sharnurse

I understand your frustration, but the problem is that because there are less nurses, they don't have as many nurses to teach new ones. As you said, you can see how overworked and tired the nurses are, and it's hard to precept students. It's been hard to find preceptors for nursing students this year, with a lot of preceptors being young nurses with only a year of experience themselves. They can't accept students with no teachers.

Hi, 2nd year Nipissing student here - all of us work part time jobs, some even two part time jobs! The only time it is really difficult to manage school and work is when you are in your final consolidation semester. There is also a facebook group for your cohort - look up Nipissing Class of 2024. Congratulations!

Sorry, and one more thing - as far as the self teach part of the program - at the beginning of each semester you will design a learning plan with an overarching goal and three objectives. This is where your self learning will come in. Let's say you have a placement on a orthopaedic floor. You will focus your learning on the different diagnoses, the patho of a spinal cord injury, the common medications used in that population and their mechanism in the body, and perhaps how pain is assessed and managed in that population. Because you are going to placement several days a week, you will see all of these things in action, and then you will look up more information. For instance, if you have a patient with muscular dystrophy, you will go back and read about the condition. You will give medication to that client, so you will look up those meds, learn about how they work, and why they are being given. So self learning really is an organic process that naturally flows out of your experiences in clinical.

Honestly, students from all programs use UWorld to study for NCLEX. School gives you the foundation, but you will need other resources for NCLEX. Because I started the program in 2020, we didn't have any interviews, they selected us based on our grades and our letter. But from what I understand, you meet with two Sick Kids educators, one is a SPP faculty member. They will be looking for people who can relate and communicate well with others and who are passionate about working with children and families. It's important to remember that as a paeds nurse, you won't just be working with children, but with parents as well, and often those parents will be stressed and anxious. How will you deal with stressful situations? How do you relate to children? How will you show compassion? Everything in paeds is a little more intense because of that family dynamic and the fact that we place such a high value on children as a society. You need to be able to navigate that dynamic with compassion and empathy. Also remember that you will be working with a very diverse population, with people from all different cultures. Many people may not speak English. How are you going to remain flexible and compassionate in dealing with cultural differences and language barriers? Just some things to think about. Skills can be taught, but the people who will succeed are those who have a great attitude, can show compassion, and can deal with stressful situations.

They given you 'recommendations' for textbooks, that way you can pick a textbook that works for you. The group even has a dropbox full of digital textbooks so you don't have to buy them if you don't want to. I chose to get a basic nursing textbook, a pediatric textbook, an assessment textbook, a psychiatric nursing textbook, a patho textbook, and a pharm one. I also have the pocket drug guide, Saunders NCLEX, and access to UWorld. They will tell you a lot of what you need to study. During the three weeks of inquiry you will have assigned readings, assignments (usually small group presentations), and lectures. I can't say enough about the practicum phase though. In my first placement I was teaching students at the same level as me, from other schools. I recently had a lab with a consolidating student (I don't start consolidation until May) and I was again in a teaching/supporting role because I already had experience doing those skills. A lot of us feel like we are all ready working as nurses, with our own patient load. No other nursing program gives you that experience. So you have to decide how best you learn - do you really love the routine of formal schooling with lectures and tests to tell you how you are doing? Or would you rather learn by experience and take control of your own learning by asking questions, looking up answers, reading on your own time? The program focusses a lot on the soft skills which are really important in nursing - communication, caring, clinical judgement - things that are very hard to teach from a textbook. I have already been offered jobs at every single placement I've had because they can see the value. It does go against the grain, and they like to tell us to 'trust the process' because it is different from any program you have ever done. Some people don't like it and I do think it would be nicer to have a little bit more structure, but the tradeoff is worth it, in my opinion.

SPP has an amazing sense of community. Even though we have been online for the past two years, I have made amazing friends online and have been so supported by my peers. We have seminar once a week in our small groups (they divide us up each semester) so you definitely have people to talk to, study with, etc. The three weeks of inquiry intensives is a lot of group work, so even online we got to work together.

I am going into my final semester of SPP. I'd be happy to answer any questions ?

It's a conditional offer. I took BIOL 235 last year and got waitlisted for Nipissing in March. The waitlist opened up the second week of April and I worked really hard to get it done by then, hoping it would help my chances. I didn't have my official transcript from Athabasca, so I sent them my unofficial one, hoping it would boost my chances. I was the first one off the waitlist, so I don't know if that helped or not, but it was still a conditional offer until the official transcript came in. The only reason I wanted to get it done early though was so that the grade would count towards my GPA, since I was going to do really well in it. If I was confident in my GPA all ready, I wouldn't have worried about rushing. Yes, totally normal. It takes at least three weeks for them to get your CASPer results.

Oh wow, that is stressful! I'm pretty sure that was top 10 GPA. We all had to do virtual placement last semester which was really disappointing, but I actually learned a lot, and got to practice assessment skills and vital signs on my family members. It was really helpful for finally getting into placement this semester! There is a big emphasis on critical thinking skills, so that is really helpful in being able to learn in a self-directed manner.

I think my GPA was in the 3.7-3.8 range. But the interview is usually heavily weighted. Are they doing interviews this year? They cancelled them for us last year, and that was really nerve-racking! My home base is Sick Kids and it has been great so far. You do naturally feel a little "thrown in" because you go from not knowing anything to working in a pretty acute environment really fast, but the faculty and preceptors are so supportive. You definitely get to work at your own pace and at your own comfort level. You can shadow your preceptor until you are comfortable, and then you start with simple things like doing vitals, head to toe and focussed assessments, and communication with patients. It really helps with your soft skills because it is really hard to teach communication theoretically! Every week you have debriefs and reflection classes where you can talk about your experiences and get support from the faculty and your other classmates.

Yes, it's really great. Such a supportive environment. We get way more clinical opportunity and hands on learning than other programs.

I am a current Nipissing SPP student so if you have any questions let me know! I remember how helpful these forums were last year and I am happy to pay it forward!