albedo

You know, I would love to start as a CNA. But I am currently adjusting my immigration status, which is gonna be done soon. I can work, but not go to school. I tried applying to a local hospital CNA program. But they rejected my application. I think they are pretty cautious about who they want to invest on. I am at the end of this time window where I have to finish my nursing education soon once I am allowed to legally, or I will have to redo the whole program again.

I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, sharing your experience, wisdom, and encouragement. Knowing what to work on, I will be turning in my application on Monday. Hopefully I will be joining this field and be one of you soon!

Thank you GrnTea! Yes I am harsh on myself. It has to do with my upbringing. I am Asian. I was never praised as a kid. I tried to be nicer to myself in recent years. I am nicer to myself, but to westerners I am still very harsh on myself. I will continue to work on that. I will look up the kind of counseling you mentioned! :)

Thank you Emergent! I am a little relieved, knowing I am not the only person with this kind of anxiety. How did you overcome your anxiety as a student? During my first three semesters (six rotations), I had all the nice and gentle instructors which helped calming me down a little. But I feel that my performance shouldn't be depending on what instructor I am getting.

Two years ago, I failed my final semester the second time and had to drop out of my previous (ADN) nursing program. I had been a B student throughout the program up til my failure. So it wasn't about the textbook knowledge. It wasn't about my skills either, as I am very anal about following steps. I just got soooo nervous when I got on the floor. It was like the whole world was watching me, or like the instructor was watching me at some dark corner, trying to catch me doing something wrong. I just couldn't relax and be myself on the floor. While I was with my patients alone, I was totally fine. But whenever the instructor stepped in, I just froze and couldn't function. It was especially worse during my two attempts for my final semester. The first time, my teacher was known to be the hardest ass in my program. The second time, I just lost my confidence completely from the previous attempt. After dropping out, I cut contact with everyone in the program and moved to a different state and started a new life. I worked as a caregiver for a while. And now I work at a local hospital lab. Recently, I've been thinking of what I really want to do. I thought of building a career in the medical lab field. I am an introvert. The environment fits my personality pretty well. But this field lacks upward mobility. And I really miss the action. Even though I prefer to have quiet time over socializing most of the time, I like the me who was forced to interact with patients more. Granted I got nervous thinking of what kind of patients I would be getting in clinical, but after I warmed up a little with my head to toe, I enjoyed interacting with them very much! I literally never had a single difficult patient during those two years. I like to see things. I like to learn about and witness disease process. I enjoy waving goodbye to the discharged patients. I have been in touch with a local college nursing program. They seem to be willing to take me as a transfer student. But then I start to get worried. I have been slowly forgetting what I've learned, meds, skills, pathophysio stuff, etc. Will I be able to catch up and pick up where I left off just like that? Wouldn't it be dangerous to put a person like me back on to the floor? That would only stress me out even more... So nurses, basically I want to know: is being a nurse any different than being a student nurse? When you see one on the floor, do you envy him/her or do you think "thank goodness I am not a student nurse anymore?" I need to know if my kind of stress would end once school is over or if it would follow me for the rest of the career... And what would you do if you were me? Would you feel that I would be a bad apple in the field, that you would rather me not to consider nursing anymore? Any input is welcome. Thank you for your time!

I am a student nurse. I honestly have never seen an RR that is not 18 or 20 on med surg floors. Students are the only people who actually would go in and count it. One time I counted 14 or 16 and I charted it. Later I checked the chart, someone has changed my number to 20...

Hi I am a first semester student. I have always wondered how what I've learned about NG tube insertion is gonna work on real people because we don't get to practice on real people. But when I compare what I've learned and what I've seen in hospital when a nurse was trying to insert the tube down into my friend's throat, I really want to see if mine would work better (that nurse completely failed). I've learned that we have to soften the tube. Mark from nose tip to earlobe and from earlobe to xiphoid process on the tube. Tilt the pt's head back a little bit. Insert until the pt starts gagging and reach the first mark on tube. Then have the pt's chin touching his chest and have him taking sips of water and advance the tube. Stop when he breathes. Is this method working in real life?

First off, why are you this confused while there are people from nursing department you can just walk in and talk to? You are going to Cerritos already. Just move your legs and walk to nursing building and ask the staff there already! If you are too lazy to walk, ask them through phone or email. If you prefer not to talk to anybody, just go onto their website... I don't think there is a waitlist in Cerritos. They use lotto system. About Cal State LB, again, google or search their site. "Is there a waiting list to enter your nursing program? We do not have a waiting list. We use a point system to find the best qualified students for admission each semester" "If I applied last year and was not selected, does my application automatically get considered for next semester? No! You must submit a new application for each admission cycle." And.. are you international student? If yes, read this about CSULB nursing too.. "Can international students apply? The program can only admit 2 international students a semester to the Basic/Trimester BSN Programs. The top two international students will be offered admission into the program. The Entry Level MSN Program is for California residents only." Don't just "really want to be a nurse" and have everybody fed you information. Do more yourself to make it happen!

I am on the alternate list too. I took the TEAS test on July 27th. I called today cuz I saw what Apgar10 said (that he/she got the letter already).A lady was there telling me that if I did take the TEAS test she would have sent me the letter. So I told her I did take the test. She later called me back and said she found my score and would send my letter out today. She said on Nov 2nd, there will be an orientation. If people who are already admitted to the program don't show up that day, they will start replacing those spots with people on alternate list. She said I should definitely go because I ranked pretty high on that list. So I suggest you instead of sending them emails, call them. That way you can talk or ask them more specific question, like your status.. Also, I think you were one of those 9 people who took the test on that day with me, right? I would have missed the chance if I didn't call today. Good luck!

Is it not normal if I still haven't got anything letter from GWC yet? It's the 27th already... so annoying...

My goodness... So the 30 spots do make a difference... I am really nervous now. I am now taking anatomy and microbiology... I did bad on my first 2 midterms of anatomy... I really have to work hard!! So any news about the lowest GPA they take for spring 08?

Long Beach City College only looks at GPA. And the lowest I've heard for last semester they took was 2.6. But in my opinion, the anatomy class here is pretty hard (consider most of my classmates barely passed the last midterm) and I don't think I can get 4.0 at all (last time I went to school I was a straight A student...). All these nursing pre-req classes are GPA killers... I would suggest you to do RN instead of LVN. My friend's neighbor works at hospital management position. She said the LVN got paid half of what RN would get. So why save one year to get paid half of what an RN gets? If you ever consider getting a bachelor degree, you will need to have RN ADN anyway. Also, have you explored other majors yet? I mean you are so young. Should think about other options too.

It's just your first test... I mean now that you know tests in this class will be in this format, you will be more prepared next time. Don't give up!!

My class is just Anatomy by itself. We have to take Anatomy and Physiology separately at my school... Hey how do you guys memorize everything? I mean there must be a way to do that... a less painful way...

Oh... so what do you think about it? I think I will do this next semester when my load is not that heavy. And I think I would want to do alot of this kind of volunteering because I am not American and I can't work anyway... Can I ask you a question? On the page of St. Mary, they mention about CPR cert, and they prefer Health Care Provider Certification from American Heart Association. But when I check the site of AHA in LA, they don't have any... Do you know where can I get that?