First appt. at college - in tears!

[Worthy]

Well, I have applied for some night school classes with hopes of applying to the Practical Nursing program next fall.

I am 32 years old, and while my current career (payroll for transportation company) and past career (admin assistant for a record label) do not point to a career in health care, I have really always wanted to do this and now I have decided I have the funds and the time to do it part-time.

I went to a "free, one-on-one career counselling session" at my school tonight with someone from the career centre.

I left in tears.

I have severe apprehensions about my math abilities, as well, my high school was limited (got my diploma, but was heavy on "artsy" subjects like English and drama - a few sciences but no math at a senior level) and I have to upgrade my high school (with a college prep course I am taking this next January). She listened to the whole long story, then blurted out

"Why on EARTH would you want to NOT pursue something you are good at (English, the arts) and pursue something you find really really HARD?!?"

She then spent the next 45 minutes pointing out why I can't do it -

I don't have the prereqs from High School - well hello! That was 15 years ago!

I am very worried about my math skills "and you need to be very quick on your feet with those, you know"

I will be competing with about a million graduating High School students for a place in the program because in Ontario this year Grade 13 is being abolished, so there are double the number of grads from grade 13 and 12.

She ended it by telling me to "find a nurse and ask them about their job" hello, I've been grilling every nurse I've met for years. I read this board. For what it's worth, I watch ER religiously!

Well, geez, why don't I just kill myself. Kidding, but man, my morale has never been lower. I felt like asking for a tuition refund before I even start my one little class next week.

I have been looking forward to this appt. for weeks. I was hoping to get some encouragement. Instead, I got depressed.

[kids]

Don't let her get you down...I got my ADN with a 7th grade education and a GED, sure I had to take more prereqs and work darn hard but I managed to do it while having NO desire to be a Nurse...I went in to it for the money...luckily it turned out I am good at it and found a field I loved.

[ptnurse]

Worthy, when I went back to school to pursue nursing, I was anxious (putting it mildly) and scared. I struggled with controlling my anxiety on a day to day basis. But my husband really helped me. He told me that when school started in the fall semester to just concentrate on getting to Christmas. When the semester ended in Christmas I should give myself the freedom to evaluate the situation and decide if I wanted to try another semester. Breaking things down into 4 month intervals really helped me. You are as smart as anyone else and you have no proof otherwise. Give yourself a break. Just concentrate on the classes you are going to take this term and don't even think about the next year, or the next two years.

[Vsummer1]

IN CALIF WE CAN USE A CALCULATOR! In Arizona we could too. Yep, yep, yep.

You do have to learn the conversions from metric and household measurements and apothecary though. That is just plain memorizing and flash cards can solve that. Plus they have some books on nursing math that make it really easy once you get the hang of it. With a little practice and a calculator, you will do just fine!

The way I look at it, BABY STEPS are better than NO steps at all.

It took me 5 YEARS to get my pre-reqs done part time off and on because I had to start with the very basics. And then when I was beginning my nursing school I ended up moving from AZ to CA. I kept that dream alive though and started a new nursing program here and it will end up taking even LONGER to get my BSN because all that is offered around here is an ADN. JUST DO IT and don't let anyone tell you different.

[maizey]

Worthy, if you want it go for it. Your counselor, advisor, sucks. What a way to help the nursing shortage. Math is important in nursing but as someone else said there are calculators. Also, the new IV pumps that are out these days figure all you calculations for you. All you have to do is put in how many mg, how much solution and what dose the doc ordered and the machine figures it out for you!!!!!! Anyway, if your nursing school is anything like the one I went to you will be good in math by the time you finish. We had nursing math tests every semester. It was just part of the curriculum. Of course that was in the stone age before they had these smart IV pumps and before they allowed calculators. Go for it and don't let anyone tell you that you can't. You are the only one that can decide that. Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

[hapeewendy]

worthy my dear friend and perspective nurse

I dont know who you spoke to but they need a good b*tchslap as far as I'm concerned!

I can relate, up until the very last moment I was enrolled in journalism school and then I just woke up one day and said you know I dont want to do that , maybe I'll try nursing

EVERYONE wrote me off before I started, my own beloved mother confessed to me a couple months ago that eventhough she had the utmost of faith in all my abilities she wondered what I was smoking when I dropped journalism and went into nursing.

allow me to tell you that when something comes into your mind , telling you to pursue something you go right ahead and pursue it!

no matter who says what or what obstacles you face in your path, press forward and just get it done..

that being said I see that you are in toronto

I am in toronto too and although I am a relatively new nurse (graduated in 1999) I will help you in any way whatsoever, if you want to pm me I can give you my email or my phone number and you can always always call me or email or anything , this profession needs you and only you can judge what is right and wrong for you.

Seems these days in this society so many are taking the easy way out and not wanting to struggle and muddle through something that could prove to be most rewarding.

that would have been me had I gone the journalism route, but I didnt and I cannot see me doing anything other than nursing!

people are scared by those of us who are willing to take a chance, to go for something that is believed harder than we can handle, to take the road less travelled and all the other cliches that are applicable here.....

I believe in you so keep believing in yourself

there are always gonna be demands , prerequisites , corequisites , additional courses and the whole nine yards, but you get there, step by step, course by course , experience by experience

I mean really if we all took the easy way out we'd be grown adults in diapers and still crawling around!

go for it !!!!!!!!!!!

and I meant what I said about contacting me for anything, at the very least I could provide some small amount of comic relief , small amount, dont expect much :)

Cheers!

[Mkue]

worthy, i just thought of something.. a nursing advisor once told me that i should become a "teacher".. well she didn't say instead of nurse ... so anyway, i do want to teach someday so she wasn't too off base there.

i admire your persistance, don't give up !!:)

[RNIAM, BSN, RN]

Please don't give up. I was in the same shape as you but worse. . I took upgrade classes and now I have been accepted to one of the better nursing schools in the area.This type of person is the reason I continue on. I will never be told I can't do something. I may not get it right the first,second or third time. I may take forever to learn it; in fact, but I will learn it. Good Luck to you and if you put your mind in the right place you will make it!

[imenid37]

hey best of luck to you. you are the expert on knowing what you want, not her. one of the best nurses i ever worked w/ got her degree at age 42 and had run away to get married at age 14 w/ only a 7 th grade education. she worked on pre-reqs for years, bbut she did it because she really wanted to. you know what's in your heart. go for it!

[pfleige]

take a math class. you will be using the european metric system,

Look it up on altavista.com search engine ( just type what you want to learn and voila) in the internet. armed with a calculator and the internet if you want to learn, no one can stop you. It's no hard at all. Do not listen to the rumors and inuendo. Nursing is not that hard. You will be hearing it all the time but it's not that difficult. There are some nursing jobs that are more difficult than othersyou know your limitations, you can be in the profession without being a mathPRO.

There are plenty of nursing sites with information on math related to nursing particularly some of the nursing students websites ( altavista: nursing students). I have been looking through them and I am pretty sure they have this kind of info some of them. ( check drug calculations)

Good Luck

[Youda]

You say that there are many graduates to seek the same seat in the classes. Maybe the counselor was, in her own mis-guided stupid way, doing some early "weeding out." She might have figured that anyone who went ahead and tried after her discouragement, would make it through. Don't know, but maybe that's why you got that kind of approach.

As for math? Heck! I learned it, too. With considerable effort, I managed to pass tests. Have hardly used it since. Everything we get comes already calculated from the pharmacy, and we use IV pumps that figure drip rates for us. On the rare times I had to figure something for myself, I ALWAYS verified my math with either a pharmacist or another nurse. And that's just good nursing, not stupidity. So, don't let anything stop you from what you want to do. No one!

[RENAISSANCE RN]

Worthy,

All I can say is that the greatest revenge is success!!!. Go out and be successfull.

Terri

[iamme457]

I went to nursing school at 35, had my 3rd child late August before my second year of nursing classes started. I had to take a year off but I did graduate and have been a nurse for 10 years now.

It had been 16 years since high school for me.

When I graduated from high school I went to Farrier school and had my own horseshoeing business.

You can do it, listen to your own desire. You can get tutoring for your math if you find it too overwhelming.

I used a tutor for my first English composition paper and I aced the class, the instructor finally asked me why I was taking the class and didnt just clep test instead LOL. I was a little anxious at first like you, but I started out one class a semester until I got the hang of studying again.

Good Luck

Deanna