An Alternative To Nursing

My dream of becoming a nurse has been put on hold. I spent many semesters waiting to be accepted into an accredited nursing program. Across the country nursing programs are saturated with applications and unfortunately lack instructors to meet the demand.

Most nursing programs place stringent guidelines on the selective process, to some degree we understand. If you are among the lucky applicants accepted, prepare to press the pause button on your family, work, and social life.

There seem to be zero tolerance from the nursing program faculty for students allowing issues-outside their nursing studies-to interfere with their studies. Once you are accepted, your new worry is getting through the 3 to 4 years without any crisis. God forbid you have to request a leave of absence from the program.

I was finally accepted into a nursing program. The clinical rotation was brutal but rewarding. I came very close to finishing but couldn’t afford to continue.

Now I know there are other places to go for financial help, considering my school was unable to contribute. Next time I'll handle the situation differently. Instead of throwing away everything I worked for and pulling my pillow over my head. I will exhaust every resource, including having a yard sell to find money to earn my degree.

I am so fortunate finding an alternative to nursing. Healthcare administration and management is a thriving field. My study program merges healthcare and informatics. I am learning the latest computer software skills. More importantly, I am able to apply nursing concepts and medical diagnoses I’ve learned from past studies.

The health information management studies includes, in-depth learning of ICD-9 and CPT; while integrating legal and ethical issues too. Also there's comprehensive lessons on quality and utilization management. Students are armed and prepared for certifications, including the RHIA certification.

Notably, there are many registered nurses who are studying health information management. Most of the students who introduced themselves are either students who weren’t accepted into a nursing program or nurses facing burn out from nursing jobs.There are a few students who don’t have a healthcare background. They tend to struggle with understanding medical diagnoses and procedures. So having some form of healthcare background is helpful.

Now is the best time to enter the HIM field. President Obama understands the importance of the implementation of ICD-10, which is fast approaching. Not to mention, the requirement to computerized all patient records. He is an advocate for many programs that are HIM focused.

If you find yourself waiting semester after semester to be accepted into a nursing program, perhaps you should consider changing your major from nursing to HIM.

I never thought I could love any career as much as nursing. I was wrong. My HIM studies are exciting; it merges indirect patient care and management.

I firmly believe in God and recognize all of his blessings. Perhaps, nursing isn’t what my spiritual guide has planned for me. Working hard and being a dedicated nursing student prepared me for my new journey in health information management.

If you are interested in learning more go to AHIMA website.

Anna Karryn




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Who Said Ignorance Is Bliss?

The fall semester is quickly approaching. Would you believe I have not submitted my student loan application? I must be the world’s biggest procrastinator, considering I am on campus at least twice a week.

Why didn’t I submit my financial aid documents sooner?

I am in a pickle. Anytime soon my credits are going to exceed the number allowed to qualify for financial aid. I can’t imagine the nightmare of not being able to pay for school, once again.

Recently I posted about being ONE credit shy of earning my nursing degree (4 measly credits) and I ran out of financial aid. I can’t imagine having to switch schools again and starting over.

Am I simply a career student?

You may be asking, why didn’t she qualify for financial aid? The following are examples of how I unintentionally set myself up for failure.

1.) I was required to take numerous college preparatory classes. These classes awarded partial credit and factored into my total credit hours.

2.) I finished all my nursing program prerequisite BUT had to wait 2 semesters before I was accepted. I didn't want to stop taking courses while waiting. So I completed a few psychology courses, which weren’t recognized towards my nursing degree.

Having said all that, I transferred my credits to a different school and learned my nursing credits weren’t transferable. Which meant I had to start over and compete for acceptance. I chose a new program of study, from nursing to healthcare administration.

Across the country there’s a nursing shortage that stems from a critical shortage of nursing teachers. Unfortunately, many qualified students are denied entry into nursing programs.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course now I wish I hadn’t taken so many unnecessary courses. However, these courses were instrumental in helping me become a better student, person, and mother. My child psychology classes was beneficial in understanding my children physical and cognitive development.

I recommend college bound students, make short and long term goals. Create a backup plan and prepare for external locus of control. Situations happen that all we can do is fall to our knees and pray for spiritual support.

Make certain to take advantage of all the support available, befriend your advisors and instructors. No man or woman can do this alone. Trust me, I tried doing all by myself and asked for help too late.

You want to complete your degree without deviating from the program outline, unless you absolutely need to take different courses.

The last bit of advice I want to share is making sure to ask your financial aid advisor many questions. It is a good idea when you are half way through your studies to review your financial aid status, or anytime you need clarification. I wish I had thought to do that 8 years ago. My ignorance is now costing me a fortune and still no degree, YET!

Good Luck!
Anna Karryn




Who am I?...And why am I blogging? by http://mama-goes-back2school.blogspot.com/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
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Anna Karryn

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Intimidated By Teachers...I Know That Sounds Crazy

I absolutely hate visiting my children’s school. The phone calls and voice messages from their teacher makes my heart race, causing me to have a panic attack.

Understandably, I am my child’s advocate and of course, I should be an active participant in their educational development. But the truth of the matter is I don’t know how to interact with their teachers or even my instructors.

I spend days obsessing and panicking every time I have to attend a Parent Teacher Conference. What questions should I ask? How do I come across as intelligent? Will they think I am a bad mom?

I guess the problem stems from me dropping out of high school and never feeling comfortable in the public school environment. I was always the ugly fat girl who never had friends. The girl whose 5th grade teacher announced to the class that she would buy me a pair of eyeglasses because my parents couldn’t or wouldn’t buy them. I remember feeling so humiliated.

Not to mention, I was the girl who told her 1st grade teacher that my mother was dead and my father was a doctor, firefighter, and policeman. When in fact my alcoholic mother was living and beating the crap out me every day and my dad was a janitor.

While my 1st grade teacher might NOT believed the resume I made up about my dad, she seem to believed my mom was dead. I recall her being nicer to me after I told her that my mom had died. In fact, this was the first time I can recall someone being nice to me and making me feel special. Te special feeling only lasted briefly because my teacher called my house to speak to my father and my drunk mother answered the phone.

Thank God the teacher didn’t tell her what I said. However, when I went back to school my teacher was noticeably disappointed that I had lied to her. How could my 6 year old vocabulary level explain to her that my mother was an abusive drunk. I couldn’t find the right words to convey that message so the remaining school year was spent with the teacher avoiding me.

Yes, I have deep issues about school. However, I am now an adult with over 100 college credits. Yet I still have anxiety attacks when I have to talk to kids teachers and my college instructors. I can never find the right words or questions. Which is the main reason I prefer online classes.

So for any educators who may stumble upon this post, please refrain from thinking that parents who don't attend meetings on a regular basis, don't care about their child’s progress. Not true.

You simply may be working with a parent- like me, who is totally intimidated by you.

Anna Karryn




Who am I?...And why am I blogging? by http://mama-goes-back2school.blogspot.com/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://try2think.wordpress.com/.

Anna Karryn

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Am I Smart Enough?

(The Following is a copy of a blog from my WordPress site trying2think.wordpress.com)

Okay, I am sure you are asking why did she name her blog site “trying2think. Right now I am in a place were time is passing me by and I just want to catching a break. What I mean by catch a break is, I don't want to about the small stuff anymore. I want to start enjoying my life minus the major stressors.

Oftentimes I have so many thoughts running through my head. I want to achieve so much but feel limited by my age. I definitely don't want to repeat past mistakes.

I am a 36 year old single mom who has returned to school –thanks to federal grants and student loans. Now my problem is the money, I am scared that I won’t earn a degree due to the many obstacles that seems to plague me. I know that some folks I associate with-friends and family are waiting for me to fail. And I’ll be devastated if I fail-once again.

So let me explain a little about my educational background. I dropped out of school in the 9^th grade after learning that I was pregnant. Honestly, I am so embarrassed to admit it even here on this anonymous blog. Anyway, so in 2001 I gave birth to my fifth child. I gave my second born up for adoption (another tramatic event in my life to blog about if I get the courage).

While in the hospital, my nurse explained how financially easy it was for her to go to school and become an RN. She took the time to explain about educational grants. I didn’t dare tell her that I was a high school dropout. NO way!!!

As I held my baby in that hospital bed I started to think really hard. I didn’t know how I was going to earn my GED in order to go to college being a single mother with 4 kids, including a newborn. I knew I had to at least take the first step.

Shortly after leaving the hospital, I began to research where I could get free GED tutoring. This is 2001 guys so pre-internet resources-at least for me. Most of the high schools in my area only taught GED classes in the evening. Guess what??? I didn’t have a baby sitter or transportation. Always some kind of hurdle…..sigh. After a month of bad luck and no tangible options, I laid in bed one morning with my baby who looked to me for all his needs and I cried so hard.

Why me??? Why not me??? If only my mom weren’t an abusive drunk??? If only someone loved me enough to guide me the right way? I had to get control over my anger and take charge of my future, no more babies.

Sorry I am having emotional moment. I’ll do my best to keep the emotions suppressed as I continue my story.

So I was thinking and crying. Then I had an epiphany, I thought that perhaps I could get a GED study guide and teach myself. But where could I find one at no charge. So once again, I am thinking and thinking and hmmmm….maybe the public library???

Would you believe I was too embarrassed to ask the librarian for help. I spent over an hour searching almost every aisle. Eventually I bit the bullet and asked for help, only to learn that the GED study guides was reference material and I wasn’t able to take them home. I didn’t care because I was so happy to finally find something related to the GED test preparation.

Well, after dropping my kids off to school, me and my baby went to the library everyday it was opened and I studied and I prayed the baby didn’t become fussy.

I began my GED self-test prep in April of 2001 and a few months later I found myself taking my GED test. I was scared too death and worried I would fail.

I still can’t believe I passed the exam in July-the first time I took it. After earning my GED I completed the FAFSA form and was so surprised that the grant would pay for my tuition at a local community college. I was also able to get childcare voucher to pay for daycare expenses.

I have never been on public assistance. Society assumes a black single mom with a lot of kids must be on welfare. Well I wasn't, although the assistance would have helped, my pride was too great to pay for my groceries with food stamps. Thank goodness, my pride allowed me to accept the financial aid and childcare vouchers.

The first time I walk across the Prince Georges Community college campus I fought back tears. I have a hard time explaining how empowered I felt and how my life had truly just began.

Once again that was in 2001 and I am still struggling to earn my degree. I am not going to make excuses, because I love school. I’ve been to 3 different community colleges and have over 100 credits but still don’t have a degree.

A few years ago, I was enrolled in Montgomery College's nursing program . I came so close to finishing with one class (4 CREDITS!!) away from my degree. Would you believe I ran out of financial aid. I had too many credits. Credits that I accumulated while waiting to be accepted in their competitive nursing program. I did all my required clinicals with the exception of that incomplete class.

The reality is, I took so many classes while waiting to be “excepted into the highly competitive nursing program” that when I came close to finishing, I couldn’t afford it. I know you’re asking why didn’t you go to financial aid and ask for an exception?? Well, I did but apparently I asked the wrong financial aid advisor on the wrong campus.

Initially, I went to the Takoma Park campus and tearfully explained my situation. I was on the Dean’s list and one class shy of my associate degree in nursing. Only to be told, there was nothing he could do. I left that office feeling like a failure because I had no other financial resources. I had literally threw in the towel.

I felt defeated, I regrouped and change my mindset. I was no longer going to became a RN. I couldn't believe it. What would my children think of me? Would friends and family laugh behind my back?? I can’t tell them. So I simply moved to another county in Maryland and alienated myself from everyone.

I lost my reserved space in the class due to failure to pay my tuition and was ultimately dropped from the program. I couldn’t believe all my hard work was in vain. All the late night studying for the NCLEX. I had nothing to fall back on. Everything I did was related to preparing for my nursing career.

A week before my last class was to start Fall 2006 and after being dropped from the nursing program I accepted a full time job at Lowes Home Improvement as a sales associate which paid about $12 an hour. The most I’ve made from a retailer so I guess my new education came in handy after all because it improved my communication skills.

Would you believe during the new job orientation week, I was informed by Montgomery College Rockville Campus financial aid representative that they had found money for me to complete my last class. I was so excited but it was too late. My space was given to another nursing student.

I took 2 years off from school thinking I could never afford to go back and by accident learned I qualified for financial aid at another school here in Baltimore-no matter how many credits were on my transcript.

Yay!!!! My faith was restored and I am now back in school. Thank God!!!

This particular blog is more than I planned to express. I hope it can somehow serve to inspire a single mother or anyone who may be thinking of earning their GED or going to college. It is definitely doable. Just make certain you don’t let your pride get in the way-which is what I did in the beginning of my initial studies. I didn't ask the right questions.

There’s no such thing as dumb questions, just dumb pride.

Love,

Anna Karryn

Who am I?...And why am I blogging? by http://mama-goes-back2school.blogspot.com/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://try2think.wordpress.com/.

Who am I?...And why am I blogging?

Where do I start??

My name is Anna and this is my first time making my thoughts public by blogging. First let me confess by saying I've never done any professional writing so please forgive any grammatical or syntax errors.

I am a stay at home mom and studying healthcare full time. My journey towards earning a degree has been bewildering as I am a first generation college student who earned my GED in my late 20's.

Needless to say, during the beginning of my college journey I lacked all the key information on how to pay for school.

Early in life, my parents perception of going to college was that only families who are financially well off can afford it. And unfortunately my folks didn't know about finacial aid programs available. Thus planting the wrong message in my brain. I thought I would never be able to afford college so I took high school academics for granted.

So I hope that this blog serves to help people with limited resources, who have dropped out of school and want to earn a college degree understand all isn't lost and financial aid is available.

Anna Karryn

Who am I?...And why am I blogging? by http://mama-goes-back2school.blogspot.com/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://try2think.wordpress.com/.