Conversation Between premedturnednursing and Cat in TX

No problem, anything I can do to help, I'd be glad to!!
Glad your 3rd pregnancy resulted in a healthy baby! I think even just being a patient in the hospital will help your nursing school experience so much!
I bought my scrubs at Dorothy's--on Pennsylvania Ave. Across the street from Harris Fort Worth (the Downtown Harris) and the Cook Children's parking garage. I also bought some at PRN Uniforms in Arlington in a shopping center next to the Parks Mall. I loved the ones I got from PRN--they were Dickies, but the pant length was cut better, they had cargo pockets and the scrub top pockets were extra deep!
Okay—here’s a bit more that I found in my old pharm notes.
Know your neurotransmitters: Acetylcholine, Norepinephrine, Epinephrine, Dopamine
Diuretics—Hydrochlorothiazide, Furosemide
Calcium Channel blockers—verapamil, procardia (nifedipine)
ACE inhibitors—captopril, lisinopril, enalapril
Diabetic meds—glucophage, glucotrol
Narcotic pain meds—Morphine
Narcan
That's the majority of the meds I saw, just flipping through the notes. If you want, you can email me, and I will send you the conversion factors and rounding rules we use for our drug calculation tests plus the insulin sheet you will need to help you memorize insulin. It's totally up to you! And keep that sheet that the nurse gave you about lovenox...I hope she gave you LOVEnox in your LOVE handles (the way they teach us to remember it, lol).

My email address is princesa underscore sarah at yahoo dot com. I will forward on any other documents that I think may help!

Thanks for all that, please keep the info coming as you have time, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!

Where did you buy your scrubs? Four definitely sounds like a good idea...

If those are the drugs, I definitely have a head start already... after two miscarriages, Lovenox is the reason my third pregnancy (last year) was successful and I have a beautiful, healthy son. After being on it for almost a year, I could teach that class!! (It is amazing how many people administer it incorrectly, I have a great sheet on it a nurse gave me.)

HOORAY and CONGRATS!! It is so exciting that you have been accepted to the program!! I remember how I felt this time last year!!!
I will ask around and see if any of my classmates are willing to sell their books. I know I won’t be ready to sell anything until August , because I’m not sure if I’ll need any of my textbooks to review some concepts while I study for the NCLEX.

As far as the job hunting, I was just told on Saturday (while we were in sim lab working with a nurse from a local hospital) that if I wanted to work at Cook Children’s, now would be the time to apply. Other than that, various hospitals come throughout the semester (for all senior nursing students) and bring lunch and tell you about their facilities. They also come during the second summer for the ABT students (us—not sure if they told you they refer to the accelerated program as “ABT”) and do the same thing. Then, in your last summer of the program, you will do a 10 week internship in the area of your choice. You rank the top 3 areas of nursing you are interested in, and the professors do their best to match you up with that. Our choices are due by spring break—I can’t wait!! A LOT of students get job offers this way. I have a friend who was in the last ABT class, and she was offered a job in June. The 10 week internship doesn’t start until May. (so you are technically only in lecture for the first summer, fall and spring semester!! and one online class in the 2nd May).
You will memorize various drugs in almost every class. The key classes are Pharmacology (your very first class in the program), Adult I (a.k.a Med-Surg I), Psych, and Adult II (a.k.a. Med-Surg II). You will have to memorize drugs for other classes, but it is not quite as intense. The first few that I would start working on are Digoxin, Warfarin (Coumadin), Heparin, and Lovenox. Also, brush up on your dimensional analysis skills—you will have a drug calculations test approximately every week for the first 3 weeks unless they’ve changed things. You will also have one at the start of every semester. I will get out my notes from pharm this afternoon and see what else I can help you with.

I think you are doing great to get a head start, but don’t get too intense, lol. I would recommend slowing it down about a week or two before school starts and doing some resting and relaxing (maybe a mini-vacation if possible). Do a deep clean of your house/apt. because it might be a while before you have the energy to do so again. Go buy your purple scrubs early. If you are short like me and wait until the last minute, it’s hard to find petite (or tall) pants once your classmates have beat you to the punch in the store. They told us to by 2 sets of scrubs, I bought 4 because we got to the hospital 2 days a week, and you wear scrubs to lab every time you meet, and I knew there would be some days that I would not be able to/feel like doing laundry. But that’s totally up to you.
Realize that at times you are going to feel overwhelmed and even wonder why you did this (completely normal feeling!!), and at first, many of your classmates will not admit to feeling the same way. But rest assured, they do. I was talking to a professor on Saturday and she said the same thing; she’s had to give pep talks to many an ABT student, especially at this point in the game! Only now do we all admit to each other that we shed a few tears during those first few weeks and even have the occasional melt down now. Try to make at least one or two friends that you can count on to swap notes with or study with or tell you what the heck you are supposed to be doing….cause sometimes our schedules are so jumbled it gets confusing. You will probably get to know all of your classmates very well. In such a small program it's easy to do. I think we all get along quite well, and that makes it a little easier.
Feel free to contact me anytime if you have any more questions! And I will post the rest of the info this afternoon!!

SO, now that I've been accepted I have a few more questions...

Do you or any of your classmates want to sell me any of your books?
When do you begin job hunting? Does TCU help you with that?
I know that nurses have to memorize a bunch of information about various drugs... what course do you do that in? I'm hoping to start the memorization stuff now to get a head start on it...
Do you have any other advice on what I should be doing to get a head start and/or prepare myself?
THANK YOU!!

Hey, no problem! These are all hints I wish someone had given me last year!!

No one I know had trouble getting loans. I took out some private loans in addition to my stafford loans. I think I applied for it in March or April cause I wanted to make sure it was there when class started! I get a tuition discount since I am an alum but it's not that big. Some of my classmates who aren't alum have received various scholarships from TCU. If I remember correctly, TCU just received a grant for the next class (your class! ) for a few people to get $10000 scholarships. So keep your eyes peeled for that! Other than that most of us have private loans.

If possible, I would start learning medical terms...like PRN, BID, QID, etc. Because those are helpful when doing drug calculations. As far as studying for pharm...I'm not really sure what techniques I used..you could start studying the classes of drugs: beta blockers, diuretics, potassium sparing diuretics, hypertension medications, anticoagulants. And then I would look over conversion factors like kg to lb, oz to ml...I will get my conversion sheet out in a little bit and post a new message. There's only a few conversions that we ever use for our drug calc tests..once you learn those you are all set! It would also be good to look over lab values--norms for sodium, potassium, platelets, white blood cells, etc. Its the little things that are helpful to learn early so you don't have to waste time on it later.

That being said, when you get your acceptance letter, don't get too bogged down with studying. Make sure you rest up, too, cause the first 3 weeks are a bit of a shock to the system! It's just an adjustment period. Like I said, though, buy a planner, get a binder and dividers--whatever it is that you do that helps you to stay organized, cause that will help you with your sanity!! Also, make sure you MAKE time for your family and baby. My husband and I have a standing date night. Several of the parents in my class don't start studying until their kids go to bed. We all want to make A's, but we also try to prioritize. Just a little food for thought!

More later!

Thank you SO MUCH for all of that info!! It definitely made me feel better. I tend to do well in high pressure situations and be fairly well organized, so I do think I can handle all of that. (I hope I get the chance to find out!)

I've got another category of question for you... did anyone in your class, to your knowledge, have trouble getting enough loans to pay tuition, books, etc? Is there anything (besides filling out FAFSA) that I should be doing at this time in that area?

I got my acceptance to TCU last week. Not that thrilling since that isn't the tough one, but still was nice to get. I hope they send out letters soon! When I took the entrance exam, they told us we should hear something end of January or early February...

WHEN I find out I got in (thinking positive here!) is there any way I could start reading or studying ahead? Isn't pharm the most memorization? I was hoping to get the book early and make flash cards or something... Jumping the gun a little here, I know, but trying to plan ahead.

Thank you so, so much for talking to me about all of this. It is wonderful insight that I greatly appreciate!

Okay, I hope I wasn't too bitter or overwhelming in my last message . I just want to make sure you have full information before you get started, well, as much as I can give. First, after we lost people at the end of the summer, they asked a few of the students in the traditional program (the ones who do not have previous degrees, etc) if they wanted to switch over to our program. They did it again at the end of fall semester; that's how they are keeping the numbers up.

It seems like they always wait until the last minute to give us our schedules or let us know what we are supposed to be doing until the very last minute; it's sort of a running joke.

I will try to give you an overview as best I can remember from the summer and fall semester....
The first 3 weeks of summer, we went to school M/T/W from 8 until 1...then we broke into smaller groups and either stayed until 3:30 or one group left at 1 and came back at 5:45. Every friday we had an exam and usually at least once a week we had a skills mastery.
The second part of the summer, I can't remember our class hours, but I know my group was in the hospital on Thursday and Friday from 0630 until approx. 1 or 2 pm.

For the fall semester, we met for class on T/TH from 8a to 2p. Our clinical schedule varied because we had Maternity clinical and Med surg clinical...I wish I could remember the times.

This semester, we are in class from 8 am to 5:30pm on Tuesdays and 8 until noon on Thursdays. Friday and saturday we have pedi clinical from 0600 until 1:30, then my group switches to Med Surg II clinical on Mondays and Wednesdays.

There was only one long paper during the summer, a few last semester, and 2 this semester. It is really just a lot of reading/studying. Good grades are very doable, though. I managed a 4.0 for the summer session, and I did pretty well for Fall (didn't maintain the 4.0 though,sadly). This semester seems insane, but i think we are all anxious for graduation. Several ppl in the program have (young) kids. We even have one pregnant classmate. I'm not gonna lie and say it's easy, but I really can't speak for them because I don't have any children. I've heard them complain from time to time, but I think it's easier when you let your spouse and family know upfront what to expect. Of the seven we lost, I would say 3 are from grades (to my knowledge), 2 quit because it wasn't jiving well with their family situation, and I don't know about the others. The class becomes very close, which is nice and we all pretty much look out for each other and help each other out when we can.

Many of us are looking to get a graduate degree of some sort after this, and I think we're all working and studying hard enough to achieve that. The biggest shocker of the fall semester is that nursing school exams (especially med surg/adult I) is not like any other test you've ever had. There are no questions like define tuberculosis or what is a virus? Questions typically require you to "think like a nurse" I wish someone had told me that!!!

Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling, but I hope I've given you something to go on for the time being...

Wow, that's the first I've heard anything like that. How did you lose 7 people and still have 40 in your class; do they admit people once the program starts? What kinds of things do they want until the last minute to tell you? Are there a lot of long papers to write? What is the schedule like? (I have an infant son, so I have to juggle school and family... My hubby is awesome, but I don't want him to feel like a single parent for 15 months!) Are a lot of people having grade problems? I hope to go on to be a NP, so I don't want bad grades now that would keep me from getting into a program!

Hey!

I have not heard anything about the applicants for the next class. I have to honestly say that if I could go back and do it all over again I wouldn't do an accelerated program (at TCU?). And I'm not the only one in my class who feels that way. The program is a little disorganized, they always wait until the last minute to tell us things, etc.

But, it is fun and I have made some great friends. And it's not so much that the material is hard, it's just juggling all of the information that they throw at you. The first summer session is crazy...skills check offs almost every week, a test every week in Pharmacology. You'll feel stressed, but you'll get through it. Fall is like summer amped up, but the only class ppl had trouble with is Adult I... but Spring semester (right now)--I think they've restructured some things, but the amount of reading and paperwork we have this time around is insane; I'm already having a hard time keeping up. Your best bet is to get organized and stay organized early on. We started out with approximately 40 ppl and we have 40 ppl now, even though we have lost about 7...some to grades, some who just quit, whatever.

Hmm...I am not sure what specific things you want to know, but feel free to message me if you need anything else. Good luck and keep me posted! If you get in, definitely message me, so I can tell you a few things you should work on so you have a leg up!

hopefully this is how you PM someone, still learning how to use the site... please, tell me anything you can! Do you have any idea how competitive it is to get in this year? Are you enjoying it? Do you feel like you are being well prepared?