kitkat260

Congratulations! I started May 1st and am hoping to be done in six months. This definitely inspired me that it can be done.

Carla from Scrubs. She always advocated for her patients no matter what she had to do or who she made angry by doing so and she demanded (and received) respect from the doctors for herself as a nurse.

I would be interested in reading the replies to this also. I am interested in Nursing Education but I am wondering if it would be better to get a MSN in Clinical Leadership so that I can have more career opportunities because from what I can see, you can teach if you have a MSN in Nursing, it doesn't necessarily have to be in Nursing Education. I was just wondering if anyone knows of any instances where a school had stated that they prefer a MSN in Nursing Education for their faculty rather than an MSN in another area.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement. I appreciate it. I did a lot of thinking since I received that email to make sure that I was still dedicated to getting my BSN and I decided to accept readmission through WGU under their terms. It will be worth it when I make it through the program and earn my BSN.

I was approved for financial aid already for this next term so I think that it is just WGU's policy, though I noticed today when I logged in to my WGU portal that it says that I am in good standing for financial aid. I am going to contact the bursar's office tomorrow to find out what is going on with it.

Just had to share a little bit of frustration that I've had today with the process of trying to get readmitted to WGU. Sorry in advance for my rant. I had began my RN to BSN nearly 4 years ago at WGU, just shortly after I had finished my earning my RN at a Community College. About six weeks into the program, I realized that I was just not at the right point in my life where I was going to be able to concentrate on school due to various things going on in my personal and work life so I made the hard decision to withdraw from school. Fast forward four years. I am in a very different place than I was four years ago. Things have settled down in my personal life and I finally have a work environment that is encouraging me to finish my degree, rather than being negative. So I made the big decision to re-enroll at WGU to finish my degree. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. First, I was asked to write an appeal statement explaining why I had dropped out and why exactly I felt that I should be allowed to re-enter the program, as well as an academic plan on how I was going to do things different when I returned to the program. It made me feel a little like a puppy that had tinkled on the carpet having its nose rubbed into the mess, but okay. I could swallow some pride and write the essay. Then I was told that I had to give them a $100 readmission fee. 'Would this guarantee that I would be allowed back into the program?' I asked. 'No,' was the answer. They didn't "have to" allow me back into the program but this was the process. Again, I decided this must be fair. After all, if I was a new student, I would be paying an application fee so I scraped the $100 together and sent it off. After waiting for two weeks to find out an answer as to whether I'd be allowed to re-attend WGU (I was informed that this could take 4-6 weeks so this wasn't too bad), I got my answer today. I will be allowed back in on the following conditions: 1. I will be placed on a Probationary term (okay, that's fair, though I only need 24 credits to graduate and I might get through it in one term) 2. I have to complete satisfactory progress in at least 12 credit hours during this Probationary term or I would be removed from the program (again, what I was expecting) 3. I have to attend all weekly calls with my mentor (yep, not a problem) 4. I have to complete ALL learning resources as directed by the courses of study and at the discretion of my mentor ( I interpreted this to mean all assignments, not just the ones that will be graded (not happy about that, but if this is what it takes, it will be worth it) At this point the puppy being rubbed in urine feeling is so strong that I am almost, but not quite, ready to say forget it, there has to be another school that won't hold that 6 weeks against me when I read this last part of the terms of my readmission: 5. I will have to re-enter WGU in Financial Aid Suspension status and will not qualify for financial aid during this probationary term. WAIT! What? How do they expect me to pay for their school? I know that it is reasonably priced but I have two teenagers that are starting to drive and a mortgage. I can't come up with thousands of dollars just like that. Not to mention that feeling of shame that I wasn't able to go through the program when I planned. I literally cried when I read that last part because that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I have wanted my Bachelor's degree for nearly four years and now that I was so close to being able to go back to school, my dream is now that much further away. I checked into private loans but there is no guarantee that I can get one and I am confused as to whether this would count as financial aid to WGU. I'm so frustrated and shamed that I'm ready to just pass on getting my BSN.

"The candidate has previously passed this exam. A new appointment cannot be scheduled" I can't wait to see my license number post to the BON website :clpty:

Indiana State University has a distance learning program for LPN to BSN. This might be one step more than you were wanting but it might be worth it to have the extra education.

I think that I am most irritated to see fellow nurses put that we have "recieved" medication for a resident. Um, it's "i" before "e" except after c. Received! You have a college education people, let's act like it!

I try not to introduce myself as a nurse b/c I realize that just because I'm a nurse, it doesn't mean that I know everything about the medical situation (there's a reason that nurses specialize!) and I'm afraid that the doctor or other nurses will just assume I know what is going on with my family instead of telling me what their perception of the situation is. I also don't want to give the impression that I'm going to look over their shoulder and judge the care that they are giving to me or my family. That having been said, I have stepped in when I think that there is a potential for a mistake (such as when my mother was in the hospital and the nurse providing care didn't realize that my mother was diabetic or when they tried to give her a medication that would interact with a medication that she was already taking). In those situations, I am grateful for the knowledge that I have and am not afraid to voice my opinion.

Pegasus65, I'm glad to hear that your new job is working out so well. I, too, seem to have made it into a facility that is willing to train and answer questions. And yes, the med cart is so much more organized than the one at the last job. I am absolutely loving my job. Tonight is my first time on my own but there is another nurse working in the building and she has already told me that she is more than willing to answer any questions that I may have, whether I think that it is a dumb question or not. We are also on 12 hour shifts, which are a killer to get used to, but it does give me more time to get things done and even some down time to learn the facilities procedures and policies. Hope that your weekend goes well!

I have the same issue. I used clear nail polish to cover the part of the metal on the watch that touches my skin. This seems to have helped. I've also worn a long sleeved shirt under my scrub shirt and placed the watch on the shirt material so that the watch didn't touch my skin. Hope this helps.

Thank you kocheli, positive postings from members is one of the main reasons that I keep coming back to this website! It really helps to have someone else share their experiences with you to let you know that we're not the only ones out there that struggles sometimes. Pegasus65, congratulations! It just goes to show that if you hang in there long enough, good things will start to happen! Good luck with everything.

Yes, never a good sign when an employee is "out of there" at the first opportunity! I was just offered a job today at another nursing home. At first I didn't want to accept it but I had just had a conversation with another former classmate a few hours prior to getting the offer and she assured me that not all nursing homes will be like that. I decided to accept the offer and give it a chance; maybe I'll get lucky and really enjoy the job or at least have nurses that are willing to spend a little time on my orientation. Either way, I'll be sure to get something out of the experience and, if it's really terrible, I'll be so "out of there" at the first opportunity, LOL!

Thank you Pegasus65. It really helps to know that I am not alone in this experience. I have been feeling so bad about this experience and it doesn't help that my former classmate is still working there and I'm not. My husband has pointed out to me that she received 3 times the orientation time that I did and that this was a big help to her that I was not given. I hope that something comes up for you soon and that you are able to find a job that is a "perfect fit" for you. Good luck!

I obtained my LPN in September and started a new job in LTC in October. I was so excited to get a new job so quickly. The excitement quickly turned to dread. I was supposed to get 5 days of orientation before working on my own. The first night the nurse I was working with was wonderful and supportive, answering all of my questions calmly and cheerfully. The next night I was assigned to another nurse, one that was barely polite to me when I asked questions. By the second night of working with this nurse, she was rolling her eyes at me when I asked her questions at the beginning of the shift and ignoring me towards the end of the shift. We were almost an hour late starting to pass meds due to a meeting that we had attended at the beginning of the shift-she stayed with me for about ten minutes before going to sit at the desk, leaving me to pass meds to patients that I barely knew by myself. There were pictures in the MAR but most of them were outdated and barely resembled the patients. The names on the room doors were supposed to be arranged so that the name on top was in the bed closest to the door but every second or third room would be arranged just the opposite. At one point, this nurse told me that I didn't have time to double check the meds that I was passing since I was so far behind in my work. That made me so nervous that I started to make small mistakes and finally I slowed down again b/c I was so afraid of making a major med error. By the time I was supposed to start my third night of work with this woman, I was so sick to my stomach that I wanted to vomit and I couldn't stop crying. I got a call from the DON an hour before I was supposed to go in to work and was told that they needed a nurse that could "hit the ground running" and that I should let my next employer know that I would need a lot of orientation. Huh? I'm a brand new nurse with a brand new license. I told them that on my application and at my interviews (both of them). I had been told before being hired that they understood that I was a new nurse and that they would make sure that I felt comfortable before they turned me loose to work by myself. If that didn't make me mad enough, I know that another new nurse (one that I graduated with) had also been hired a week before me and that she received two and a half weeks training with an experienced nurse before they expected her to run the med cart by herself. Why wasn't I given the same courtesy? I feel like there was something that I could have done to prevent this but I just can't think of what that would be. Now, I'm afraid of getting another job in LTC because I'm afraid that I will have a similar experience.

I went to Ivy Tech for my LPN. It seemed to me that they tried to cram too much info into too short of a time. A lot of our material was "self-study" that was tested on in class along with the material that the instructors "lectured" on (mostly it was just teachers reading power point that was copied verbatim from the text books). I'm not saying that I feel that Ivy Tech was a bad school, just that it was IMO, very disorganized and confusing at times when most of the instructors wouldn't go out of their way to explain things. "Read your text book" was the phrase that I heard from the vast majority of my instructors or "nursing isn't for everyone" was another whenever a student would ask what else they could be doing to raise their grade. Maybe this is just the way that all nursing programs are.

My ATI Mock NCLEX Exam was 180 questions, 30 of these questions were "research" questions that didn't apply to my results, and I think that it took me just over an hour to complete, though I am a fast tester. Most of my fellownstudents completed it in around an hour and a half to two hours. I was very surprised at how much easier these questions seemed to me compared to what I was used to on my tests for classes. Hope this helps and good luck :typing.

Has anyone else on here taken Chemistry or Lifespan Development online through Ivy Tech South Bend? I am just wondering how the lab in Chemistry is done online? I am also curious of what papers, quizzes, etc. are involved in Lifespan Development? Also, I am taking one online course through the Fort Wayne campus (this is where I have taken all my courses so far) and I was wondering if all my courses will show up in Black Board regardless of which campus I am taking courses on? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have had instructors throw out questions in the past because they felt that if the majority of the class missed it, then it was a poorly written question (most of our exam questions come from a test bank through the textbook publisher). I have also had instructors give the extra point to the students that actually got the question right (which I think is only fair). I have to think, though, that the instructors should take a little time and read over their exams before administering them-I have had instructors that were "surprised" by questions that were on an exam that they supposedly wrote. That kind of thing irritates me!

A lot of information in the nursing program at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne is self study-like dosage calculations and medical terminology-but you are still tested on it in class and it counts against your grade if you fail it. I wish that I had known this before I entered the program so that I could have at least had a head start on the enormous mountain of information that we were expected to learn in just 16 weeks. I have talked to some other students that attend other programs nearby and have been told that they are having the same problem. I have just accepted that this is the way that nursing school has to be. I do wish that the director of the nursing program at Ivy Tech FW had been more helpful in my first semester. When she was asked what we, as students, could do to improve our grade (ie, study hints, books we could purchase, etc.), we were told to quit our jobs if we didn't have enough time to study. If we couldn't afford to quit our jobs, then we should get a sugar daddy or move back in with our parents. The first suggestion wasn't very appropriate in my opinion and as to the second suggestion? Half of the students in my class (myself included) are either over the age of thirty, married, have children, or fall into all three catagories. We quickly learned not to ask her for any help.

We won't be allowed to pass meds until we have checked off on this in lab, which will be in the next 3-4 weeks. I don't know how they can allow us to pass meds this early in our training. We are apparently expected to do everything else for this patient, even though we don't yet know what everything else entails yet since it hasn't really been explained to us.

You get a nurse? How lucky are you! We were assigned a pt. on the first day of clinical and were told that the best way to learn was to jump right in. We were left trying to figure out what we were supposed to do with this patient (by ourselves!) I thought we would follow a nurse or a CNA at least the first day. A few staff members commented that the student nurses looked liked deer caught in headlights!

I start my LPN classes on August 25.

I'm 33, and math and science were never my strong subjects. I was surprised that I did as well as I did in these sections on my TEAS test. I also did very well in my ANP 101 & 102 classes, so there must be hope for me yet. Good Luck!