2ndyearstudent

Look into CNA work. You can usually schedule your shifts around your class and clinical times. I had no problem doing this and I worked as a LTC CNA, a Home Health Aide, and a CNA on a Med/Surg floor duing nursing school. I worked days and evenings, with an overnight once in a while.

The best way to study for HESI is to study your regular class topics - with the addition of using NCLEX review questions on the topics you are covering. My program used the HESI tests to evaluate your stregths and weaknesses and give you a direction on what to work on. Hopefully your program does the same. I did horrible on my first HESI exams, scoring in the 600's on one. I got better, finally getting over 1000 on the HESI RN Exit exam. Mostly due to experience taking that type of test and working on NCLEX strategy and sample questions. Good luck.

I think you may have identified a reason for that.

This is very different in Associate Degree Programs. For the most part, grade inflation there is nonexistent. In general I would say it isn't any harder to get a C in an Associate Degree Program than a BSN program, but it sure as heck is a lot harder to get an A.

Man I'd do a lot right now for a 90% = A. I need a 10/90 on my final to get a C and a 85/90 to get an A in my final class of nursing school. I think my 4.0 is his-to-ry.

My care plans changed every time I changed instructors. I finally figured out I have to do a draft early, well before it is due, then run it by the instructor. They all have their own preferences for care plans so get them to tell you what they want, then give it to them. Good luck. I am so glad I have done my last nursing school care plan!

You don't deserve any of the respect you appear to be expecting early in the program. You haven't done a thing. You are the exact equal to a kid outta high school who got into the program same as you. Nursing school is like boot camp in a lot of ways. They break you down and they build you up. Go with it. These judgements you are making, the resentment of instructors, the muttering under your breath need to stop. Immediately. When I made a decision to change careers to nursing, I knew one of the things I would have to do is leave my "old self" behind. I was no longer a seasoned professional with almost two decades of getting things done in the real world. I was making multi-million dollar decisions before many of my classmates were out of diapers. You know what that is worth in nursing school? Nothing. I was a complete newbie with a CNA certificate and no experience. On the first day of my first CNA job, I kept my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut. I had a lot to learn before I could make any judgements. This experience is humbling, but it has great returns. In doing this, I earned respect from my peers and my superiors with my current actions, not my past accomplishments. When I started Nursing School sometime later, I used the exact same approach. In addition to attacking the material and working hard on all the skills, I focused on being a good resource for my fellow students and the instructors, assisting them with technical issues and acting as a liaison between them and the students. I have talked countless students terrified they weren't going to make it down from ledges. I ignored all the "Nursing School Drama" and noticed people tended not to bring you into it when they notice you aren't interested. I earned respect and in some cases downright adoration not for who I was before, but for how I conducted myself in the program. I graduate next Monday. Nursing school was tough, but it was a blast. I made some great friends in the class and among the staff. You can do this too, consider changing your thinking a bit. Good luck!

When you begin conversation with a strawman that includes the phrase, "..how do you live with yourself?" you pretty much forfeit the opportunity to respond as above. The problem you are going to run into with your sources and your tone is you sound exactly like the wingnuts who claim the US never landed on the moon, that the US government is the real perpetrator of 9/11, that vaccines cause autism... on and on. This type of thinking is so pervasive that many people who run into it over and over again tire of trying to explain certain concepts to you. Mostly because the answer you give always includes some boogyman like "The US Govt" or "Big Pharma". By your third year, you should have had a good deal of experience identifying reliable sources and gathering and presenting evidence based, peer reviewed data in a coherent form. So do that. But don't try to act all innocent when people call you out for using crappy sources, thinking and communication.

Be careful, there is another commonly used chemical that kills thousands of people a year. It can cause pneumonia, suffocation, spread disease, is toxic by itself without secondary causes and has many other known dangerous mechanisms of action. It is everywhere and corporations have even started bottling this known toxin and selling it in shiny single and multidose bottles. The more expensive non-prescription concotions using this chemical are known to cause diabetes, liver disease, and pancreatitis. Further, many of the poisons you describe above are mixed with this KNOWN KILLER. It is dihydrogen monoxide. Be on the lookout. http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

Chemistry is heavily involved in Anatomy and Physiology...and in Nursing School. You may not care where iron is located on the periodic table but there is a whole lot of stuff about iron, many other ions, and many other chemistry concepts you do need to know about. From my experience in nursing school, instructors are not real keen on teaching chemistry and A&P. They assume you will either know it or figure it out. Unless your school or program is rolling chemistry content into other courses, you are really not getting any favors done by not having it.

Engineering. In the 90's it was great - lots of work, lots of bonuses, promotions, stock options and comp time. I worked my butt off, but I saw rewards, both intrinsically in doing the job well and extrinsically in the aforementioned goodies. Then the internet boom subsided and I watched as my company was bought and sold a few times and each new owner laid off more of my friends and coworkers and shut down domestic manufacturing in favor of overseas production. The promotions, bonuses and raises stopped even as they asked for more and more hours. Since I was salary, I ended up working 20 or so hours overtime a week for free. So I changed employers. (My first engineering job is now being done in Shanghai). More of the same. Do more for less. Your reward for busting your tail was that you get to show up and do it again tomorrow. If tomorrow is Saturday or Sunday, you are busting your tail for free. Not to mention the corporate BS you have to navigate. I knew I needed to change something. I considered getting an MBA or advanced engineering degree, but then I looked at my boss and his boss, saw what miserable screws they were and said, "I don't want to be either of those guys." I was still paid OK, but I hated my job and my superiors. So one day, I thought about what I liked about my job and what I wanted to change. I decided to become a nurse. The best day of my entire career as an engineer was the day my boss called me into his office to review the umpteen "High Priority" projects heaped on my plate and said, "I'm outta here in 30 days man." I ended up doing some contract work for them during school for $35 an hour. No more working for free. Yesterday at the end of my shift as a NA on a Med Surg/Trauma floor, I held a very nice lady's hand and talked to her as she lay dying and afraid, waiting to be transferred to a palliative care unit. I know there will always be corporate BS in any job, but as long as I like the work I am doing (and they keep paying me for it), I can handle it. Good luck!

I learned them through sheer repetition. I remember first year getting thrown name after name in my first semester and being completely overwhelmed - Lasix, Bumex, Lovenox, Heparin, Atenolol, Narcan, Nitroglycerin, Nitroprussin, Metformin, Lantus, Novolog, Sinemet, Keppra, Ativan,.. I thought "No way am I going to remember this stuff" Even drugs you already know have different properties, actions and uses you have to learn. Tylenol, Aspirin, Vicodin, Valium, Morphine, Percocet, Aleve, Benadryl.... Makes your head spin. But after months and months of tying these drugs to physiological actions while studying body systems and giving them in clinical they eventually start to stick. Also, your instructors tell you to make those drug cards for a reason. Do them and refer to them often. Keep your drug book handy and look up EVERY SINGLE drug you see that you don't know about. (Early on this will be all of them). If you are watching TV and see a drug, try to think of its mechanism of action and nursing considerations. If you don't know, look that little mother up. It eventually gets drilled into your being. Have fun.

I am in the same boat. I have a Bachelors of Science in Engineering and am going to graduate with an ASN on May 16. I was always auto rejected for any student aid due to the number of undergrad credits I already have and I had to fill out waiver forms just to get Federal Student Loans - which I did get after filing the requisite paperwork. I also found that the people reviewing scholarships don't have much love for a middle aged male ex-engineer no matter my GPA, honors, or volunteering activities. I'm glad my future employers will be paying for my BSN education! Good luck. Those loans are bearing down on me fast.

Yep. Get a job in a crappy nursing home to get some experience so a hospital or clinic will look at you.

The only thing I would not like is the amount of time it would take away from studying for exams and completing assignments. Two twelves plus three days of work in a week doesn't leave much time for the constant grind of nursing school.