Any advice from students ALREADY in the program?

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I just got placed this Tuesday :yeah: and I'm sure there are a lot of us out there who are anxious and a little afraid of whats to come.

I wanted to see if there was anyone out there who is already in the program, no matter how far along, who can give us noobies some advice to help us prepare for the journey. Any classes we should take while we wait, websites to get the best deals on books and what books we should study up on, what to expect, etc:confused:.

Thanks in advance to all who reply because this will help a lot of us who have plenty of questions!!!

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Acute Rehab.

Take pathophysiology.

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Make sure you're up to speed on medical terminology, and as the previous poster said...pathophysiology is a huge help.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

buy an NCLEX study guide and get started on the questions. It helps to have an idea on exactly how nursing questions are formated. That is generally the biggest shock to many students in the program. When you are looking at 4 answers that are right but you need to pick the one that is the most right... its a big difference from the knowledge based questions in the pre/co reqs we've taken.

The more you know about the Nursing Process the easier it is to get into the swing of things... because its hit the door running and full out until graduation!

Enjoy!!

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Thanks for the info.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.

please, please, please do not set yourself up to believe careplans are hard. since you don't know what they are yet, just remember for when you do that they are not hard, just time consuming. the info is all readily available, you don't have to come up with anything on your own, just pick what applies best to your patient.

almost everyone in my class went in dreading careplans, and they have a hard time with them. if you go in realizing that you are just re-wording (and of course understanding :) ) widely available info, you will save yourself A LOT of stress/time.

good luck!

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Acute Rehab.

Gift for you all.

CARE PLAN CONSTRUCTOR INFO.doc

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i start in about a week, and i've been going through the itunes patho lectures from mesa community college posted on the banner thread - i have no nursing background so i was a little concerned about getting in over my head in a patho class, but this is a great instructor, and she lays it out so anyone can understand. just watching the lectures probably isn't as good as taking a real class, but i don't think it'll hurt either.

i've pasted those instructions below if you haven't found them already...

fwiw, these are videos, and so are 200-400mb each - make sure there's room on your hard drive before you let itunes go fetch them for you!

go to http://mc.maricopa.edu then search for itunes (in the top right hand corner, little white box). click the first link, the blue "mcc on itunes u". this will open on your itunes on your computer. (if you don't have it already, you'll need to download it). then the 4th box down, special programs, click on nursing. then under courses, patho 104. then you can download each movie. they are free, and totally worth your time!!

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i start in about a week, and i've been going through the itunes patho lectures from mesa community college posted on the banner thread - i have no nursing background so i was a little concerned about getting in over my head in a patho class, but this is a great instructor, and she lays it out so anyone can understand. just watching the lectures probably isn't as good as taking a real class, but i don't think it'll hurt either.

i've pasted those instructions below if you haven't found them already...

fwiw, these are videos, and so are 200-400mb each - make sure there's room on your hard drive before you let itunes go fetch them for you!

go to http://mc.maricopa.edu then search for itunes (in the top right hand corner, little white box). click the first link, the blue "mcc on itunes u". this will open on your itunes on your computer. (if you don't have it already, you'll need to download it). then the 4th box down, special programs, click on nursing. then under courses, patho 104. then you can download each movie. they are free, and totally worth your time!!

you can download those files as audio only and save yourself some space on your ipod.

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Specializes in Hopice and School Nurse.
Gift for you all.

This is a great file! Can you tell me if a membership to the evolve website comes with any of their books? It said something about joining a school class, so are some programs using evolve in their instruction? I'm going to Gateway LPN fast track in the Fall. I just hate to spend the membership fee if it is included in anything else. Thanks!

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
This is a great file! Can you tell me if a membership to the evolve website comes with any of their books? It said something about joining a school class, so are some programs using evolve in their instruction? I'm going to Gateway LPN fast track in the Fall. I just hate to spend the membership fee if it is included in anything else. Thanks!

don't pay the membership fees, when you buy your books for school you register them with evolve and then have your account (i'm guessing, not sure how the lpn program varies from the rn program). just keep that file handy for when the time comes. :)

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Acute Rehab.

There is no fee to create an account. Some schools do use the Evolve courses as part of their curriculum. You can also take Evolve self study courses on your own for a fee. I recommend just adding books to your resource list...many, maybe all, of the books have study resources you can use even if you don't buy the book. Just create an account, add stuff, and play around with it. You will figure it out. I wouldn't buy anything at the site, at least not right away...there is no need.

Here is another resource you might like:

http://www.freebooks4doctors.com/index.htm

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