After months of document submittal, subjecting myself to immunizations and physicals, taking pre-reqs and 2 entrance exams, doing several interviews, and finally getting accepted - I'm ready to start on January 4th.
The school had its orientation last Friday. We were fitted for uniforms, given our textbooks, and informed of the class/clinical schedule for the first 6 months. I'm happy to report that we will get a very occassional day off here and there, but in late May, they give us a whole week to regroup, catch up, take care of business, and generally live life for 7 days!
The school director reinforced the notion that NS will be difficult but not impossible. The critical point being that we simply can not get behind. We need to understand all the concepts that we will be taught, because sure as snot, the one(s) we don't "get" will be the one(s) that will hang us up on NCLEX. She explained how the NCLEX CAT is designed and that if you show weakness in an area, you will get repeated questions to fully check for understanding (or not) of the subject. That was enlightening.
She further discussed the 4 levels of brain work that will get us through the next 11 months.
memorization (and lots of it, no getting around it)
understanding (the boatloads of material)
application (of the above), and finally
analyzing (all that we've learned)
Nurses aren't born, they're created. And I need to get going cuz they want us to hit the ground running. They gave us our first assignment due on the 4th. Eight chapters and complete the workbook. There will be a vocabulary test and a shorter quiz on the first day of class.
On your mark, get set, go.....
Anyone else want to start a new thread for January 2010 starts to share experiences? I'm game!
After months of document submittal, subjecting myself to immunizations and physicals, taking pre-reqs and 2 entrance exams, doing several interviews, and finally getting accepted - I'm ready to start on January 4th.
The school had its orientation last Friday. We were fitted for uniforms, given our textbooks, and informed of the class/clinical schedule for the first 6 months. I'm happy to report that we will get a very occassional day off here and there, but in late May, they give us a whole week to regroup, catch up, take care of business, and generally live life for 7 days!
The school director reinforced the notion that NS will be difficult but not impossible. The critical point being that we simply can not get behind. We need to understand all the concepts that we will be taught, because sure as snot, the one(s) we don't "get" will be the one(s) that will hang us up on NCLEX. She explained how the NCLEX CAT is designed and that if you show weakness in an area, you will get repeated questions to fully check for understanding (or not) of the subject. That was enlightening.
She further discussed the 4 levels of brain work that will get us through the next 11 months.
Nurses aren't born, they're created. And I need to get going cuz they want us to hit the ground running. They gave us our first assignment due on the 4th. Eight chapters and complete the workbook. There will be a vocabulary test and a shorter quiz on the first day of class.
On your mark, get set, go.....
Anyone else want to start a new thread for January 2010 starts to share experiences? I'm game!