down those shimmering sugar alps. If you're fond of freestyle skiing, get ready to slide down the slippery slopes in good company. This passionate, international community shares travel/gear tips, anecdotes, photos, and videos for those who can't get enough of the sweet stuff.

seasonal_icons
Need some extra twinkle to decorate your place? Check out these dazzling holiday-themed icons. If you're an artist, you can post your own creations, provided you abide by the simple rules (which is to say, all cheer and no politicking). Be sure to comment and give credit if you wish to borrow a little spirit (no direct links, please). If you're feeling a touch of humbug this season, this is an instant shot of festivity.

handmade_gifts
High on creativity, but low on cash? You'll find tons of brilliant suggestions for do-it-yourself crafts sure to please everyone on your holiday gift list. Offering detailed instructions, photos, budgets, timelines, and active support, you'll soon turn spare remnants of fabric and time into cherished keepsakes. Be sure to search entries and read user guidelines before you post for help!

**EDIT Thu Dec 3 23:24:15 UTC 2009 **

Hey Everyone, we are about to run the last alter job that we need to on our database servers. This will effect userpics / scrapbook / vgift images for the next few hours. Have no fear, your images aren't lost, there is just a really intensive process running on the servers which store the information for mogilefs. Thank you for your understanding and all the LJ love...

Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're high on adventurous spirit, but low on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about inexpensive hotels and youth hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!