Tacocat

I'm going to be blunt - what program you do depends on your resources. It is difficult to work full-time during either of those programs. Do you have financial support? Are you going to be able to afford to live while you're in school? An MSN as a clinical nurse leader is nice, but the most effective management I ever had were ones that were willing to jump in and help their nurses when they got overwhelmed or too busy. As a direct-entry MSN, you'll be lacking a lot of experience as a nurse in your chosen specialty and it's unlikely you'll be respected by your staff as a clinical leader or nurse manager without that experiential foundation. You can always do a BSN-MSN bridge program once you have your feet wet.

You took the boards...did you pass?

Do you mean like street outreach in the unhoused/indigent population? I've done that sort of work before. Depending on the area in which you live, they may be requiring a vehicle depending on how vast your assigned area is. It's also hard to carry EVERYTHING you might need in a backpack. Again, a lot of this depends on your geographic area.

So your friend shouldn't be "financially ruined" for her negligence, but the spouse of the person they killed should not be made financially whole? The wife no longer has the income of the deceased on top of the pain of losing her spouse. This and your other thread where you missed an order and the patient got upset have weirdly victim-blamey mindsets.

If you failed the first two times, did they send you a score report? It should show you areas you need to target for studying.

What about the HESI are you struggling with, exactly? Is it the content or the structure of the questions?

I think you'd need to see your doctor and request medical accommodation. Check with your Support Services office at your school to see what you'd need to provide.

Your entire med-surg course was only a few weeks?

Any job describing themselves as "like family" should be a red flag.

THIS THIS THIS. I never wanted to work in a hospital. I work outpatient at a FQHC and I love it.

What course is this? Is it nursing Fundamentals? Med-Surg? Nursing isn't just about memorization of facts. It's about application as well.

Seconding Saunders! It wasn't required for my program but the chapters highlighted the important stuff and the question banks were invaluable to study from.

Probably. You'd want a more competitive score. Check with your program, though, and see how they weigh it. Some places only accept first attempt.

At the risk of sounding mean...you can't start studying for NCLEX if you haven't even started the program. What material would you study, if you haven't had a class? You don't even know how to answer NCLEX-style questions yet. Start with learning your class material first. As you learn, you can reinforce your learning with practice NCLEX-style questions. How can you study for something you haven't learned yet?

It depends on the class and what material you're studying. Sometimes I would write a question on the front and the answer on the back, or sometimes it would be a key vocabulary word and then the definition. I think in a previous post you mentioned you were restarting Microbiology? My pre-reqs were not my strongest suit but if you have any questions or need tips please feel free to message me on here.

What semester of school are you in? After I graduated, I took a mental break for a week or two, and then I did about 4 weeks of studying with UWorld while I waited for my ATT and booked my exam for the first available date.

How heavy are the chapters? And what course is it?

I personally found that hand-writing all my materials helped me to retain it better. I bought a pack of colored InkJoy gel pens and used those to write all my study notes and flashcards. Flashcards are also not for everyone. I preferred to write outlines on notebook paper. Some things cannot just be rote memorization, and by writing outlines I was able to highlight and color-code important connections that I needed to know.

What may be best, seeing as you like to write columns, is an honest review of your own hardships in your classes with less a focus on your classmates and more of a reflection of your own part of the outcome. Getting caught up in the antics of your classmates can harm you as a nursing student, and you need to manage your own reputation. You want your nurse instructors to see you as honest, hardworking, and helpful - it will benefit you in ways you may not expect. When I was a second semester student, I was called to a patient's bedside in clinical, and was given the opportunity to ambu-bag a patient who had to be disconnected from their ventilator so the doctor and respiratory therapist could replace a trach tube with a leaking bladder. As a baby nursing student, I was terrified that I was the one responsible for getting air into the patient's lungs. But my instructor knew that I was a good student and was able to do it. I was able to see the whole process and was able to help them in that small way. And it was really freaking cool to watch.

My path was the same. Hoo boy I knew off the bat inpatient/bedside was not the job for me. I know that I'm lacking that floor experience and that will cost me opportunities in the future (as well as the better bedside pay) but I've traded that for the relative comfort and stability of regular working hours and a decent salary.

How is that unusual? Prospective attorneys who graduate from law school still study for the bar exam. Prospective physicians study for the USMLE. The NCLEX is a relatively expensive, high-stakes exam that determines whether or not you're able to practice as a nurse. It would be absolutely foolish to NOT "study intensively" for the exam that determines your license. I had a relatively decent nursing school experience and still "studied intensively" using UWorld. The exam and board fees combined cost hundreds of dollars, and failure meant I would have to pay additional fees plus a waiting period to re-test. Failure would affect my income, when I have to wait longer to earn a better salary as an RN. Why chance failure, when I could spend a hundred bucks for a good review program to ensure that all the stuff I learned stayed fresh, with practical questions on how to apply the knowledge? What nursing school wouldn't encourage its graduates to continue studying for the exam that makes their whole career?

Pre-reqs don't qualify someone to be a nursing student, getting into the program does. I remember walking into orientation for nursing school and meeting my cohort. None of them had been in any of my pre-reqs. Invest your time and energy into your own success.

Honestly, don't be invested in your classmates at all. People waste so much energy being irritated or angry about the actions of other people that don't affect them. Pre-requisites don't even matter in terms of your future nursing cohort -- some people take classes to transfer out, some people don't get accepted into the program or waitlisted, etc. Your classmates don't matter until you make it into the nursing program, and even then there's going to be some people you befriend and some people you'd like to push into traffic. And you're going to have to deal with all of them for two years. It happens. If you want to be a successful nursing student you keep your head down and let people deal with their own issues. Competitive classmate? Someone cheated on a test? It isn't your problem. They're the ones that have to pass the NCLEX.

Are you confident in your assessment skills? You can also consider applying to an agency for per diem home health/private duty.

Exactly. And you had experience and skills to offer. Volunteering at a hospital in general may not be a terrible idea, but it likely won't be "nursing" care. If you can keep the commitment, you may be able to get a good reference that can help you get a job.