JenniG48

I can tell you that I wouldn't work in the environment that you are in. If you want me for 8 hrs, then you pay me for 8 hrs otherwise my time is my own. The agency that I work for is really small, but we have nurses that are salaried and they are on call during business hours regardless of how many pts they have and we have nurses that are per visit and all they do is their visits and then they go home. I'm the only nurse that is hourly at my agency, but I take all the after hour call-outs and weekend SOC et ROCs.

I'm confused, you actually make a calendar to count out the 60 day episodes (et 5 day recert period)? I work in a very small home health agency that isn't able to afford the really nice computerized charting so we do everything by hand (ugh). Anyways, we use the OASIS calendar offered on www.qtso.com under OASIS, OASIS follow up assessment scheduling calendar. We do a monthly list of all pts who are up for recert and use that calander to plan their 60 days episodes.

IM et deep SC are the ways that I've done them in home health. Mostly depends of pt preference et what the Dr. orders.

First, I would talk to the nursing school that you want to attend. I don't know what the requirements are for Arkansas, but unless you want your BSN, you should be able to get your RN in a year...if you have all your pre-reqs done (at least that is true in Kansas). The nursing school I attended was at my local CC and it had a 1 + 1 program. In this program you must get your LPN first and then you can to apply to the RN program. Each program is one year, so I had my LPN the first year and my RN the next year, I also graduated with my Associates Degree. I had several students in my class that had been LPNs for a number of years before deciding to go back to school and get their RN. Good luck.

Word of advice from a new RN, know what is in your text. PP are great for quick reviews, but you really do need to know what is in your text. Getting a strong base of knowledge now will make it much easier as you go. I know many students that were able to get through school without ever opening their books, but had problems when it came to NCLEX. NCLEX questions can be anything and I can tell you that at least half of my questions were never discussed in class or just lightly touched on. Good luck to you.

I think this decision is one that has to be made between your DH and yourself. Speaking as a military brat (my father and step-mother were both career military,) military life has good points and not so good points. My sister is also career military in the Army with 3 children, she just spent a year in Korea where her family could not go, it was not easy for her to be away from her family for that long, but it was a part of her job that she knew she might have to make (her DH fully supports her military career and is willing to take on the added responsibilities it requires when she is gone). My suggestion is to really look into your options and what they would mean to you and your family. Wish you the best. Good luck.

I'm sorry that you are having difficulty with this. Can I ask if you have any problems like test anxiety that may be making it difficult for you to think through the questions. I just took the NCLEX-RN and found myself thinking "I was supposed to know this sh**" during the test. It really is about providing competent care and everytime I came to a question I didn't know, that is what I would look for...If I was this nurse how would I do to provide safe care. For studying, I used the Kaplan book-NCLEX-RN: Strategies for the Registered Nursing Licensing Exam (didn't take the class), Sander's NCLEX-RN Comprehensive Review, Prentice Hall Comprehensive review for NCLEX-RN and 3500 NCLEX-RN questions. Mostly I used the CD's that came with the different programs to do practice tests. Kaplan has good way of breaking the questions down and I used their way when I didn't know what the question was asking. To help relieve test anxiety, the night before the test I checked into a nice hotel (left the husband and kids at home), soaked in the whirlpool, had a nice supper, did not bring my books with me and relaxed all evening. Kept telling myself "I know this stuff, take my time and answer each question to the best of my ability." Had 75 questions. Had over 20 of the SATA questions (which I hate, I was ready to walk out of there after the 10th one of those), 2 math questions and 5 med questions (I was only able to recognize 1 of the 5 meds). Found out yesterday that I did pass (which is a good thing because I told my husband that I refused to take that test again.) You made it through nursing school, you can do this. I wish you the best. Good luck.

I graduated my ADN program on May 10th and took my NCLEX on May 15th. Found out I passed yesterday. I guess it depends on how much prep you have already done. I've been prepping, using CDs on NCLEX and practice tests for months now. I was getting at least a 75% on all the practice tests I took. I did over the recommended 3500 questions before I ever took my finals ( I used my CDs as study guides to study with). When it got to the point of asking myself "what else am I supposed to study" I knew it was time. Good luck to you.

If its not to late another idea is "Do I make you proud" by Taylor Hicks. We used it in our pinning, has us all crying. Congrats.

I'd say talk to your OB/GYN doc about what you want to do. In my PN program we had 5 girls pregnant during clinicals and during my ADN program we've had 4, 3 have given birth and the last one is due at the end of May. We just finished our clinical rotations this last week and grad on May 10th. No problems with any of the pregnancies or babies. If you do get pregnant when you want too, then talk to your instructors and see if you can complete your clinicals/preceptorships as early as possible. Good luck to you.:)

We were taught that taking the temp axillary was the preferred method. I've done OB clinical rotations is 3 hospitals and all 3 took the temp axillary. One of the hosp has a policy for suctioning all newborns, they would check for orifice patency using the suctioning tube after suctioning. The other 2 hospitals wait for BM to check for patency.

During my PN program we had 5 students pregnant and delivered during the program. In my ADN program we have had 4 students pregnant-3 have delivered, 1 still pregnant. I can tell you that what they did was went to their instructors and worked out how they would get their work and clinical rotations done. It can be done, every one of the girls that delivered during the PN program, completed it. All the girls that have delivered this year are still in the program and will graduate in May. Most of the girls had other children at home. I would recommend talking to the instuctors for next years program now, see if you can start working on class work over the summer and make plans for getting any clinicals done. I can tell you it won't be easy, you will need good time management and family support, but it can be done.