SP79

I could be mistaken (I'm a new nursing grad) Why not rehab nursing? You would most likely get to help stroke patients as well as others with head injury. Your patients would most likely be staying for longer, giving you fewer new patients to learn about daily.

I am a May 08 graduate of the OU program. Congrats to you in your upcoming adventure. The program is demanding, but good time management makes it quite possible. Many of my classmates graduated with honors. Many of my classmates had children and/or jobs. I have a few pieces of advice: 1. Be sure to use some sort of planner or calender to stay organized. There will be times when its impossible to get everything done as well as you would like- you will have to learn to prioritize (unless you aren't interested in having a life outside of school at all). 2. Learn to lean on your classmates. You will have many group projects in the course of your degree. Also, no one understands the insanity quite like your fellow nursing students. I couldn't have done as well as I did without my lab partner and other buddies to help me study and join me in venting when times got rough. 3. Be flexible. Your schedule may change with little notice. You may dislike some of your instructors. It may seem as though your instructors have no idea how much work your being assigned. Trust me, they know how stressful it is. Take a deep breath and try to keep a professional attitude. Your instructors will respect you more, and you will respect yourself when you see other people losing their heads. 4. The first semester was the hardest for me. Learning med math, med term, and getting through head to toe assessment and the fundamental skills labs can seem totally overwhelming in combination with lecture. I highly recommend making note cards to study when you have a few moments of down time. Learn a little every day because cramming just won't cut it. 5. It doesn't ever get easy, you will just learn to adapt. Looking back I am incredibly thankful that my instructors pushed me so hard and that I kept high standards for myself. Best of luck to you!

Some of the grocers in Michigan carry some vegetarian and vegan items as well as organic produce. Kroger, VGs, and Meijer come to mind, however availability and selection is based on demand. You may have some difficulty locating what you are looking for in the Bay City area. I believe that there are some food co-ops, farmers markets, and farms located in surrounding cities such as Midland, Saginaw, and Flint. Best of luck to you.

I will be graduating from OU's 2nd degree program in a few weeks. I do not have children, but my closest friend in my class has 2 daughters age 3 and 6. Not only did she make it, she made it with honors. There were many moms in my class who will be graduating. As far as hours studying, I would say plan on a few hours a day on average. The program can become pretty intense at times, especially during the first clinical rotations. Many of the classes are taught in shortened sections within the semester and the second semester consists of 17 credit hours. For a parent of small children, your biggest problem might become the frequent changes to schedule. Its important to understand that just because you have those kiddos at home doesn't mean that you will get special treatment. Throughout the past year we have had many changes to our schedule for both lecture and clinical. You also may be placed in off hour or weekend clinical rotations. I think for my classmates with children, this has been the biggest challenge.

I will be graduating from a second degree nursing program this May. While I am not a "rocket scientist" I am an experienced student. For me, this past year of nursing school has been one of the most challenging for me. Since May of 2007 there has not been a week where I felt like I learned enough, or was prepared to go into the next test. I've done quite well for myself ( I even got an invite to Sigma Theta Tau), but the days of working to achieve a 4.0 were gone after the first semester. Since then I've worked extremely hard to balance learning both theory and clinical knowledge while balancing my personal life. I am happy to be leaving with my 3.65 average, I know I really worked for it. In retrospect, when I started I was sure that nursing school was going to be easy. Throughout the program I have wondered why they had to make it so hard on us. Now, I am thankful for the challenges my instructors laid out for me and proud that I was able to achieve. Best of luck to you as you start. I have 3 pieces of advice to offer you. 1. Stay organized, that includes making time for your friends and family outside of school. 2. Confidence is good and puts your patients at ease, cockiness will make you enemies quickly. 3. Always say thank you to the staff on the floors where you do your clinical rotations, even when they are trolls to you.

Personally, I'm waiting to find out if my younger brother gets accepted to Macomb! I call him at least 2 times a week to say, "I can't wait to find out if you got in!" He's probably about ready to kill me by now, but I will be graduating from a second degree BSN program in May, and I am totally pumped that my younger brother is going to follow in my footsteps. I actually check these forums to see if anyone got their acceptance letter yet, even though he said he doesn't expect it until April. .. and maybe just a little too excited to see him squirm as a first semester nursing student.