Misteighbloo

Two of my nursing competencies I failed on the first go and passed them on the redo. It honestly didn’t upset me, I just made sure to prepare more for the second time. Pretty much every student I know failed a competency at least once. I’ve been a nurse for two years, graduated on time, and passed the NCLEX on the first try. Allow yourself one night of wallowing, then pick yourself up, practice for the redo and move on. A self-defeating attitude will do just that… you’ll be just fine! Best of luck!

I’m sincerely sorry you are dealing with this. This is the most childish and ridiculous behavior I can imagine. To address your discouragement (understandable), there absolutely are kind people and good places to work in nursing. We had several openly gay students at school and have an openly gay man working on my unit now and they have been much appreciated members of our cohort and team. I wish you luck in finding a place and team where you are loved and appreciated for your work, do not be discouraged!

I see a lot of people saying to run, but just to give you another perspective…I put my wishes to become a nurse on hold for ten years and graduated with my BSN as a new nurse at 42. I’ve been working as an oncology nurse for a year and a half. Granted I’m still considered “new” but I’ve found a great unit with a team that is supportive of one another. This can make all the difference. I can truly say I like my job, and this being said when I started in March 2020 literal days before the pandemic set in. It can be grueling, patients can be difficult (but some wonderful!) and I’m tired, but I’m more content professionally than I’ve probably ever been. I know in my heart that it makes a difference that I went to work each day which is a good feeling. Also the schedule of working 3 nights a week gives me flexibility I’ve never had before. Furthermore, I know when I find it’s time to move on there are many options in and out of the hospital I can pursue. I have a husband and two kids and it’s worked out very well for our family. Best of luck in whatever decision you make!!

Finished school and started nursing at 42. We had several people in their 40s and even early 50s in our class and all found jobs right after graduation. I Work nights on an oncology unit and I love it. Go for it!

I finished school one year ago and work in oncology and work only nightsand I love it! I prefer working nights to days. It gives you a little of each day (I have kids so I at least get to see them every day) and when you have to work holidays you at least get some of the holiday for yourself. For example, I just worked Christmas but had my whole day to be with my family until 6:00 when I had to leave. Rotating is another story, but when you’re on nights here is my strategy: I sleep an hour or two from like 2:00 to 4:00 on the day I’ll be working that night. Then after work I shower and go to bed right when I get home in the morning. I honestly can’t sleep more than 5 hours during the day but it’s enough for me if I’m working that night. If I’m not working two nights in a row I’ll just sleep 3 or 4 hours when I get home then I’m tired enough to go to bed at like 9:30pm and then I’m able to get back on a normal sleep schedule for a few days. Also I make 4 shots of espresso before I leave for work and drink it in the first hour or two of my shift ?. There are days when I’m tired, yes, but It has worked for me. Allow yourself the down time when you need it. As for the NCLEX, I finished in mid December and took off until January 2 - not all people recommend that but I needed it myself. I used only UWorld, did about 80-90% of the questions and carefully reviewed the rationales of what I got wrong. I studied for 4 weeks and passed in 75 questions. I know some people prefer to test right away but I needed to study so I could go in feeling more confident than I was at graduation. It’s whatever works for you. But I wouldn’t spend more than a month studying. Also I love working in oncology, it can be tough but it’s very rewarding. Best wishes to you and congratulations!

I believe it depends on where in the country you are - the majority of those who graduated from my BSN cohort with me this past December found full time jobs, including at least 3 I can remember who are in their early fifties. Most secured jobs before graduating. I am 42 myself, and I had three offers for full time jobs before graduating and began working as an oncology nurse less than a month after passing the NCLEX. I am in Northern Virginia. If this is something you are interested in, I think you should get some shadowing or other experience to make sure it's a good fit; however, if you find it is for you, go for it! I'm surprised how many people are discouraging you. We had several people in their 40's and 50's with no prior healthcare experience and they did great in school and are enjoying their jobs. It is tough and draining but I am loving it!

I feel your struggle...I just finished nursing school and have two kids, ages 6 and 10. I was fortunate that I was able to complete my classes during the day and be home (for the most part) with the kids at night, but i know that's not an option for all. My 6-year-old daughter is also in first grade, and struggling tremendously, particularly with reading. We are seeing some improvements, but it has taken a LOT of extra work at home with her and consistency. We are in the process of having her tested for learning disabilities - our school system provides that screening for free, so you may likely want to look into that. If she is found to have learning disabilities, she will receive extra more individualized help and accommodations at school. Here is my two cents on your situation, take it for what you will: Normally I would stay don't let anything stand in your way; however, as parents the needs of our children need to come first when they are struggling. I cannot stress how important a good night's sleep is at this age...if children are not sleeping well (by 8:00 or 8:30 at the latest) then most likely no amount of extra work is going to be productive. It's wonderful that her father's family is able to help with care, but she really needs to be in bed nightly at an early hour to reach her full potential. While I understand the frustration and sadness of putting off your education a couple more years, I think at this point your daughter's well-being may have to take precedence. If you don't get her learning needs addressed now and get her caught up it could become a struggle throughout her school career and it is more feasible to play catch up now then down the road. It will take consistent work with her but the payoff will be worth it. When you do go back, you can go back more confident that all is okay on the homefront and a more content homefront makes nursing school a hundred times better. I had to make the same decision myself - I completed all pre-requisites 10 years ago - started having children and decided I needed to table nursing school for the time being - then redid the pre-requisites 3 years ago (you should not have to redo if you go back within a certain number of years though!). I just graduated in December and take the NCLEX this Friday - gulp! It was a dream over 10 years in the making, but waiting until things were more stable at home made all the difference in the world - and i actually enjoyed nursing school (most days haha!). I understand this is a really tough decision and one that only you can make for yourself - I wish you and your daughter all the best. I can already tell you are a caring mama bear by questioning and considering what is best for your daughter - hugs to you!

I am about to finish up an ABSN program and I started 20 years after graduating college the first time. I had to retake or take for the first time only the 6 required prerequisite courses for my school - every school I applied to required 5-7 specific courses be taken within five (sometimes ten) years but the rest are fine and don’t “expire.” These courses are generally anatomy and physiology 1&2, microbiology, statistics, psychology, and sometimes nutrition or chemistry but can vary slightly from school to school. Good luck!!

how about a psychosocial for her family member, such as caregiver role strain?

First semester, we do 3 careplans for med-surg 1, second semester we do 3 for med-surg 2 and another 2 for psych (total of 5), third semester I believe we do 2 for peds and 2 for labor and delivery (total of 4), not sure how it’s done in 4th semester. Our careplans are somewhat long and end up being about 20 pages each.

My understanding was not that this person has lied... they just now got accepted to nursing school and the school is now asking for medical information and they are trying to determine if it will be required to disclose this information or not. The “doing well in school” comment likely is in reference to the pre-requisites or finishing up a first degree.

One more note...they'll open the pods (schedules) up via sign up genius on a given date and time (ours was in the evening). FYI you have to be on right when they say to get on...I signed up at 8:00 and 30 seconds when they opened it up at 8:00 and my first choice was taken already!!!!

We weren't able to choose schedules until about 4 weeks before class started. As for holidays, we follow the General GW academic calendar so you can look that up online to see when you'll be off. The only caveat is if you are assigned a Saturday clinical, and the holiday is only a Monday , you don't get your clinical day off. If the college is closed through the weekend (I think that might be the case with spring break - but definitely check) then you don't have your Saturday clinical (I believe this is the case). I lived in the area already, but I think most people found their roommates through the Facebook page for our cohort. Yes, all the buildings are accessible 24/7 (you'll get an access card for after hours) and there are plenty of good places to study. As for insurance, you'll have the option to purchase student health insurance through Aetna. In fact, everyone is issued the insurance and you have to opt out if you don't want it.

Yep, for the blue scrub set you'll use for lab and the khaki bottoms you can purchase anywhere and have any style basically. For the red and blue shirt for clinicals you'll order those through Fenton's because they'll be embroidered with the GW logo. Hmmm not sure what shoes the guys are wearing, I never really looked! I'll take a look at clinical later this week and let you know.

First semester is the heaviest as far as course load, but I believe your clinical time increases somewhat as you get further along in the program. For us, first semester we are taking Pathophysiology, Med-Surg I lecture, Med-Surg Lab, Health Assessment Lecture, Health Assessment Lab, Pharmacology, and Nursing Transitions (which is mostly a discussion/paper/project based class). For first semester, you will have the opportunity to choose between several different schedules (but they go insanely quickly so you have to be okay with a second or third choice). There are morning/afternoon schedules and afternoon/evening schedules available. This semester, my schedule is Monday 8-12, Tuesday 8-12, Wednesday 8-11:30 and 1:00-6:00 (with half hour breaks in each of those blocks), Thursday is my clinical day at the hospital, and Friday is 1:00-5:00. You are assigned a clinical day, which for us was either Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. If you have a Saturday clinical, then you'll have one weekday off. First semester you cannot choose your hospital, but I believe in subsequent semesters you can put in your top few choices but are not guaranteed to get those. There will be a 3-day required orientation the three days prior to the start of the program that you will be required to attend (at least that's when it was for us). It's a good opportunity to meet everyone and you will learn how the program works. The faculty is wonderful and I can honestly say I really like every one of my professors. No one is scary or unapproachable. They foster a really supportive environment, my cohort is really great, we all support and encourage each other, it is not at all a competitive environment among all of us. Yes, the Veterans BSN students are completely integrated with the non-veterans students, taking the same classes with us. They are great as many of them have skills and insight that are helpful to the rest of us. Speaking of which, everyone has a varied background which bring lots of interesting perspectives to the program. It is a lot of work and the first 6 weeks can be overwhelming but you will hit a stride and figure out pretty quickly what works for you as far as studying, prioritizing, etc. I find myself quite a bit more comfortable and relaxed (still have to work a lot!) and I'm in week 8. When you are in clinical, you will be amazed at how much you've learned in such a short time, and it's great to see things you learned in class happening in "real life." Happy to answer any other questions - keeping in mind I'm still only first semester, but I'm happy to provide any other info you are curious about. I know I had a lot of questions prior to starting.