NURSING GROWS AS A SECOND CAREER CHOICE
By: Gale Windsor Cortelyou
Business LI

For someone seeking a second career in life - either a completely different job or one to supplement income during the childrearing years - nursing is probably one of the most rewarding choices. It's a field that offers opportunity, flexibility and a sense of satisfaction from doing a job that helps others.

Nursing also offers a myriad of options with respect to location, hours and the type of work that needs to be done. Nurses work not only in hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices, but also in schools, businesses, private homes, and other settings. Since Healthcare is an around-the-clock service, jobs are available on a permanent, temporary, full-time, or part-time basis. With additional training, nurses can also specialize in anesthesiology or as nurse practitioners.

Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), are required to pass a training course and national licensing exam, in order to provide non-skilled support for Registered Nurses (RNs), who must have a four-year degree and pass a national licensing test.

"Nursing is a garden of opportunity," said Nancy Giordano, Ed.D., RN, WNP and director of nurse education and recruitment for Lloyd Healthcare Staffing. "More and more people are leaving other careers and becoming registered nurses, because they know the minute they complete the program and pass the licensing board test they will have a job with a starting salary of $55,000 on Long Island or $60,000 in New York City, and more if they work the night shift. If they are working for a hospital, their employer will pay for them to earn a master's degree, which means a higher salary."

Kay Lachmann, CTS and Senior Vice President of staffing at Lloyd Healthcare, said, "Nurses are in a position of being able to choose where, when and how much they want to work, depending on their schedules and requirements. Lloyd offers medical personnel for permanent placements, per diem assignments, local contracts and travel contracts." The company is also under contract to provide medical staffing for the North Shore/Long Island Jewish Hospital network.

Thomas Toomey, of Rockville, recently retired from the Fire Department of New York at age 46, after 20 years on the job, including duty during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center last year. During this time, he also received his master's degree as a nurse practitioner from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.

"I decided a while back that I wanted to go into nursing after I was done with the fire department," Toomey said. "I knew a couple of guys from the Fire Department who went into nursing, and knew some female nurses, too. It's a good job; the hallmark of nursing is the personal care it provides to people, not just a cold, clinical diagnosis and treatment routine. . And, I'm still young enough to build a solid career in the field."

In 1993, while working as a New York City firefighter and taking care of his wife and three children, Toomey enrolled in the nursing program, timing his graduation to coincide with his retirement from the fire department.

Toomey is currently looking for the right job for his training, and has Lloyd Healthcare helping with the search. "I'm leaving my options open at this point, but maybe I'd like to work in a clinic. I want to work full-time for now to become better at my craft. Maybe in 10 years I'll make a reassessment about whether I want to continue working full-time or switch to something else."

Getting into the nursing field requires the proper education and credentials. For Toomey it meant starting with basic college courses before focusing on his specialty, but for others, who already have some college education, the procedure may not take as long or require as much schooling.

After completion of the required schooling, nurses must pass the licensing test given by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing through each state. The standardized electronic exams for registered nurses and practical nurses, called NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN, are given regularly by each state's board of nursing.

Adelphi University, in Garden City, is among several schools on Long Island offering training for RNs.

Marilyn Klainberg, Associate Dean of Adelphi's undergraduate School of Nursing, said, "We're seeing a great many people who were in a totally different career come here to become RNs with a baccalaureate degree. We're also seeing RNs without their four-year degree coming to earn it so they can make a higher salary."

According to Klainberg, Adelphi offers a Step Ahead program, which enables students to transfer credits from other schools, in other subjects, and apply them toward a nursing degree. Step Ahead offers all required courses on the same day, either at Garden City or at Adelphi's satellite campus in the Hauppauge Industrial Park. This scheduling makes it easier for students to hold down a full-time job while working toward their nursing degrees. Klainberg said that students could also sit for the practical nurse exam after completing three clinical courses, which allows them to work in a Healthcare setting as they pursue the four-year RN degree.

"All students need is to take the nursing courses - which take two full years and a summer, if science courses are complete - and maintain at least a 2.8 grade point average," Klainberg said. "If they need to take some science, then it will take a little longer to finish, but we've seen a tremendous increase in enrollment in the nursing program. The word is out that nursing is the place to be. I think the events of 9/11 may have played a part; people want to do something with their lives that is more significant and worthwhile. And we're also seeing more male nurses than ever before.

"Nursing is a wonderful profession," she said. "I am an RN and I was able to raise my children and work at the same time. It's a flexible job and with part-time hours I worked around their schedules; I was always there for them. You'd be surprised at how many people in nursing are also raising children. The flexibility of nursing shifts allows them to do that."