A few questions, easy ones! :)

semperfi8688 · Apr 5, 2007

Ya ready? :welcome: :idea: Basic Human Needs, Health Mangement, Immobility, Self-Care Facilitation, Safety/Health Risk, Phys.Assement, Drug Dosage, Risk Management/Infection Control, Med.Administration, Nutrition Support, Electrolyte/Acid Base Balance, Cultural Awareness, Spiritual Health, Pain Management, Coping Assistance/Sexuality, Patient Education, Perioperative Management and last but not least, Grief Resolution........Thats just Semester # 1...........As for the NCLEX, its $93.26 I believe for your RN....but you'll have plenty to keep you preoccupied!! LOL!! GOOD LUCK AND FIND A GOOD STUDY GROUP!

BoonersmomRN · Apr 6, 2007

My first year consisted of Fundamentals, Med/Surg 1, Community, and Psych.

Fundamentals is your foundation class. This is where you learn the beginner skills,knowledge etc that you need to know. Every class past Fundamentals builds on what you have learned here. My Med/Surg 1 was Fluids/Electrolytes, Acid/Base, Respiratory, Endocrine( with great emphasis on Diabetes), Immune, and HIV.

2nd year at my school consists of OB( pregnancy, L+D, postpartum, and women's health), Pediatrics, Trends, Med/Surg 2 ( Cardiac, Ortho, GI, ), and Med/Surg 3 ( Renal, Neuro, Oncology, Charge Duties).

The NCLEX in my state is $200

JillFRN · Apr 9, 2007

So when do you take your NCLEX and if you go on to Masters do you have to take the NCLEX before?

medsomething · Apr 10, 2007

Year 1 - the basics...doing all of the checkoffs for your skills, getting used to being around patients in the hospital, learning the nursing process and care plans (which you will grow to hate!!), learning to think like a nurse (prioritizing!!).

Year 2 - Nursing in specialty areas (generally more interesting), specialty clinicals are usually neat, in med surg clinical you will be expected to know a lot about what's going on with your patient, what their labs indicate, and a general synopsis of their meds; in class, tests will be harder and require you to think a lot!! (brain fatigue when you walk out of a test)

By the time you get in the ICU, you learn fun stuff like suctioning an intubated patient, ABG interpretation, codes.... :idea:

As for NCLEX, we just got a list of different testing and licensing fees and it comes to 400-500. It probably varies with each state. A large chunk of that goes to the Texas BNE...

penn.nursing10 · Apr 10, 2007

I think it really depends on your school...i'm just finishing my first year and a lot of the stuff mentioned isn't really along the lines of what we do. We got microbiology, human biochemistry and organic chemistry out of the way but didn't do too too much in the clinical setting. that really starts for us second year. but we did learn a lot about human development, nutrition, and nursing in general. we pretty much did the basics and learned a lot about cases that we'll encounter frequently and what we have to look forward to.

really though, I think each school varies because I have friends at all different places and we all seem to be doing different things...good luck! hope you'll love it as much as i do!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Apr 10, 2007

hi, cutelittlenurse2b!

a master's degree, bachelor's degree or associate's degree are honor's that you receive from an institution of education, such as a college or university for completing a required course of study. nursing can be a course of study. however, in order to legally be able to call yourself an rn and work as an rn you must take and pass the nclex (national council license examination) which is a national test (https://www.ncsbn.org/245.htm). it is sometimes referred to as the "state board examination". it proves that you meet minimum requirements set down by each state law to practice as an rn in the state where you live. the requisite to taking the nclex is to have completed an approved course of nursing studies determined by your state board of nursing. these approved courses of nursing studies may be in hospitals, colleges or universities. if you pass the nclex exam you obtain a license and may lawfully work as an rn in the state where you live. to find out how much the nclex costs to take you would have to go to the website of your state board of nursing and pull up the information on the application to take the nclex. usually, this is information and the application forms are obtained for you by your nursing program as you reach the final weeks and are ready to take the exam. there are certain things that your nursing school must provide to the state board of nursing in order for you to take the nclex and they usually prefer to do a class of students as an entire group for efficiency. the minimum cost to take the nclex is $200 (https://www.ncsbn.org/748.htm) and each state may chose to add additional fees.

if you decide to go on to get a master's degree in nursing, you must contact the specific university you are interested in attending to find out what their requirements are in order to apply to their master's of nursing program. you can usually get this information on their website. they will tell you if being currently licensed as an rn in their state is a requirement. for example, here is the webpage for the master's degree in nursing from azusa pacific college here in the los angeles area (http://www.apu.edu/nursing/graduate/msn/admission/requirements/). as you can see they require current licensure as a registered nurse in the united states as well as recent (within past five years) experience as a registered nurse which means you must have had a job working as an rn within the past five years. keep in mind that these are the requirements for this college only.

there is really not much difference in the way you will study the content of nursing school from one year to the next. what changes is the subject matter. basically, you will learn how nursing care is given to all people from ages of birth to old age, those having surgery and all others that don't have surgery, those who are "well" and those who are ill. it covers a wide gamut. you will learn about many, many different diseases and how they are treated. you will learn about the how the healthcare system works in this country. you will learn how to give medications and perform a wide variety of nursing procedures.

here is more reading about nursing for you:

http://nursing.about.com/od/becomeanurse/a/notforeveryone.htm - "nursing is not for everyone". this is an article that discusses what a nurse does and what you can expect on the job as a nurse.

http://www.discovernursing.com/

http://www.discovernursing.com/nursing-careers - list of nursing specialties

welcome to allnurses! :welcome: