CYR

Another thought too... Don't kick yourself for not having known years ago what you now know about yourself...that's the process of life and growing that we all experience in one form or another. If you feel that Nursing is your true calling, be GLAD that you've found it, and don't let anything (including redoing prereqs. which you just might enjoy) stop you. Keep the BIG picture in mind and try not to be in a hurry...don't be discouraged! You can do it!

These are some really great suggestions! Thank you!

Is it really THAT difficult?!! I have heard some say that the prereqs were more difficult than the nursing school and others say just the opposite. I'm curious! I start my community college nursing program in the fall and I have been taking really tough courses for my eventual transfer to a 4 year university...demanding classes like Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biology for science majors, and the full year of college level Inorganic Chemistry (I just have a semester of Organic Chemistry to go). I'm hoping that these critical thinking type of classes have prepared me well enough for what lies ahead. I keep hearing about the masses of students who fail out of nursing school? And students who got all As in their prereqs who are barely passing the nursing courses? Are most of these people trying to work while they attend school?

That is exciting! Good for you!!

I'm starting nursing school this fall. I met the prereqs after the fall 2004 semester so that has been a 3 semester (one and a half year) wait for me. However, while I have been waiting, I have completed almost all the requirements for later transfer to a BSN/MSN program so I don't feel that I've wasted time. I also feel that since I have put so much into getting a higher degree already it will motivate me to keep going instead of settling for the basic RN. In your case with already having a bachelor's degree however, you can find schools wherein you can earn a BSN in one (very intense) year or in 16 months and I don't think those have the long wait lists that the community colleges do. Good Luck!

"I have about a dozen sets of uniforms, all solids, and every one of them cost $$ that I could have used for other things. And the time I spend washing and ironing each week could be better spent with a good book and a glass of wine or reading to the kids down at the local library on Tuesday mornings." It seems that with a nurse's salary you could have your uniforms laundered so that you could go and read to the kids at the library if you wanted to. I believe the person who pointed out the purpose of scrubs being to protect patients from germs was correct since these are the people who are in very vulnerable states of health.

While I agree in part with what you're saying I don't think a single response here has been about that. Nobody has talked about forcing their beliefs on others as a form of healing. I think we can have human empathy and understanding and love without the need to calculate how we could work from someone else's belief system which somehow implies a judgement...I think critical events in people's lives lift both healer and wounded beyond belief "systems" and it is there when we come from the heart of humility that we transcend the situation and allow healing, being greater than all of us, to happen.

Hi confused down-unda Its the exact same concept. If you are give the ratio between 2 different routes of medication and you are told the amount to be given for one of the routes but you want to know the other route, you set up the problem in the exact same way as I showed you. My college has a math lab with tutoring available...if you can get someone to tutor you and actually show you how to do these calculations I think that's better than having it typed out. Good luck!

In what you've provided you already have a ratio. So if you are told either the oral or parenteral amount, you can then calculate the other. If you have say 75mg of parenteral Codeine and you want to know how this converts to oral amount? Set up your ratio as 130 over 200 (or the other way around; doesn't matter as long as you match your orals and parenterals) and this is equal to 75 over x (your unknown oral amount.) Now you cross-multiply 75 X 200 and divide by 130 and that is your oral amount when parenteral is 75mg. the answer would be 115mg of oral which makes sense when you look at it. Is this helpful or is your question something else?

I was a pre-health intern at a hospital L&D unit for 4 months as well as a birth partner for teenage mothers having county hospital deliveries. I had my own 3 children with a midwife, the first at her free-standing birth center and the last 2 at home. I am SO glad I made that decision esp. after what I observed in the hospital. We need more truly educated midwives who have a real understanding about the birth process! I feel so passionate about this that I just may have to become one myself! I think good midwives have to have been exposed to a lot of "unremarkable", baby-centered and parent-centered births and experienced (not necessarily personally!) the dynamic and powerful process of totally supported home births. It is a given that one will learn complications and high risk situations but if one never experiences the latter, a huge chunk will be missing. Seek and you shall find!

My final will be in 5 weeks. I'm in my second semester of Gen Chem which is req'd for BSN....It is brutal. If you already have an A/B in the class you will be fine. Stop expecting nothing less than an A right now unless you want to be miserable. If you get an A great but if you get a B or even a C for Chem. all my Chem teachers will tell you that is totally respectable...few students excel in Chem. Just do the best that you can...focus on your notes and old exams as someone already said and go to office hours with questions. Good luck!

I'm not a nurse yet, still a student...but I have done plenty of medical volunteering with patient interaction and it has been all about putting my spiritual beliefs into practice.....treating each person the way I would want to be treated...being kind, respectful, caring and service oriented....these qualities stem from my core spiritual beliefs, center/source....and I believe in prayer and fasting as well...the reason that I am choosing to become a nurse is purely an outgrowth of my spiritual values...I hope this helps to answer your question somewhat.