RunninDad

2 Uniforms, undershirts, socks, white shoes, stethoscope, pen light, bandage scissors, boxed book set, case of black pens, few note pads, and im shopping around for a new laptop or netbook for theory/lecture.

Half of them will fail out or drop out in the first skills test. ;p

First day for me was a clinical/lab setting day so we had a 3 hour look at the syllabus / calendar and called it a wrap.

I think the point that was tying to be made was that as a nurse (which has more importance than taking a test to be a nurse, imo) you're not going to have a quiet environment to practice in often, when you may find yourself needing to focus. Part of being a nurse is being able to tune out the background noise and focus on the task at hand. Same thing goes for being a student.

Voicemail.. what? You mean you don't have that bluetooth piece surgically placed inside your auditory canal? Sheesh, get with the times!

My thing is I just simply don't have or see a use for it, for myself. My wife has one and loves it. It's just not my cup of tea. It was hard enough for me to start texting people.. I'd still rather call and have some form of personal contact. Electronics have taken a lot of that away for today's youth.

With the amount of work you're about to have, I wouldn't be going out of my way to look for friends. Make friends when you have your degree an are working =D But in all honesty, study groups will be formed once classes start. be proactive and throw your name/number/email out there so things can get setup. While you're in your study groups, I guarantee you'll have no issue making friends as time goes on. you'll find a core people you enjoy learning/working with and this post will be ancient history to you. You have the right mindset when you think about going to school and nose diving in to the books! Don't worry about making friends. They'll come in time, IF you have the time, lol!

Ha, I just saw this posting after I made my post in regards to those who use laptops in the classroom setting... I guess I'm lucky my institution has not gone to that degree yet. of course, there aren't a bunch of folks using laptops at this particular place and the folks that do use them use them for the appropriate reasons... accessing class materials online and what not. I really don't see what this craze is about facebook. haven't done it yet, and likely never will. I must have just skipped by the 'social networking' era.

I'm just trying to get something that works well with the family life so wife can be off the days I'm at school and I'm off the days she's at work.

I think a LOT of people go over board with AnP. Anatomy is literally the road map to the human body. How do you get better at driving places and remembering where to go without needing to call for help or look at a map? You travel the route over and over again. Anatomy is no different. Go through the motions of reading and placing visuals with what you are reading. If you know what one thing is, you can follow it one way or the other to find out what it leads to. Everything connects in some fashion and it is no different with the body. Some people take excessive notes. Some people study excessively. Some people cram the night before. For me, I found that just reading the material and studying the diagrams/maps/pictures of the current content was more than enough to let me cruise to an easy A in both AnP 1 and 2.

Fun times tomorrow! :dncgbby:

Yes I personally feel that anything passed 30 is too old for children. That's MY life decision though, if other people have different feelings or goals then fine with me. :) I was just offering her another view point that she may not have seen or thought about.

I haven't read any replies aside from the Op so if I am repeating things I apologize. I am speaking strictly from personal experience. As a father/husband, I would advise waiting until AFTER you finish nursing school before starting a family. Even then, I would likely advise waiting until you have your first year of actual nursing under your belt before you start. My wife got pregnant during her final year on her BSN and literally gave birth 2.5 weeks after she walked with her diploma. She got to breastfeed for 3 months before going in to the workforce and I quit my job to be stay at home dad and continue with my education finally. It was VERY hard for her. It was VERY hard for me. The first year of being in the workforce is VERY stressful. You may realize you absolutely hate working in the field you have chosen and want to go from NICU to somewhere else. She is going to be 31 this year and she has spoken about wanting another baby. I absolutely refuse, even though I'd love another as well. However I am not going to put that kind of stress on myself through school or on our relationship or on our children as well. Nursing school is not a breeze. the first year of working is not a breeze. You learn MUCH during school and you learn even MORE when you actually start working. Between getting used to all the new coworkers and dealing with the hate the older nurses have for you, trying to care for a new born and deal with your emotions rationally is going to be tough ( though for you it may not be an issue at all). Again, this is coming from the POV of a husband/father in a similar situation. My wife and I are glad we did have the second child though because if we hadn't we would have never had her to begin with. By the time I would be ready for a third, my wife would be close to 35 and that isn't something we want to do. I hope I was able to help a bit with a different view point.

Check your pirate mail today. there has been an update. hey incredible news! Thank you for doing the digging for me.

Which mail are you specifically referring to? The follow up or the original email that was sent out regarding orientation? I have yet to see a follow-up email discussing more about the Family Day portion of the orientation weekend.

Starting in fall 2010 as well. Bit irked that I didn't wait til spring as the new BSN program starts then, but anything is better than nothing at this point.

I guess that entirely depends on what the school in question requires. Of the schools that I looked in to that ran an alternate list, it was a first come first serve basis. Those who submitted their applications in first were chosen first and so on and so on. If you were on the alternate list and did not get in, then you were guaranteed a seat in the next class. Clearly requirements vary from school to school, I'd suggest the OP look up the candidacy guidelines and see what they're dealing with.

I was recently 24 on an alternate list of 26. I had all the pre-reqs taken care of as well as all the non nursing courses involved in the program (such as nutrition/AP2/micro/etc). I took the nln/net(whatever it's called) and scored among the highest in the program waiting to be seated. Two weeks ago I was notified that I was now in the program as a student and not as a candidate. Just look at it this way, if you don't get in it this semester, you'll definitely get in next! Keep a look on the bright side.

After going back and forth between trying to get in to UWF and PJC for the last 2 years, I finally got in to PJC. I've had my pre-reqs done to get in to the UWF BSN program for a long time now but you need close to a 3.8gpa to get in there it seems. After missing the NET once due to a family emergency that put me further behind trying to get in to PJC. So... finally I'm in and starting in August of this year (2010). Any others around the forums here part of the fall '10 class as well? Tried to do a few searches and didn't see any, but saw a few spring '10 and '11 students(or prospective)

ADN program is the only program available to me. The only BSN program in the area requires you to more or less have a 3.8 or higher gpa because the competition for a class seat is so fierce. We have 1 local adn program and anotehr adn program an hour of the city. There is another BSN program about 1.5 hours out of the city but it's in a different state so no luck there. Take whatever is available. We have 4 major hospitals in our area and literally every one of them is understaffed. They don't care if you are a bsn or adn.. they take what they can get.

I'm in nearly the same shoes, P-A-F. I've been feeling the exact same way over the last few weeks.

So the short of it, I've two options locally to get a nursing degree. One is a bachelors program and the other is an associates degree program. I'm annoyed first fort eh fact that I've got nearly 60 credits compiled and will have over that once I finish this semester. Had I known the BSN program was a "who you know" to get in program I could have already had my AD degree by now and started to work on the RN-BSN track - more time wasted. The Bachelors program I want to get in to says my gpa likely won't be competitive, as it's currently a 3.2. I've never been one to test well in school though on general test skills such as the NET or ACT, etc I always do stellar (ACT I scored a 28 on with a 2.6gpa in high school) A 3.8 would be considered competitive possibly, but that again is beside the point. The AD program is a first 100 to apply get in, so that's good, the only thing to that now is it's likely too late now that I'm just now hearing I may not get in to the BSN porgram. Now I have to pay another 80$ to take the NLN since the AD program will not except the results from the NET (talk about pyramid schemes - colleges and testing agencies have my blood boiling to the max right now). Worst case scenario for me now is getting in to the AD program, working a year or two then doing the RN-BSN track the former BSN program offers. I feel like I've jumped enough hoops to get where I am and now being forced to jump through more. I guess this is more of a vent than anything - I'm just incredibly annoyed right now. I have a wife and two little girls and all these setbacks I keep encountering just weighs a guy down. Thanks for listening

I've been skimming through the site during downtime. I'm a married father of two young daughters. My wife is currently working as a school nurse(BSN) and very much enjoying it. She started out in NICU but left due to absolute horrid management conditions. There was a small pay cut, expectedly, but that is more than made up in the enjoyment she is now able to get from her job. Our oldest will be 6 soon, and our youngest is now 15 months old. I'll finish my pre-reqs for the BSN program by spring of 2010 and then the 2 years for the BSN and 1-2 years experience for the CRNA school where my end goal is to get licensed as a CRNA. All that said, my question is to those mothers and fathers out there that are CRNA's: If you could redo anything, would you and why? For ICU experience, I'm deciding between trauma or cardio ICU.

You're exactly right. Nurses should be compensated for their services appropriately. In Pensacola, Florida there are 3 hospitals - Baptist, Sacred Heart, and West Florida Regional Medical Center. All 3 work with each other at keeping pay low so that neither hospital pays out significant dollars. One reason theya re able to do that is because of the Navy Base here. Many of the wives of Navy personnel don't have to work but do it to get out of the house or just be productive. Nursing is one of the few jobs where they can up and relocate on the spur of a moment, as a military member must do, so it's perfect for them. Since they usually work PRN, benefits and normal hours don't bother them, because they get all that with their significant other. The people who live in town get screwed though, because the Hospitals use this fact to their advantage, continuing to pay peanuts for hourly pay. My wife was getting $18.29 hourly working in the NICU with a BSN. I was working as a Surgical Tech at a veterinarian while she was in school, making $15.75 hourly, with no degree. We're looking very forward to when I finally finish the nursing program, get my bsn, then we're moving the hell out of this place where pay is at least halfway decent. It's not possible to live on that kind of salary with a 4 member household. Dallas here we come? kididng :)

I'm not sure I'd say anatomy is the hardest subject. I didn't study that much when I was taking it, and had a B+. The body is a machine, so just think of it as a machine like a car or computer, and it really does honestly get easier, at least it did for me. Flash cards, and that jazz never worked for me. That type of thing has never worked for me in fact, though my wife swears by it - that's what got her through nursing school. Myself, I'm more touch and see. I need to be able to actually see things so the labs are where I did a good amount of my learning. I passed a lot of my lecture class simply by understanding the labs. I definitely agree that staying after in labs and getting hands on experience will help you. When we had our final, touching body parts wasn't allowed, as they could be seen as 'signaling' so while a good idea, could be hazardous to your grade. Find out before relying on that method. At any rate, good luck and just stick with it. If you aren't able to suffer through AnP1, then it's better to finish now and start anew. It may take you a try or two though. One of the ladies I worked with took AnP3 times before she finally passed. She went F, D then her 3rd year taking it she got an A. Pretty nutty huh? Keep reading and going to labs!