Orientation was today!!

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Specializes in Neuro.

Okay, for those who are freaking out and not knowing what to expect, here is a look at my first day. I will have another all day orientation tomorrow, then will start full force Monday!

Orientation was a 8:30 sharp, and of course we had 1 person come in 30 minutes late. Anyway, today was all about going over our orientation packets, handbooks and touching on uniforms, schedules and classes.

We had a TON of paperwork to sign:uhoh3:, then we met all of the instructors, ADN Director and Dean. I felt like we were signing our lives away!! We went over the BON rules and regulations and then the school rules and regulations. Then we had a working lunch that was provided by the Student Nurse's Association, where they told us all about their organization, what they do and what help they provide.

Then back to the paperwork, and what they expect of each of us.

We really didn't get too much into the actual class work, they said that would be totmorrow, but we briefly discussed what it would take to get through the program and how much study time to put in. I do know that between today and Monday when classes start, we are required to read 30 chapters of a couple of our books. :uhoh21: She went through that part so fast that all I got was my "neighbor" saying OMG, 30 chapters?!? We have our first clinical lab on Tuesday and they said that classes will go from 8:00-5:00 almost every day.

The good news is that they said that while we would study harder for this than anything else that we have ever had, there would still be time for a social life. Like I have one anyway!!! But, they said that we would be doing a ton of work, but we could get by with our weekends free.

They were very encouraging, and actually quite funny. I think that they are going to be a good group to have, and they were so adament about us coming to them for anything. We have their office numbers, their cell numbers and their pager numbers. Never got that from my general class instructors!!! But everyone seems very supportive!

Anyway, for those of you that are stressed (like I was this morning!!) just calm down. You will probably just have tons of paperwork to go over, and rules and regulations. Hopefully not too many of you will have a test that first day!!! God bless those of you that do! BUT, get ready!! They warned us that the first 6 weeks would be crazy, stressful and overwhelming. But that it would go much better after that.

Here is to the second day tomorrow!!! :cheers: I will post about that then, and hopefully ease the minds of some of you...Now I am off to start reading all those pages!!!

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We had a workshop a little over a week ago and our instructor told us when we read a lot, to skim, and focus on the boxes and charts to get the overall info of the chapters. You can read more faster that way and get the meat of the material best this way. Can't wait to hear about tomorrow!;)

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

Thanks so much for this post; my orientation is tomorrow, and I've been just a bit nervous about it. This helps!

Are there a lot of people in your class? Did you meet your clinical group? Become friends with anyone right away?

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Specializes in Neuro.

You are right, Beth. We too were told to not read everything in all the chapters, to learn to skim and get the jest of it.

Don,

Believe me, you will not be the only nervous one!! But our instructors really put us at east right from the get go. We haven't discussed our clinical groups just yet, although they did say that there will be 2 main groups of 20 (we have 40 in our class) then we will break into0 smaller groups from there (probably 5 groups of 4.) They said that they will match us up with at least 1 "mature" adult and 1 with experience to a younger, inexperienced person. So hopefully the groups will match up well. They did say that if we had any problems with anyone or anything, to come talk to them so they coul get it straightenedd out.

I think that I am going to be very blessed with this group of instructors as a first semester student! I feel so much better and very encouraged, so I hope that you get the same feeling from your program tomorrow.

I did know about 4 people in my class, from general ed classes, but not enough to be considered a close friend. But...they say that will change!! They said that these people will become family the next two years, and that they even have friends from their school days, and one instructor has been a nurse 32 years!!!

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

Thanks Blessed...My excitement lvl just went through the roof!! I cant wait....4 days!

Thanks for the info!

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Specializes in Neuro.

You are welcome, Crux! Hopefully, this will help settle some nerves! I know that I went in scared as all get out, as did everyone else, but my instructors so put us to ease. They even commented that we were laughing and smiling by 9:30, which apparently is some kind of record!!! I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.
You are right, Beth. We too were told to not read everything in all the chapters, to learn to skim and get the jest of it.

Don,

Believe me, you will not be the only nervous one!! But our instructors really put us at east right from the get go. We haven't discussed our clinical groups just yet, although they did say that there will be 2 main groups of 20 (we have 40 in our class) then we will break into0 smaller groups from there (probably 5 groups of 4.) They said that they will match us up with at least 1 "mature" adult and 1 with experience to a younger, inexperienced person. So hopefully the groups will match up well. They did say that if we had any problems with anyone or anything, to come talk to them so they coul get it straightenedd out.

I think that I am going to be very blessed with this group of instructors as a first semester student! I feel so much better and very encouraged, so I hope that you get the same feeling from your program tomorrow.

I did know about 4 people in my class, from general ed classes, but not enough to be considered a close friend. But...they say that will change!! They said that these people will become family the next two years, and that they even have friends from their school days, and one instructor has been a nurse 32 years!!!

Thanks for this info, Laura... it really helps! My program admits 150 students each fall, so there will be a lot of people milling about. I know of a couple already (my niece will be in my large group!), but I don't expect to really be meeting people until classes begin on Monday.

Good luck to you; let's make it a point to keep track of each other, OK?

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Specializes in Neuro.
my program admits 150 students each fall, so there will be a lot of people milling about.[/quote]

holy cow!!! 150 students? whew, i am sending lots of prayers your way!!! how many instructors do y'all have (sorry, i am a texan!!) we have 7 instructors for our 4 classes this semester. they were talking today about how they would love to accept more students, but the instructor shortage is worse than the nursing shortage (and it is really bad here) but what can they do? they make more at a hospital/home health than as an instructor.

yeah, you will be so overwhelmed at the speed of the orientation that you won't have a whole lot of time to mingle and meet people. you will have plenty of time for that later. and, as they warned us, you will learn a lot more about your classmates than you ever thought possible, or even wanted to!! :lol2: so be prepared!!!

please do keep in touch. we are in this together, and can always use as much support as we can get! btw, give twister a big hug and spend as much time this weekend as you can with him. he will start to feel neglected!!

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congratulations on getting through your first day orientation! you have to tell us how tomorrow goes.

:balloons: we're so proud of you!

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I had my orientation as well today! I was nervous maybe only the first ten minutes. One of the first things they did was to introduce all the instructors and let me tell you they were all so down to earth and friendly and the majority of the seemed to have a sense of humor. Cant beat that!!

However it was a really long day! We covered different trainings such as bloodborne pathogens, HIPPA, Standard Precautions, ect. We also covered the code of conduct and went over almost every single page the nursing student handbook. Those pages that we didnt have a long discussion about we skimmed through. We also had a question and answer session, which helped clear a lot up.

I knew about 6 people from previous classes but we didnt get much time to socialize. I figure we will get plently of chances to get to know each other. In fact I am counting on it since I will be seeing my classmates more than my own family!!!

I officially start school this coming Monday but I do have some reading to start as well as about 10 papers to sign acknowledging that I took all the training!! I have to make time for a little fun this weekend though, my husband got me tickets to see a preseason Rams game in St Louis

Last free weekend for a while!!!:roll

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

thank you for starting this thread, laura. i am bookmarking it so i can post it into threads where other students ask what the first day/orientation of nursing school is like. another member who started her lpn classes a few weeks ago started a thread and did some journaling as well. for anyone else reading this that is interested, here is a link to it:

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my program admits 150 students each fall, so there will be a lot of people milling about.[/quote]

holy cow!!! 150 students? whew, i am sending lots of prayers your way!!! how many instructors do y'all have (sorry, i am a texan!!) we have 7 instructors for our 4 classes this semester. they were talking today about how they would love to accept more students, but the instructor shortage is worse than the nursing shortage (and it is really bad here) but what can they do? they make more at a hospital/home health than as an instructor.

yeah, you will be so overwhelmed at the speed of the orientation that you won't have a whole lot of time to mingle and meet people. you will have plenty of time for that later. and, as they warned us, you will learn a lot more about your classmates than you ever thought possible, or even wanted to!! :lol2: so be prepared!!!

please do keep in touch. we are in this together, and can always use as much support as we can get! btw, give twister a big hug and spend as much time this weekend as you can with him. he will start to feel neglected!!

try 330! thats my freshman class, its lpb's and rn's together the first year, so maybe thats why its so large, but we have something like 15 instructors.

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