Any NOVA nursing students here?

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I have pre nursing jitters--I'm waiting on my acceptance letter for Fall 08 nursing program. I've been to the MEC and it's a nice campus. I wanted to know how was your 1st year? What's it like? how many books did you have to buy? Do you use the same books for the entire program? or new books for each semester? When do you start clinicals? Did you have life outside of studying? All :twocents: welcome, Thanks! :)

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Moved to Virginia forum in hopes that you'll get some responses here. :)

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I have pre nursing jitters--I'm waiting on my acceptance letter for Fall 08 nursing program. I've been to the MEC and it's a nice campus. I wanted to know how was your 1st year? What's it like? how many books did you have to buy? Do you use the same books for the entire program? or new books for each semester? When do you start clinicals? Did you have life outside of studying? All :twocents: welcome, Thanks! :)

Clinicals didn't start right away. I can't find my NUR 111 syllabus, but I think once the program commenced, clinicals started about a month later. Until that time labs were 3 hours in duration, then shrank to two hours.

At orientation they should give you a booklist for the whole two years. majority of the books are bought your first year, ouch! half.com, ebay, amazon.com, will become ur best friends!! The MEC bookstore does sell used books, and sometimes their prices can be competitive! For the most part, the required books are only found at the MEC, if you goto another campus, they won't have them.

Yes, there is a lot of reading/studying to do, stay on track and you will be fine, but procrastinate, then its hard to catch up!! We started with around 230 student, and I think we lost close to 50 by the first semester.

Each semester ( except the first--which is just a practice, which was for us, could be different for you) one has a drug dosage exam, where you must get 90%. If you do not, you get a rewrite, fail that and your out of the program!!

Its a hard program, one has to study, but its not impossible, time management is key. reading is slow, I figure 10 pages normally takes me an hour,and thats just the initial reading with no notes being taken, but hey, i'm old and slow,lol Best of luck

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The primary books we used the first yr were (and could be different for ur class:

1)Fundamentals of Nursing, 3rd edition. Helen Harkreader ISBN 978 14160 34360

2) Ignatavicius (better known as Iggy) 5th edition ISBN 0721604463 (rumored to be on the way out!!)

3) Mckinney 2nd edition maternal-Child Nursing ISBN 0721606997.

All 3 of those books have available study guide books! I highly recommend you buy them.

4) Clinical Nursing skills and techniques, 6th edition. Perry-Potter. ISBN 9780323028394 This is used for LAB

Again, don't run out and purchase these books, as they may have changed. But if your at the MEC library, take a gander,and you will get an idea of what each book consists of. many students did not like the Iggy, found it a bit more difficult to understand

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Yeah, what he said.

It is a ridiculous amount of books to buy the first semester, but I didn't have to buy any new books the second semester. I will need to buy again for the second year, but maybe just one, I'll have to check my list.

I don't remember either exactly when clinicals started, but it probably was about a month in. First they teach you dumb things like hand-washing, bed making, and bed baths, and vital signs. They didn't test us on the handwashing, etc, the first skills test was on vital signs, which isn't hard although blood pressure can be a little tricky.

Our clinical rotations the first semester were med surg & long term care (nursing homes). The nursing home was kind of awful and depressing but it's a necessary evil, just gotta get through it! And honestly there's not much you can do the first semester except what you learn - vital signs and bed baths! If you don't know what a code brown is, you'll learn!

Grading is based on exams only, there are seven total including the final. The midterm isn't weighted more than other exams, but the final is 30% of the grade. You have to earn 78% in the class to pass. And yes, you have to pass the drug dosage calculation test with 90% to stay in the program. We lost a few people that way.

No, I didn't have a life outside of studying, but that's because I'm obsessed with getting A's . . . and I still ended up with a B last semester!!! My house is a wreck all the time and we eat a lot of fast food and pizza . . . but honestly, I like school, as stressful as it is.

Also I want to say that most of the professors are great, I really love most of them. I'd name names, but I don't think we're allowed here, if you want to pm me I can tell you who I especially liked.

Best of luck!

Kelly

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Only book that i have had to buy for the 3rd semester is the psychology 1. They want $55 used at the MEC bookstore. I got it for less on half.com

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The primary books we used the first yr were (and could be different for ur class:

1)Fundamentals of Nursing, 3rd edition. Helen Harkreader ISBN 978 14160 34360

2) Ignatavicius (better known as Iggy) 5th edition ISBN 0721604463 (rumored to be on the way out!!)

3) Mckinney 2nd edition maternal-Child Nursing ISBN 0721606997.

All 3 of those books have available study guide books! I highly recommend you buy them.

4) Clinical Nursing skills and techniques, 6th edition. Perry-Potter. ISBN 9780323028394 This is used for LAB

Again, don't run out and purchase these books, as they may have changed. But if your at the MEC library, take a gander,and you will get an idea of what each book consists of. many students did not like the Iggy, found it a bit more difficult to understand

Thank you so much! Ur responses has been very informative and helpful. Thanks again!

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Other than the drug dosage exams, what are the other ways people got kicked out of the program?

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Failing exams is probably the most common! One requires a 78% overall in the nursing classes (nur 111/118) to pass. In the lab there is usually a couple of hands on tests (catheter, passing drugs, etc) I have heard of people failing once, but not twice (but I could be wrong) The hands on exams are fairly straight forward, but people get nervous when being tested. I suppose you could fail clinical as well. one doesn't have any true exams in clinical, but if your professor doesn't think your doing a good job, well.......

And if ya look online at the NUR program, one has to have certain classes completed before moving on to the next semester. So if ya fail that class, you are unable to move on to the next semester!

If you fail Nur 111, I believe your going to have to wait til lthe following Fall to begin again, but if ya fail NUR 118, one may have the opportunity to retake it again in the summer. BUT the 16 week class is shrunk down to 12 weeks (16 was bad enough--so image loosing a month) AND one has to do another drug dosage exam. PLUS if ya fail that, your out of the program forever!! Can never come back and retake it,ouch!

Liek I said earlier, it is a hard class, not a gimmee, BUT the profs are great and if ya do the readings, you will be fine! Thats why I like the study guides as they concentrate on the more important stuff.

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Any body received letter of acceptance for 2010 from novasoutheastern university? I have been accepted at BC, had an interview at Nova but hear nothing from them.

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You may be talking about a different "NOVA" Flore. Were talking about Northern Virginia Community College, located in Springfield VA.

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