BMCC Nursing 1

Published Aug 31, 2014

1 Article; 5 Posts

Hello friends, I hope life has been treating you well. I started nursing 2 at BMCC on 8/28/14. Let me tell you about Nursing 1 at BMCC.

On orientation day for Nursing 1 I knew what Professor I wanted because I looked it up on Rate My Professor. I also wanted afternoon nursing because I could study late and wake up late. You pick your sessions by lottery in Nursing at BMCC. Afternoon had room by the time they call my number so Professor Clarke became my nursing 1 Professor. She is a good teacher and a great person who understand her students.

My first nursing class was hard because we when right into Nursing teaching. The words was strange to me. Everything was going over my head. I kept thinking I needed to get out this class and read more. The more the professor talk the scared I became. After class was over I ran out of class and while walking I ran into some of my classmate who all had the same look on their faces. I expressed to them the lost in my family and as I was talking tears started running down my face. They did not know me so all they could do was listen, which was good enough for me. I felt like a zombie the first two week of class. I kept hitting my head in class try to figure out how to get these information into my head. They were teaching us from the beginning like we are going to take the NCLEX soon. We did a lot of scenarios, select all that apply, and pictures question. I went to see the professor and to ask her how can I learn nursing. She told me nursing school is like Medical school no matter where you take it nursing school is going to be hard. She told me to leave home and read at least 2 hours a day. The Professor said that I am trying to do everything and I can't. I have to make time for nursing so she told me to buy this book call SAUNDERS 2014-2015 STRATEGIES FOR TEST SUCCESS PASSING NURSING SCHOOL AND THE NCLEX EXAM. This book really helped me. I think all nursing student should read this before they start their nursing classes. Learning Nursing is like higher level thinking or looking at a problem from many different angles. My nursing grading was not changing, I spoke to one of my friend who is in the night nursing program, and she told me about a testing program for evolve, it call Elsevier Adaptive Quizzing for Potter Fundamentals of Nursing for $75.00 and the NCLEX for Adaptive Quizzing at $100.00 all from Evolve. The NCLEX was ok but not specific to Fundamental. The Fundamentals was great because it is based on each chapter in the book I was reading. I would read a chapter in the book, test myself with the question at the end of the chapter, listen to my recording of that lecture while adding notes to my slices. I also purchased the Kaplan two years in nursing school testing which was on sale for $100. I love the Kaplan because you can build your own test based on the topic the class is working on. I would test myself with the Evolve and Kaplan. Once I see improvement in my score I stop. Which tells me I understand the information. This process takes a day for each chapter. My test grade after doing this was 86.6 which was great!

My children grandfather passed away on 1/13/2014 seven days after I got my call for Nursing and five days after I went to the nursing home to tell him the good news. His death hurt a lot so I did not write about it before. He help me a lot with my science classes even though he could not physical see. The kids love going to him because he tough them nursery rhymes. He was a good grandpa. Two day after his funeral I started my first nursing class.

My children grandmother when to Trinidad for their grandfather memorial service two weeks into my semester. She took my 1 year old with her to alleviate some pressure of her father and me. Which left us with only 4 kids to worry about, they were all in school. I started cooking every other weekend. Once I baked a whole mushroom chicken, made a big pot of African soup called palm butter, and stew beef. All their dad had to do was cook rice, mash potato, or macaroni. Those food lasted for 1 1/2 weeks thinks to the fridge that freezes everything.

By the way Nursing 1 is writing intensive so if you took a writing intensive class before you still have to take this one. You have to do a research paper on a disease and journals writing. Each student goes to the nursing home and watch OT and PT in action and also gets to feed patients. At the end of the day we talk to each other about the experience and we have to write about it as one of our journals. There is a math test three weeks into nursing class. You have to login to the math site and take 10 math test with a 90% over all. There is no clinical the first month of nursing 1. During this month you have to attend a HIPAA class, get your flu shot, and your assigned hospital ID. The math test is like your math 104 final so study your math also before nursing start and hold on to your math 104 book. If you do not pass the first test than you are sent to tutoring for two week and retested again. You get 3 changes and after that they can drop you out of the nursing program. You are not allow to give medicine in the hospital until you pass the math test. You also have to go to the Lab and practice your clinical skills on three different days to get three different lab tech signatures. You can go as much as you want but do not forget to get your paper sign. The practicum is given in the lab to test the skill you learn in the lab and from your nursing video. Bed making, wound care, vital signs, transfer, patient identification, etc. If you do not passed the practicum you will have to practice three more time and ask for a retest on the skill you missed up on. You get a class group and a clinical, these are the classmates you will work with until the end of the semester. The hospital you get depend on the clinical Professor you have. They have online charting included in the clinical potion so you have to remember to do your charting. The assignment is email to you and it is graded my your clinical Professor. Remember your password from when your HESI test because Elsevier (evolve) is the company that BMCC uses for the Nursing needs. Your books, SIM chart, and Case Study are all done on the evolve website. Do your reading before you do your Case Studys. You do not get a grade for clinical, it is a passed or fail. You need to pass clinical to pass the course. Read a lot it really helps.

The clinical

I was assign to Bellevue Hospital because that is where my clinical professor was assign to. She was tough but very good. We meet at the front of the hospital at 7:45 and we when up together at 8 am. We had preconference in which we talk about diseases and how we can help our assigns patient. We did vital signs, bed bath, and learned a lot of new things. Being in the hospital environment made me felt happy. Watching nurses at work made me wonder if I will ever be like these nurse. They were fast, moving from patient to patient, and they had skills. Our clinical advisor even helped us with our class work after clinic.

The class

Professor Clarke uses slides and she is a great teacher. She when over the slides but she really teaches from her knowledge. Try not to interrupt her, wait until she ask do you have any question. Write down your question while she is talking. You can record her lectures which help a lot for reviews. You have to read before class because she gives pretest and posttests. She gears her teaching base on the personality of her class. She said our class was a toughies feely class so we did a lot of hands on work.

My schedule was clinical on Tuesdays at 8 am to 5:00, Wednesdays African Studies at 5:30 to 8:30, Thursday 1pm to 5pm, Friday 1pm- 5pm,

I usually come to school at 10 am, read for 2 hours, go to lunch, and then class. When I get home I put out the kids clothing for school, wash the dishes, and throw out the garbage. I fall asleep at 2 am most night. My body feel so heavy in the morning. On Mondays I get to sleep late. I am in school at 12 pm and ready for tutoring at 1 pm in the nursing lab. Tutoring was great, Liz the tutors make nursing comes of the paper. I find myself thinking will I ever be able to talk and explain nursing the way she does? I got home at 9 pm on Monday nights to get ready for my clinical which was at 8 am on Tuesday morning. I do not usually get in the bed until 12 am on Mondays. Clinical was great, I would look around and say "wow I am here, this is really

Nursing". I took my nursing book and my dinner with me because I came to the school after clinical for studying time. Most of the time I was so tried I could barely keep my eyes open. On Wednesday I did my African Studies class homework and read my African studies book from 10 am to 5pm in the quite study. At 5 pm I walk over to Fitterman for my African Studies class which starts at 5:30. After this three hours class is over I usually go home. I use is time to put my kids to sleep. On Thursday I come to quite study at 11 am and read for two hours and then go off to class for 1 pm. After class I came back to quite study and read until 12 am. Home again and back to bed at 2 am again. Fridays I when for tutoring with Liz from 5-8. When back to quite study after tutoring and home at 12 am. I needed more reading time because I am such a slow reader so I started going to quite study on the weekends. I can never study at home, too many kids wanting my attention. They open at 10:30 am and close at 10 pm. I miss going to church on Sundays and dressing my kids up. I do not have weekends anymore. I do not get to see much of my kids or friends. My home is not as clean as it used to be. The kid's room is not as clean as I would like it to be, and the laundry grows out of control that I have to stop every three weekend and take care of my home.

My 1 year old and her grandmother came home from Trinidad at the end of my nursing 1 semester. I missed her so much, I must have kissed he like a 100 times. I earned a grade of B- for nursing 1, I worked for that grade and A- in African Studies. 2 weeks later I started Microbiology and political science in summer 1 2014. It was hard, I do not know what I was thinking trying to do those 2 classes 3 hours a day, four day a week for 6 weeks, but I did it. I got B in Microbiology and B+ in political science. 1 week after summer 1 was over it was time for me to move. It took 6 week to unpack and get our life back in order. I love our new space. I took the kids out to different places for 1 week and I did things just for me for 1 week. My mental need it. For nursing 2 I lucked out and got a morning class. Nursing 2 at BMCC is splice into two session. My 1^st session is Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing which is 6 weeks and 2^nd session is Obstetrical Maternal-Newborn for 6 weeks. Both Professor grade us for our final grade. My class is on Mondays and Tuesdays 9am to 1 pm. Clinical is Thursdays 8am to 4pm and at 5:30pm I will be going to English short story writing which will be my last elective for my bachelor degree. My first class on 8/28/14 was great but by the end of the day I felt sick. My head hurt, I felt dizzy, and very cold. I came home and got into the bed. The next morning I went to the emergency. I had a sore throat with 102 fever, plus of 105 and blood pressure of 100/67. Turns out I had contracted bacterial Pharyngitis. I got three shots, one for fever, a steroid to open my throat, and penicillin. My vitals was back to normal in two hours. I still felt weak so I took of doing any school work for two days, but I took this time to write you.

I hope this helps you with Information about the best Nursing School, BMCC.