ms mimi

yes my school drug tests, and we have to have fingerprints done before we can go into any clinical facility. i am glad they are drug testing because i wouldn't want a drug user as my nurse, they dont belong in the field.

i am not working 12 hr shifts yet, but for clinicals the old althletic shoes were not cutting it. they hurt my feet, so i looked around and talked to some nurses and i found SAS shoes. they might be a bit expensive but i think its better than buying a bunch of cheaper pairs of shoes looking for ones that won't hurt my feet. so far they are really comfortable.

ok, good. i thought i was the only one, like maybe my connection was bad or it was my dinosaur PC. wonder why though. :Crash:

When i took my pre-reqs i could schedule them around my son, but in nursing school the schedule is not very flexible. You will have to work your life around nursing school and clinicals. So i would have to say that you will need some type of childcare: family, day-care, school. And if your child is in school/day-care it is a good idea to have a back up sitter in case they get sick. Because where i go to school you can only miss 2 days of clinicals, more than that and you are kicked out. Dont let this scare you though, i have been a single parent and i have found ways to make it work. Each situation is different, but you can still be a mom and a nursing student. Heck, most of the students i know are parents. So come up with plan A, B, C... now and be ready for whatever may come up.

YESSS!! i read every little reading assignment that there was and i got 9 points away from an A! talk about total frustration. nursing school is pretty much reading, that is the majority of your time spent. oh except for those wonderful care-plans that one must write every single week. all i know is that i am not reading anymore of the assigned readings for next semester. i just want to take a break from reading.

i totally agree with the last post!! your break is a great time to catch up on "you" time: house, family, and freinds. use this time now before the craziness starts. i had the greatest intentions to read all of the readings for next semester, and i got half-way thru and thought this is crazy. i just spent 3 1/2 grueling months thinking about nothing but nursing and now i am spending my summer break doing the same. i stopped that quickly and am now focusing on enjoying myself. i am reading literature instead. a few weeks before school starts i will start up my nursing reading again, but i am taking a break. so my advise is try and enjoy yourself, there will be so much time to stress out about reading soon enough.

i breastfed my child until he was about 2 1/2. you just have to say no and stick to it. i know that it is a great time for mother/child bonding but once you make the resolve to stop your child will adapt easier than you think. i am so happy to hear of all you mothers who breastfed.

yes she stepped down, and somebody said that it would be a 4th semester instructor taking over. what i want to know is will this change things in any way. i also know somebody that is starting in fall in the new accelerated program. they will go thru the summer and graduate in dec 07. the schedule is like 5pm-8pm mon-fri, and clinicals all day on sat.

i wonder what shift i will work when i get out of school. i hate the night shift; worked it for a few months, thought i would die. but i dont think i can work day shift because during my son's summer break i have nowhere to put him. so i think i will have to work nights until he gets older:o

don't listen to your tutor, you made the decision to pursue nursing and you are an adult. i don't know if there is a specific type of person that is "right" for nursing. if you go thru school and start feeling that you aren't suited for it then you can choose something else. but you make that decision based on your own feelings, not the feelings of others. what you need right now are people that will encourage you, not make you dought yourself.

i am so sorry to hear that; keep your head up and your options open. the other term for unit secretary is UA-unit assistant. try that or PCT-patient care tech. :icon_hug:

i think that part of the reason that the waiver is there has to do with the fact that it takes awhile to complete the Hep. B series. you take the first 2 shots close together but have to wait about 6 months for the final shot. when starting nursing school i had already had the first 2 shots but had to sign the waiver because i hadn't had the last one. now that i've had the last one i can sign the Hep. B form. i've had no adverse reaction to the shots. i would get them, who wants to get Hep. B and have time lost from school, work, family or whatever.

I strongly dought that any of the ADN programs are in danger of not being around any more, if anything there are more cropping up everywhere.

i have my GED and a 3.7 GPA, its no big deal. and i think my friend that is in a BSN program does too. she was home-schooled so she didn't get her diploma.

the university where i live lets you get into their med-school if you have 30 units of upper division courses (almost a bachelors) and take m-cat. they do not require that you have your bachelors, and if you have yours it can be any major, it doesn't have to be science related. and i know of 2 dr's that were nurses before, one was my family practitioner. she was a nurse for 8 yrs and after taking some pre-reqs she applied for med-school and got in. now she is an MD. and the med-school where i live is not competetive, they only take in-state applicants, so if your grades are good and your m-cat is too there is a good chance you are in. i cant say that about private or ivy league schools, but try looking into your state colleges, i bet its the same there.

i have to agree with this. it just seems like these people don't ever quit, and because they serve so little time (if any at all) they just go back to doing it again and again. i dont know what it will take to put these people away for good or make a punishment that will fit the crime. the pain that these crimes illicit upon their victims can literally ruin lives. i wonder when it will all stop.

my dad has bi-polar disorder. he wasn't diagnosed until he suffered a severe car accident 12 yrs ago. he has used drugs/alcohol for most of his adult life, and now i think it is because he was trying to self medicate. now he is on a regimine of perscription drugs but he still drinks. his dr's have tried many combinations of drugs on him, but nothing seems to be a magic bullet. he functions, but he uses alcohol is he feels his drugs "aren't working". in pharm. class we learned that people w/ bi-polar sometimes have problems sticking to the perscription regimine, because when they are manic they are feeling so good that they might feel no need to take the meds right then. that is my dad, he doesn't always use his meds as perscribed and i think that makes it hard to stabilize his mood. it is so hard to see the pain that he goes thru but i love him so much! i am so proud of his courage though; it takes a lot for a person to live with this. i commend your courage and bravery to work through this. i can't imagine that is it easy so God bless you, and thank you for allowing me to celebrate my dad.

i am not sure if this is what you meant? but everybody has the same receptor sites in their body: opioid, nicotinic, and muscarinic receptors. but there is a theory that states that the reward center in an addicts brain may be deficient so to stimulate it they may need to keep using the drug of their choosing. i think what differs from addict to addict is their reward center circuits, not the receptors themselves. i know that once you activate these receptors with drugs you may change your body's own ability to produce the bodies natural hormones that turn on the receptor sites. anyway just rambling on...

Check out how the 2006-financial aide budget cuts from congress will effect nursing schools (loan repayment programs, etc.) http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/hpnec/start.htm http://www.ncra-usa.org/pdfs/resources/Budget2006.pdf http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/16/aamc

you might not bathe somebody totally nude but you will have to see parts of male and female patients that you wouldn't normally see. you will also have to insert catheters, and maybe enemas. plus in first semester we learned about digging out fecal impacted patients. it is not pretty but i am getting used to it

talk to the NM or security, or someone. tell them the situation, just let somebody know what is going on. dont keep quiet. wouldn't that be horrible if something were to happen and you look back and did't say anything. and remeber your first instinct serves you well, don't ignore it, it is there for a reason. and i would be horrified to be that patient that that man is talking to. she probly has no idea and thinks that she is perfectly safe in the hospital, and lets keep it that way!

i want to work in the ER at some point. i spent 2 days there in clinicals; the first day i got to be in the trauma bay. that was crazy, exciting; 4 MVA victims. i really enjoyed that, but the 2nd day i was in the other part of the ER (individual rooms). i saw people w/ chest pains, people who felt sick, but nothing like the trauma bay. so hopefully i can start in critical care, get some good experience and eventually go down to the ER.

the community college ADN program that i go to has one of the best records for putting out competent clinical RN's. but with that comes a 3 semester wait list (that should give you time to finish every single one of your pre-reqs). however, the thing i like most about it is that is costs less than half that of the university's program. for a sinlge-parent getting financial aide this is the most appealing aspect of my school.

my pharm. class really sucked. i would do all of the scheduled readings but when it came time to test his answers contradicted the book. when i talked to other students they said they never opened the book, they just studied from the teacher's power point notes, and they were getting good test scores. so finally i just looked at the notes and got a good grade. i was so happy that i went up to him and said "finally i did well, i mainly went over the notes". he said "don't tell me that you didn't open the book". i was shocked that i was scolded for doing what it took to get a good grade. i was so glad when that class was over!!

my pharm. class really sucked. i would do all of the scheduled readings but when it came time to test his answers contradicted the book. when i talked to other students they said they never opened the book, they just studied from the teacher's power point notes, and they were getting good test scores. so finally i just looked at the notes and got a good grade. i was so happy that i went up to him and said "finally i did well, i mainly went over the notes". he said "don't tell me that you didn't open the book". i was shocked that i was scolded for doing what it took to get a good grade. i was so glad when that class was over!!