I start grad school on Monday!!!

j621d · Mar 11, 2010

Oh, have I got news for you!! And it's all GOOD!! I have a Bachelors in Business Administration, and then got my BSN - 25 years ago! I started my MSN last January and am half way through the program, taking two classes per semester. I should graduate in December 2010 (nurse educator)!

Here's what I have been doing. Always try to work ahead. If something is due on Wednesday, try to turn it in on Tuesday. If you think something will take you 2 days to complete, plan on working on it for 3 days!

I study whenever possible, but I don't go past 10 pm (big projects I have occasionally gone to 11 pm). I started running with a group (I don't like to run) but it has helped me to get my exercise in. I only run 3 days per week and have completed two half marathons.

I work (32 hours/week) have a husband a dog and two kids (14 and 17). My weekends consist of mostly school work. All my classes are online - and I love it.

Congratulations to you! Just focus on each semester as they come.

DistrictNurse19 · Mar 11, 2010

:nurse:Wow! After reading your stories (J62ld and Heogog53) I feel inspired! I want to get a master's in Nursing Education as well, but dread the time (homework) and $$$ that I know I will have to spend...thanks for sharing and keep in touch!

Heogog53 · Mar 12, 2010

Thanks for the advice. I'm planning on getting a calendar and plotting out each course, so I can keep my assignments and objectives in PLAIN SIGHT.

We had our orientation to the website this evening. It appears to be simple, but, you know, some of us can screw up most anything...on a computer.

My kids are grown and gone. I was working fulltime til 3 1/2 years ago, when I caught a falling patient and my back got very messed up. The lousy workman's comp doctor didn't treat me properly, and I was becoming a basket case. I signed with an attorney to get some help- and all of a sudden, after begging for two years for a new doc, I got a second opinion!!! And a wonderful PT rehab program, too. I was officially released to go back to work on 1/20 and surprise!!!!!! There was no work. The greeting was, "Welcome back, Helga, but we have no work for you". I've been sitting on my butt for the last two months wondering what was going on, and my lawyer asked the insurance adjuster if she knew that I wasn't working at all. T'any rate, since my hospital didn't appear to want me back in any shape or form(which I think is a violation of the ADA and EEOC laws), my lawyer submitted a a settlement figure. Once I agree to that, then I will have to voluntarily resign and "never darken their door again".

So I've been looking for jobs. There aren't any out there. I've had four job interviews and God only knows how many jobs I've applied for....

If the settlement is large enough, I'm going to try to do the MSN in a year, not work, just concentrate on doubling up classes and getting done. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be large enough to help me pay for school and living expenses.

I hope that the market for a brand new MSN in Nursing Education will be good to wonderful when I graduate.

It's hard to believe that I finally committed to another degree program! Supposedly, tomorrow, my classroom will load and we'll be able to get in and look at our assignments. I'm a bit concerned; the first class is Ethics. Starting off with a somewhat oblique class may give me heartburn. Lucky for me, I have a wonderful boyfriend who can discuss ethics until I fall asleep!

T'any rate, I'll stop now. I tend to be long winded.....

Thanls for all the encouragement, you guys.

allnurses Guide · Mar 14, 2010

I only took one class a semester, so it wasn't as bad. What I tended to do was write papers for each class along the same theme; so that even though the main focus was different, I was already familiar with the topic. We usually chose our own topics (roles, politics, concepts). Mine tended to be EMTALA, and ER topics within the larger assignment.

Heogog53 · Mar 14, 2010

Thanks for the tip. I start with ethics. The two text books are as DRY as they can be- have to work on discipline to get through the initials readings. ARGH.

DistrictNurse19 · Mar 15, 2010

That's another thing (besides the $$ and time)...those boring textbooks about theory and critical thinking blah blah blah. I just can't stay awake... :jester: :crying2:

Moogie · Mar 16, 2010

If the settlement is large enough, I'm going to try to do the MSN in a year, not work, just concentrate on doubling up classes and getting done. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be large enough to help me pay for school and living expenses.
I hope that the market for a brand new MSN in Nursing Education will be good to wonderful when I graduate.
It's hard to believe that I finally committed to another degree program! Supposedly, tomorrow, my classroom will load and we'll be able to get in and look at our assignments. I'm a bit concerned; the first class is Ethics. Starting off with a somewhat oblique class may give me heartburn. Lucky for me, I have a wonderful boyfriend who can discuss ethics until I fall asleep!

Hey, Heogog---

First of all, kudos to you in finding a program and getting started. Seriously, that is a huge part of the battle right there.

I do want to caution you regarding trying to finish the MSN within a year. If you're talking three semesters, that would be twelve credits a semester and that's the load I am taking right now. It's not easy. I am not working---not quite the same situation as yours because I did have previous graduate credits (which did not transfer) and felt caught in an employment limbo as I was too qualified (in terms of previous experience and education) for some positions but underqualfied (because of no master's) for others. Much of the information presented in my coursework is not new to me so it isn't as overwhelming as if it was completely unfamiliar. But still, twelve credits is a lot and I wish I would have taken just one less class, at least this first semester.

I've also had the experience of Murphy's Law happening with one of my classes---if anything can go wrong with technology it does so in that one particular class. That has been very stressful for me and the technological issues have taken up far more time than they should have. Among the things that have gone wrong were: software incompatibilities (which required me to invest a good amount of money on different software and new hardware), group discussion entries on which I have worked for hours that disappeared because the page unexpectedly refreshed, and nearly losing my computer connection in the middle of a test that had a time limit and could only be taken once. Considering that three of my classes are online and one is on campus, I would have liked to have had a bit of time to become more familiar with the online system because these issues just about drove me up a wall.

My suggestion is that you might want to start with just your one class, get accustomed to taking courses online and getting back in the routine of school, and then take more credits your next semester. It might take longer than a year but at least you will have your sanity! I am not taking more than nine credits in a semester again, even if it means that I need to prolong this process by another semester.

Feel free to send me a PM if you want a bit of support from someone else going through this journey. I am on spring break right now but am spending most of it working on papers that are due as soon as break is over.

Moogie · Mar 16, 2010

That's another thing (besides the $$ and time)...those boring textbooks about theory and critical thinking blah blah blah. I just can't stay awake...

This is why I am a nerd queen. I love theory, I am intellectually stoked by reading about theory and learning about theories that are unfamiliar to me, and I have been known to read nursing textbooks for fun. If I do my readings late at night, I find that I am too much into them to get any sleep.

Yes, I am utterly pathetic.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Mar 16, 2010

Congratulations! You will be amazed at how well you will adapt. Just take it one day at a time, one class at a time. I am thoroughly enjoying my grad school journey, even though at times it is very challenging. Anything of value in life presents a challenge, but the knowledge and personal growth make it so worthwhile.

AOx1 · Mar 18, 2010

Congratulations! You will likely be surprised at how quickly the time will fly. Some advice that worked well for me:

Just as in nursing, prioritize. Some weeks you may have family matters that are more important, some weeks school must take priority.

As mentioned above, I also worked ahead. I would stay 1 assignment ahead at all times, then if disaster struck, I was fine! I was really grateful for this during my master's when I also managed to get pneumonia :) That said, don't look at the whole of what you have to accomplish, it can feel overwhelming, and really it isn't if you just break it into small steps.

Give yourself small rewards such as a nice dinner out, a mini-vacation, lazy day with friends/family on a regular basis. Even if you only say: "If I finish this paper, I will go on a long walk with a friend"- it will help you.

Use the writing center if your school offers one. Since it's been awhile, this can help you get back in the habit of using APA style for papers, especially since APA fairly recently switched to 6th edition.

I would also cook on weekends a lot, preparing salads, entrees, cut veggies, soups. This way during the week I could eat nutritiously and in a hurry- it was "fast food" without the junk. I relied heavily on cookbooks such as "Robin Rescues Dinner" by Robin Miller and the EatingWell series, all of which are fast and yummy.

I also would spend an hour daily working out while watching a fairly useless TV program :)

It helped me out a lot to do these things. I graduated in a year while working full time and still spending plenty of time with family and my volunteer activities.

Heogog53 · Mar 19, 2010

To everyone-

Wow and thanks fr the encouragement as well as the advice on getting organized. I must admit to a shaky start. I didn't get my formal acceptance til Monday, had to call and manage various paperwork items, to be confirmed as a student and get official permission to register for my class. Wednesday, I finally received my log in information, spent a lotof time trying to figure out how to find my course portal, to get to the syllabus- and had had propofol Wednesday AM for endoscopies, so my mental skills were a ....tiny bit...impaired. I had already missed the first assignment, due by midnight Wednesday. I contacted the Prof and told her that I'd just opened the course, apologized and told her I'd do my best to catch up. Plus we have a paper, APA style, due on Sunday night.

It's ethics, so the reading is pretty intense and heavy. However, I suspect that as a "warm up" course, to get all of us back into the swim of academia, it'll be a good one. It also will force me to articulate those things that I have always used in both questioning the system in some way as well as my actions throughout my career.

In college, I used a calendar and would right down all the syllabus info for each course, breaking down my homeowrk into chunks; my calendar would read something like this; Monday 2 hours Social Anthropology, 3 hours of Physcial Anthropology, with the rest of the week assigned in the same way. I'd even schedule particular time to go to the library to get my sources together for my papers and the like, and especially for Physical Anthro, scheduled one day to make up a set of flash cards to help memorize species, genus, phyllum, etc. Thanks for reminding me of the calendar scheduling method again!!!

And it's late Thursday, on a day eaten up with appointments again. Tomorrow, at least 4-6 hours of study, then Saturday, more of the same and hopefully the paper is due Sunday, so I can spend the day working on polishing, editing and clarifying my paper.

Once again, thanks for the encouragement. I really want to become an excellent nursing instructor, because I remember the difference between the effective instructors through out my life, whether in school or in a clinical setting. I remember being set up by several of my OR "preceptors" as well as the supportive ones who let me find my way, ensuring I had the requisite information without getting in my way. I tried to emulate them and discovered that I talk too much and push too hard; probably things that can be refined and improved upon.

So, I am a real grad student after all these years! :yeah: :jester: Mentally I'm starting to gear up and get involved. Watch out world!!! Here I come, back to academia, ready to start kicking butt and knocking down the courses....

Helga