Miami Dade College Spring 2016 nursing program admission

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Good morning/night to all who are reading this,

I created this post in the hopes that all applicants applying for the nursing program at Miami dade submit their experience they have had so far and also submit any questions they might have. I'm currently applying for the accelerated option but would like to hear what others are doing in the part time and generic option. A little about me is that I have a BSN in health science (2014) and have taken all the prerequisites with the exception of A&P 2 (which I am retaking in summer b June 22).

Right now my biggest concern is the hesi a2 exam we have to take and making sure i ace it because my science gpa is not so hot right now. I have read prior posts and it seems like A&P is the most challenging section. Has anyone taken it as yet? Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Also I'm worried that after they evaluate my degree they might not take my science subjects and make me re do them ? ? . Has any one's transcript been evaluated yet?

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Posted by MissPichu,

Alright guys I just passed my first semester All A's one B, so I'm going to write it down before the euphoria makes me forget completely. Is nursing school impossible? Hell no! But does it require all/most of your attention to do good? Hell yes! Now mind you this is for the generic, imagine this applies more to the accelerated and less for the part time. What First semester Nursing is like - Ultimate guide Fundamentals: A class that teaches you the basics on how to think like a nurse, how to prioritize your decision making, an introduction on everything that has to do with well, being a nurse. It will also have an end of semester exam called HESI that's 15% of your grade which they recommend you use this thing called Evolve which you'll be given. It's helpful, you do a bunch of questions but also use the Saunders NCLEX review, about $60 new (you'll use it for the rest of the prog).Study for HESI from day 1 because if not you could be like one of the few that desperately needed that full 15 pts to JUST PASS THE CLASS with a 77. If you've done so bad in lecture that your last hope is a third party exam, I've got news for you, good luck. Do well in class from the beginning so HESI does not become an obstacle. Some people actually try to get an A in the class so they can "fail" the HESI and still pass with a B or C (100-15= 85). With that said it's hard to get an A in the lecture but you can try. Buy @ amazon Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN® Examination You WILL be assigned like, let me count exactly... 87 pages or 7 chapters before you even start, an email will be sent approximately 1-2 weeks before with the syllabus urging you to read these chps before class. I didn't cause I'm dumb, how bad could they be right, I have a previous degree bla bla. Take this opportunity to get a head start. Pace yourself because you'll have an exam about 3 weeks after starting on all those chapters which like plenty of time ,... until you factor that you have 4 more classes with tests too. I tried to read them cover to cover and OMG it was exhausting because the book we were assigned likes to take up half a page explaining a bold word concept over and over, and it gets so wordy... something that could have easily been condensed to like 2 sentences stretches on and on that you end up confused about what the hell they mean. Read the first 4 sentences after a bold word, write down an example or better yet make one up yourself and MOVE ON. No you don't need to read the whole damn thing. Look at the charts, tables especially the ones with labs values (you know the ones that look like a nurse would need to know).Read for comprehension not completion. Also please try to read the chapter before class. You'll go into it actually following along instead of deer in the headlights look O_O this also means you're not behind on reading if you're following the class schedule. Better yet record the classes, sit in the front,you'll be less pressured by not taking notes knowing you have a copy of what went on and now you can actually pay attention. What should you be paying attention to? Anything they emphasize or spend a lot of time on! This is usually what will be on the test but don't think that just because they fly through a chapter that it's not going to be on the test, it will, they just ran out of time and you're still responsible for that content. Welcome to college! You'll feel overwhelmed like you can't do this, it's too much. It is but part of the training to become a nurse is focusing on what's important and ignoring the fluff. The problem is everything feels important at first and your professors will tell you to read everything but ignore them they've been out of school for a while and many are nurses 1st teachers 2nd. So everything is just a game on managing your time, the assigned workload, the upcoming tests and performances. Here are some specific tips for specific classes. Skills: VIDEOTAPE THAT MOFO. Do it don't be shy, ask 1st though. It will save your butt when you've only seen a skill once and practiced once. It's not enough to go into testing and ace it. Having a copy of how your prof does it is imperative. Sure you can find on Youtube videos but everyone does it a little different and in the end it's your professor who's grading you. Go on with your classmates to practice in the lab. For the first exam practice your overriders which is a little script you say every damn time for any procedure (hence it overrides). It goes something like: knock knock, open curtain, close curtain, sanitize hands "hello my name is MissPichu, and I'll be your student nurse today. Can you please state your name and DOB for me please? Thank you. How are you feeling today? (Bla bla) Alright. Today I'll be(for ex. taking your BP). If it's alright with you I'm going to go wash my hands and gather my supplies." You'll be hella nervous that 1st exam, it's because you're being watched and unsure of your competence. You solve this by practicing every single little thing you'll do over and over again. From the way you'll enter the room and move the dummy etc.Do it in your head, write down the steps to a procedure, explain in to your cat until he knows how do it LOL. But remember to breathe and stay calm during your exam. You'll get used to it but some teachers can be really intimidating. Don't take it personal. Don't take anything personal actually. Don't waste time whining it'll just bring you down. Pharm/Math: Practice makes perfect. Do the exercises in the book until you can do them in 2 minutes. If you can get prof T. count your lucky stars you just got an amazing prof. Follow her method, it has a way of verifying you set up the problem correctly which is a huge confidence booster when you'rerunning against the clock, trust me you don't have time to second guess which numbers to use in a problem. I'm not so great at math but it's doable. It's not hard math, very much like the kind you needed to use in your pre-req Chemistry class. Health assessment: This is very much a combo of skills and fund. It has a test component that you have to read the chapters to differentiate between different diseases and an application performance part.This class is important for when you start clinicals and pretty much all of nursing. If cannot properly ascertain WHAT is wrong with your patient then you're useless as a nurse. This class teaches you the normal variations in healthy people and when something is abnormal (ex: moles, is that a cancerous mole? How do you know, through A,B,C,D,E's). Assessment is the first step of the nursing process. Makes this class your friend.Practice the questions/statements that you'll ask your "patient" asyou review each body part. For example, at the head: I feel no contusions,depressions, see no bleeding, no signs of infestation, hair is well distributed and shiny. Mr. John do you have any history of headaches, seizures, dizziness,head injuries or surgery? Clinicals: Oh boy. Okay I was super stressed at first. It's a little intimidating. I've never been to a hospital let alone a nursing home. Here is where you put all you've learned to practice. You'll clean butts, bathe patients, feed them. Talk to them. Maybe change a dressing,clothe them, take their vitals and practice your health assessment. You mostly work as nurse assistant because CNAs are the people that you delegate routine care to so you must first start there and work your way up. So how do I say this, don't despair so much about the "dirty" work. That's not what you're studying for. You need to know how to do it and do it from time to time but it's not your main job. You won't start until a month into the program. By then you should know how to assess the lungs, the heart, take a BP. You'll be given a patient to take care of and write a "plan of care" for which you need to pass at least 2 to pass the class. Basically you'll go through their medical chart gathering info on them, write down current medications, write their medical diagnoses, look them up in your books,formulate your nursing diagnosis, rank them by order of priority, then go on your fundamentals book/Ucentral app/Medsurg/Assessment books and scan them for interventions that you can implement based on whichever problem you chose to help them on. For ex: if your patient has Impaired skin integrity from a pressure ulcer then one intervention would be to turn them every 2 hrs. Why every 2 hrs? Well that's where you go into your books looking for the rationale/reason for that. Nursing is evidence based, meaning we don't just make stuff up and do them. If that were the case we still be bleeding people out to get out the bad humors from the body LOL. Work with your classmates, they'll be 8 of you. Partner up and help each other. It makes so much more bearable. The hardest part of clinical is how no one is holding your hand, you're independently spending 7 hrs there taking care of your patient. Don't wait for your prof to give you directions, think for yourself. Even if your patient is sleeping you can look into their chart, help your classmates, gain experience, volunteer to do glucose checks for all the diabetics. Practice your assessment on people. I recommend you buy the jarvis pocket book guide to take to Clinicals. You'll forget how to do a specific assessment and it will save your butt Buy @ amazon Pocket Companion for Physical Examination and Health Assessment Bring a big water bottle with you, you do not want to drink from the water fountains and invest in quality lotion because you're hands will be dry from all the handsanitizer. FYI careplans take forever to do, I've gotten good enough to do them in like 6 hours but they can take days so do them little by little or you'll stay up the night b4 finishing it (No careplan=FAIL). Trust me you don't want to go sleep deprived to clinicals. General school tips: Exercise 30 mins everyday. You'll be stressed and you'll need some endurance for all the constant walking in clinicals. Eat breakfast!! Yogurt and a banana ppl. Also Take snacks with you to class. They're long and you'll get hungry, I eat in class and I sit in the front. Maybe nothing too loud though. Sleep! Please at least 7 hrs. I have a psych degree ppl, being sleep deprived is worst than being drunk. You will NOT learn or be motivated to study in that state. You're memory goes to hell too. Also you're immune system goes down and you'll get lovely colds. You don't have time to be sick in nursing school LOL Go to your professors after every exam to review your answers. This way you'll know what you got wrong and understand how your professor writes tests. Invest in a planner or a white board calendar. From the moment you have all your syllabi write down the assignments and how many chapters you'll read per week. Keep this somewhere visible so you know what you have to do everyday. Buy your pants from Uniform Advantage in Westland mall for like $15 each especially if you're short. They match the color very well or try the store called Blue Angels across the school. I recommend the Always nursing shoes, very comfy and cheap $35. For the white clinical top, yeah I got the one at school ugg $40. In total I have 3 shirts and 2 pants. I'll need another shirt/pant for next semester for Clinicals. Classes are 3 times a week, clinical once. I rewear the pants. but don't like rewearing the stuff I wear to clinicals (you know some of those pts have infections right?) I don't wear my clinical shoes into my house/car for nothing so I have flipflops I change into after leaving the clinical. Invest in a rolling bookbag. The school has elevators. Save your back. Use Anki virtual flash cards. Put anything from concepts, bold keywords, anything on there. Install on your phone/pc and review everyday a couple. I recommend OneNote for digital notes. It has a sharing function which is nice to give your classmates your notes, they can also edit them if you allow. I have my notes on my phone and it's great. There are quizzes online for your classes. Study Blue is one website and so is Quizlet use them if you want Rent your books from Chegg.com or in general rent them. The books are expensive and once you return them you can always go to the school library and look up a previous book if you need to clarify something. Review Physiology! Anatomy hasn't really been a huge part so far, as long as you know where things are it's good. But the function of HOW things in the body work is hugely important. Especially tonicity, the sodium potassium pump, digestion, the cardiovascular system. Alright guys that's all I have to say. Manage your time. Be positive. Good luck.
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Posted by MissPichu,

What Second semester Nursing is like -Ultimate Guide Alright before I dive into the specific classes I'm going to let you know that this semester is hard in content. Yes first semester was overwhelming in the sense that everything is new, scary and you don't know what works for you yet. This semester you'll be learning the meat and potatoes of nursing w/Md-Srg and then you add Pharmacology which is consistently rated the most tough subject for students, THEN you have a super fast-paced Skills class which for some nervous performance anxious folks like me is just peachy. Oh and your clinicals are now back to back two days out of the week (hope you exercised like I told you in 1st semester). The message of this semester is like always TIME MANAGEMENT. My advice is to try as best you can to learn all about the diseases in Med Surg (because it builds up on it later) and get as much as you can from clinicals and incorporate medications a little bit everyday. Skills is just practice and calming your nerves. I have included concept maps I've made that made me synthesize the information in a digestible format, hope it helps. Ok here we go! Med-Surg: · A class where you'll learn the pathophysiology of diseases (aka: how a normal functioning body gets all f*#% up) · And their respective nursing interventions (what are you going to do to help the patient heal/manage their disease). · The classic symptoms to recognize said disease (this is where your 1st semester health assessment comes in) This is a very important class. You must to do well and try your hardest to understand the difference between the etiology, or cause of the different diseases to logically understand the appropriate interventions needed. For example: Similarities between a patient that has Peripheral vascular disease and a patient that has coronary artery disease. They're basically the result of uncontrolled hyperlipidemia but with different body sites. If you take a look at the typical American diet high salt (BP) + high sugar (Diabetes) + high fat (artherosceloris clogged vessels) These are all factors which can lead to Stroke/heart attack. So your pt that has peripheral artery disease is most likely to also be a diabetic which complicates things because both conditions predispose you to need amputation from lack of blood flow to the extremities. So these are all the things you start to look out for when reviewing a patient's medical chart and you ask them relevant health history questions to rule out these variables. This is what they mean by being an advocate for your pt. Sure they may have come in for an ingrown toenail but once you talk to them you see they have all these other things. FYI: This is why they make you do all those careplans. They're hoping that by the 4th time you've done a careplan on someone with impaired tissue perfusion that you'll know the variables that come together to affect that symptom and all the different ways you can address it. Oh and this class is divided into two sections. You'll get the other half in the last semester called Advanced Med- Surg but the popular diseases are to be found in this class. So tip for the future, review this class during the third semester as well as Pharm! Study using concept maps, or make your own to fit your needs: https://allnurses.com/nursing-mdc-t668369/?page=10&tab=comments#comment-7373815 Med-Surg Clinicals: Here is where the action happens big time. Everything you've learned up to this point, especially the head-to-toe assessment and medication administration come into action. You'll get a taste of what true hospital nursing feels like for better or for worse. What you get out of this rotation will set the pace of how the rest of your program will be like clinical wise (fyi many new RNs start in MD-SRG). If you do the smart thing and get over your fear and throw yourself at anything and everything you will learn a lot and build the confidence you'll need later. Whatever you do, don't just stand there behind the linen cart talking, there's so much you could be doing. At the very least just offer to spend some time with one of the patients and observe what's on their IV pole, going at what rate, understand the jumble of cables. I want you to know that it is totally normal to lay awake in bed the day before clinicals dreading going in because it is stressful. Just hang in there, it's part of the process, don't let your demanding professor, the unhelpful nurses, the smells, germs, the quickness of it all make you go crazy. Remind yourself that the program is 16 months only and laugh a lot. Keypoints · Day 1 may be following a PCT to understand the unit changing bed linens, chucks, feeding, bathing. Day 2 you'll be assigned a pt and corresponding nurse you'll follow the rest of the day. Professor may or may not assign the same nurse everytime or rotate. · Typical day is: Arrive in the morning-> be assigned a pt and RN introduce yourself to RN and take notes on report-> follow RN as they check up on all their pts & do head to toe assessments w/RN-> go into med room -> give scheduled meds to pts ->Rn charts/You get pt info -> get meds again -> do anything that needs to be done in pt rm (draw blood/ wound care/apply SCD) -> eat? -> chart chart-> post conference · Get organized during report -> get a brainsheet! Use it to keep track of all your pt info because you will forget something when in post-conference and be grilled for it! The Ultimate Nursing Brain Sheet Database (33 nurse report sheet templates) · You'll either get helpful nurse or don't bother me nurse. Take full advantage of the former you WILL fight to have them assigned, for the later ehhh, try to get the pt info ASAP and get out of their way. If you get a nice nurse, buddy up to them and network! They have invaluable advice to give. · Depending on clinical site/RN, getting pt info may be difficult and stressful with a demanding professor. Some RNs don't like printing stuff out and some systems don't let two people logged in at once (so best bet is politely asking them to linger on your pt's file while they are already there SO PAY ATTENTION and know what you need aka brainsheet!) · Look up Cerner Millennium on youtube (most used charting software, learn it, put it on your resume, you're welcome J ) · FYI there's a way on Cerner for two people to access the same pt info (I believe one is just a viewing screen, ask around and you may find someone who knows how, I can't find where I wrote it down lol). · Volunteer to do anything and everything. Never been taught? Grab your professor and ask for a demonstration/supervision (students have inserted IVs, drawn blood, given IVP, NG tube, wound care, given meds, documented on WOW). · Nurses are in a RUSH to chart. They do very fast express head to toes and everything else. You're learning so it can be overwhelming. Again don't be afraid to tell them that you're staying behind to talk to your pt to get subjective info, etc. get to know your pt, make sure their bedrails are up b4 you leave. · Depending on your professor, you might get to bounce around the hospital observing different floors like OR, dialysis etc. Use these opportunities to see what you might like down the line. · Get a portable finger pulse oximeter (save yourself time with HR and O2 vitals) · I eat those squeezable food pouches that they sell for kids. Amazing snack on to go. I also recommend drinking BOOST as a morning breakfast, has protein and it keeps you going with added vitamins and minerals. · RNotes clinical pocket guide it's $35 money VERY well spent. Just do it please Buy @ amazon RNotes Pocket Guide · Also a mini sharpie with a clip, I've seen RNs with them to write on bandages, labels, it's useful. · Get a whitecoat clipboard that can fold in half so it fits into your nurse pant pocket and you don't have to set your board down somewhere nasty, it also has useful lab values and reference stuff. Buy @ amazon White Coat Clipboard · Some people like to get those ID badges with info on them, useful but pick carefully which one to attach, as too many it gets heavy and it can lean into the patient's face/body. Here's a complete set but you can buy individually for cheap ($2) I recommend the lab values if you didn't buy the above clipboard Buy @ amazon Comprehensive Vertical Badge Card Reference Set - 27 Cards: Health & Personal Care Skills 2: Much of the same experience from first semester skills except this time around you'll be learning more invasive procedures: Foley insertion, Trach suction, Trach care, NG tube, Hanging an IV. I hope you did well on sterility because these procedures depend on it. The class is very short, half of the semester practically and every week there is an exam so there's very little time to practice in the lab. I found it helpful to write down step by step the uhh steps to the procedure as my professor wanted. You'll find very common that professors have certain ways of doing things that are extra than what it says in the book. So best to record if possible, hell many change their mind halfway through the semester and expect something else on exam day. It sucks. Practice practice practice sterility. · I found trach suction and care to be difficult because you have to switch hands and set up your sterile field up in a way where you dance around grabbing items off it. · Take a video of yourself practicing in the lab. It's very helpful because you find better ways of doing things. · Skills is a class effort from everybody to pass. You'll practice in groups in the lab and see other students practicing, overall it's what helps the most. Pharmacology: Oh my god. This class sucked. It can make or break you depending on the professors. Some people CANNOT teach this class period. SO here are some tips in you find yourself in that sad sad situation. Pharmacology is composed of its action (what it does), indication (what it's meant to treat), pharmacologic class (the category its in), therapeutic class (medicinal category), side effects (hint they're usually the drug working too well), and nursing considerations when administering this drug. Tips: · Drug names usually have endings that signal that they belong to a particular pharmacologic class which in turn corresponds with a therapeutic effect and indication. Ex: Beta blockers end in -lol Propranolol Metoprolol Atenolol Bisoprolol Carvedilol Timolol Labetalol Sotalol Nadolol Acebutolol Esmolol Betaxolol Metoprolol Succinate Celiprolol Carteolol It's indicated for HTN, angina pectoris, tachyarrhythmias, migraines, MI prevention, glaucoma, heart failure It's action on the body is to compete with adrenergic neurotransmitters such as epinephrine and norepinephrine thus blocking the effects these neurotransmitters would have on the body (which is to get the body in a fight or flight response, HR, urinary retention, dilate pupils, bronchodilation, uterine relaxation, vasodilation). SO if it's blocking those effects, we can then expect it to: HR, BP, bronchoconstriction That's why we wouldn't want to give certain non-selective beta blockers to ASTHMATICS because if one of the effects is to constrict the bronchioles then you'd choke an asthmatic person! THUS a nursing consideration would be to select a beta 1 selective medication for a patient with asthma and say HTN. Because some of the side effects of beta blockers can be the medication working too well, a nursing consideration would be to WATCH OUT for fall risk (why? Because what would happen if your BP goes down too much and there's not enough pressure to pump blood to your head??) · Learning a drug's ACTION tells you right away what it WILL DO on the body, the side effects all hinge on that action, and the nursing considerations and appropriate interventions are related to it. Sometimes you do get weird SE or adverse effects that you must memorize because going into the HOW a drug triggers it is too complicated. · First learn the endings that are assigned to each pharmacologic class (-lol =beta blocker -tidine =H2 blocker -caine =local anesthetic -sartan =angio receptor blocker -statin =lipid lowering) · Then learn ONE prototype of each pharmacologic class. Meaning pick the drug you find easy to remember and study it real nice, the action, SE, indications, nursing considerations etc and then just mentally attach the different names with similar drug endings under that one pharmacologic umbrella. · Caveat. Some drugs like the ones used to treat mental health conditions do not have a common ending L So these just try your hardest with mnemonics to attach the name of the drug to a pharm class (EX: Man, I'm so depressed this year. I've had the Flu twice already. I feel like such a SPEC Fluoxentine Fluvoxamine Sertraline Paroxetine Escitalopram Citalopram are all SSRI or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors which all have similar SE and Nursing considerations.) · I recommend the following to study pharm and make it stick in a visual fun way. It has goofy pictures and on the back everything you need from its action, SE, considerations, and contraindications and precautions. It can fit in your clinical pocket and is a great quick reference book ($25) Buy @ amazon Mosby's Pharmacology Memory NoteCards: Visual, Mnemonic, and Memory Aids for Nurses · Now this is the grand daddy of all pharm reference books. BUY IT. It is a small chunky book but honestly super in-depth if you plan on making your own study guide. It has everything ($40) Buy @ amazon Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses · I bought this but it was too much for my purpose (400 cards) and annoying to flip through all the cards or take to clinical when I was giving drugs to pts. ($30) It is however, more info and good for pop quizzing yourself, just not practical in clinicals unless you take only the cards you encounter commonly on the floor Buy 2 amazon Pharm Phlash Cards!: Pharmacology Flash Cards
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Hi.. I have no experience with the Miami dad program.. I am currently looking into it since I am moving in December. I am going to start studying for the hesi a2 this week and hopefully take it soon.

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GisellePerez said:
Hi.. I have no experience with the Miami dad program.. I am currently looking into it since I am moving in December. I am going to start studying for the hesi a2 this week and hopefully take it soon.

Hey Giselle ,

You're pretty much in the same boat as me.. Are you planing on taking the accelerated route or generic?

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

You should post this in the "Students" forum. You'll be more likely to get more responses there.

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Yea I created one in the student forum as well. I saw a 2015 one in the general section so I just posted it here as well just in case there were any 2016 applicants like myself

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Hi there! I am also applying for MDC Nursing Spring 2016. The application is due September 1st, and I'm doing Accelerated. So for Spring it's confirmed we need to take an entrance exam?

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CONFIRMED: The entrance exam is the HESI A2

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Hi everyone I'm also applying for the spring 2016 term to mdc. Currently taking microbiology and studying to the Hesi.

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Specializes in Surgical transplant.

Hi. Got rejected for fall 2015. I have a combined gpa of 3.62. But I think there's a better chance in spring, there's always less applicants in spring and it'll be the entrance exam score and science gpa, which in my case it's my forte. What study guides did you guys purchase?

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Hello everyone! it is nice to meet you guys. I was waiting for someone to create this forum. I'm going for the generic option full-time, and I am currently studying for the Hesi A2 exam. The countdown is on! Remember important date deadline is September 1st. Good luck! I wish you all the best

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@idee yes that's the book I purchased as well.

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Hey guys .. For those of you that took your pre requisites from another institution do you know if you have to take the chem 1033. I took mine at USF , chem 1045 and 1046 and it seems as if they want me to re do it at Miami dade. Is there way to get an exemption

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