2011 OCC ADN Students

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i am in my first year as an Oakland County Community College ADN student. when i was waiting to get into school there was nobody who was in their first year to answer questions about what to expect. SO i wanted to post this thread and answer any questions that i can for anyone waiting or starting their first year at OCC, so feel free to ask any questions you have and i will do my best to answer them.:)

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

yes dont worry...bp is easy just practice on people at home..i do my husbands and anyone elses all teh time

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Another question for you. I have been looking at our Lab schedule and what we will be doing for the next few weeks. We practicing Bed baths etc last week and I have not seen a checkoff for anything for weeks. Did you guys go for weeks without getting a checkoff? Were you checked off on Bedbaths, transfers, tube feeding, wound care etc? I do not see anything but the weekly Quizes and the word Practice for these future items.

The next checkoff I see is Sterile technique and thats not for weeks, is the same thing you did?

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yes you will go several weeks without doing checkoffs, they dont check you off on everything you practice (thank god) i do believe that sterile technique is your next checkoff, i can look at my syllabus if your really interested in comparing.

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a small bit of advice to those of you getting ready to enter the program and those of you who are waiting till 2013.

IF you are going to be working during your time in the nursing program may i suggest that you consider the following.

The red cross offers CNA training (certified nursing assisstant) for around $800. i recommend you take it. if you are going to work while in the program like most of us have to (sucks) then this is the best thing you can do.

i know the first thing someone is going to say is once i complete med surge i can get a nurse extern job at a hospital. well let me tell you that there arent many nurse extern jobs avaliable. the ones that are available through the school you need to have a 3.5 gpa in the nursing program. this is not easy, trust me. i know a lot of 4.0 students who are now getting by with a 2.7 gpa.

most hospitals require you have some exp. if you are not a CNA. if you have graduated from the red cross program then you should be able to get a job at a hospital a lot easier.

and if the worst happens and you fail a class and have to wait a year to get back into the program then you have a decent job.

the best part is that the hospitals, nursing homes and home care places are almost always willing to work around your school schedule. not always easy to find an employer willing to do that.

anyway just something to think about

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Sorry, not directly school BUT, I have just been told that Easter Dinner is at my house. This is right in the middle of my first and second Week of Clinical ever and my first NUR careplan.

Im dying. Someone help me figure out what to do. Mom came over to help out and stay for a month and now my pigsty of a house is the site to invite everyone over to. I really dont want to do this, how do you make people understand?

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whosurdaddy, thanks for the info. Im not working now, but am looking...I start OCC next month with pharm.

I did the phlebotomy training at OCC and STILL have not gotten a job after finishing last spring. I hope this will come in handy along with being a nursing student in getting a part time job since I need to work...

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it's always a challange to get through to some people how hard it is to actually be in nursing school. most people who have gone to college remember it as not being so hard, so when you say its hard then your just over reacting. one of the hardest things to learn to do in this program is put your needs first. most of the time this only effects your immediate family. in this case you are talking about family members who you probably only see once a week, once a month or once a year. Anne there is no way you will make them understand what pressure is on you right now, so dont try. as nicely as possible tell them that it isnt going to happen at your house. then suggest a resturant you can all meet at. yes you will **** off some of the people, but chances are before your done with school your gonna **** off a lot of people off. the important thing to remember is that this is about you and your husband, kids future. the people who get **** off arent going to be there to support you when you fail a class. they arent going to support you financially.

i wish you the best of luck

ive personally ****** of 10 people and im hoping to get to around 25 before i finish my RN :D

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rmt nurse, wow you havent found a job yet? I have a neice who planned on doing that this year and was convinced it would be no problem to get a job over at Huron Valley. She must not have been aware of the job market right now. Can you tell me, what is going on right now that you couldnt land a job in phlebotomy. Do you keep in touch with old classmates? Have they gotten a job? Does it drive you nuts when people dont understand? Im still hearing tons of people say how I will always have a job in Nursing and make a ton of money. I can only dream!

Whosur, you make me laugh. Still working your way up to 25? haha you got me beat so far I have not ****** anyone off except mabye my husband.

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Anne36, good question! The only way I can rationalize not finding one yet is because OCC doesnt do an intern/externship...you only practice on classmates and they have very strict rules about how many times you can get poked in one week... so you get a handful of pokes and that's it...certification with any organization requires you to have anywhere from 50 to 120 pokes verified by a professional as well as taking a written test.

I know someone that went to LCC and they sat them all in a room and poked each other until everyone got enough pokes to get certified...I wanna say they got extern opportunities too since my friend said she got hired right away from folks who knew her from LCC at St Joe in Howell or Brighton...now she has transfered to A2.

I know phlebotomist jobs have high turn over, and there are a ton of people out there that have training...all the ads I see are for people that have at least 1 yr experience need only apply...

What's sooo frustrating about it all is that I was a vet tech for 12 years and have poked thousands of animals! I breezed through phleb and lab classes at OCC because of my previous experience and I KNOW FOR A FACT that poking people is easier than poking wiggly, furry animals! But trying convincing hiring managers that when you dont have verified experience in the medical field... :/

I still keep applying to jobs, hopefully something will come up and someone will take a chance on me...or maybe I can get something once I start clinical rotations for the ADN program...

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I promised those interested i would keep them up to date on our class statistics so here we are at the end of another semester. lost some more friends along the way....class size is now at 176 from 217. im interested to see how many we lose after this semester. i know at least 20 people who failed a theory class that wont be with us at the start of the 2nd year in Sept. and will be joining all of you 2013ers in the winter semester next year.

those are just people i know, not counting the ones i dont. looks like we may be around 140 to 150 at the start of our 2nd year

we still have another semester to go in our 1st year, so i would have to assume there would still be some more who will fail. (hopefully not me)

every semster seems like ive survived some type of war.

well i guess i will drink a 40 in memory of the 11 troops we lost in this last battle as a tribute to them.

god bless you and good luck to those who have survived to fight another day

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anyone recall the deadline for background check/physical/vaccine stuff ? I cant seem to find it anywhere in my paperwork. Im getting the hep b vaccines and wondering if I need to turn all the paperwork in before I get them (and fill in future dates) or just wait until I get them all.

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Specializes in Neuroscience.

For the background/drug test you have to have at least signed up with their website http://www.oaklandbackgroundcheck.com, by the 20th of this month and I'm pretty sure you have to pick up the papers that correspond with that from OCC room WH-330, no later than the 27th. Fingerprinting and drug testing must be done by June 10.

As for the physical/titers/vaccines I'm pretty sure by Sept 1 is when the papers of proof need to be in. :)

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