Advice For First Term

[AmyJo2018]

Greetings PreNursing Students:

I am currently in the middle of first term and thought that I would jot down some fresh advice.

-Get your course packets and textbooks as early as possible and start reading through the chapters, following the course calendar schedule. Participation in the lectures is important and reading ahead will get you prepared for class discussion.

-Get the schedule for the skills lab. I don't mean your class schedule for nursing skills; I'm suggesting that you get the days and times that the skills lab is open for practice. Ours is posted right outside the door of the lab..

-Schedule your skills practice sessions as if it were a class in itself. Ideally, grab a study buddy or group at the first opportunity and practice, practice, practice. Your instructor will be looking for your confidence level in your skills checkoff as much as your knowledge. You will have to know the terminology and anatomy of what you are assessing so don't just study the mechanical parts of the skills.

Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from skills class. My confidence was badly shaken right from the first checkoff and I just couldn't recover. Which brings me to the last piece of advice..

-Work the least amount of hours that you can outside of class time. I had not cut my hours at work back enough for effective study time and I suffered the first few weeks. If you have PTO use it. You should be able to add more job hours in after fundamentals class is over, which is half-way through the semester.

I hope this helps. I simply had no idea what first term would look like until I was knee deep in it. I think that having an idea of how the classes would mesh would have been a help to me. I am still on track with fundamentals and pharmacology and I've also decided that I will be taking the licensure for practical nursing instead of getting ADN. But who knows? If I rock skills in the fall and crush second term maybe I'll press on. I'll keep you posted!

[Ifi]

Thank you! This is very helpful information! Best of luck on your second term and beyond!!

[yrosabal]

Thank you for this information, keep the advice coming. I hope to start nursing school this August. I will be off of work out on leave for about 4 months, will this amount of time be enough to get settled in during the fundamentals class you mentioned, thanks again for the tips!

[AmyJo2018]

Oh yes, that amount of time will be plenty!

[Delcon]

Thank you for posting this and good luck!