BUY A DEGREE

Well Guys,

It looks like I'm going to go ahead and press on and restart school. As some of you know I'm changing directions-from my clinical (RN) to Management. It looks like the ceiling is much higher for me in that area-esp at my Urgent Scare (Upscale Doc in the box). Actually that is grossly understating our facility. Our Commercials- "Whatever Urgent Means to You!"----unfortunately-they were very very successful!!!

We have an entire block, an upstairs with an entire array of Doctors office's as well as Specialists who rotate thorough. Mammography (i lurk there a lot), Full lab, X-ray, CT (Cat Scan-duh), MRI- in the building-it used to be Mobile, Cardiac Rehab and Physical Therapy. We still have the Mobile Pet Scanner that comes once or twice a week) I guess it's so we can scan other Pets as opposed to just the Cat scan???

It is only 5 years old and I have been there 4 years. We have 4 other CMC's- they are called Community Medical Centers and are spread our from our Central County Hospital. We have won best Midlands Hospital 8 years in a row and this is against our Level 1 Trauma center- 7 miles away- our state of the Heart- he he ) Cardiac Center, Providence Hospital as well as Baptist Hospital in middle of downtown Columbia!

We broke a new record the other day and saw 164 patients in a 14 hour shift, and are on track to see- 4,000 patients in this 29 day month! We average easily 38,000 plus a year and are really in the category of small ER's rather than Urgent Care. Even though that's where our Press-Gainey scores come from. That is a group that measures how you do vs. all other "similar" facilities Nationwide and why they want me to try and get our scores up in a couple of troublesome areas!

We all want to "Press- Mr. Gainey" over our heads and throw him/her in the most foul whatever you can think of. It has turned Medicine from Medicine into a "customer is always right recovery/service industry." I'm old school- Open up and say ahhhhh....take this and if no better....-----NOT ; "give me a Sprite and two blankets and put the TV on Judge Judy before you leave--oh and 3 school notes for last week"....but I digress, since these are the lovely people I care sooooo deeply about and will be taking care of during the treatment process---uh.....-in the waiting room. I do honestly believe we can and should help families that truly need our services during this time. It's scary, and they are often in pain, away from home, exhausted etc.

We are open from 8am to 10 pm. We have two "zones" of 6-7 beds each and a pelvic room. As well as one Central trauma room. We also have a third zone that we are opening from 5-9 Pm's as a fast track to handle the daily patient overflow and back-up. (6-7 rooms)

I think I will have a great shot at Clinical or Client Services Liaison as it's called in helping with the numbers increase as well as developing programs and helping staff the volunteers needed with our growing pains. It is an entirely different pay grade with a much higher ceiling!

So- back to school- I think Univ. of Phoenix has name recognition and I'll make sure that credits transfer to Univ. of South Carolina since I want my Masters later to teach. I have no choice but to take online courses since I must work full time- and that was a problem with the Clinical schedule for RN. I have 29 years experience in Field/Clinical- and really could care less if I ever saw another set of vocal cords during intubation or started another IV, gave another Injection etc.

Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt, married one and I'll still be able to be pulled to do clinical in my new position as well as being able to talk to the patients in a more knowledgeable way than most client service personnel since they typically have NO clinical background- only administrative.

Any thoughts from experience anyone as far as on-line degrees? Basically it's still the good old boy system here in SC. Not what, but Who you know. And I have an excellent rep and great evaluations in my current position- so it looks like I'm kinda in "the loop" so to speak. I have paid my dues in the community and feel good about taking the position and where I am in our organization. But I would still like to know if anyone has any suggestions or "just watch out for's, or be careful of's" in the distant learning process of On-line schooldom!

Thanks,

John