Lunaticus

I hate to be the voice of decent, but I haven't heard many good things about Arlington Memorial (if that's the hospital to which you're referring). In fact, I work with an accomplished nurse who was offered a very large salary in conjunction with a sizable bonus to work there. She ended up working less than six months before she quit. Granted, this was a couple of years ago, so maybe the problems she encountered were solved, but still. . . In this economy, I would question a hospital that would offer such a large sign-on bonus to work there. There are so many nurses without a job that an employment bonus would scream, to me, "dangerous working environment; do not work here!" Regardless of your decision; I hope you find an awesome place to work, and welcome to Texas!!

The trick worked for me! I just found out that I passed!!!!! I'm an RN, baby!!

With so many new grads having difficulties obtaining employment, I made myself a promise that I would accept the first job that I was offered which ended up being telemetry. My dream job would have been either neonatal ICU or CVICU, but overall, I think that tele will be an excellent learning opportunity and I'm thrilled to be starting on Monday! Now if only my NCLEX results would post, then all would be right with the world!

Took the NCLEX-RN today at 2:00 pm. Just tried the Pearson Vue trick, and I was not allowed to proceed to the credit card page! Of course, I'll know for sure on Thursday, but I feel a bit calmer now.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. The man and spawn just can't seem to get it through their knuckle-heads that I NEED TO STUDY!!! It doesn't matter how many times I plead and/or scream at them, they'll just keep getting my my last nerve (and trust me, I am seriously down to the one nerve). If anyone hears of a search for the woman who duct taped her family to the ceiling and left to rot, well that might just be me! :angryfire

I love my Master Cardiology! It does take a bit getting used to alternating between light and heavy pressure, but that stethoscope just can't be beat, in my opinion!

In my personal opinion, while the Littmann Lightweight is indeed inexpensive and decent for the beginning, nursing student, it falls woefully behind as your skills increase. By the start of my third semester, I realized just how much I couldn't hear on my Lightweight. While it's not necessary to purchase a super expensive stethoscope prior to your entry into nursing school, I would highly suggest that you invest the money for a decent one. After you graduate, I can assure you that you'll be trading that one in for a fancy, new one!

Seriously, the books are CRAZY expensive, so if funds are tight, just get your Potter/Perry and Iggy. Those were the ONLY two books I purchased for the entire duration of nursing school. I utilized the some of the "Straight A's" books for subjects like OB and pediatrics, other than that, I bought nothing. Oh, and what ProudRN2B said is true, the pants are horrible, so don't buy them. Just get one scrub top and the lab coat (which you'll never wear except for check-offs during 1st and 2nd semester, so it's another waist of money).

I really wish I could do the Kaplan review, but I just can't afford it. Unreallly, did you find that NCLEX was more generalized knowledge, or did they pick out the really random disease processes and medications? HESI was pretty general, in my opinion.

Scheduled to have my butt kicked by NCLEX on June 9th.

This is not the first time that I've heard that HESI was more difficult than NCLEX. I'm really worried, because I actually thought that HESI was fairly easy, and I did very well on the exam. I'm currently working my way through Saunders 4th Edition, and the questions are kicking my butt! Is it possible that Saunders is harder than HESI and consequentally harder than NCLEX??

I graduated from Northlake in May, and for the most part, I was very happy with my education. I found the instructors to be very helpful, and I can honestly say that I feel pretty confident heading out into the workforce. As of the beginning of my third semester, our lectures changed from having a live instructor to one where we watched a recording that was accessed online with an accompaning weekly class where we worked to apply said knowledge. I can tell you that this change caused alot of stress among the current students. I like the concept, but I still think the instructors need to work out a few kinks yet. If you work well independantly, then you should have no problems with the school. Also, I've heard (total rumor mill stuff here) that TCC might be a smidge easier than the Northlake/ECC program, and they also might have fewer prereqs required for admission. I could ramble on regarding Northlake for probably way longer than you care to read, so if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to answer.

Best of luck to you Saphire! I'm still waiting for my ATT; my school is notoriously slow about sending them out. Be sure to let us know how you did!

One of my dearest friends found herself pregnant midway through our second semester. She ended up suffering from PIH at about month eight, and was consequently placed on bedrest shortly before the baby was due. If it wasn't for a VERY understanding clinical instructor and the fact that, as a group, we crammed all of our clinical hours into six, short weeks, she would have been unable to complete third semester. After the baby was born, she then had to contend with the rest of our third and all of our final semester with breastfeeding an infant, no sleep, and studying to boot. After her husband was deployed to Afganistan in April, it took the combined efforts of several, close friends (myself included), to make sure that somebody could watch the baby while she did her preceptorship. I know the whole situation was EXTREMELY stressful on her, and it took a great deal out of her. She graduated right on time, but she would be the first to caution anyone against getting pregnant in nursing school.

Okay, so I took the HESI and passed with what I feel to be a pretty decent score of 1047. To be truthful, I felt the exam was significantly easier than what I had expected. Now, I've heard that if one performs well on the HESI that the odds are very high that they will also do well on the NCLEX, but I've also heard that the NCLEX is a painfully difficult exam. So now I'm starting to experience panic attacks regarding the difficultly of the NCLEX and my preparedness for said exam. When I try to talk to the RNs where I've been hired to work, all I get is the "if you did well on HESI, then you'll do fine on boards" crap, seriously SO not helpful! Is there anyone else out there who thought HESI was easy, if so, how did it compare to the NCLEX?