olaswaisi

I want to pursue my studies to become an acute care NP. Everybody is saying don't go without nursing experience for two years at least! How should I have it if I don't know the rationale behind the orders and there is no one to ask? I don't see the doctors or the mid=level providers and when I ask they don't answer! I'm working night shifts, and there are no doctors except the ones on call who usually don't know the patients well. If I'm going to learn by reading the notes why should I wait two or three years?

I can't thank you enough for your supporting comments, I made my mind to stay in my current school and get a job as a nurse extern until something happened that turned everything upside down. last Wednesday, I got an interview for a nurse extern position and they asked me to sign a "skills checkoff list" from my clinical instructor. and when I did, the clinical education manager at the school said that she can sign off the skills which we had been checked off officially!! I attached a pic for the list, if you can see it, the ones which are circled in red we took them in the school, and as you know, we didn't practice them in the skills lab, we just watched videos about them. the two circled in yellow are the only ones in that list we had been checked off officially! This move scared me to death! they make it clear that they didn't train us to do those skills! we are on our own! I wonder what the HR in the hospital will say when I send them this list with only one signed skill or about their reaction when they asked me about the rest and I tell them that we watched videos about them! probably I will lose the interview! so my question if is this OK?

Well, I understand your comment about " stop whining and make some effort to learn, and be grateful that your program still open!" I agree with you that we should do our best to learn the subject as much as we can and to become the best of ourselves. However, you still need a director, and instructor to tell you the right and the wrong. Don't underestimate the value of professors, other than lets close all schools and hospitals and go learn by yourself! it is easy to project the schools' failure on ourselves and pretend that it is our fault to learn more. You learned the assessment by yourself, try to do it, put the stethoscope on the pt's chest to listen to his heart. Pam ! nothing at all! you are sure that you did, according to the book correctly, and you still can't hear anything! only the experience of your instructor will lead you at that time. When you do an IV and the instructor can show you an easier way and more effective. It is not whining, it is a simple ask to get what are you deserve, what are you taking loans for. from your profile name, it looks like you are a CNA and probably working in a hospital, you have access to nurses and learn from them, good for you, but guess what? not everybody has this chance.

I agree with you about the "case study method" and learning about the diseases and the used meds. one thing here: we don't discuss the cases. we just write and submit them and that is it. I read the book "health assessment made incredibly visual" I got videos on Youtube for lung and heart sounds and listen to them from time to time, I know this is the least I can do. yes, I'm taking a pharmacology course, there is no pathophysiology course however, it is embedded in the med-surg, which is not bad. they were trying, but being in a long-term facility, the nurses were really hostile, and I understand this due to them being very busy, and we were on the floor for an hour. I tried to build connections with the nurses there, but we had to be in that hall for the rest of the clinical hours. The skills were demonstrated as videos only. and there was a funny story behind this: dome of the demonstrated skills are outdated, some of the students failed the checkoff because they followed the videos! No practicing in the skills lab with PPE, this is a dream for us! when we did the check-offs we did them on mannequins, and that was really cool and when the lab instructors explained the errors we did I felt that now we are learning. currently, they are talking about going to skill labs next semester in person which is great and I hope they won't change their minds! it will be funny to imagine how are we going to learn IV lines based on videos. and with my experience with them, I can see them ask us to practice on ourselves! My classmates hate it, but as they are saying " nothing we can do, we are stuck, the important thing is getting the NCLEX, and we can learn later!" As a solution, I'm trying to get a job as an extern nurse, do you think this will help? I actually do this myself, using Saunders and success series by Davis, Nursethink has some questions, there are two factors here. The senior students used ATI, so their recommendations are the same about Saunders and the other materials. In addition, they didn't have a problem finding practice questions because ATI had a question bank, I tried to get it and I contacted ATI but they told me it is a school-based thing that individuals can't purchase on their own. Another concern about nurse think, it is only for med-surg, what are we going to do with our classes? Yes and this is a big problem, losing all that time and money and starting all over in another state is a serious thing, besides I'm 40 years old! and only three semesters left! but if I transfer it would be to Loyola University Chicago, I have an admission for Spring, which is ranked 57 out of the best 100 nursing schools in the country. It is a hard decision, but losing a semester with the money or losing the whole career? This is my dream which I pray every day to be excellent in it. If I'm staying, any advice how can I survive the lack of training? as I mentioned, I'm trying to get an extern nurse position to be around nurses and see what they are doing. anything else I can do?

Since the semester almost is done and I'm sorry for not being here so I can answer so I hope you accept my apology. I will summarize the school thing and you can judge it because I really need advice. 1-lets start with the clinical,continued as it is, go read the patient files , then write a report about the disease and the used meds. when it was the time for the health assessment check off, the instructor signed the documents (pass) without doing this actually! About the other things you asked me : clinical roles, communication, handwashing and PPE. we were thought the PPE and the AIDET. no clinical roles were explained nor handwashing. guess what we don't study fundementals ! 2- let me tell a story about a professor who is teaching us on of the most important classes. reading from the slides, well, many professors are doing this. But when it comes to the fact that she doesn't know how to pronounce the names of the meds, that her boyfriend jumbes to the zoom meetings from time to time, the fact that we are given the exam and the answers under the name " review" , the reality that one day we found that the answers with rationales in one of the tests! I couldn't believe it ! this is a nightmare and it couldn't be true!! when we asked her she said that this is an early Christmas gift take it and run!!! What is the result ? students now will not study it! they wait the review !! 3-Skills lab : We didn't see this one at all or enter it the whole semester, they are claiming COVID is the reason. well, every school in the country created a policy to allow thier students to practice while keeping social distancing. when the check off came, they asked us to schedule time for practice, not . we went to schedule to surprisingly find no slots available !! many of us went to medication administration, Foley's catheter, and wound care check offs without any practice! 4-Now lets come to the Crème de la Crème in all of this: We don't have ATI ! Yes! they shifted this year to an educational model called "NurseThink". which is not compared to ATI or HESI. We are the pilot school for this things which is mainly about Med-Surg and that is it ! it is only a fraction from what is the ATI presenting. I asked them why we switched from a program 88% of the US nursing schools for something totally, untested, and not execlusive. No answer! The problem here is we don't have have any way to practice test questions ! they ask us to go to quizlet ! seriously ? since when Quizlet becomes a trusted source ?? After all of this, what do you think @londonflo . Do you think this is all right and prepare students to success and become skilled nurses? I'm tired and anxious and thinking seriously to transfer to another school.

I know! the thing I forgot to tell is that lots of us when they wanted to schedule the 1-hour training, they told them that there are no free spots available! that means they might go to the check-off without even practicing the skill. Is the whole thing legal?

I need to say this because my mind is going to explode from stress. I got accepted in ABSN program in Texas with a high NCLEX rate, 97%-100%, each year, and a good reputation. I moved there and started. There are two things driving me crazy and I wonder if you guys are experiencing the same. 1-the first thing is the skills lab. What we are doing is watching videos each week, have a lecture then take a quiz on them and that is it! No on-hands training! What makes things worse is that we supposed to have a check-off on medication administration, wound care, Foley's catheter, and no lab! We are supposed to watch videos about them, go to the lab for one hour to practice those skills alone with no help, then do the check-off in front of the professors! 2-the clinicals are worse. They were telling us that clinicals will be the first semester. Fine! What is happening is we see the pts for an hour looking at their files, then the rest of the time we are discussing random subjects with the clinical professors! No, we don't practice the skills at the clinicals. Are you guys experiencing the same? How is your skill lab and clinicals look like? I know that COVID makes things more complicated, but I want to know how others do. I'm really afraid of going through nursing without proper skills. I don't think this is a good way to prepare a nurse. And I can't imagine I paid all of this money in such education. I'm thinking seriously to transfer from this school.

Yes I received this email, I guess I'm fine in this case. Thank you

I have a question. I'm looking into mymav. and it shows "no active application"! anyone is seeing this too? I don't receive any communication from the advisors, especially I couldn't take patho this Summer. am I in trouble?

I guess me too! it is freaking expensive, specially I can't get any scholarships

I entered healthgov.com, but due to the income, they told me on the website that I'm not qualified for the premium tax, so the prices were horrible for me. I got furlough too, but what I noticed that if your income less than 12000 doesn't qualify you for savings, unfourantley I don't qualify for Medicaid which plan is this? Note if your income between 12760 and 4 times higher you may qualify for the premium tax and you will save a lot

OMG. how did you get it? can you share the details, please? Is it healthcare.gov? I believe it depends on the income so you qualify for the premium tax.

guys a piece of advice, use UTA coverage. it is good compared to what will you with other companies or the health market. with the price of UTA coverage, you get a paper called coverage from any other company. I have it now and very sad that I might lose it if I don't register this year

Thank you very much for the information. one last question, do you think we need to purchase NCLEX book to practice for other classes like med-surg? I mean as practice questions?

Thank you very much for the response I have some questions: 1.I didn't see pathophysiology in the plan ? is it distributed among the courses? 2. What is your evaluation of the program ? do you recommend it? do you feel it provides you with solid and academic base?