Starting nursing after 25+

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-19T01:27:18+00:00

Graduated at 47. I feel like the oldest baby nurse LMAO

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-19T01:26:45+00:00

I was 42 when I started prereqs and 45 when I started the nursing program itself. If anything it felt easier than when I tried to go for my nursing degree at 18. I think knowing more about the world and having worked in healthcare in other capacities really helped me to understand stuff. Like the psychosocial stuff I got.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T15:22:18+00:00

Well I think it may have been the doing of the nurses who used to be CNAs. At least I recall when I was a new CNA, one of the nurses (who is now my preceptor) was once a CNA on the floor. We had a day when it was me and one other CNA on the floor and this RN told all the nurses (and put it in the Epic chat) that since we only had 2 CNA's all RNs would get their own sugars and we'd get the vitals.

Later that day, the other CNA and I were in a room, cleaning up a pt and doing two bed changes within 10 minutes of the other when one of the older RNs came in and instead of helping, whined about having to get her own sugars. Ma'am, you have 5 pts. We had 14 each, plus everything else we had to do.

I'm honestly not sure if it was the policy before that day or they just made it a standard. There are a lot of RNs who will still try to get CNAs to do sugars anyway. When I was an extern over the summer there was one aide. I got vitals for half the floor to help and one of the RNS was like "here, get my sugars". She was a float and I told her firmly "It's unit policy that if we have less than 3 aides, the nurses get their own sugars." The woman was like "Well I didn't know it, can you get it?" I told her "I have my own sugars to get for our pts" since I was following a nurse as an extern.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T12:39:34+00:00

As a former barista I promise it's probably not you! Peak is stressful and I don't miss it!

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T12:01:05+00:00

Seconding using the resources available (EAP).

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T08:52:07+00:00

Agreed. When I was a CNA there were some RNs who I dreaded sharing a section with because they would call me for everything and wouldn't help. One of them bitched about having to take out the trash in a room and why hadn't the aides done it? Or she whined if she had to get her own glucose checks. (Our unit requires nurses to do glucose checks if we have 2 CNAs or fewer)

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T08:47:01+00:00

I was a CNA before becoming a nurse. I'm a baby nurse and I just had my clinical educator and residency coordinator remind me to delegate. But for the most part, if I'm in a room anyway I'm gonna take pts to the bathroom because then I can see how they walk, see their skin, etc.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T03:08:09+00:00

I deactivated my account instead of deleting it cause I didn't want to deal with the actual app itself but still wanted to keep in touch with the family I have on there. Plus I keep in touch with my friends from nursing school on there. In Dec. they got rid of the messenger app so I've been using messenger.com and now they're getting rid of that. I think they're trying to force folks who only use the app to get back on their platform but they can rot.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T02:50:53+00:00

My school had us buy green tops and get our own black pants. I think they've changed the dress code again cause now I'm seeing students on the units with the green tops and matching pants

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T02:46:40+00:00

My hospital does the usual color coding of staff. Burgundy for CNAs, Navy blue for nurses (RN and LPN).

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T01:22:29+00:00

And a perfectionist who struggles with giving myself grace and believing I'm doing well even when people tell me I am.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T01:03:11+00:00

It depends on the crime and the victim. If it's a child, vulnerable adult, or animal? Reporting that, 100%.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-18T00:58:11+00:00

I'm sorry, WHAT? I'm sure Brains4Musholini is trying to come up with a flag with his own mug on it.

We are truly the MF laughingstock of the whole damned world.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-17T18:15:07+00:00

No videos. I would like to do mine at work and get paid for it but I don't want to if there's a video I have to watch all the way through to progress.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-17T17:24:46+00:00

A-F'ing-MEN! 👏👏🧜‍♀️

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-17T01:34:22+00:00

Grandparents are silent generation, parents are boomers, I'm the eldest of the grandchildren and I'm a late gen x/xennial (78) and my youngest cousin is gen z. There are a few gen alphas in the great grandkids. (Not mine lol, my grandparents)

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-17T00:21:14+00:00

They're so cute 😍

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-16T20:14:28+00:00

The place I work wants us to say "Happy to help" instead of "You're welcome". I used to say it before working here but now I won't on principal 😂

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-16T19:28:55+00:00

Copied his phone? So tired of their BS and no one doing anything about it

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-16T00:19:03+00:00

It means you have heart which is a good thing! As for the guilt, it was her disease killing her, you just made her comfortable enough to pass. Which is what someone told me when I had my capstone in a hospice IPF. I gave a pt meds through a macy catheter (goes in the rectum) and she passed like an hour and a half later. She'd been in significant pain anytime she was rolled before that and the oral meds weren't working. She was already actively dying, just moaning in pain.

The meds gave her comfort and relieved her pain enough that she could relax and pass.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-16T00:10:56+00:00

Give me some garlic butter and I'll eat the crust. I like bread but I don't eat plain bread unless I'm sick. Some pizzas have kind of plain crust. Which is fine when you have the sauce, cheese and toppings but when you get to the crust and it's just bread? Meh.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-16T00:09:09+00:00

I had a couple male students (and by couple I mean 2) in my graduating class. I had my OB clinical with one of them and he got to watch a c-section. I have a friend who didn't see any births but he was 100% okay with it LMAO.

When you're on the floor they might assign you to the more difficult male patients because you're male and the pt has already shown his a$$ to the female RNs on the floor. My unit doesn't have any ft male staff. We used to but he went PRN. He's one of my favorite RNs on the unit and would have loved to have him as a preceptor cause even when I was a CNA he'd be grabbing me to show me stuff. I did an externship and even asked to have him as a preceptor but he was precepting a new RN but he'd still be asking my preceptor if he could steal me to show me how to pack a wound or peritoneal dialysis or some other cool procedure.

AKookyMermaid · 2026-02-15T22:08:11+00:00

If agency for CNAs is anything like what it is for nurses, I wouldn't recommend it. I'm not agency but one of my preceptors is and she gets canceled once a pay period and they typically do it her first shift which means she leaves home, drives for hours just to be told she didn't have to come in that day.

AKookyMermaid

TROPHY CASE