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?

The Jurisprudence exam took me less than twenty minutes to complete. It really is simple, common sense. No need to stress over it.

Landau is the company who did the scrub fittings when I was admitted nearly two years ago. I haven't heard anything, through the grapevine, about any changes. In fact, the SNA is pretty good about collecting the graduating class' scrubs in order to resell to the new students at a discount. Word of advice, I would forgo purchasing the scrub pants that they offer, not only are they unbelievably ugly, but they're overpriced to boot. Just get one scrub top and the required lab coat (which you'll only use the first two semester for check-off - another waste of money, but you can't avoid it).

Congrats to the new, incoming class! As a soon-to-be graduate (in May), I wish everyone the absolute, best of luck! It's going to the the best and worst two years of your life, heh.

I had my first ever interview for a GN position at a Dallas hospital on Febuary 24th. The interview was at 8:30 am and I was offered a job by 2:45 that afternoon. Maybe I just got lucky.

In the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas, the starting, new grad salary is around $23 per hour before shift differentials.

Very true, our property taxes suck big time; I try not to ever think about how much I have to pay out each year.

UT Southwestern salary information for new graduates is as follows: $23.00 per hour Shift Differentials: $3.00/hr (3:00 pm - 11:00 pm) $4.00/hr (11:00 pm - 7:00 am) $5.50/hr (weekends - 11:00 pm Fri. - 7:00 am Mon.) The differentials stack. Also, there's a sign on bonus of $3000 after one year and a pay increase to $24.44 beginning the thirteenth month of employment.

Again, not graduating until May, but maybe I can still help. No, the college doesn't exactly help you find a job, but they do set up lunches where various hospital groups come to the school directly after class to feed you and talk about their internships. One such lunch, two weeks ago, was hosted by UT Southwestern. I came, I applied, I interviewed on a Tuesday morning and had a job by that afternoon. There are several other students who have already accepted job positions, post graduation, and it's only February.

Keller ISD is an excellent school district; that's where my beasties attend.

Don't worry, besides extensive training on the administration of medications, most nursing schools have several safeguards to protect both you and the patient. When you first start to give meds, for example, you will most likely have to go over all of your Six Rights of Medication Administration (or is it seven now. . . or maybe 27? ) with your nurse and then again with your instructor. If your nurse is not present, in the room, your instructor DEFINITELY will be. When you're more competent, you will still have your instructor watching you like an x-ray visioned hawk, and your nurse will likely, also, be in the room. The closer you come to graduation, the more automy you will receive, but by then, you will have medication administration permanently burned into your brain. Toss in a good, drug handbook, some common sense, and the knowledge to know when to ask for help, and you'll be just fine!