[Kabin]

Originally Posted by Nurse-To-Be-Joy

I'm not yet in nursing school (will probably start next fall), so I'm curious about this. Are we gonna be half naked with our lab partners? What for???

Yes, in a nutshell. We have hospital gowns that make the transition quicker and less painful. Since you will take turns with your partner doing health assessments like for the skin, you'll need to remove some clothing. You should be able to keep your under wear on.

[Fun2Care]

Originally Posted by TinaUSQstudent

Just a question, What is a PDA? never heard of one before

A PDA is handheld computer-type thingy.

Other names: Palm Pilot or Pocket PC

Type in PDA on google, and you'll see lots of examples.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

[AussieTina]

Thanks for that, i thought that that was what they were, but from the descriptions given i thought it might of been an american abbreviation for laptop/notebook. I have been concentrating so much on my studies that i think that any word with less than 15 letters confuses me

As for getting undressed in ward prac/lab...we do that here too, they seperate the girls from the boys for it though. Which i found extremely funny, we were only doing chest sounds, could keep bra on, and the boys couldn't be there. I mean they are going to be nurses....You see more on the ads on tv.

Tina

[Fun2Care]

Originally Posted by TinaUSQstudent

Thanks for that, i thought that that was what they were, but from the descriptions given i thought it might of been an american abbreviation for laptop/notebook. I have been concentrating so much on my studies that i think that any word with less than 15 letters confuses me

As for getting undressed in ward prac/lab...we do that here too, they seperate the girls from the boys for it though. Which i found extremely funny, we were only doing chest sounds, could keep bra on, and the boys couldn't be there. I mean they are going to be nurses....You see more on the ads on tv.

Tina

LOL! No doubt!

HEY! I have to say something! This past week, my sister gave me a pen that lights up if you click it twice. It is the NEATEST thing, and it's refillable!!!!!

[Nurse-To-Be-Joy]

I heard that the nursing school I'll be attending uses fancy dummies for those types of things. Wouldn't that be worse than practicing on actual people? Hmmm....

[RNKittyKat]

When I started NS, I used color coded tabs and markers to mark my book as I followed along the lecture with my notebook open to my powerpoints with my PDA open for reference. I needed something with wheels to carry all my gear in. In third semester I got in the habit of bringing my laptop. Now in my final semester, I carry a thin notebook and a pen and that's all folks. Oh yeah, for clinical I carry my loaded PDA.

[nursern20]

Hi. Im a senior RN student. Having had a yr experience already, I'm gonna list the basic vital necessities that all nursing students should buy if the school has not already provided for....

-stethoscope
-watch with a second hand and military time
-pen light, hemostat, scissors, tape
-BP cuff
-drug book
-comfortable shoes for clinical
-uniform/scrubs w/ multiple pockets
-hand sanitizer
-lots of pens and highlighters

there you go Of course there are many other things that you can buy to suit your own needs, but those are the vitals. Have fun!

[clfewtrn]

I recommend that you get the rolling backpack!!! The books I have that are great are Nursing care Plans by Doenges-Moorhouse-Geisser and Portable RN by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and make sure you have plenty of notecards and everything you type have it saved on disks or Cd's because you can always go back to your saved material and just edit and revise instead of retyping. Tape record all lectures. You can listen to them anytime. Driving to school or when ever. I relisten to all the lectures and this way if you miss it in your notes... You'll catch it when you relisten.
Good Luck.

[naenae,S.N.]

I would most definitely get different colored highlighters & sticky notes (little ones) to match the colors-our instructors like to skip around in our books & it gets a little hard keeping the test material srtaight fr. test to test, esp. when the info applies to more than 1 topic!!! Also, besides the Saunders NCLEX, invest in the Medical-Surgical Nursing-Review and Rational book by prentice hall--it lists just about everything in easy to understand terms-it also gives sample questions before the material and after-i'm in my 3rd sem of adn and i wish i had known about this book in the very beginning-things might've clicked a little sooner!!!!!

[HighDefinition]

here are the items I have found most useful in the 2 years of nursing study:
- patience & perseverance (ok, these are not items- important nonetheless!)
- Medical-Surgical text.
- Nursing Care Plan textbook as well
- Nursing Dictionary (alternatively, search cautiously using google or wikipedia)

Those items above obviously are intended for theory; you know.. all that knowledge that hardly gets used when graduating (although, this seems to be changing- which is good)

But in the *real world*, the handover sheet is a VERY good item when undertaking clinical experience! Keep ur eye on the nursing care plan while ur out there as well (yes, the rationales are omitted in these).. and as someone mentiond earlier... Tape & scissors have gotta' be some of the most useful items

Cheers