First day of nursing School *unleashed* post yours

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Well, I would like to share my first day of nursing school experience.

It all started last night when i could not go to sleep, then I woke up at 4 am, because I was so excited and anxiety had taken over! Well I got up, took a shower, took care of the dogs, and even ironed my uniform.

I ended up leaving home at 6 am, for the 1 hour commute, since I was afraid that I would be caught in the middle of traffic.

I ended up at school at 7 am, I sat in my car, had my coffee, and at 730 people started showing up. Well I found out that classes would not start until 9 on the first day, since they had people lost on the buildings, trying to find the classrooms, teachers coming back gathering loads of stuff, from a side to another, and finally classes started. It was funny to see all my peeps from pre-reqs there in addition to some other new faces!

It all started by our Pharmacology teacher (we have pharm all day long on Mondays) asking us to write a paragraph on:

- Why nursing?

- Semester goal

- 3 year goal

After we wrote that, she made us one by one, read it to the class, as an introduction! Well, I heard maybe half of the people with the CRNA goal, the other half with money/or NP goal, LOL hopefully they'll get there!

Then she started the syllabus, in which:

  • 50% are tests
  • 10% presentation
  • 10% group work, participation
  • 5% post test
  • 25% finals.

Which is not bad. My first impression is that Our teacher is a nice Lady, she has been a NP for 12 years, and on still works 2 days a week on her private practice, which I thought was a plus, since she is updated on things.

Well, then lecture started, and we went over the nursing process, and then the 7 rights, and then we covered chapters 1 and 2 of the book (keep in mind 5 hour lecture LOL) the funny thing is: We have to know chapters 1-9 by next Monday!!! For our first test, she will give us multiple choices only, and will allow us to use a 4X6 flashcard, where we can write stuff on one side, and hand it to her, then she will return it to us on the first test day, keep in mind that we have 5 tests. OMG that is a lot of info, even though I had answered the questions already on the study guide...

She is really nice to us, always asking if it is all clear, anymore questions! I like her I guess! (Although you know... some people on the break room already started venting... blah)

Then she was telling us that we will have clinicals starting on the end of the month, so we can learn how to talk to our patients, practice some basic skills. (For the first 3 weeks we have Thursday and Fridays just for skills!!! 10 hours a week!).

She said that we will not do any invasive skill on ourselves, meaning no drawing each others blood, or giving any sort of injection. How the hell am I going to learn??? How did you guys learn this??? It makes me wonder, since I have no previous experience with that other than a few lovenox abdominal shots.

She said that in May we will start giving IM, IV, Sq, and all that good stuff. (But then again with no previous human attempts! She said that if we were to do it among ourselves, somewhere else... Whatever! But not in class!)

So it was exciting today, lots of information, and homework! Can't wait for tomorrow (but I am ok, anxiety level is down now).

We have fundamentals ALLLLLL day tomorrow, starting at 8-2pm

So, bottom line, so far I am very happy with everything, the nursing staff seems amazing so far (have dealt with them since pre-reqs) and all my classmates are cool (of course, there is the sleepy one, the parrot one, the repetitive one, the fancy girls, the CNA knows it all's, but they are ok so far!)

Comments are welcome!

Those who start(started) soon please post your experience here! Lets make this thread last all the way through our graduation!!!

Specializes in None yet.

I love this thread! I can't wait to post about my first day in a little over a month from now. I'll probably be posting a lot less in general once I finally start this and become a real nursing student!

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Congrats! You're a nursing student!

When you get to Med-Surg you get more opportunity to do more things. Med-Surg for me is when I started to feel like a nurse.

Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

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Specializes in i can read really good lol.

I have orientation next Thursday and Friday , then i have Skills Lab all day Saturday and Sunday then a school week. I guess we are hitting the ground running. Soooo excited and nervous i will post about my first day of skills lab next week. Happy studying to every one.

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Specializes in Lactation.

Today was my first day!! YAY!! We had class from 1-4 and it was basically orentation all day. Tomorrow I have a lab from 1-4 and we already have to start reading for it! Anyways we basically got a rundown of the whole semester and a list of reading before each class and stuff like that. I am so excited :-)

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My first day was Monday. We had lecture from 8am-12pm. Thankfully I got a seat on the right side of the front row, about 20 minutes before class was scheduled to start!

The entire nursing faculty came in and lined up at the front of the class, each introducing themselves. Then they had the second year students come in, introduce themselves, and bring breakfast food and brownies and drinks for us! (Awesome I know!) Then we went around the room, starting in the back introducing ourself, telling one unusual thing about our likes or dislikes, and why we wanted to be a nurse. (there are 40 of us, so it took a while! lol)

After introductions, all the teachers went out and the 2nd year students stayed in. We got to ask them "anything"! We got a lot of good information and encouragement from the 12 that remained (from last year's 40! :-o....)

Then we were given handbooks, and went over bits and pieces of policies, the many ways you could fail out of the program (missing check offs in clinicals after the 3rd try, failing a drug screen, getting an average below 77, missing more than two days of lecture and one day of clinical, being late more than six times for lecture (can't be late for clinical because you will be counted absent), doing something dangerous in clinical, getting unsatisfactory overall in clinical, cheating, plagairism - I think that's all of them)

We had to print out the calendar and syllabus (60 pages of syllabus) and we went over both of those. We have 6 different teachers for the semester that each teach different topics. We have 2 different ones this week, and 2 other ones next week. (The final two we have for the first time in September.)

Then it was off to the house. Got my stuff organized including powerpoints printed and hole-punched, debound books marked for the pages I removed and put in smaller notebook (EXCELLENT IDEA THAT SAVES A GOOD 15 POUNDS OF BOOKS ON YOUR BACK!) and the like. By 3 pm I was organized and ready to begin, and I immediately started reading the homework. Finished at 10pm (ate dinner while reading!)

That was my first day! WHOOSH... Day 2 was an 8 hour lecture I posted about under "Day 2: complete" thread.

Good luck to all of you who are diving into your individual nursing programs this semester!

sandan rnstudent

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Congrats to all of you who just started the incredible journey of NS.... with that being said, you all are too cute w/ all your first semester worries (trust me I was in the same boat)...I am about to start my LAST semester woot woot! I remember thinking how the heck can I do this and being so overwhelmed, now it's strange to actually be a senior! You all can do it, keep your chins up and remember that crying in front of an instructor is OK, just show up the next day! :) Good luck on your journey.

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Specializes in Public Health.

Im so excited to post my first day story in January!! Woot Woot! p.s. i just sat and read this ENTIRE thread smh

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I don't know how I feel about everything so far. I got hit with a lot of work early, but that doesn't bother me too much. I wish I had another guy in one of my classes. All the other classes have either two guys or none. I'm by myself, and it's intimidating.

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Anymore newbies to nursing stories? I know some of you started later this past week. Please share!

sandan rnstudent

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Our first day was Friday and we had skills class from 4-7. We were presented with foley catheters male and female, straight catheters male and female, bladder irrigation (opening a closed system and closed irrigation), setting up and maintaing a sterile field, infection control and asepsis, collecting a sterile urine sample from the cath, collecting a clean catch for culture and sensitivity, donning and removing PPE, hand washing, types of precautions (airborne, droplet, and contact) and their differences. We were told that skills checkoff would be Saturday, the next day, from 8 AM-5 PM, and that we would be expected to know each skill forwards and backwards and demonstrate each one. Sure enough, the next day rolled around, after I stayed up until 3:30 AM studying, and I had to checkoff on all of the skills using our simulation lab and dummies. During the entire checkoff we were questioned (what allergies would you check for before doing a cath, what do you check on the box before opening a cath tray, what are the expected outcomes for a foley/straight catheter, what are the unexpected outcomes, why would you do a foley vs. a straight catheter, how would you explain the procedure to a patient, why would you perform bladder irrigation, what is the difference between the two methods and what are the pros and cons of each, how would you explain to the patient/family about the procedure, expected and unexpected outcomes, supplies needed, etc.) It was stressful, but I passed on my first attempt (we have two attempts to complete a checkoff and then we are removed from the program). Tuesday is my first lecture, and if it is anywhere near as fast and stressful as my lab, I'm not sure what I will do. In my spare time I am doing drug cards which we are required to complete before clinical (which begins the second week of October). Each card must have the trade name, generic name, drug class, purpose for the patient, action, indications, contraindications, all dosages and routes of administration, lab values to monitor, nursing considerations, patient/family teaching, antidote, interactions with other meds and supplements, common side effects, major adverse effects, and any unique information. We have about 36 to do initially, and then we have to make a new one for each new med we encounter in clinical. Some of our initial cards are: lasix, lovenox, heparin, aspirin, acetaminophen, coumadin, digoxin, protonix, zofran, phenergan, lortab, demerol, nitroglycerin, metronidizole, narcan, and percocet. Our program is one of the most stringent in the state, and I'm starting to really appreciate that. I'm so glad that I got in, and I'm so excited about my nursing education, but the stress is so overwhelming at times.

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Specializes in Managed Care, Onc/Neph, Home Health.

...so much for all the perfect GPA's and aceing TEAS test!! that get people into RN programs. Once inside the world of school, a totally different arena of learning.

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*Bump*. I love reading these, and I cannot wait until I could write about my first day which is in Jan...good luck everyone and keep the updates coming :yeah:

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