Midwestern State Fall 2015

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Hey everyone! I've become interested in applying for MWSU for Fall 2015, but I have yet to see any threads about it so I decided to start one myself! Could anyone help me with their point system?

@keunnamonae and angieperry u welcome. Ya I need a letter ohhhhh.lol.. Wait is killing but we should get them by next week if sent today or tomorrow

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@ angieperry@ keunnamonae Check your emails guys Jeanna just sent an email like right now for acceptance. Wohooo finally there's something.

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Yay finally it's here.... check your emails

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Yes finally! I almost freaked out because my email went into my spam folder instead my inbox. Im glad I looked in there!

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It's officall guys we are nursing students!

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Mine went to my spam folder...I freaked out too for a minute...lol

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Thank you Lord it's official.......

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@keunnamonae and angieperry& Lucy Njoki can't wait to meet to meet you all. Am so excited, now am going to start taking my shots. We have a lot to do in a short period of time. Wohooo can't wait to begin this journey with you all.

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Thank you guys it's been long wait but with your patience it was really awasome to see prospective nursing student on this forum....can't wait to move in in July from Houston I already done my apartment application.. I work in Hospital and I had already done all my shot since we get them for free and they're a much have I think the only shot I will need to up date is flu shot I'm hoping to see all of you during the student orientation as we start this journey!

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I was just ready for it to be official. Will be great to finally start and meet everyone put a face to a name. Hopefully all the shot info will be in the letter we get. Yeah these next couple months are going to be full of things to do. Cant wait to get more information about everything.

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@keunnamonae we have to meet soon at Tcc. When does your summer class starts? We have a lot to do and am so happy it's official now. Wohoo it's so exciting and such a relief it's official. Now we have to just chill and wait for the letters, and what it says we have to do next.

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@lorr19 @kuennamonae @angieperrie @lucynjoki @tiffaniebush

CONGRATS ALL! That is soo exciting!!!! :) :) Be very proud and those who didn't get in first time, KEEP trying and find out what you need to do to get in.

Here are some answers to some of your questions, I added some pointers too. My sister just got accepted to the Accelerated BSN program and she is in yall's shoes plus, I was too but didnt have any suggestions or tips. This is freaking long like an essay but oh well, I don't mind writing this and hopefully this will be of use and bring awareness of what to expect. Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy for yall!

How did I keep sane with studying/clinical without going crazy?

-Having a balance is important. Make sure that you are ORGANIZED as this will make life a little easier, exercise/yoga, plan me” time in your schedule, and once in a while it is okay to go out. There is D&D on Wednesday and Stage Thursdays also places on weekend like Wisketa, Lone Star, P2, and a few others. DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE call a cab they are cheap and its not worth it. Also, don't give yourself a bad look in the community because you never know who you will run to always be polite lolol

Which classes were the most challenging & how I tackled them?

BASICS (2nd semester) and CDM (5th semester) with Robin Lockhart for me were the most challenging classes for me. She is a tough cookie and can come off as rude sometimes- but she REALLY makes you think. She will not read off the power points to you in class, instead she will want the students to be engaged and ASK questions in lecture. I highly recommend that if you bring electronics to class, LOOK UP what she is talking about because she will expect you to know. AFTER 1ST TEST figure out if whether your study pattern is sufficient or what changes you need to make. Do practice questions with rationales.

*Also read below under recommendations

Resources for additional teaching if I didn't understand

Study for Success for psychiatric, study for success medical/surgical- on amazon, and any of the books that have NCLEX or practice questions with rationales to help you understand. I learned a lot with this!

Did I learn through the program/gain confidence?

I didn't know something (condition/lab/word) I looked it up. I also asked questions during class and during clinical to help evaluate if my thinking process was in the right direction.

How are classes/clinical like throughout the program?

1st semester: (not sure who your professors will be)

· Family Health Assessment

· Introduction to Nursing

· Pathophysiology

CLINICAL: Simulation Lab-

You will work with manikins and learn how to do a head-to-toe exam and will go along with Family Health Assessment course

*MAKE SURE you really get your assessment skills down because this is very important and if you have this down from the very beginning it will do you well throughout the program as everything you learn will carry on to the next semester and you just build from it. Know what the normals are so you can determine- what is abnormal?

2) 2nd semester:

· Basic Nursing Care (Professor= Lockhart)

· Pharmacology (not sure who your professor will be possibly Pankonien)

CLINICAL:

At Long-term health facility & simulation lab

You will be actually working with patients in addition to having simulation lab clinical experiences

*** I HIGHLY recommend the Pearson DVD Real Nursing Skills for the RN) LOL b/c on the first day of my clinical I DID NOT know how to turn a patient in an occupied bed which was very embarrassing for both my patient and I! That DVD lists several skills on how to do things that will be necessary for direct patient care there and in all of the future clinical

3rd semester:

· Mental Health Nursing- (Professor=Blankenship)

· Family Health I (Med/Surg I)- (Professor=Distel)

· Nursing Research- (not sure who professor is, but online)

CLINICAL:

· Mental Health Clinical- at either State Hospital and/or Red River Mental Health Facility (Mostly about therapeutic communication with patients-getting them to talk about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) This is important and pretty interesting—you will use this as a nurse when caring for patients and is a way to help them and identify what their needs are

· FH I clinical- at United Regional Hospital (Med-Surg Floor) You will have CAREPLANS and clinical instructors who will grade your clinical. I had Watson while others had Mary Anderson. Mary Anderson is GREAT as a clinical instructor. She will expect you to look at trends in the patient's labs, look at ALL of the medications and WHY your patient is taking them, look at the fluids hanging, and basically analyze what is going on and why. In my opinion she will help you become a careplan master for CDM-Clinical Decision Making, which is taught by Professor Lockhart. (You want to be impressive in CDM)

4th semester:

· Family Health (Med/Surg II)- (Professor=Diane Stewart)

· Pediatrics- (Professor= Lauren Pankonien)

· Leadership (Not sure who your professor will be

CLINICAL:

· Family Health II- At United Regional or Kell West (At United Regional you have the opportunity to choose ICU and other units I believe- I

· Pediatrics- At United Regional (Pediatric Floor)

5th Semester:

· Community Health Nursing (Professor=Betty Bowles)

· Maternal-Fetal Nursing (Professor=Lauren Jansen & Betty Bowles)

· Clinical Decision Making CDM (Professor=Robin Lockhart) PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS AND RECORD HER-but ask for permission 1st to record her of course hehe. Usually her tests are about case studies and what is in class- this is basically a sum of all the knowledge you have acquired in the past nursing courses so this shouldn't be new material- so if you don't know it, find it out! This course is hard and required me to CRITICALLY think.

CLINICAL:

· Community Health Nursing- Out in the community at health department, with school nurses, dialysis facility, homeless refugee, wound care, several other settings.

· Maternal-Fetal Nursing- At United Regional (You will be able to experience each unit: Antepartum/Triage, Labor and Delivery, Nursery, and Postpartum)

· CDM- At United Regional (You will be able to experience various settings you choose. Mine that I chose this semester were ICU and PACU but you can also choose ER, and other floors)

Recommendations for success in the nursing program

My recommendations are:

1) *GET A MONTHLY WALL CALENDAR so that way you can clearly see each day of the month. Put all of the due dates as SOON as you get the syllabus and put your clinical dates etc. so that you are organized! Very important.

2) At clinical, don't limit yourself to one setting. Keep an open mind and explore everything while you get a chance because you may LOVE an area that you didn't know/think you did

3) ARRIVE EARLY at least 15 minutes before- get in that habit early

4) AT CLINICAL- TAKE ADVANTAGE of this time to ask your preceptor questions. Take initiative! Take advantage that you can ask away and learn because once you are under your own license- if you mess up because you failed to ask etc. then too bad” so please take my advice. Nothing frustrated me more than to see other students just sitting there and acting bored like there was nothing to do. Hello, you will be doing this when you graduate so stop giving nursing students the bad stigma and instead of being in the way, get in there J The preceptors generally will engage with you if you are engaged. But if you don't make initiative then that is unfortunate and they may report to your instructor/give negative feedback so do put in effort and see this experience as a chance to learn.

5) VERY IMPORTANTTTTTTTTTTTT: Each class is unique and the way you study for one class may be completely different for how you would study for another. I RECOMMEND that after you take the FIRST TEST- If you are struggling, didn't do well, FIND OUT WHAT YOUR THINKING PROCESS IS and find out HOW your current thinking is off and what you need to change in your thinking process/studying. I would meet with the teacher early on instead of wait till you have to figure out what you need to make on the last test to pass with a 74-test average. THAT IS SO STRESSFUL and you would do yourself a favor to not wait until after the 2nd test. Do this immediately after the first test so that you improve. Also, always aim for a 100 and try your very best. And on tests, GO WITH YOUR FIRST INSTINCT haha, cut off your eraser because I found that when I second guessed myself and when I saw my scantron I saw how I would have gotten the right answer head on if I didn't do that.

6) Do read the content before class. If you are going to read the book, then READ THE BOXES- don't skip the boxes!!

7) IF you don't know what a word means, LOOK IT UP. Because that one word can make a DIFFERENCE in safety, priority, etc.

8) GREAT BOOK for test-taking strategies=Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX- Under Unit 1 in the Table of Contents portion I found that #5 test-taking strategies” was extremely helpful for test taking even in the 1st semester of nursing courses. This helped me use the process of elimination for narrowing down my answer choices (IF you don't have that book I can send pics of those chapter pages)

Do practice questions with rationales. Reading rationales to practice questions over the course/material/chapter and finding out WHY one answer choice was better than the other helped. I always feel like it comes down to TWO correct answer choices however, one is the answer b/c it is better” than the other. There are a lot of these books on amazon depending on which course you're in.

9) Professors- overall they are great. Some are laid back and some are NOT. I will not lie when I say, they will not hand feed the material to you. Initially What I did to research my professors to get an idea” was go on ratemyprofessors.com but I kept an open mind about some of the opinions as I could tell some of the people were lazy or wanted an easy” A without putting in much work. I encourage showing that you are TRYING by participating in class. Don't be embarrassed b/c the ones that don't speak up in class when they don't know something are more stupid when they make a mistake due to failure to ask: P Also, your classmates are probably asking/wondering the same thing you are just no one will ask. If you don't want to speak up in class and are shy that's ok, go to their office or email them.

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