Just wanted to know if any mothers are experiencing if they should go back to school for Nursing? I am not sure if I want to go for LPN or RN? I know that eventually I am going to be a RN but I am not sure on how to go buy doing it faster with a bridge program from LPN to RN or straight to RN school? I have to work and go to school at the same time and can't afford to work part time right now. Any advice out there on what should I do?

At some stage or another most of us have relied on the contribution of a registered nurse to provide the support and knowledge we need to help get our health back on track. The nursing profession constitutes the largest segment of the healthcare system today and very few professions offer the chance to create as much an impact as nursing. In spite of this, the United States is on the verge of a critical nursing shortage. Nurse to patient ratios are being compromised, patient care is in jeopardy and the overall quality of care our nurses can provide is retreating. While shortages can often be overcome in hospitals with an immediate need, there is a steady decline in the availability of nurses as they digress into different occupations or don’t even consider nursing as a viable career option. It is important that steps be taken in the immediate future to address the underlying causes of the worsening nurse shortage and help promote nursing as a rewarding career choice. According to a report conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration, 30 states are currently suffering due to a lack of nurses being able to fill positions. Ninety percent of long term care facilities do not have sufficient staffing to provide even the most basic care and home health agencies are being forced to refuse new admissions. This outlook does not look promising for the state of healthcare in the United States. Currently there are 126,000 unfilled nursing positions across the country, a number that is expected to reach 1.1 million by 2012. More new nursing jobs are expected to be created for registered nurses than for any other occupation, so the time is right to help make a difference and pursue a rewarding career in nursing. http://www.accessnurses.com/nursingshortage/

Nurse: Nursing makes up the largest portion of the medical workforce, at over 15%, with over 2.5 million nurses nationwide working in healthcare. Registered nursing is projected to grow by 25% for the ten year period ending in 2016. There are so many different types of nurses, and so many different places that nurses can work, making it a very hot medical job. There are nursing jobs for high school graduates, college graduates, and those with advanced degrees, each offering varying levels of responsibility and compensation. Physician: Despite experiencing a bit of a financial squeeze caused by managed care and insurance companies, doctors still continue to have the highest earning potential by far over all other health care professionals. In some areas, doctors have to work harder and see more patients to earn the highest pay, but they still are able to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Surgeons and specialists earn the most money, sometimes well over half a million dollars. The number of physicians is projected to grow by 17% by the year 2016, according to the BLS. Allied Health - Medical Technicians, Technologists and Assistants: Many allied health careers are well-paid, and in high demand. Therefore, if you have an associate’s degree, or a four-year college degree, you can choose from a wide variety of nearly 100 allied health careers. Medical Assistants are projected to see a whopping 36.1% growth by the year 2016, according to the BLS. This extremly high growth, plus the flexibility and versatility of the medical assistant role makes it a great option for many. Additionally, medical assisting requires minimal educational prerequisites, making it a top allied profession. Medical Office Administrative and Support Jobs: As a whole, medical support roles and administrative roles make up a whopping 18% of all jobs in the healthcare industry, which is why these jobs are amongst the top medical jobs. Also, most of these jobs require little to no college coursework which is a big perk. Therefore, they don’t pay as high, but they are in great demand and many jobs continue to be available.Medical transcriptionists are not the fastest growing of all the support roles, yet they are slated to experience a 10.5% growth, which is still very strong. Due to the great flexibility of medical transcription jobs, the work-from-home capabilities, and the relatively short training requirements, medical transcription is a hot administrative role Home Health and Hospice Care: Home health, including in-home hospice care and home health aides for the elderly and disabled, are set to experience a whopping 50+% growth! According to the BLS, this is the single most rapidly growing segment of the healthcare industry, earning Home Health a spot amongst the top medical jobs. http://healthcareers.about.com/od/whychoosehealthcare/p/TopMedicalJobs.htm

By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D.Published: May 8, 2009“Doctoring,” a senior physician once declared during afternoon rounds, “brings out the mother in all of us.”http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/doctoring-and-mothering http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/doctoring-and-mothering Share your thoughts on this column at the Well blog.http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/doctoring-and-mothering Relatedhttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/columns/doctor_and_patient/index.html http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/hepatitis-c/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier , contracted from a blood transfusion over a decade earlier.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/health/08chen.html?em

PHOENIX (AP) - Police say the 4-year-old daughter of boxer Mike Tyson has died a day after her neck accidentally was caught in a treadmill cord while she was playing at home. Phoenix police spokesman Andy Hill said Exodus Tyson was pronounced dead in a hospital just before noon on Tuesday. Police have said an investigation showed it was a "tragic accident." "There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Exodus," the Tyson family said in a statement. "We ask you now to please respect our need at this very difficult time for privacy to grieve and try to help each other heal." Police say the girl was playing on the treadmill on Monday when her head apparently slipped inside a cord hanging under the console. Exodus' 7-year-old brother found her and alerted his mother. "Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console — it's kind of a loop," police Sgt. Andy Hill said. "Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose, and she was obviously unable to get herself off of it." Former heavyweight champion Tyson was in Las Vegas at the time of the accident and flew to Phoenix on Monday. Responding officers and firefighters performed CPR on Exodus as they rushed her to a nearby hospital. Tyson spokeswoman Cynthia Schwartz said the family had not arranged a funeral yet.

Hello Ladies

My friend sent this to me last night. It seems that they have just added nurses to the list of the loan forgiveness program. This is such a great incentive for those returning to school. http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/index.jsp

Is Motherhood Keeping Good Scientists Down? How To Fix Research's "Mommy Gap"Newsweekby Jeneen InterlandiSince Lawrence Summers’s ill-considered remarks at a 2005 economics conference (he blamed the lack of tenured female scientists on their biologically inferior intelligence and aptitude; he was president of Harvard University at the time) there has been a  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558615873?tag=apture-20   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300510845?tag=apture-20  of  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472116037?tag=apture-20 , reports and panel discussions chronicling the woes of women who wear lab coats.Last week,  the http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/11/women_and_sciences.html , reports that family obligations (read: child rearing) are still pushing young female researchers out of science. The findings build on a http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11741&page=1  from earlier this year that also dissected the biases against women in science, but concluded that much progress was being made.  Taken together, the two studies suggest that the stumbling block for women researchers is not being a woman, but being a mother. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/11/19/is-motherhood-keeping-good-scientists-down-how-to-fix-research-s-mommy-gap.aspx