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3 years and 2 months ago, she graduated high school.

3 years and 2 months later, she is a graduate of the U. of Toledo with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Next up the nclex. Couldn't be prouder. Under 4 years. Her h.s. classmates are starting their Sr. year of college.

Pinning ceremony (that's something I guess nursing students do......signifying graduation?) is Friday. I guess students (ex students) can choose who 'pins' them. She picked her brother, a fellow nurse, and now nurse practitioner, to do it.

Arch and the family will be having a blast on Friday!

Congratulations! You and your Mrs should be proud.

Of her, and we are.

That's fantastic. It's no easy task to finish a 4yr nursing program early. Conrats to her!

Congrats… and good luck to her.

I won’t lie. Nursing is often a grind. It can chew you up and spit you out without remorse.
Her first year will be learning how to be a nurse in the real world. The next couple after that is learning to set boundaries. Both personally for your own peace of mind, but also professionally so you don’t get abused. If you don’t get good at that, well, good luck for the next 30+ years.

I wish her nothing but the best in her career. She’ll touch many lives meaningfully. It’s pretty profound and humbling. She’ll learn many lessons beyond ‘the books’.

Congratulations to her Arch!

Congratulations......

Good for her.....

My wife and stepdaughter are both RN's/nurses.

Nurses are the backbone of the medical society.

I have this odd feeling that, after 3+ years of working as a nurses aid, after 2 years of clinicals, and preceptorships - while still working as a nurses aid..........yeah, I have this feeling she's up to it. Without a doubt. Perhaps UT is different from when you attended? I don't know. You sound pessimistic about my daughter being a nurse, let alone a good nurse.

Congrats Sooga!

I know plenty of friends and member's journeys, and the sacrifices they made to graduate on a normal timetable.

THAT is quite an accomplishment!

Good job Sooga!

Arch, I think you are reading into his comments. I think he is pessimistic about how hard the profession can be. I don’t think he is talking about your daughter specifically.

That could very well be. If so, I apologize to him. I just know ........

Well, it doesn't matter. My daughter has her degree, she HAS worked in hospitals, and she's excited about the next step.





All professions are hard. Not just nursing.

Congrats to her and you all!

What? Not at all.

I was merely stating it’s a wake up call when you’re working under your own licensure. It just is. There’s no amount of training that can prepare you for it.
‘Learning your voice’ as a nurse takes time. It’s a skill you gain as you gain experience.
I’m sure your daughter got great training along the way. I’m sure she will do great.
As Pdawg stated my pessimism was about the career/the way the medical industry treats nurses. Not your daughter’s abilities to do the job.
Sorry you misconstrued my intended message. .

Now that's dedication right there! Plus, I imagine shaving off a year makes things a lot cheaper too. Congrats man, to you and your daughter! That's a huge accomplishment!

Again, my apologies.

Tell your daughter, welcome to the ranks…

…from an old vet.


We need young blood. Young backs.

I wish I could have done more - all I did was sign loans. (well, fafsa, paying for the first year, paying for books.......) SHE deserves the credit. She did the work.

I texted her yesterday about the pinning ceremony. She replied "Dad, I ALREADY told you!" (that's not typical Sooga texting to me) Then I though, stress can change people. Maybe she doesn't know yet about her last exam.

Sure enough, an hour later "I'm done. I officially have completed everything."

Here's the thing about Sooga: She just finished school yesterday. Most kids (I would assume)would take a week or so to just chill. Big accomplishment.

Her? She got a call this afternoon from Toledo Hospital "Are you free? We need you (as a nurse's aid - as she doesn't have her license yet) from 7 p to 3 a?"

She said yeah. Then "Think you could do 7 p to 7 a?" Yeah.

Now, being 'not scheduled', she gets a ......well, huge hourly raise. It's darn good money. It's tough work, doing the things the RN's don't have time to do. But, I mean, the money. Guess how much?

I’d not want to wager a guess about the pay as nurse’s/caregiver wages differ so much from place to place. (I make $10+ more an hour than my nurse siblings in Ohio, as an example.) My hope is it’s enough.

This week my office is short a CNA. I’m giving two showers/baths tomorrow to lend a hand. I’ve done it a few times over the past few months. It’s tough work. CNA’s are the backbone of the healthcare world.
….My backbone isn’t what it use to be. Tomorrow will be tough.

Spill the beans!

My starting wage when I graduated from nursing school in 1985 was 9.90/hr. I'll bet she's making a little more than that. Back then, you were allowed to work as a grad nurse until you took the boards. I started 3 days after graduating and I'm still at the same hospital.

Congrats!

Yeah, I don't know about a "grad. nurse". She's working as a nurses aid. Not even an STNA. Over $16 an hour. For going in 'on call' if you will (she wasn't 'on call', it was a "hey, we need help" kind of thing), a really, really, really good chunk over the $16 +.

Good for her, she can sock away some cash doing that. We call it "crisis pay". At the peak of the COVID situation, we were offering 50.00 an hour on top of regular wages and overtime for the hard to fill shifts.

Well, she's not making $50 an hour tonight. Let's just say ........well, enough per hour that it's well, well worth her time. Put in 12 hours, make ....well, alot? (no wonder health care is so expensive, right?)

I made $13.25 an hour at my first nursing job in 1997. Which was a step up from the $9 I was making as a cook. Let’s just say I’m doing much better than that these days. Though by industry standards I’m underpaid. I’ve been offered as much as $8 more an hour than my current hourly rate. I stay where I am for reasons other than the pay. My benefit package gives me far more paid time off than industry standard. The pay to PTO trade off is worth it for me. There are things more important than money. A quality work life balance is one. Everyone has their own personal threshold.

Nursing is steady work. It’s not recession proof but it’s fairly close. In all the years I’ve been a nurse there’s only been a few times where my peers ‘struggled’ to find work. Ultimately none were out of work long enough to collect unemployment. I’ve been 17 years at the same place.

Congratulations!

There was a period in the mid 80's where nursing jobs were very hard to come by. The school counselors told us it would be very difficult to find a job in our area of the country. This was around the holidays in 1984. By the time we graduated, job offers were pouring in to everybody in our class and I don't think we've had a prolonged period of sluggish hiring of nurses since then. There's a real nurse shortage right now, and new grads have a lot of options open to them. There are some sweet sign on bonuses at some places as well. If I were younger, I'd jump at one of those travelling nurse gigs. You can make six figures and have your housing paid and work in the U.S. Back in my time, the only place to get something similar was if you were willing to go to Saudi Arabia for a year or two.

Congrats to your daughter Arch.

You and she are to be congratulated. Two cents. Once school is over- the real world begins. One example- politics in EVERY profession. Best of luck to her.

What an accomplishment !

Success to Sooga !!

Good time. The ceremony was only about 50-55 minutes long. (happy dad). Then pictures of her, us, etc. Then dinner at Mancy's Bluewater Grille.

Sooga had plans to go out with friends tonight, so we left. Plus, my son drove 2 1/2 hours up for the ceremony, was here for about 6 hours, had to drive back yet tonight as the movers are going to his place at about 8 in the morning. (they bought a new house) So, I made it back in time to go to the h.s. football game.

I share the good, and I share the bad. She waited a bit to take the state test. Sooga was in the 12-14% on the nclex test. That is, the 12-14% that fail it the first time. I was devastated, and can only imagine how she felt.

Many thoughts went through my head, and remained there, daily, for 45 days. That's when you can take it again. In checking things out, people that have to take it a second time only have a passing rate of about 44-46%. Nausea for me. For 45 days.

She took it yesterday. Texted me at 2:17 pm. Said the first half she felt good about, the second half, not so much.

I was under the impression results would be known within a few hours, as the first time, she let us know after about 3 hours. So, yesterday, I'm waiting, and waiting. 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours - no word from her. I went to bed at midnight, again, sick to my stomach for her, and again not being able to imagine what she was going through. I did not text her or call her, feeling like if she wanted to talk, she would've gotten a hold of me or mom.

Woke up this morning, tired from sleeping like crap, finally realized "F. She failed. That's why I feel like I do."

She called at 8:15 this morning. I looked at my phone and knew it was Sooga - cause my phone showed "Sooga" - didn't want to answer it. Just leave a message.

But I did answer it. "Dad, I passed" WHAT? "I passed" Congratulations hon...........why didn't you tell us yesterday? I was a nut case all afternoon and evening. "Uh, cause I just found out this morning."

Awesome. I know some fantastic nurses that failed the NCLEX (one who failed twice and is now a nurse practitioner), and I know some horrible nurses that passed on the first try. There's a lot more to being a good nurse that being a good test taker, and failing on the first try means absolutely nothing. No one will ask, you don't have to report it anywhere and it will have absolutely no effect on anything she tries to pursue in field of nursing. Once you pass, you're a nurse for life if you so choose. A few months from now this will be nothing but a foggy memory as her career develops.

Thanks. She'll be a great nurse. Most people I know say it's a hard test, son included. But when she didn't pass the first time? She was devastated. embarrassed, ashamed. Scared, and worried, also about taking it again. There's not a whole lot a mom and dad can do to help in that situation.

But, she buckled down and did it.

That's simply what's expected when you graduate, right?

Huge relief for her, and me as well. Starts her job in Jan.

That's awesome! Congrats to her!

Life is all about how you respond to your setbacks; she aced that test.

Hear, hear!

The adversity "test" is the greatest we all face, A+ for getting the job done. Anyone can be a good test-taker, not everyone can get up off the mat.

Congrats Sooga!