My first week of school was brutal ..... how's yours?

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  1. How was your first week of school?

    • 2
      Great! This is gonna be a breeze!
    • 36
      Good! If I work hard and stay focused, I will do fabulous.
    • 40
      It was okay. It will be hard, but can be done.
    • 14
      OMG. This is going to be waaaaaaay harder than I thought.
    • 5
      Nursing major?! HA. I have switched, to Ping Pong Instructor.

97 members have participated

Man oh man. I thought that the first few weeks of Fundamentals would be a breeze because I learned this stuff in my CNA class.

DURRR

We had a 3 hour lecture that covered 3 WEEKS worth of CNA training. :eek: I felt awful for the people that didn't already learn this stuff. If this is the pace of this program, I better seek immediate treatment for my cranial-rectal disorder and get to work. :lol2:

I made sure to ask the all important question the first day.... exactly which books will we absolutely HAVE to bring on which days. Luckily, we use most of our books at home and only need Fundamentals and Health Assessment most days. After that I went to La Target and got a great backpack....I'm too tall for a rolling bag, the handles never seem long enough....

>>>>TIP -- When I was trying to sort through the 4 mile aisle of backpacks, I found that I could better gauge the size by using binders. The school supplies were right there by the bags and so I just stuffed as many 1" binders (alternating spine on left, spine on right so they were square) as I could to see how many of my books I could carry if I had to. I found a pretty big bag that can hold quite a few of my books for only $25.

I also bought a small handbag (ON CLEARANCE!! $9) for my stethoscope, supplies, and valuables that can fit in the front pocket of the backpack. Now I can leave my 80# pack in class when I go to lunch and not have to worry about anything important disappearing.

Well, overall, other than the random overwhelming sense of

WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?!

I think it went pretty well. Speaking of, what the heck am I doing on HERE at 11:30pm when I have to go to school in the am?!?!?!? :uhoh3:

So, how is it going for everyone else?

I just noticed that this was my 100th post!! WOOT!

LMAO ping pong instructor. I love it. Well I don't think school will be bad. I just got to pay attention and be focused. I am in patho. II, Pharm. II, Med. surg II, med surg II clinical and med surg II lab. I ended up getting a 3.5 gpa last semester and A's and AB's (all like 1 point away from an A). I am not worried and also we even have a tutor at this level. Only thing extra is that I have a relationship. Hopefully it will go all ok.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

I'm in my second semester and there is so much to learn that it's a bit overwhelming. However, I voted that it was okay and I'll be fine. I just have to study my butt off and I'm sure it'll pay off.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I hope you don't mind me posting. Even though I've graduated I can vividly remember the horror of my first week in the LPN program. It went something like this,

Tuesday long, boring all day lecture

Wednesday got my first gander at the hermaphrodite manikin that would be the recipient of my first bed bath:eek:

Thursday on the phone in hysterics (crying, snot running etc) with my Mom "I don't want to be a nurse" fortunately she talked me in off the ledge

Friday wasnt so bad after all.

Hang in there, if I made it so can you!

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my first week was a bit overwhelming. :chair: i know it is going to be hard, but, i'll make it through. i'm sure i will have some great times, but, more often than not, i'm sure i'll be stressed and have my breakdowns, tears, questions of 'can i do this?', etc. but, i feel once i get this all in some sort of organized system, i'll be able to get a handle on it. the reading is pretty daunting. there is so much of it!

like the person from the first post said, although i am a cna, all the fundamentals were covered at a pretty fast past and i too, felt really bad for the people who didn't have any previous medical background. we had two people who didn't return the 2nd day. i think for me, all the stuff i know as a cna is valuable, but... its breaking the habits i have formed working as a cna. you know, the short cuts you develop to get your work done and make it possible to get done with a heavy patient work load. that's the real challenge for, at least for right now. i know in a few weeks there are going to be even bigger challenges.

as for supplies, i had a rolling book bag, but, i didn't much like it; going through doors, corridors, it was just awkward for me. so, i found a great backpack that worked out for me. but, word of advice, don't leave any of your books behind in your lecture rooms or labs, or anywhere unless the door to classroom will be locked during a break or lunch. i don't know if anyone has this problem at their school, but, our instructors told us that nursing books were like gold in our college and a lot of times the books are stolen by non-nursing students and sold for about $50 vs. the $200 you'd have to pay in the bookstore. our instructors actually encourage us to leave our books at home or in the car and only bring in the books we'll need for the day. whatever i bring in with me, stays with me wherever i go, which is a pain in the butt. but, i'd rather be a little inconvenienced than to have to shell out that kind of money again to replace the books.

anyways, back to the point, i had a good first week. a little crazy, a little confusing, but, i think we'll all do fine as long as we keep focused! good luck everyone!

janet

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Heh heh, our first day of actual classes....... we gave eachother bed baths in lab.... :uhoh21:

Talk about breaking the ice!!!

Everyone here is really cool though and I am having a great time.

Have a great semester everyone.

Bolt

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Specializes in Acute Care.

This is going to sound really strange, but I am BORED out of my mind. Seriously. For three years on the waitlist, I've been hearing about how wonderful the program is and how hard its going to be. But the only thing we've done so far is sit in a classroom listening to the teacher read the same exact info in the book off of powerpoint slides. And we spent an entire freaking lab on restraints. 5 hours on how to tie a slip knot! Granted, we're only 2 weeks in, but still. OMFG!

I keep telling myself that I will look back on these past to weeks with great longing in the near future, but all I can say for now is: bring on the clinicals!!! (At least we'll get out of the bloody classroom).

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I start class tomorrow... I'm really nervous. I'll post how it went and what we did tomorrow but I'd like to hear what some others did in class on their first day or week of school. :)

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This is going to sound really strange, but I am BORED out of my mind. Seriously. For three years on the waitlist, I've been hearing about how wonderful the program is and how hard its going to be. But the only thing we've done so far is sit in a classroom listening to the teacher read the same exact info in the book off of powerpoint slides. And we spent an entire freaking lab on restraints. 5 hours on how to tie a slip knot! Granted, we're only 2 weeks in, but still. OMFG!

I keep telling myself that I will look back on these past to weeks with great longing in the near future, but all I can say for now is: bring on the clinicals!!! (At least we'll get out of the bloody classroom).

i'm in 3rd semester.....don't worry second semester is MUCH harder! i thought 1st sem. was a breeze also, but then they slam you in 2nd sem.

we had 15 people either drop or fail in 2nd semester!...my advice- get your skills book out and start reading up on the skills you'll be doing in 2nd sem. like- ng tubes, dressing changes, iv's, inj., foleys, ect. (and you'll be skills tested on them also). this way you'll be ahead of the game!:wink2:

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Specializes in Acute Care.

Thanks digmart. Good to know things will get harder. (I actually just said that....?)

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Thanks digmart. Good to know things will get harder. (I actually just said that....?)

LOL.... like i said though you can get ahead of the game by studying skills out of your skills book NOW so that you are at least familiar w/ them by next semester. i think it would help!

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As far the backpack issue. I used to care alot about how cute it looked...thats over. I found a "Crate on wheels" literally at office depot. Ugliest thing you ever want to see! BUT IT AWESOME for nursing books. You have fit EVERYTHING in it. I highly recommend it. I think they have it at target also...its alil smaller there though...

First few weeks of school have been overwhelming but certainly fun.

They unleash us on REAL patients next week =)

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