Middleburg08

North & a friend went to Central.

Hey guys... please choose a different program. Yes, they have a good reputation. But when I tell you almost no one will make it through this program, I mean almost no one will make it through this program. Some numbers from my graduating class: 120 of us were accepted. 20 of my original class graduated. And only 49 in total graduated, which is their highest graduating class! (which included people who failed/repeated and came back). In my Med Surg class (your first specialty). 17 people passed the first exam, and maybe 25 or so actually made it out. In my OB class, out of 45 students, 28 failed the math exam & couldn't continue for clinical. (which set them back 3 months). And only 19 of those students passed through OB. In Peds, 6 people were passing. In the end, 18 went through. There is no support. There are no tutors, no help from the Deans, no help from the professors. The office staff gives out wrong information, the "campus days" are disorganized. You have to teach yourself the material. I watched several people have nervous breakdowns and panic attacks. I knew many LPN's and other healthcare professionals who entered this program and failed out. Some people left before they failed, went to another program with a better retention rate AND good NCLEX scores and thrived. I had SEVERAL BC graduates who told me during clinical to leave and goto another program. From what the retrackers have said, their "remediation" classes are a total joke. You pay $100-150 for the remedial class, and the theory one is taught by a psychologist. The math one, apparently they didn't even give them new problems to practice with; the used the exact materials in the remediation class that people used and failed the math test with in the first place. The upper classes try to trick you with the math exams; they give you practice sheets which nowhere mirror the complex problems they give you on the day. When people are doing 75-100 practice questions a day and getting B's and A's on those, then getting into the tests and failing, that is a problem with the professors. For OB; our first exam, we had 33 chapters in 2 weeks to cover, for a 50 question exam. No extra credit. Your entire grade for theory depends on 3 exams. They will tell you in orientation (and this is straight from the Dean of Central Campus). "Look to your left and look to your right. Most all of you will be gone before the end. We care about our pass rates. If you can't hit the ground running, you won't make it. And we don't want our pass rates to lower." I learned alot in this program, but believe me If I did it all over again I would have gone to another school.

there is so much information in those pesky nursing textbooks. How do you guys prefer to tackle the sheer amount of reading AND notes? Some of my classmates come to class with over 16 pages of information, basically the whole book I've tried to read the book and take notes, but then I find that I'm sitting there for HOURS on end and at the end of it, I don't feel like I learned very much because I'm so tired of looking at pages of 10 pt font. I have classmates who are reading for 5+ hours every night, myself included sometimes. How do you guys organize your reading time, and if you don't take notes while you read, how do you retain the info to study in continuously?!

Thanks for the input! Which charts do you like? I'm a visual learner as well.

Hi guys, So I know that you don't administer glargine with another insulin in the same syringe, you'll have two syringes. Is there a wait time between administering the two syringes though? Had a test question that gave two options: 1) Administer glargine, then inject other regular insulin 2) Administer glargine, wait 20 minutes, then administer regular. The other two options had you mixing the glargine and regular together. I chose 1, because waiting 20 minutes seemed a bit excessive and you have to give the regular within 45 minutes of the meal and the long acting takes awhile to hit peak. I don't recall having gone over this specific detail, just that glargine and detemir aren't mixed. I'm a bit lost on the whole onset/peak/timing only had a few days to really sink my teeth into it, still working out the finer points.

are you in nursing school right now or doing your prerequisites? Flashcards help for memorizing definitions, lab values, pharmacology. Study group of only 2-3 people..make sure you're productive and don't spend all your time talking. The "test success" book by Nugent is very helpful with tips; it is written by nurses. That book so goes over how to answer NCLEX questions by looking at the stem, keywords, etc. Some people do well with concept maps; I personally didn't, I used a white board to write my own flow charts and help with my recall and retention. Videos. There are some great RN's on youtube with some simple explanations. Micheal Linares, EmpoweRN, etc. Don't try to read EVERY word...get the important concepts out of the reading. (This is where NCLEX review books or the study guide to your text come in handy; the questions are geared towards those concepts). Stay organized. Nothing worse than procrastinating and realizing you're behind in the reading.

I was quite confused with this question and didn't quite kno how to eliminate the answers. But the question was: An confused elderly patient is brought in by her daughter. The daughter states she is depressed and not eating correctly. On assessment you see the patient is slightly dehydrated. You want to do a furthur assessment to confirm: Dementia Incontinence Elder Abuse Medication overuse I picked medication overuse thinking that possibly there was overuse of laxatives because of the dehydration. We weren't taught about Elder Abuse, so I don't know the signs of it. Dementia didn't seem to fit the depression sign. Incontinence didn't fit the question.

You will be just fine. Keep up in the reading, and overprepare for exams by going through the module and powerpoints, etc. Participate in class. And most important; ask for help when you need it. If you don't understand it, find someone who can make you understand it.

I'll take a crack at it...I have my ideas odlf what the answers are, but this is how I figured it out.. Question 1: It says your client has a potassium wasting duiretic. The client is losing potassium. You need to know which foods are high in potassium to figure this out. Question 2: This patient has an iron deficiency. Now you need to know what causes iron deficiency, and how to enhance its absorption. Good luck! I never took nutrition as a pre-req, hut these were easy enough to confirm with google.

That makes sense, thanks for your reply í ½í¸„

Hello all, Just wondering if someone could answer this for me. My book (Lewis 10th) doesn't really go into detail. I understand that RPGN causes rapid renal function loss, so you get edema and hypertension. I'm assuming that you would get a UA, BUN, creatinine. As far as what to expect to be ordered as far as imaging studies, would you expect a renal ultrasound? Because anything with contrast wouldn't be filtered out correct? I read in a few places you would get a renal biopsy, but I thought if the patient had hypertension that a biopsy would be contraindicated? Can someone explain the use of a renal biopsy to test diagnose RPGN if the patient has hypertension? Thank you for your time!

Thank you as well Esme! And Noctor_Durse! Was I on the right track at least with my thought process for hyperkalemia? And with personality changes like in sodium imbalances, are those caused because sodium & water are connected, so if there isn't enough water/too much sodium in the intravascular space then the ECF takes from the cells and vice versa, too much fluid in the vascular space forces it out and causes cellular swelling?

Thank you for the reply, really appreciate it. Is that why you would also see muscle weakness and slower hwart rate in hypokalemia as well? Because the action potential is changed?

Good afternoon, Needed some help with fluid and electrolytes. I unserstand the lab values, but trying to really understand WHY you see the symptoms you do, and how they are connected to other electrolytes. My main question is the relationship between Hyperkalemia and its symptoms..so.. Hyperkalemia causes: Respiratory weakness Lower limb weakness Diarrhea tall T wave Decreased BP, irregular pulse (tachy to compensate?) So, K is the main Intracellular ion, and is exchanged for sodium in the sodium potassium pump, which creates action potentials. So, if you have too much Potassium OUTSIDE the cell, there is too much Sodium INSIDE the cell? Is that why there is muscle weakness and decreased BP, because there isn't enough action to get the cells firing normally? I probably need to review the sodium-potassium pump And hwart contractility as well, AP was a long time ago.