HeavenBound0530

Our first year you only get 1..the third semester we started out with one and worked our way up to 3, but our instructor only gave you three if she felt you could hendle the stressof having three..unfortunately I was the first to get 3!! Which meant alot to me but at the same time I just was having a bad morning anyways and was not wanting the added on stress...but she said I did an excellent job with having 3 so that meant alot ot me. Our fourth semester you get 3 until our mentorship and then you get however many your nurse preceptor has which where I'm goin to hopefully be at is 6 patients..not to bad. Clinical seems a little easier this semester because things are finally starting to click!!

I'm the saem way...I knew ahead of time that we're understaffed and it makes me mad because our clinicals give us 1 pt. and we're supposed to do all the stuff that we're never gonna do when we graduate...you don't have time to sit and read through a pts. chart!!! You don't have time to sit there and do a complete careplan and talk to the pt. and ask them all these questions. I'm now getting more experience by taking care of 3 pts. at my clinical unit, but I work in a hospital as an aide where I take care of 16 pts. everyday and I still don't get time to talk to the pts. even as an aide!! The field is going downhill from what it was many years ago..it's not that great of pt. care in my opinion...But that's not chaning my mind of nursing because I still want to help people even if that means sacrificing ime spent with the pt.

your pt. is also a good candidate for the diagnosis of ineffective airway clearancce....if she's on home oxygen she obviously has some trouble getting o2 into her blood because of her COPD which by the way includes emphysema.... As far as an example I don't know what I can do to help you cause I'm not good at creating scenarios...sorry...Hope that helped you a little bit though cause that would be an easier one to do for you pt.

I wouldn't say it gets "easier" persay, just that you get used to constantly being bogged down and running on only 4 or 5 hours of sleep and then dealing with everyday life while trying to study somewhere in between all of that. Like right now, I'm running on 3 hours of sleep, and I'm so tired I can't sleep, clinical tomorrow for 8 hours and I work 230-11 fri-sun nad to top it all off I have a test on Tue!! If I pass this test it'll be a miracle in itself, but this is what I've been used to for the past year. The tests only get "easier" because you learn how to take them, it's not memorization anymore, it's learn it and apply what you know...what would the nurse do first?!? You'll learn to relax a little bit, expecially after your first test, that's always the worst cause you don't know what to expect. I agree with the NCLEX books, they do help you with how to answer the questions...also STUDY GROUPS!!! But make them with people that will actually study, not just get together and talk about everything but school stuff. You'll learn from eachother because something you heard in class someone else may not have heard and vise versa..help each other out!! It's not a competition for who gets an A is better then everyone else...You have to pull together and get through it, it's the only way you'll pass honestly. Some of those that are C students in my class are the best ones at clinical because they have actual bedside manner with pts. and they can still put all the pieces of the puzzle together to care for the pt. Just relax and be ready to not have a life for 2 years!!

I'm currently working as a Nurse Extern at a hospital and I'm in my last year of nursing. It has helped me sooo much with school as far as feeling confident about going into a pt. room or just doing anything. I'm way more organized compared to before in my first year. Some places will hire you while your in school without a CNA license, but most require you to have at least your first year done since that's the equivilant to CNA school...But it depends on the hospital. Mine would hire you after your first year was complete but it probably differs. between everyone. Just call around to the HR dept. of a few local hositals or check at your school to see if they have any postings for Intern/Extern positions.

I have a crazy instructor who gave us these off the wall med calc. problems on our test. The one goes like this... You have a pump that's programmed at 50gtts/ml. It's running at 45 gtts/min. How many hours would it take to infuse a 1 liter (1000 ml) bag of solution? I set mine up how you would to figure out the gtts/min and worked backwards, but i had to play around with it a little to get the answer. My set up looked like this: 1000/x times 50=45 I divided 1000 by 50 and got 20, which would give me 1200min. That didn't work when i put it in for x so I played around with it and got 1100 for x and that worked, i jsut wanted to make sure my concept was right..and the i divided 1100 by 60 and got 18.3 hours...which is what the majority of people got but I just wanted to make sure I did it right.. The other one went like this... You have an IVPB of Erythromycin 250 ml that needs to infuse in an hour. Your tubing is 60 gtts/ml. How many ml/hr will it run at? what is the gtts/min? I got 250 for both answers...I just didn't know if I would've done it right for the gtts/min. Thank you!!!

I didn't think you had to have 3 parts with a risk diagnosis...i thought they were only two part...and either way i don't see how oxygen is a risk for infection...but that's just me..there are alot of people on oxygen and I wouldn't think they are a risk for an infection...but again, I'm pretty sure a risk is only a 2 part thing, your nanda and your r/t...no manifestations...

i'm a senior student also...I'm starting to see the tiny little light at the end of the very long tunnel...however, you've got alot of hard hard hard work ahead of you, I'm not gonna lie. Your life is gonna consist of work and school for the next two years..honestly, but it's worth it!! The tests aren't a memorizaion anymore, so don't study that way...it's using what you know and until you take your first test you won't understand what I tell you because it's not a normal test....also, everyone fails the first test so don't get alarmed, just work your butt off to pass the next 5 (including the final). Most people get on their final what they have as their grade so far. So, if your passing before the final, pretty much you can bet that your gonna pass, but you still have to study alot. DON'T PROCRASTINATE ON STUDYING!!! Study the aterial that they give you that very day!!! Go over it alot and when your burned out, go over it again because that's the only way you'll really learn it. Take advantage of using the open skills lab, Mrs. Moran and Carla are awesome at helping you, and they don't act like your stupid like some of the instructors do when you ask a question. Ask the seniors for help, we're not there to be like "oh well your first year so i'm not gonna help you" because that's how alot of us got to where we are right now is because the senior helped us. Nursing is a helping field so if you can't help your fellow students get through it, then how are you gonna be able to help out your fellow nurses..even worse, if you work with someone you didn't help in school...I hope this helps, if you need anything just ask. my e-mail is [email protected] i check that a little more frequently then i do here...this is jsut somewhere i come for help of stuff...

The first part is right, but Im not so sure about the answer for how to assess for sensation. I think you would want to do something along the lines of a neurovascular check which consists of the 5 P's...Palor, Pain, Pulses, Paralysis and Paresthesia. Palor- check the color of the extremity, also check the nail beds and check your capillary refill times ( Pain- assess if the pt. is in any pain. if so, do your pain scale and ask what kind of pain, if it's local or if it radiates to surrounding areas. Also, assess if it's a chrinic pain (if it's all the time) or if it's acute (only when pt. moves around) Pulses- Check pulses on both extremeties to make sure they are equal in rhythm. Paralysis- ask patient to move the extremity and not just the fingers and toes, have them move the wrists and ankle also. Paresthesia- ask patient to describe what they're feeling in their extremity..numbness, tingling, burning ect. and also to check for sensation, use a sterile needle to check for nerve function. Most of it i knew cause I'm doing a rotation on an ortho floor right now but some of it I took from this website which you can use for more help on a neruo check..just becareful because there's a neurovascular check and a neurological check which is something different!! http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-936X%28197406%2974%3A6%3C1048%3AEAOOI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage Hope this helps!!!!

what's the best careplan book out there do you think?? I need some help with careplans..i have a nursing disgnosis book but it's not the greatest...please help me!!

I have a question, i heard it's not too soon to start practicing for the NCLEX test (this is my first year/semester in nursing)..i was just wondering which books helped out the most..thank you!!

My name is Rachel, I'm 19 yrs. old and I'm in my 4th week of my first year of nursing school. I'm starting to beat my head off of a wall because there is just SOOOOOOO much information and I don't know how to retain it all...I study my butt off and I don't feel that I'm prepared for my test on thursday..yes..this thursday the 14th...It's on EVERYTHING but clinical and that's ALOT of stuff. I guess my one problem is I'm not used to self-teaching...which is what alot of my program is (CCAC South campus...Pennsylvania) and that's taking awhile for me to adjust to...also, alot of what we're learning now is boring to me, like the principles of nursing and the code of ethics and stuff...I want to actually learn how to do stuff..not the basics (which i know your gonna say you have to learn the basics to understand everything else). My family and my loving boyfriend are all supporting me and i have a wonderful group of friends which are current nursing students also (we've all been together from day one of school last fall semester) and we have a moto of "No Nursing Student left behind" (no one drops out and no one is failing out, we're all gonna help eachother through this) and even my boyfriend, who is mad because he dosn't see me alot, is yelling at me to study more and everything which shocks me because we've not been dating that long but he knows how bad i want this. I guess what I'm saying is, i have alot of stress right now with school and I need some tips from you guys as to how you studied and dealt with all the stress and trying to have at least a little bit of a life...I NEED YOUR ADVICE PLEASE!!!

Thank you guys.....I guess I also learned some other good points while taking this class......VERY GOOD STUDY HABITS!!!!!!

I know my grandmother is watching over me for sure and I've never been more sure then these past 3 tests I've taken in Microbiology. The antibiotic test I took i had an 84% (B), the bacteria tst I took was a 91% (A) and now the virus test I just took I got an 89%(B). Anyways, our Microbiology class is extrememly hard, and I told myself at the begining that i would be happy to pass the class with a C.....I GOT AN A!!!!!!:roll

I had to go get a physical the other day for nursing school and along with my tetorifice booster she put in pertusis (whooping chough) cause she said that's been goin around too, they've had 10 kids come in within 3 das that all had whooping cough so you might wanna watch out for that in your areas as well. I think it's because people just don't keep up with their vaccines and therfore people are getting sick with these illnesses cause they don't have any immunity to them.