Buying a Job?
Forgive me as I rant, but I've been thinking. I have wanted to get a flight job for as long as I have been a nurse. Realistically, I know that you must have a certain number of years experience in (ideally) several fields of nursing (in my case, ER and ICU). Above and beyond that should be icing on the cake. Well, its not. To even get an interview these days you have to have an alphabet soup behind your name. The job implies that you need your RN but does not specify more than that.
I have spent time trying to gather the additional "letters" to follow my name and this is what I've found. It is expensive as SHIT! I am currently waiting to take my CEN exam (CEN= Certified Emergency Nurse) a cake cert for anyone who has Level 1 ER experience as I do. The downfall? These fucking three letters cost $316.00! This is for a cert that lasts 4 years. Next I need to take CCRN (Critical Care RN) and you guessed it... another $300.00 for that test. So you figure, those 2 certs, PALS (pedes advanced life support) PALS instructor (most flight programs want that), ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and ACLS instructor, NRP (neonatal resuscitation program.... saving newborns and preemies) and god help if I choose to take paramedic or CCEMTP (critical care emergency medical transport) which costs $1,300 and is usually held in Baltimore.
What upsets me is that if I want a flight job, it appears that I am going to have to "buy" one. In order to be competitive you have to have these certifications and, obviously, they don't come cheap. I just found that concept very disheartening. So as if I didn't work all the time already.... looks like I'm going to need more overtime!
I have spent time trying to gather the additional "letters" to follow my name and this is what I've found. It is expensive as SHIT! I am currently waiting to take my CEN exam (CEN= Certified Emergency Nurse) a cake cert for anyone who has Level 1 ER experience as I do. The downfall? These fucking three letters cost $316.00! This is for a cert that lasts 4 years. Next I need to take CCRN (Critical Care RN) and you guessed it... another $300.00 for that test. So you figure, those 2 certs, PALS (pedes advanced life support) PALS instructor (most flight programs want that), ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and ACLS instructor, NRP (neonatal resuscitation program.... saving newborns and preemies) and god help if I choose to take paramedic or CCEMTP (critical care emergency medical transport) which costs $1,300 and is usually held in Baltimore.
What upsets me is that if I want a flight job, it appears that I am going to have to "buy" one. In order to be competitive you have to have these certifications and, obviously, they don't come cheap. I just found that concept very disheartening. So as if I didn't work all the time already.... looks like I'm going to need more overtime!
posted by jeepgirl at 05:32
1 Comments:
I totally understand where you're coming from. Here in Japan you need certification to do everything (for me it was license to teach children )and they cost a ton of money. I used to think the jerks were out to milk me for all they could. Now I wonder if they were checking to see just how serious I was about doing the work.
Either way, once you get the job all the bulldinky you had to go through will be worth it.
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