sam027000

@Emerald99 would you be willing to answer a few questions about your FastBacc experience?

@Arash I’m right there with you. I’m not taking HESI until Dec 3. I am just not confident enough in the math section to take it sooner. I’ll be studying the NurseHub & Elsevier guides the next 2 weeks.

Those are great grades, congratulations! I was told the FastBacc application will open on CAS in early June. I'm wondering if they will notify applicants about acceptance prior to the Traditional start date in January.

I'm sorry no one responded to your inquiry! What did you decide?

Congratulations!

With the application deadline around the corner (May 31, 2018) I thought it would be fun to get a role call started. What are your stats? Are you also applying for the May 2019 Fast-Bacc? (Application opens in June 2018) I am applying to both programs with a preference for the Fast-Bacc if given the choice. Science GPA: 3.8 (B in Micro lecture, but A in lab. A's in all other science courses) Overall GPA: 3.9 HESI: Scheduled to take in early April. Will update with scores once received. Pre-reqs remaining: World Religion (taking Summer 1 at Collin College & Bible (taking New Testament during Summer 2 at DBU)

Thanks everyone, this is all very helpful information! :)

lol, Not sure about the flipping...maybe just another way of saying turning? :)

uh-ohh, that can't be good. i'll ask next week.

:) Yeah, I think she was referencing crushing pills.

Just looking for some opinions here. I am a nursing student and have been feeling like we do the same things everyday at clinical: assessment, bed, bath, adls, vs, meds, & the rare NG or foley. Today I asked my clinical instructor when we will be advancing to more complex tasks. She replied something to the effect of, "Honey this is it. This is what nurses do. We are here to flip, turn, crush, and smear." That caught me a little off guard. I know how vital all of those things are to patient care, and realize that the things we have been doing in clinical are the building blocks of nursing, but our classroom instructors keep saying, just get through these basics and then we'll get to the "good" stuff. So my question is: What's the "good" stuff? In your everyday lives as nurses do you feel like you do more of the "good" stuff or more of the flip, turn, crush, and smear? :)

Also, I was thinking that you may check the intranet of the hospital where you are doing your clinicals. The hospitals where we do our clinicals have a neat thing where you can click on the medical diagnosis and it gives you suggestions of nursing interventions to include in your nursing careplan.

These are two sites I've used in the past to get a few ideas as to what I should include in my careplans. I don't use their premade careplans, but rather just the site for ideas. http://www1.us.elsevierhealth.com/MERLIN/Gulanick/Constructor/#New http://www1.us.elsevierhealth.com/Evolve/Ackley/NDH7e/Constructor/ Hope these help. :)

My husband and I lived in McKinney on the border of Allen and McKinney very near the 121 & 75 intersection until last July when we moved to NC. We LOVED everything about living there, but hated the commute. We both worked in Richardson and it took us about 45 minutes in 8am traffic on a very good day and about 70 minutes on a bad day. There are lots of side streets besides 75 to get you around snarls & jams. That being said travel during off-peak times was pretty good; it only took us about 15 minutes to get to Richardson and then another 15 to get downtown. I remember passing a McKinney Regional billboard everyday that read, "Nursing is your life's work, not commuting." I also remember seeing ads for sign-on bonus for certain specialty areas. In a few years when we move back to TX we are planning on moving back to the same area. Also, just a little tidbit FYI the town of Melissa is where the Collin County landfill is located so you may not want to live in that area b/c the air is quite smelly in the hot TX summers. :)

As far as quality of life issues, Waco and the surrounding communities have been making some pretty decent strides in the past few years. There is a new development with a lot of shopping, eateries, etc on Hwy 6 very close to where the new Hillcrest will be located. Also the downtown/suspension bridge area is working on renovations to bring in more mixed-use urban development type establishments. Now granted the retail/restaurant aspect of Waco is nothing compared to the metro cities like DFW, Austin, SA, or Houston, but I think they seem to be doing pretty well for a city their size. As far as hospitals go, I have family that work at both Providence & Hillcrest. Each seems to enjoy their respective hospitals although I don't know much about their staffing ratios or the like.

:) Glad to help! :)

My school is so pro-ATI that they are considering making passing the ATI part of the requirements for graduation.

My accelerated program sounds the same as yours and we had the same complaints. We were told by the administration that even though we all have prior degrees that we still have to follow the exact same curriculum as the traditional students b/c that curriculum is what has been approved by the accrediting board for nursing schools. The schools all have very firm guidelines as to what must be covered, so once they get a curriculum approved it's safer for them to not risk losing the accredidation by having all students in every program (traditional, accelerated, RN to BSN, LPN to BSN, 2nd degree traditional, etc) follow the same plan. Once I looked at it from that perspective I understood where they were coming from, although I still dreaded doing all of those papers on things like history of nursing, nursing pioneers, etc. :)

I am attending WSSU in Winston Salem, so far I think that it is a pretty good school. They seem to have a genuine desire for each and every nursing student to graduate and pass NCLEX. I will say however that sometimes the administration is a bear to deal with and can be very frustrating at times. Others times though, they are right on and get you taken care of right away. I suppose that like all things they have their good and not so good moments. Thus far, I am happy with my decision to attend there. :)

The accelerated program I am in accepted students using the gpa as pretty much the major deciding factor. We also had an interview which helped eliminate those students who had high gpas but seemed to lack passion or strong will. Previous careers didn't seem to have much to do wih their admission decisions. Of those accepted, there is a pretty fair mix of students straight out of undergrad, students with a few years of work experience (both medical and not medical), and students with many years of work experience. When is comes down to it, none of us had ever been nurses before, or accelerated nursing students before, so we were pretty much all on the same playing field. A few of the CNAs, Med-Techs, etc seemed to have our fundamentals classes a bit easier b/c they had previously learned the material before, but then again some of the CNAs, Med-Tech, etc had a harder time b/c they struggled to unlearn their bad habits and relearn skills the nursing way. All of this is to say that for acceptance purposes, you will want to have the highest gpa you can possibly achieve. Only you will know what will work best for you with that goal in mind. However, like other posters have said, you may try to work for the accounting company for at least a litle while so that you can truly cement in your mind that you gave accounting in the real-world a true shot before jumping ship. Best of Luck!! :)

The program I am in is 13 months long. We had a 4 day break (Fri-Mon) in April, get another 4 day break in September, and will have off Christmas Eve-Christmas Day. The program Began in Jan 2007 and concludes Feb 2008. It is definitely fly by the seat of your pants and pray that the info sticks in your head. So far I am making all A's, but probably would not do it again. The added stress makes me doubt myself and nursing as a career too frequently, when before the program I was 100% confident in my abilities as a student and my decision to be a nurse.

A lot of hospitals have summer internships (paid) specifically for nursing students. They usually require you to be a cna, cpr, and all of that. The programs here last b/t 6-10 weeks during the summer. Check into your local hospitals and see if they offer anything like that. Good Luck!!

I'd think you'd be safe taking Anatomy & Physiology and Microbiology. There are a number of other courses that most schools require, but you'd need to look into the specific school. That's going to be hard b/c of your situation. My school's prereqs were A & P 1 & 2, Micro, Chem, Psychology, Human Growth & Dev, Sociology, Statistics, and Intro to Computers. Those courses were in addition to the University core requirements like english, history, government, art, algebra, etc. I opted for a BSN program, but I think a lot of the prereqs may be the same for ADN programs, although I bet they will require less core classes. Good Luck to you!! :)

I don't know, seems like if you have taken a class and then challenge the NC exam then you should be ok b/c you have met both requirements taking a class and being a CNA in NC, but you know how some schools can be. It'd be a shame to miss out on applying. Is there a way you can meet in person with an advisor and get some solid answers?

Hey Cass, I checked online and Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington offers the NA course through their dept of continuing education. Also you should know that you can get the study guide/handbook free from the testing agency and challenge the exam w/o completing the course or clinicals. Just make sure you really focus on the bold steps b/c if you leave those out it will result in failing that skill. There is also a practice written exam so you can see if you need to study up on the classroom/textbook portion of the material. www.asisvcs.com/indhome.asp?CPCAT=0734NURSE A few people in my nursing program went this route b/c it was a lot quicker and also cheaper. They say that it was difficult finding work as a CNA w/o the clinicals until they started nursing school, but once they started nursing school they were viewed just like the other candidates who went through the na class. I may be wrong, but I don't think the registry shows that you took a class or challenged the exam, just that you passed and are listed as a CNA. Good Luck!!