Kangoshi

Indianapolis, IN. $4/hr, 3 hr minimum. Current call requirements are 1 day each week, and one full weekend (Friday at 5PM to Monday at 7AM) every six weeks.

"I swear JCAHO visits get tougher every year."

New grad in the OR at level 1 trauma center in Indiana. $28/hr COL definitely isn't bad and I'm able to support myself and husband while he's basically interning at his job for the next few years. We're hoping to make it back to the PNW area when he's able to earn again. Any WA, OR, or AK nurses mind sharing what they're making?

Every preceptor, instructor, and former co-worker I have spoken with has told me that if I have an interest in a specialty to apply for it. If you have a love and passion for NICU then apply for new grad programs that allow you to start there. Here in TX we have NICU new grad programs across the state, and I'm sure they exist in other states too. I'm planning on moving out of state for many reasons after graduation, one of which being the opportunity for OR new grad residencies is higher so if you have the means and ability to, I'd say go for it.

As a fellow 3rd semester who had their entire 2nd semester online with cut-backs in clinical hours this semester, believe me when I say I completely understand where you are coming from and that it can and will get better. Not being confident about flying solo I think is a good thing, since you won't be reckless or overconfident. That being said, your experience with the flush sounds very familiar to my last clinical where I accidentally broke a vial of a narcotic all over a patient's bed. I was mortified, but my nurse was much more accepting and told a similar story she did when she was a new grad. Accidents do happen, and imo your nurse should have felt the resistance you were feeling instead of blindly telling you to continue. Take every clinical as a new learning experience and really try to put yourself out there. I was able to experience the emergency department and ICU earlier than most in my cohort because I took the initiative to ask the charge nurse and my clinical instructor if I could shadow and assist. I still haven't gotten to place a foley or NG tube, but just remember that our supervision doesn't stop once we get licenses. New grad programs I think should and have been understanding given the current circumstances of the pandemic and what that means for us as soon to be nurses. Keep your head up and keep practicing, we got this. ?

Short answer, it shouldn't have an impact. The Texas BON states itself, "To fulfill its mission of public protection, the Board believes that a single minor criminal incident, or minor criminal behavior, (including by applicants and petitioners for orders of eligibility), should be investigated when relevant, but should ordinarily not result in disciplinary action." Included in that list of minor criminal incidents is: "An arrest for a misdemeanor that has been dismissed completely or where prosecution has been denied" Link to where I found the info: Link

The ATI books and quizzes at the end of each chapter should be your starting point. Read the chapters related to what you're studying in Lewis or whatever main book your school assigns. From there, apply yourself to ATI questions in the Learning System RN 3.0 and whatever custom quizzes in ATI your professor creates. You can create a custom test with rationales at the end of each within the Learning System RN, but the test banks are huge so don't do this the day before. The children's study test bank had 398 unique questions with select all, multiple choice, etc. Whatever questions you miss, go back into the book and see what ATI has to say about it. My last ATI was the Care of Children and I scored an 85%, a level 3. ATI is a different beast that has many questions that focus around the basics: ABCs, urgent v. non-urgent, and expected findings. If I didn't know the answer to a question, I applied that method and have had great results so far.

Currently a senior in my ABSN program, and I can say after speaking with some of the traditional students and others in various ABSN programs across my state that it truly depends on the program. Mine is a 16 month with the only difference between traditional students is our lectures are online and we had to continue the program throughout the Summer with no break (which due to COVID was honestly a blessing and a distraction). I started with 63 students in my program in January, and we are currently at 60, with only one known drop-out from failing, the rest all had other life commitments. My program has the option of repeating a semester if you do fail, but with the high cost I only know of one person who has done it. I have the benefit of not having to maintain a full time job/kids/etc., so it really depends on the current work load you already have. My program's schedule is a hybrid, with 80% of the classes being online aside from clinical, which varies in location every 8 weeks. My last commute was 30 minutes, and now I'm looking at 1.5 hours each way. Get a good support system with other students, listen to some good nursing podcasts and stay on top of your reading and you'll do fine. I've managed a 3.9 my entire time in my ABSN program, so I wouldn't say it's hard, you just have to stay self-motivated and dedicated the entire time you're in it because nobody will hold your hand through it.

specific drug doses: No, we were never tested on the drug doses in either of my pharmacology classes. In peds we were asked to do all calculations to ensure that the drug matched the order since everything is dosed based on weight, but in adults you sort of see enough of the major drugs to understand what is a "normal" dosage and what looks suspicious drug classes/drug names: really focus on your classes if this is your first pharm course. the classes usually have an ending or prefix that helps you identify the names to the class (beta blockers ending in -LOL for example). In general, most drugs have similar side effects or life-threatening/overdose symptoms within their class, so if you can understand the class, the ending/prefix, why you'd give it, why you wouldn't give it, and what side effects are expected vs. dangerous you should do fine. I wouldn't worry so much about the cellular mechanisms.

TX here. My school has us set to return to clinicals next Monday. I'm starting my peds rotation, but for an 8-week section we only have 4 clinical days. I feel like that's nothing. All lecture based courses are online. Very thankful to be done with vSims, but I'm nervous since we never got to really practice the skills we learned in person. I'm supposed to be graduating in April but due to COVID cutting my clinical time I feel like I'll have nothing nursing related to put on my resume.

I think it all really depends on your school-work-home balance. I had no kids, but worked full time nights and thought I could handle gen chem, A+P and micro. It was terrible and I ended up having to retake my A+P to get into the program I'm in now. Shan made an excellent point about the information following you; you don't want to be six months deep into the program and not know the basic knowledge of those prereqs. Plan 2 seems the best, but just remember that the labs you take for all the science courses will feel like another full time course rather than a 1 credit one.

I think it's all really dependent on the school and how strong the average applicant is. The general baseline score for the TEAS for the three schools I applied to were 65%, but my top choice said the average accepted student gets a 95%, while the others were way less rigorous. I ended up scoring a 92% and got accepted to my second pick. I'd strongly recommend reaching out to your advisor and see if they have any information on the average accepted student score versus the minimum requirement. It should help give you better insight into whether or not you should retake the test. Best of luck!