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!!!
Keep the posts coming! :typing
She also admitted that part of her failure was do to not being apart of any study groups. She will be good at telling us what to expect and sharing the knowledge she has from her first go round. The others in our group I don't quite know there area of expertise, but they share the determination that the rest of us have....and that's to 
) Clinicals will be on Thursday when they start.
:stdnrsrck:
sh1901
283 Posts
My first night of class was last night. I was so excited that I hardly slept Sunday night and my day at work seemed like it was dragging on forever because I wanted to get to school.
There are 45 students in the evening/weekend program. We all have skills labs on Monday and lecture on Tuesday and then 8 hour of clinical on either Wednesday evening or Saturday morning. Last night we all show up and there was a lot of confusion. We ended up all sitting in the larger lecture room while the instructors figured out who was supposed to be where and with whom. It took a little while, but once it was all sorted out, the night went well.
We spent some time getting to know the instructor and each other and then started practicing taking vitals. It was very exciting to just be "doing" something!
I just can't believe that I am FINALLY a nursing student!!! I hope that we all have a great semester!