Minimum wage isn't meant to be a living wage (statistics, Minnesota, Denver)
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They offer those schedules, but unless you have high seniority you can't just "pick" a schedule. You are assigned a schedule. The staff with the least seniority get assigned to the least popular schedules and work at them for many years until they have gained the seniority to pick a schedule, and even then, you may have a preference for a certain schedule but you may still be assigned to one you don't want.
You don't get a choice when you are assigned to work Christmas Day for example. You just do it.
Welcome to the world of being a working adult.
Any time constraints are your problem. Children? Your problem. Lack of skills and the associated low pay? Your problem...
I keep hearing excuses. Make it work. I did the work, school, kid thing. My mother did the Army, kid, school thing. Millions do it.
One person's inability to do what others have done for decades is their own problem.
Don't have a family or suck it up. Having a family is a choice the family person has to deal with, not society...
The rumor of LPNs being phased out is as untrue now as it was in the 80s.
Healthcare is practically the most flexible industry. How many industries offer 7on 7off or a regular schedule or monday-friday or weekend doubles/off the week or prn or 3 12 hour shifts or 4 10 hour shifts or any of the other variable shifts we have?
Not mention the many environments... Drs offices, clinics, hospitals, long term care, assisted living, rehab, independent living, skilled nursing, schools, nonhealth corporations, law firms, govt, etc...
Not many...
What are you supposed to do if you already HAVE a family? Abandon them? Give them up for adoption? What about the woman who gets divorced and suddenly has to begin a career when she has maybe 4 kids? I don't believe in a lot of excuses, but some of you people cannot see that there are situations that don't fit into your neat little philosophy.
I don't work in a hospital any more, so I really don't know if they have a lot of LPNs.
I have never, ever heard of a hospital offering any kind of a Mon-Friday only schedule for floor nursing, except for head nurses. IME, health care is the most inflexible work environment I have ever seen, with nursing at the top of the inflexibility scale. Certainly a CNA doesn't have a lot of flexibility or clout, as s/he can easily be replaced. Clinics employ Medical Assistants. That certification requires a year's schooling. Most of these other jobs you mentioned are 24/7 jobs too, and I have certainly never heard of a CNA being employed by a law firm. Despite what they tell you in nursing school, there aren't many nurses working for nonhealth related corporations, except in employee health and that only for big corps and you usually have to be an RN. Government jobs for CNAs would be in a govt. hospital or nursing home.
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Originally Posted by ellemint
My experience working in healthcare is that they very rigid about schedules. And I see why---if you are involved in patient care you simply have to be there. They are the least likely of employers to allow you to leave early for a class, or anything like that. And I never saw them offer any stepping stones for employees to increase their education. They have so many employees, it would be tough for them to let's say offer tuition support for the hundreds of CNAs that a typical hospital employees.
Spoken by someone who knows what she is talking about. Let me give you an example. My daughter is taking classes at the U of CO health science center in public health. There is a nurse in a class she has that goes until 6:50 PM. One day the prof asked if there was anyone who couldn't stay until 7 for something or other. The nurse raised her hand. The prof was incredulous, and said (paraphrasing though this is pretty close to what my daughter told me) "You can stay till 6:50 but you can't stay 10 more minutes?" ". The nurse said, "I have to be at work". Now I can tell you, having bt/dt that she could maybe get permission to show up 10 min. late ONCE, but it would be HUGE to arrange. Just one example.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ellemint
They offer those schedules, but unless you have high seniority you can't just "pick" a schedule. You are assigned a schedule. The staff with the least seniority get assigned to the least popular schedules and work at them for many years until they have gained the seniority to pick a schedule, and even then, you may have a preference for a certain schedule but you may still be assigned to one you don't want.
You don't get a choice when you are assigned to work Christmas Day for example. You just do it.
Even the places that "self-schedule" have to cover all the shifts. It requires a bit of self-sacrifice to be the one who says, "I'll work on the 4th of July", but it's understood everyone has to take their turn.
What are you supposed to do if you already HAVE a family?
You deal with it...
This isn't rocket science people. You make a choice then you live with it. Shrug.
This is what YOU people don't get. Your choices belong to you. BAD things that happen in YOUR life belong to you. Your life, your problem. It is not society's responsibility and definitely not mine. You don't have family support? Your husband left you? Such and such thing happened to you? That's truly terrible. I'm so sorry but get your frickin hand OUT of my pocket. I'll help you if I can but don't expect or tell me to help.
Bad things happen to everyone. I have a daughter. What? Do men just end up solo with daughters because GOOD things happen? You adapt and overcome. You deal with it. You lean forward and put your face into the wind. You just DO IT because that's what a parent does.
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I don't work in a hospital any more, so I really don't know if they have a lot of LPNs.
I have never, ever heard of a hospital offering any kind of a Mon-Friday only schedule for floor nursing, except for head nurses. IME, health care is the most inflexible work environment I have ever seen
You are speaking of only hospitals. I am also a nurse by the way...
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Clinics employ Medical Assistants.
Depends on the state and your skills. Medical assistants aren't REQUIRED. The doctor can train a bum if they so choose. And honestly, a monkey can do that job. And the people paying 10 grand for a medical assistant's certificate aren't much smarter than monkeys... ,_ Mean but true...
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CNA being employed by a law firm. Despite what they tell you in nursing school, there aren't many nurses working for nonhealth related corporations, except in employee health and that only for big corps and you usually have to be an RN. Government jobs for CNAs would be in a govt. hospital or nursing home.
Pardon me, at that point I was speaking of nursing in general, not CNA's. There are quite a few nurses in all sorts of positions. You are speaking as if I am a noob nurse. Please let me disabuse you of that notion. But that isn't the point. The point is that there are multiple options for one to take advantage.
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Spoken by someone who knows what she is talking about. Let me give you an example. My daughter is taking classes at the U of CO health science center in public health. There is a nurse in a class she has that goes until 6:50 PM. One day the prof asked if there was anyone who couldn't stay until 7 for something or other. The nurse raised her hand. The prof was incredulous, and said (paraphrasing though this is pretty close to what my daughter told me) "You can stay till 6:50 but you can't stay 10 more minutes?" ". The nurse said, "I have to be at work". Now I can tell you, having bt/dt that she could maybe get permission to show up 10 min. late ONCE, but it would be HUGE to arrange. Just one example.
Once again, I am a nurse as well. I'm no longer a CNA. This is completely your friends fault and problem.
I got my degree as a non-trad. Guess what, all my profs knew my schedule. All my profs knew my issues. If any of the profs that at the beginning were not willing or able to work with me I dropped the class or took another one.
Now, nursing school does tend to be very rigid. I have never had one problem with an employer. Not once. And frankly, as long as it doesn't result in overtime you would be hard pressed to find any medical center that would even care if employees got permission to adjust times amongst themselves.
As someone that has done staffing in the past I can tell you those doing the scheduling really don't care.
And... You don't have to work in a hospital. Get another job if the employer is inflexible.
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Even the places that "self-schedule" have to cover all the shifts. It requires a bit of self-sacrifice to be the one who says, "I'll work on the 4th of July", but it's understood everyone has to take their turn.
Self sacrifice is the key phrase... I'm betting many people at minimum wage have NOT sacrificed much in their lives...
By the way, as soon as someone says but "this happened," or anything of that sort, then they ARE making excuses.
Last edited by AnonymouseX; 03-14-2013 at 12:50 PM..
This isn't rocket science people. You make a choice then you live with it. Shrug.
You are speaking of only hospitals. I am also a nurse by the way...
Depends on the state and your skills. Medical assistants aren't REQUIRED. The doctor can train a bum if they so choose. And honestly, a monkey can do that job. And the people paying 10 grand for a medical assistant's certificate aren't much smarter than monkeys... ,_ Mean but true...
Pardon me, at that point I was speaking of nursing in general, not CNA's.
Once again, I am a nurse as well. I'm no longer a CNA. This is completely your friends fault and problem.
I got my degree as a non-trad. Guess what, all my profs knew my schedule. All my profs knew my issues. If any of the profs that at the beginning were not willing or able to work with me I dropped the class or took another one.
Now, nursing school does tend to be very rigid. I have never had one problem with an employer. Not once. And frankly, as long as it doesn't result in overtime you would be hard pressed to find any medical center that would even care if employees got permission to adjust times amongst themselves.
As someone that has done staffing in the past I can tell you those doing the scheduling really don't care.
And... You don't have to work in a hospital. Get another job if the employer is inflexible.
Self sacrifice is the key phrase... I'm betting many people at minimum wage have NOT sacrificed much in their lives...
There are also part time options for earning an ADN. I looked into those myself and they are meant for people who have families and/or jobs they can't give up while in school. They require year-round study to get it done so it only takes one semester longer to finish than the full time option.
My mom did the LPN to RN bridge program while I was little. She worked third shift and went to school in the daytime. It was probably very tough for her but she did it. She worked clinically for years in a variety of settings but we never had a problem with working something out to accommodate the fact that she had two kids (my dad's schedule was not flexible as he works for the state). Now she works for an insurance company as one of their RNs and is one of the highest paid employees there. My parents are upper middle class now. I found out as an adult that they had to file bankruptcy after their divorces (they met when I was 3) and worked their way back, being very strict with their money, driving crappy cars, renting houses and finally buying when I was 14, when they also started buying cars that required a car payment instead of just cash.
Just saying it can be done if you put your mind to it. And they are liberals.
There are also part time options for earning an ADN. I looked into those myself and they are meant for people who have families and/or jobs they can't give up while in school. They require year-round study to get it done so it only takes one semester longer to finish than the full time option.
My mom did the LPN to RN bridge program while I was little. She worked third shift and went to school in the daytime. It was probably very tough for her but she did it. She worked clinically for years in a variety of settings but we never had a problem with working something out to accommodate the fact that she had two kids (my dad's schedule was not flexible as he works for the state). Now she works for an insurance company as one of their RNs and is one of the highest paid employees there. My parents are upper middle class now. I found out as an adult that they had to file bankruptcy after their divorces (they met when I was 3) and worked their way back, being very strict with their money, driving crappy cars, renting houses and finally buying when I was 14, when they also started buying cars that required a car payment instead of just cash.
Just saying it can be done if you put your mind to it. And they are liberals.
Exactly. If it was easy then it wouldn't be worth it...
This isn't rocket science people. You make a choice then you live with it. Shrug.
This is what YOU people don't get. Your choices belong to you. BAD things that happen in YOUR life belong to you. Your life, your problem. It is not society's responsibility and definitely not mine. You don't have family support? Your husband left you? Such and such thing happened to you? That's truly terrible. I'm so sorry but get your frickin hand OUT of my pocket. I'll help you if I can but don't expect or tell me to help.
Bad things happen to everyone. I have a daughter. What? Do men just end up solo with daughters because GOOD things happen? You adapt and overcome. You deal with it. You lean forward and put your face into the wind. You just DO IT because that's what a parent does.
You are speaking of only hospitals. I am also a nurse by the way...
Depends on the state and your skills. Medical assistants aren't REQUIRED. The doctor can train a bum if they so choose. And honestly, a monkey can do that job. And the people paying 10 grand for a medical assistant's certificate aren't much smarter than monkeys... ,_ Mean but true...
Pardon me, at that point I was speaking of nursing in general, not CNA's. There are quite a few nurses in all sorts of positions. You are speaking as if I am a noob nurse. Please let me disabuse you of that notion. But that isn't the point. The point is that there are multiple options for one to take advantage.
Once again, I am a nurse as well. I'm no longer a CNA. This is completely your friends fault and problem.
I got my degree as a non-trad. Guess what, all my profs knew my schedule. All my profs knew my issues. If any of the profs that at the beginning were not willing or able to work with me I dropped the class or took another one.
Now, nursing school does tend to be very rigid. I have never had one problem with an employer. Not once. And frankly, as long as it doesn't result in overtime you would be hard pressed to find any medical center that would even care if employees got permission to adjust times amongst themselves.
As someone that has done staffing in the past I can tell you those doing the scheduling really don't care.
And... You don't have to work in a hospital. Get another job if the employer is inflexible.
Self sacrifice is the key phrase... I'm betting many people at minimum wage have NOT sacrificed much in their lives...
By the way, as soon as someone says but "this happened," or anything of that sort, then they ARE making excuses.
Kinda funny, first you say "don't have a family", then you say, "deal with it". Just HOW are you supposed to deal with a family? You got some great ideas?
I was answering a post about a CNA furthering her education, not about nursing in general.
"Get another job", blah, blah. Right. There aren't that many jobs for CNAs; there is no particular shortage of nurse jobs right now, either. Easier said than done.
Almost all the nursing jobs I've had were/are very inflexible. The only job that wasn't super inflexible was public health.
Why is everything that doesn't fit into your little box of thought the person's fault?
And DO NOT refer to me as "YOU people". You don't know a thing about me, and you're being very rude.
I told my second boss the hours that I could not work and when I could. I told her this in the interview before I got the job.
If she had not agreed to those hours I would not have taken the position.
Right. And you're so valuable to the company that they let you work whenever you wanted. I'm sure we're talking minimum wage jobs here.
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