El Centro/North Lake - Fall 08

Nursing Students General Students

Published

Starting a new thread for the next class at EC/NL...:yeah:

Congrats to all..... :bugeyes::lol2:

Any of the older students/alumni out there that can give us words of wisdom/advise we would love to hear it....

We've pulled the book lists for both EC & NL Spring 08 - what books do we REALLY need off of the required lists and which can we do without? Also, what support books do we REALLY need?

Thanks to all....:D

Specializes in Telemetry.

Hello & congrats to you all! I just passed my final yesterday, so I'm officially 3rd semester now!

Here is what I can share with you that I wish I knew from the beginning:

Books - BUY the box! Even though you can get books from haf/amazon, etc, they may not come with the CD's that are helpful. (Buy the supplemental books on these websites instead!) Also, this is your major, what you are doing (hopefully) for the rest of your working days. This is NOT where you want to cut corners. That being said, DO NOT waste time with the study guides. You WILL NOT have time. Buy the books and READ them. You will not do well just studying the instructor's Power Points. Will you pass if you just memorize the Power Points? Maybe, but you will be responsible for people's lives so READ and LEARN while you are studying it anyways! It seems to me that this semester's tests had a lot of questions that were covered in the book that they skipped over in lecture, just as a reward for those that actually did do the reading. It can make a difference between a letter grade - Wish I figured that out earlier in the semester!

Supplemental books - 1st semester get Fundamentals Success - Patricia Nugent & Barbara Vitale. I think they just came out with a brand new edition. Mine is read & I think the new one is blue. BUY THIS BOOK if you don't buy anything else - It will help get you in the groove of how to answer questions when more than one option is correct.

2nd semester - get each of the following for maternal/neonatal and pediatrics (you will be so glad you did!): Lippincott's Review Series, Straight A's, and Prentice Hall Reviews & Rationales. Also, it will be helpful to get a patho book that gives diagnostics, treatments, and nursing interventions. Mine even breaks it down into what to teach the patient. 2nd semester clincial is all about TEACHING your patients (about their meds, what to and not to do at home, that sort of thing).

Keep your mind busy this summer. It was so difficult going into 2nd semester after winter break. I got lazy and did nothing but sleep & read leisurely (novels, not textbooks). Even if you don't need it, maybe take a continuing ed class or something over summer break. Or start working on classes you didn't need to get into ECC/NLC but will need to move into RN to BSN program (UTA has one and everything transfers, FYI). Just keep your mind in study mode!!!

My brain is mush (spelling?) right now after yesterday's final and tomorrow's mid-cirriculum HESI. If you have any questions for me, feel free to PM me & I'll be glad to do what I can to help you out.

Congrats again!

Rachael

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry.

Something else I thought of:

For 2nd semester, plan on doing your major care plan within the first 2-3 weeks!!! I would recommend copying the care plan in your 1st semester syllabus (maybe 3-4 copies) and interview ALL of your patients the first 2-3 times you are in the hospital. Maybe not the first day on the floor when you are following a nurse & becoming familiar with the unit, but the first couple of weeks when you are actually picking & taking care of your patients. This way, you will have everything you need before you get so busy that you don't have time. And if you do it on multiple patients, you can make a choice instead of it coming down to the wire. This semester our CI had us turn in our major the week before Spring Break. It makes total sense because once you pass your SQ & IM check-offs, you will be giving all meds except IV piggy back & IV push. Once you and your classmates start giving meds, you will spend a lot of time waiting for your instructor. She can only be in one place at a time, so plan your time wisely.

Also, once you pass a skill (SQ injections for example), pick your patient by looking at their MAR. Look for someone with insulin 3 times a day or that is on heparin, etc. The more practice you can get, the more comfortable you will be! So many of my clincal classmates passed up opportunities thinking they would get to do it later in the semester. It may or may not present itself to you again. And in L&D and day surgery, DO THE FOLEY!!! I know you are excited/nervous/anxious/scared to do it the first time, but GO FOR IT!!! I got to do 2 this semester - only because I let the nurses know that was my goal for the day - otherwise, they do it out of routine. They also forget what your group has and has not been checked-off on. And as always, have your instructor there when you do every skill. They do it way different than in skills lab! This will trip you up when you go to do your Foley/straight cath on your final skills test at the end of 2nd semester. But if your instructor is there, she can coach you through the way ECC/NLC teaches it.

Learn to do your care plans without a care plan book! I know this sounds difficult, but my best ones were ones I did from stopping to think about what I wanted my patient to do based on what we have learned to this point. Teachers know when you are using care plan books & don't like it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry.

And yet, another pearl:

Invest in a good yet cheap LASER printer. I kid you not, I must have spent close to $100 2nd semester alone printing out Power Points & stuff from the online handbook (clincal forms, etc). I just bought a cheapie from Best Buy. Including tax, USB cable, and a new hub, it was $214. And the set-up toner cartridge prints approximately 1,000 pages, so I shouldn't need to rush out and buy a refill anytime soon. And, sometimes our Power Points weren't posted until the day of class or the night before (I had a 13-hour clinical the day before lecture, so hauling my butt to school to make 5-cent prints was the last thing I wanted to do after waking up at 4 AM), so it will be much more convenient to shoot them off of the laser printer now. If I had even attempted to print them on my ink jet, well, first off, I would be in the poor house from the cost of ink, and second, to this day, it would still be huffing & puffing trying to finish if it hadn't blown up yet!

HTH!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Spoiled - thanks for all the great information. I'll refer to it often as I start this journey. Which patho book do you use?

Again, thanks and good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry.

Maura -

I have "Nurse's 5-Minute Clinical Consult" - Diseases by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN = 1-58255-511-7. It was $44.95 at Major's and is soooooooo worth it. I only purchased it after I finished clincials this semester, but it would have made a world of difference if I had it earlier.

Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR Internship starting in Jan!!.

I use 'Nursing Care Plans' by Gulancik/Myers. It's been a great help.

Also, I've never had an instructor complain that I was using a care plan book -- only if they thought the interventions I picked didn't apply to my patient.

Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

chickpea9,

Please email the list of goodies to db75201-1 (at the "ya" that goes "hoo")...

Thanks!!!

Gonna do some readin' this summer! :weathersunsmall:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
And yet, another pearl:

Invest in a good yet cheap LASER printer. I kid you not, I must have spent close to $100 2nd semester alone printing out Power Points[...]

Dang you, spoiled_lil_sister... :madface: :D

You just stimulated my gadget-lust and now I need to find and buy a new laster printer before the Fall!!! Why didn't I think of this before buying a new Canon inkjet just last year? Never conidered my own laser printer, but for the program...it's just smart!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry.

Oops! Sorry! :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry.

Just know that studying for theory is way different than studying for wellness/pathophysiology. My recommendation for 1st semester (if y'all are still using Potter & Perry): They are really good throughout the book defining a term then giving specific examples, usually the sentence after the definition. They seem like totally easy words but you don't really get how they are used until you find out on the test, LOL. So what I did was highlighted the definition in one color, then the examples in another. That way after I was finished reading, I could glance back through and make sure I had an example for each word. Just a warning - the words are interchangable and you aren't gonna see the example in the book as an option on the test. That's why I recommend that you read the examples to get a feel for how the word can be applied. Hope that makes sense! Oh, and here's a thought - Go to a used book store & don't spend more than $20 but get another FUNDAMENTALS of nursing textbook that is from a completely different publisher. It should cover the same material but give different examples. I didn't do this and only thought about it the end of 1st semester & am wondering what difference it could have made. Hope this is helpful.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Department.

LASER PRINTER - MUST HAVE!!! I bought this one at Office Max on sale for $89. Works perfect and super cheap. I printed tons of paperwork!

http://www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/sku.jsp?skuId=21565940&searchString=&category_Id=364

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment