Hi All,
I'm about to start my second quarter in the ACE program and wanted to share my impressions and advice so far. Disclaimer: this is my experience, and other people with have different things to say about the program, but I know when I was looking at schools I couldn't get enough details and personal experiences.
1. We no longer have to go to clinical the night before to prep. This means prepping in the morning, and for our Principles clinical we weren't expected to have a care plan in the morning- we turned one in the next class. Get the care plan book they recommend that is not required, because you won't really know anything first quarter to be able to do a care plan on your own, and if you have the instructor I have, she LOVES the book and will praise you to high heaven if you use it.
I felt completely lost in the clinical- we only have 3 days in Q1, with time in the lab on alternate weeks. I'm nervous about having 3 clinical every week this coming quarter because I really don't feel we had enough time in clinical first Q. I'm sure by the end of this quarter I'll feel much better; I just wish we had more prep for this.
You need to practice the skills a lot on your own (blood pressure and parenteral meds especially) because when you test out there is some variation in how strict the people testing you are. I've been lucky to have had people who want you to do well, who give you more than one chance to try to get it right, and who will ask questions to help jog your memory if you blank. For the first Q, if you do fail a check out, you have a chance to repeat later in the day, and if you still fail, you get assigned remediation and retest in a week.
2. Do not assume that some classes will be blow off, easy A classes. While there were a couple of classes that required minimal effort, I was (unpleasantly) surprised by two classes that didn't seem like they should be a big deal. Familiarize yourself with APA and be very careful about correctly citing everything in classes where you have to put together something with outside sources. Don't buy the manual- go to Purdue's OWL website. If you google APA OWL it comes right up and is kept up to date and best of all is free.
Do not bother buying: Health Promotions, Genetics (I think they do tell you it's optional), any of the ethics books, med terms (there's a lot of practice in Blackboard). Do not buy the clicker thing they will tell you is absolutely mandatory in Informatics- we never used it and they are not returnable if you get them from the bookstore.
Speaking of the bookstore- make sure you get the correct bundle version of Health Assessment. I was given a CD version instead of an online code for Blackboard and the publisher and the bookstore were completely unhelpful so I ended up having to buy the online code separately. In fact, I would avoid the bookstore and try to get as many of your books as you can online. Bigwords.com is a great site that scans all online bookstores for the best price on your books (including Amazon, alibris, half, etc).
Use the powerpoints as a guyde for studying. Many other people on here have said the same thing, but there wasn't a single book I really read. I looked at boxes and highlighted sections in the books and saved a lot of time studying that way. I do wish that I'd spend a little more time in the Principles book looking at normal values, needle and syringe sizes, hygiene. This is all in the boxes, but I sorta skimmed and should have studied more closely.
3. Get a better stethescope than the one they give you. I got a Littman Classic II. You do want to practice in the lab with the double headed stethescope since that is what you will be tested on, but the one they give you is absolute poopoo. Get really good shoes, you can get by without the lab coat (it's basically there for you if you get cold at clinical), and practice squatting in your scrub pants before buying. The pair I got gives me plumber butt when I squat down and I haven't had to do a lot of squatting but knowing it can happen makes me feel uncomfortable in those pants.
4. Math test- you will not be tested during orientation despite the fact that the orientation packet you'll get says you will. However, it is a good idea to do some math practice with Calculate with Confidence if you're weak with math. You get to chances to take the math test and you have to pass with a 90 (it counts as a P/F towards your grade).
5. The test review sessions were actually pretty helpful. They're run by the learning center and you go over NCLEX style questions and it helped me figure out what sorts of things I should be focusing on for the exams. There were a couple of cases where a question or two on the practice exam was very similar to a question on the actual exam.
6. Check your Drexel email at LEAST once a day. Some professors send out important, last minute emails, and other professors send out important but not last minute but it's still nice to get that info as soon as it's available emails.
7. The end of the quarter HESI was harder than the tests we took for our classes, but it's only 5% of your grade, so do your best and don't stress. The first HESI is really just to get you a taste of what they are going to be like.
Overall, I didn't think the first quarter wasn't that bad. I made use of the resources available, watched the cheesy principles and assessment videos on Blackboard (seriously, they are so cheesy but once you get beyond that the demonstrations are really helpful). It was hard to get to know professors in the larger test and I did feel a little anonymous there, but if you have questions they are happy to talk to you about them. With the exception of one professor I had, I felt that even the tough love teachers are really routing for you to do well.
Avoid negative people and approach things with a positive outlook and when you do get sucked in to the negativity, take a deep breath and recenter yourself.
Try to avoid the post-test "what did you put for that question on perineal care for men?" sessions (I was not always successful). If you must it's better to do that after you get your grades back so that you can keep the focus on figuring out the rationale for the correct answer. Approach professors respectfully and professionally if you feel a question was really ambiguous- there were a couple of questions where second answers were accepted after being reviewed by the professor.
Try not to get frustrated with Informatics- our TA told us towards the end of the class that the Info professor was told to structure the class towards a student group that had very little experience with computers and technology, which made a lot of the class too basic but do pay attention to the search techniques they'll give you- some of it will be totally "duh" but there are some new tricks I learned in there.
I hear that Q2 is much more intense, so really use Q1 to get yourself organized and figure out what you need to do to learn well. A friend of mine put each week of the quarter on a page of paper with all the different assignments for that week, and I copied her and found that really helped with pacing for me. If you pm me, I'd be happy to send it to you so you can have a more clear idea what exactly that would look like.
hiddencatRN, BSN, RN
3,408 Posts
I've only been working for about a week, but so far I feel like I'm managing well as a new grad. I think that, ultimately, the program does prepare you well.