Fundamental in nursing

nurseneff · Jan 20, 2013

Hi can anyone give me some kind of insight of this course .I just got accepted to the nursing program and will be starting this semester.[/quote']
This course is basically your foundation for nursing. Your career and your education...this is where you first start to learn how to apply your knowledge of nursing and all about ADPIE... which will help you pass those ever so lovely nursing tests!!!

Clistine48 · Feb 18, 2013

Hi can anyone give me some kind of insight of this course .I just got accepted to the nursing program and will be starting this semester.[/quote']
I thank everyone for there good advise and thanks again it really helped a lot .

obloom14 · Feb 18, 2013

If you need help throughout your term...PM me I'll give my email. Feel free to ask any questions

besaangel, ASN, BSN, MSN, CNA, RN, APRN, NP · Feb 18, 2013

My fundamentals just started last week and so far so good. It seems pretty easy but I think its because I am a CNA and had to do a lot of the same skills/techniques during training. Working in healthcare helps quite a bit also

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Feb 19, 2013

Definitely not easy, but an important course because it's the building block to your other nursing courses - hence why it is called "Fundamentals."

You will be learning about the nursing process, charting, vital signs, medication administration, oxygen therapy, basic nursing care. We had a lab component for this class, too, and we had skills check-offs on four different tasks: patient transfers/ROM, vital signs, injection administration (intramuscular and subcutaneous, we had to demonstrate technique and also name and show the injection sites) and a sterile dressing change. We also learned other skills in the lab but those were the things we were tested on.

I would highly suggest purchasing an NCLEX book. Saunders is excellent, as is Hogan's NCLEX-RN Review. Do practice questions based on the material you are learning in class.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 19, 2013

One thing you will notice that's different from your science classes will be the test format. Nursing school instructors base their test questions on the NCLEX test. You may find these frustrating at first because all the answers seem correct. You will have to put your critical thinking cap on. I remember this test question on our second test: "your patient has bright red stool. What would you suspect? a) upper gi bleed b) lower gi bleed c) patient has hemmorhoids d) patient has a stomach ulcer."
Doh! All the answers could be correct here. I knew ulcers bleed, but is it passed in the stool? I remembered from A&P that most stuff is digested in the upper gi, so it may be hard to see blood from an ulcer in the stool. Hemmorhoids seemed right. Upper gi bleed sounded right, but so did lower gi... I later learned that lower gi bleeds appear bright red as the blood is fresh. Upper gi bleeds tend to clot and turn brown. The hemmorhoids will deposit blood on the stool but not in the stool.

FWIW, digested blood is black, tar-like (you sometimes see it described as "tarry," but make sure you don't make that rhyme with "marry" or mistake it as meaning "dawdle," as in "do not tarry or you'll be late.") Black, tarry stools are classic in UGI bleeds, not "brown or clotted" if passed per rectum. Just because blood is "digested" doesn't mean the iron in the hemoglobin isn't still in there. There is also a particular smell to this which, once you smell it, you will never mistake again.

You will also see black stools in anyone taking po iron supplements (though that doesn't smell like digested blood), so always ask if you see black stool if iron supplements are prescribed.

The rest is accurate. Especially important to differentiate blood on the outside of a formed stool (bleeding hemorrhoids) from blood in the body of the stool (red blood, lower GI bleed).