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?
ive been reading these forums, and then said why am I not creating an account, and asking a question already
Anyway I'm looking to apply to the part time nursing program at miami dade. My natural science gpa is a 3.3, and my hesi score was a 81.7. Graduated with a bachelors from Fiu in dietetics and nutrtion. Think I have a chance? I hope.
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:
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!
· 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
· 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.
· 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
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.
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 fallrisk (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)
· 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)
· 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
Hello there i am new here!!! i had a quick question. I am a little confused... what is it that they look at... the hesi score combined with your overall gpa or just your science course overall gpa???
Hi everyone! I am so excited!!! I got accepted to the nursing program!! I need help though! I posted in the 2018 thread as well but I wanted to ask people that have gone through the program also. I applied to both the accelerated and generic full term and was accepted to both and I'm not sure which one to accept. A brief history:
I have been a veterinary technician for 20 years and I do everything: catheters, bloodwork, radiology, dentals, surgery, drug dosages...everything. I know the accelerated program is intense and will be difficult but I'm hoping my 20 years experience in the veterinary world will make it a little less difficult...? I also have my bachelors in psychology and an associate in biology. I am single, not married, no kids, no pets and live alone. Last thing, I am fortunate enough to not have to pay rent so will be quitting Work completely once I begin the nursing program and will be able to give school 100% of my time and energy. I have worked hard this year and have saved money for school plus money to survive for a year.
So my question to everyone here is which program should I apply for???!! I'm really stressing out about the decision after reading other posts about the accelerated program but I'm 36 and am hoping to finish as quickly as possible in order to start the bsn program!! Thanks to everyone in advance!
Congratulations LotzOfMula and thanks! Yeah the hesi is such a bummer. It's like an extra test that if you pass will full points it only bumps your grade by 2 points. Now if you fail..... you get bumped down a whole letter grade!! So those that were near the pass/fail of 77% needed those hesi points, as many as they could get. I don't think people understood how it worked, we were told soo little about it.
So if I remember correctly...I had my HSC0003 exempted by showing them my license and CPR card. After verification, just pay $15 to process. I don't know if it still applies for this time around? Try asking though so you don't have to take the course?
Hi everybody. I'm currently taking my ADN classes at Homestead but I was wondering, how difficult has been for you to find a job in South Florida. I know a couple of people who have spend months applying like crazy but without any real offer. Has it been the case for you?? Tips??
and laugh a lot.
ymendoza
2 Posts
Hello,
There is a thread MDC Nursing Spring 2017. Check it!!