1totry31

I would like to say how did you ever get in to nursing school....and how did you stay in? I would also like to say that when our instructors say that no questions are stupid.....well thats not true and when you ask stupid questions, well it makes you look stupid...... Oh and you don't need your gloves to do everything, you can introduce yourself to a patient....oh and even do there vitals without gloves on......Where did all these ger a phobes come from? Wash your hands. I feel better now.

Oh and in my school anything lower than an 80 is failing...the slackers get weeded out first semester.....I really hope you aren't far into your program and seeing that slackers are still excelling.

Don't throw in the towel.... I am tired too, I am almost half way done and have only two semesters left, yet everyday I have to ask myself why I am going to school. The answer, because when I am done my education will be the only thing that I will have that nobody can ever take away from me. Pat yourself on the back..you say you are learning the material and retaining it? Good job, as for the slackers....if they are just memorizing facts and not learning how to apply what they are learning they don't stand a chance taking the NCLEX and they don't stand a chance when and if they get out in the real world. You will be prepared for the challenges that you will face as an RN, and you will be able to make the critical decisions that will benefit your patients health. As for those slackers...do what I do go home and laugh at them. I had a girl the other day ask what is cellulitis? Is that the same as cellulite? ( I used to wonder how they ever got in) Now I just go home and laugh. Oh I have another one who asked well how would you explain magliant? Or what is Lingular area? Is that in the mouth (its the upper lobe of the left lung). LOL Hang in there!

I have to do map mans too or concept maps. Basically they are a simmplified version of your care plan and I found them easier to do. If you send me your email address I can send you some of the care maps I made last semester and an example of one that I have in care plan book and one that my instructor gave us.

I think that if you are interested in becoming a doctor you shouldn't let all of your hard nursing work go to waste. A lot of these posts make it sound like nursing is a blow off and not difficult.....Many of my instructors are PHd level nurses and they are smarter then some of the doctors I have met, and I have seen them catch doctors errors on several occassions. I am saying that you should look into becoming an advanced practice nurse, or even a nurse midwife. I have two friends; one is a NP, she has a practice that she shares with an MD in a rural area. She writes prescriptions and sees her own patients everyday. She even does hospital rounds. My other friend is a CRNA, her salary is comparable to an MD in that she makes around 130,000 a year and she is incharge of maintaining peoples lives while they are under anesthesia (she is very similar to an anesthesiologist). Both had extensive graduate level training after nursing school, yet both are very well respected by the MDs they work with. I am just saying becoming an RN is a building block for many advancement opportunities. Nursing is a very respectable profession, and if it was as easy as some of the respondants on here clam that it is, I would't of had to compete for a spot in nursing school and beat out over 400 applicants who all had at least 3.5 GPAs. Also I had to take 2 semesters of CHEM at my school, a semester of BIO, 2 semesters of A&P, Micro, Organic CHEM, STATS and another Full YEAR of MATH, plus a foreign language... and all the other pre reqs that go with it psych, life span, nutrition, english, speech, ethics, patho phys, and the list goes on. For most people I'd say that isn't a piece of cake. Also as nurse I can honestly say when I am done next May, I will have a very well rounded education and I will be ready to apply to graduate school to get my MSN so I can become a nurse educator.

I am finishing my first year of nursing school and I have worked in health care as a tech for almost ten years, my back ground was always in new born, and then the past few years I have worked in out patient peds. I was really considering inpatient peds for when I graduate....but now that I have a toddler of my own I don't think that I can care for dying children....my passion and enjoyment comes from children....if I don't think I can do it, would you suggest that I work with adults? Or can you give some tips on how to cope?

I wanted you to know that you can do it! I started my pre reqs when my daughter was 5 months old and I am now in my second semester of rn school and getting ready to sit for my LPN boards this spring. I am also enrolled in an accelerated bachlors of business program at another school....On top of school and being a single mom, I also managed to get engaged recently and I am planning a wedding all while attending nursing school. Which shows you that I have a tiny bit of time to have a social life. My schedule is very full, and I don't sleep much, but I still manage to have 6 hours of me time every week, to just relax and watch tv or read....or go on all nurses. My key to managing my schedule is that I take all my nursing classes Monday through Wednesday including clinical. My days are jammed packed on Monday through Wednesday but I have a four day weekend from nursing school every week. My accelerated program only meets once a week on Thurseday evenings. My rule is that I take 2 hours for myself after that class (Thursday night) to catch up with friends etc. Fridays I am totally devoted to my daughter and whatever she wants to do. When she goes to bed on Friday night I pull out the books and start preparing for the following week. Saturdays I spend time with my family and catch up with house work....but I always devote a couple of hours every evening besides Thursday evenings to school, and I find as long as I do that I stay ahead of the game and I get good grades. I am not "Cing" my way through nursing school. I also find that if you wait till around 8 when the little one goes to sleep, you can get a lot more done, compared to when they are awake. My dad asks me every night "what are you doing" and I always have the same answer for him "homework" but I know that my hard wake is going to pay off soon, and I will be able to give my daughter the things that she needs. Hope that helps.

Recently I received an assignment in my peds class. I was assigned to develop a play therapy project for a preschool age child with a fractured tibia using only household or hospital items (no toys, game boys etc). Oh and it has to be therapeutic. I've been thinking about this project for weeks and I cannot think of anything for this child to play with to distract him from the pain of the fx and the hospitalization. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.