I have a couple of questions and if you guys can please answer me I would appreciate it. do you have to apply for the accelerated or are you automatically in it if you have a 4.0?
also, suppose the school does get the grant, how long do they give you to answer yes to the accelerated track?.. and do the acceptance letters for the fast track and the accelerated come seperately?
also, to the ones who are in the program: on a scale of 1 to 10 how hard is nursing school at OCC? also, when they assigned the clinical placements in hospital how was your experience there?
if anyone has an answer please let me know... Im going crazy I can no longer wait for that letter...
well thank you so much and i wish all you applicants the best of luck, we totally need it
i too have kids and a family so yes it can be done!..........its not easy............but it can be done
here is a typical week for me right now.
monday class for 3 and 1/2 hours (for me its during the morning right now but it could also be in the afternoon if thats when they schedule you)
Tues clinical for 8 hours at the hospital (again in the afternoon but could be in the morning)
wed clinical for 8 hours at the hospital
thur Lab for 2 and 1/2 hours (for me its in the afternoon but could be in the morning)
so as you can see you have a busy schedule.
as for studying...........that will vary with how quickly you get the material thats being taught. even if your really quick you will spend at least 10 to 15 hours a week if not more studying
as for family.........all i can tell you is that its tough and i mean really tough. no one will understand what you are going through......not the stress.......not the commitment.......and not the frustrations you will go through.
you have 2 months off in the summer to reconnect with you family so that would be the time i would schedule family vacations, otherwise be aware that you may miss your kids plays, or games, school activities, or your spouces office party or other functions.
anyway class can start as early as 9am
and clinicals can end as late as 10:30 pm and you may be anywhere from flint to detroit.
Hi Anne36......I got your private message and I really appreciate your comments. I don't know how to use this site very well and can't seem to get a response directly back to you. I am unable to send you a private message back and I couldn't find any other way to respond. Anyway, I hope this message gets to you eventually because I appreciate your feedback and best wishes in your program!!! Browniemix
Hi
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Hi whosurdaddy! Thank you, thank you for your reply! I'm still trying to figure out this site and I never saw your response to my questions until just now. I really appreciate the details and sure hope the program is going well for you! I'm just sitting and waiting for "the letter" once again. The days are going to slowly but like you said I should appreciate the free time now. Hope I make it in for 2011. Thanks again!!
I wish everyone who is waiting for your letters of acceptance this month! I am sure it is stressful waiting! I am finishing up my last pre-requisites and hope to apply to OCC for fall 2012. I wonder what the cut off GPA for fall of 2011 will be. I know for fall 2010 it was a 3.77 something, so it probably went up again. Any way, good luck to everyone waiting!
I also hope to be seeing some good news from everyone soon :) I feel like I know all of you because I always read your OCC threads since I took alot of my pre-req's and general ed's there. :) :dncgcpd:Its the lucky dancing baby
Well..next week is the verdict. Thank you whosurdaddy for all of the information, it really helps to hear about the program first hand. I almost thought about getting a blog set up and ready so that I could record all of my thoughts during nursing school, I've seen some do this, but then thought, hmmm..that might not be a good idea if I have a really bad clinical day and an instructor happens across it. :) I'm trying to do as is advised on here and enjoy the time off now. I bought a book titled "Math for Nurses" and I've been going through it refreshing myself of some totally rusty skills, so I wouldn't say I'm completely sluffing off...but trying to relax some. Feel very stressed already when I read about how difficult everything is once you're in the program.
Whosurdaddy: Tell me some things that you've found to be really enjoyable about being in the program. Maybe this will negate some of the foreboding stress that I feel.
Thanks!!! Look forward to hearing when everyone gets their letters..and good luck all!
the most enjoyable thing about the program is the friends you make.
i also love the struggle, im probably sick for that, but the harder something is the more effort i put in, the more of a rush i get out of it.
1 bit of advice, never say anything about an instructor, they all talk, and they will black list you (unofficially of course)
as for the math book, wouldn't bother, other than the math tests at the begining of the semester there isnt too much to the math part. pharm is all about drugs and their side effects.
Thanks for that advice..I am sure that is very true. That would be the worst to be on a "list" like that. I just received my acceptance letter tonight! I was so excited. The GPA cut off was a whopping 3.88 this term. Now the reality of what is ahead sets in! I'm sure that you're right about the friends being the best part...I made some really good friends through the pre-reqs and a lot of us are heading into the program together, which gives me some comfort already. I was talking to a friend who is in the program the other day and she mentioned the charting...that it was called Knick and Knock style charting. I've looked it up but haven't found anything. Can you tell me what that is? Thanks for all of your advice and insight. It really helps talking to someone more experienced who has been there already!
your prof will explain NIC and NOC to you better than i can, but i will do my best here. when you get a patient you need to assess the pt and come up with a nursing diagnosis. this is done in a book we all call wilkinson (authors name) this book gives you a list of nursing diagnosis. when you find a diagnosis that fits your patient you then look up your nursing outcome (NOC) this is where you want your pt to be when your done with them, then after youve done that you use your nursing interventions book (NIC) and look up what your going to do as a nurse to get your pt there.
so its not charting.....its called nursing care planning and it sucks........this is something that occ makes us all do the first year and takes up significant time to get right.
dont bother buying these books ahead of time becuase right now it will look like a jumbled bunch of words. my adivce to you is get your pharm book and start studying the major medications, their side effects and what they are used for....especially ACE inhibitors, BENZO's etc. dont memorize them but know them well. this will give you a head start.
How much emphasis should I place on learning to do conversions with pharmacology? Should I not worry about the math part of it all and just work on familiarizing myself with them as you said? Thanks for the info on the patient care plans, I've heard they are very time consuming. I saw my friend's care plan and there was red all over it....you're right, it looks very hard to get it right. What have you heard about the job market? Are people finding jobs upon graduation? Thanks Again!
Anne36, LPN
1,361 Posts
Thanks browniemix. Mabye my inbox is full, I will go check.