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I would take all of my pre-reqs at a community college. I took developmental psych and college algebra at my local community college and both classes, including books, only cost about $100 more than one UTA class. I would particularly look into taking college algebra elsewhere. A lot of nurses at my job go to UTA and I heard the same complaints about the math class over and over. Poor instruction and the cost of taking proctored tests.

I agree with making up your own mind. My first job was at a hospital in a small town with very poor reviews. As it turned out I had an incredible experience there. Staffing wise this hospital was stretched thin but they had a lot of experienced nurses and a 4 month new grad program. I was mentored not only by my assigned preceptor but other nurses on the floor had no problem pulling me aside and showing me how to do things or giving me information and advice. The hospital was pretty flexible and allowed me to cross train on 2 other units and I was able to work those units for extra money or if the census was down on my own unit (rare). The downside was that patient loads were high, sometimes 7:1 on a med/surg floor. So, yeah, there were a fair amount of dissatisfied patients in terms of customer service. I am sure more than a few of those people complained online. Won't hurt to see with the facility has to offer you.

I think it depends on where your online degree is from. Some schools, like UTA and Texas Tech, have online programs that any employer will accept. Degrees from schools that advertise on TV during the Maury Povich show probably won't be accepted. I work for a large hospital system in Dallas and they do have a written policy that they will not accept nurses with degrees from diploma mills. However, they do not define what a diploma mill is. I am unsure if they would hire an ADN to BSN from a school like University of Phoenix. It has a brick and mortar building but some think of it as a diploma mill.

Math 1301 and 1302 are both college algebra classes. There is a difference between the two but I don't remember what it is. I think 1302 is the longer version. I had to take 1302 because it was the only thing offered during the summer. I thought it was a lot of work. You will still spend hours trying to get through this class. I got a tutor, a co-workers kid that I paid in cash and food.

Hey MissyRN. I took Math 1302 at Brookhaven Community College in Farmer's Branch. It's totally online and pretty inexpensive. I'm pretty sure they offer 4 and 8 week classes and semester long classes as well. If you live in Dallas/Fort Worth or surrounding areas I think there are a few other community colleges in the area that offer it online as well.

Do yourself a favor and take college algebra at your local community college. I live in the dfw area and took math 1302 at Brookhaven Community College. It was online, cost me approximately $400 including My Math Lab and book and it was not proctored, so no worry about those fees.

Patient families. I get that having a loved one in the hospital is anxiety provoking (I've been there). However, when the patient is calm and accepting and the family is freaking out I find that hard to deal with. I really want to focus on the patient but I can't because cousin so-and-so is in the corner telling me they are going to call the BON if I don't tell them what the patient's H&H is (true story). Dealing with families is especially hard when their wishes are contrary to the patient's wishes. Now, before anyone gets nuts, I will say that most of the time families are fine and keep the patient calm or they can be a buffer when you get a patient you would rather not have.

Okay, I just went back and looked at my old assignments. I actually went on vacay that second week and not the third. I think this may be doable but you will absolutely have to be on top of things. I submitted my week 2 assignment on a Friday and got feedback that Monday. So, not too slow. If you can get a draft done ahead of time you will probably be alright. There is no week 4 assignment so no stress there. Hope this helps.

I totally bypassed uta and took math 1302 online for 8 weeks at community college. It cost me about 200 for the class and the book (book + math lab) was around 150. No proctored tests. I got my co-worker's kid who is studying to be an engineer to tutor me for $200 (and a meal) for 4 sessions in which he would help me with things I found difficult, totally worth it. Cost me 550, less than uta and I got a B.

Ok, I just looked at some old emails from this class and the quiz is due on Sunday night at 1159. I don't remember when it opens though.

I too went on vacation the third week of this course. The third week is pretty intense. There is a quiz but I don't remember what day it has to be done by. I think Saturday or Sunday, I'm pretty sure the quiz is only open for few days. I believe it's open from like Thursday until Saturday but don't quote me. There is also a discussion for that week that requires a little bit of research. The assignments are research papers that require a lot of statistics. Each assignment builds off of the previous week. It is possible to write up a draft but you will have to use your feedback from the previous week to make corrections on the assignment due. What I did was turn in the discussion question and responses before I left to visit family, worked on the assignment for week 3 while traveling, made corrections or additions at night, took my quiz and turned in my assignment that Saturday, and worked on week 4 on the way home. It's pretty time consuming but doable.

I too needed college math but I heard so many bad things about 1302 at UTA from 2 co-workers that I decided to take it online at a local community college (Brookhaven). It cost me $208 for the class $130 for the book and Mathlab access. I also paid my friend's son a total of $100 for some tutoring (the kid's in high school). They do not requiring proctoring for exams. I took a 4 week class but I'm pretty sure they have longer options. There are examples of problems in the book and videos on Mathlab of how to do the problem. Each problem has a corresponding example problem that is very similar to the problem you are doing. It was time consuming. Because I took it in 4 weeks I had took a few days off from work and worked non-stop on math. I am not great in math but I passed with a B.

I think working at a partnered hospital helped me get in. When I told my manager I was applying at UTA she gave me a code to call and give to them so that they knew I was with a partnered hospital. They did ask me what location I worked at and who my manager was. I think you do get some priority for working at a partner. Now, I also had a high GPA as well so I was not accepted solely based on my employer. Since I work at a partnered hospital I end up precepting some of the UTA students so I guess I see it as more of a trade off. Also, keep in mind that it's not as if every nurse at a partnered hospital is going to UTA. I'm the only one in my department. Anyway, good luck getting in.

If you decide to go into PACU please get some ICU experience first. Although I went to PACU from med/surg, I actually did spend a little time in the ICU/CCU and ER of the hospital I worked at as a float. Most places require critical care experience or they require you to go to critical care training. The hospital I am at now will not hire you without critical care experience. Make no mistake, you will get ICU patients in PACU. I have had patients who were scheduled to go to med/surg and ended up going to ICU. People do go bad in the PACU and when that happens you don't get to stand around and think about it. I've been bought patients who have had MIs and strokes right in the PACU. You need to know your stuff because your crna and anesthesiologist will expect you to know what to do until they get there to manage the patient. You also need a working knowledge of anesthesia drugs and know how they effect the body, what reverses what, different levels of anesthesia, etc. We get patients on drips and on vents and you will be required to titrate those drips. I can also tell you that having two people yelling for pain meds still sucks. Even on a regular day there is a lot of time management and trouble shooting that has to be done. PACU is not easy, it's just a different kind of challenging. You have a limited time to get your patients in an out. If your turn comes up and someone has to take a patient out of turn because you sat on your initial two patients, you will hear about it. Also, if you do not give the floor a patient they feel is acceptable, you will be bringing that pt back down to PACU and taking care of that patient along with the patient that will be waiting for you. There are a lot of positives to PACU and I love it, I just want anyone who is serious about going into PACU to know that it is challenging and at the end of the day you come home exhausted.

Hey tarotale, I live in Irving too!!

I want you to please know that pacu nurses do not just sit, take vitals, and chit chat. I have worked 3 PACUs and days that I could do that were few and far between. Usually you have 2 patient at a time. You keep your patients for roughly an hour. In that hour you must manage the patients airway, do an assessment, take vitals, check dressings, chart, wake the patient, control their pain, control nausea, empty foley's and drains, all while continually assessing the patient for various complications that can occur with whatever surgery they had. All this on two patients in roughly an hour. Hopefully both patients have no issues. If it is a really busy day, it would not be uncommon to have an uncomplicated patient and an ICU patient at the same time, which can really up your stress level. OR and PACU are unrelated to each other. If you want to go into the OR you will need to apply for a residency program (like you stated). OR nursing is different from bedside nursing and the training usually takes about six months. I will tell you, from being in the OR, the downside of the OR is the docs and politics. I've been in two ORs and they can be one of the most unpleasant places in the hospital. If I were you I would see if I could shadow an OR nurse to see if you like it.

I have worked in ICU and PACU. What I like about ICU is that you get an in depth total picture of your patient. Labs, history, LOC, etc. In PACU you'll probably never lay eyes on your patient until they roll out of the OR unconscious. The only history you'll get is what the OR team tells you because you just shipped off your last patient and the slot was immediately filled. Since you still have a patient you haven't had time to look anything up on the patient you are currently getting. Sometimes some very important things are left out of the history you get from the OR staff. In PACU you usually only have your patients an hour or so, you have very little contact with family, and there is usually less charting. On the other hand, you have about an hour to get your patient awake, charting done, pain under control, and any other things that need to be done, all while managing another patient as well. Also, patients will not remember you, so if you are the kind of person who likes acknowledgement, forget it.

I think it depends on where you work. Right now I work in a PACU setting that I find boring. The hospital I work in does a lot of routine stuff, appendectomies, knees, shoulders, etc. I loved PACU at my previous job. We received all kinds of critical care cases and traumas. It was a lot of hard work but fast paced and always interesting. What I really like about PACU is that your patients are only typically with you for an hour or so, not much contact with family, and not much charting. I am currently considering leaving the PACU I work in now just because I feel like I work on an assembly line. I actually really love it and find a lot of challenge in it. I find that if the situation is a good one, PACU can be a learning experience every day.

Skip community college and go for a second degree BSN. Most hospitals now require a BSN in order to get your foot in the door (at least in major cities). I have a previous bachelors and got my ADN. I could NOT find a job. No one cared that I had a previous degree. I had to move to a different state and take a job in a rural town. Worst 2 years of my life. I moved to a large city and only got a job because I had 2 years in my specialty. I got hired on the condition that I start my BSN immediately. I now have no life because I am working full time and in school full time. Save yourself some time and money.

I am currently taking N3645. A few weeks ago I registered for nursing classes to take after N3645. My adviser just email me and told me that he is dropping me from these classes as I need to complete N3645 before I could register for other nursing classes. What? So my question is, how long did you have to wait before you could register for another nursing class? N3645 ends February 14 and the next nursing classes start on Feb 24th. Will this be enough time for me to get into one of those classes?

I precepted many new nurses. I can tell you that she is calling docs and giving meds without you because she wants to leave on time. When I precept I have to stay as long as my preceptee stays. If I am off at 7, I want to leave at 7 (or as close as I can get). You already know how to call the the doc and give meds. These things you've mentioned are small tasks that she can easily do while you do the bigger tasks that you need to learn. Look at it like she's helping you, particularly if she's contacting a surly doc or giving meds to the sweet old lady who takes 19 pills at every meal. I do agree with others, grow a thicker skin. Once you are on your own you will get it from all sides, not everyone is going to be warm and nurturing. I have had new nurses that I have had to push for their own good. I once had a new nurse who everyday asked me how to put in orders and wanted me to stand there and talk her through it. On week three I made her figure it out on her own, it took her over an hour. She ended up frustrated and crying. May seem cruel but it's a basic function and I'd talked her through it several times a day for two weeks. She probably thinks I'm a big meanie but she did learn how to put in orders that day. If she is verbally abusive that is one thing, if not then do things her way for now. You'll learn how to do what you need to do and later you can make it your own.

ITA with GrnTea. You gotta stand up for yourself. I used to work on a med/surg floor and we had a repeat customer who was just awful. He had about 20 pills scheduled for a.m. meds and if you were lucky you may have gotten to take 4 of those pills. The rest would end up thrown at you. What's worse is if you reported it to his doctor the doctor would say "you're the nurse, figure out how to get those pills into him". This man slapped 5 nurses on my floor. The one time he threatened to slap me I let him know that I would not tolerate being threatened. When he drew back his hand I told him that if he hit me I would immediately have the police called and I would press charges. Guess what? That man put down his hand and never threatened me again. He did, however, continue to throw his morning meds at me.

Is this condescending post for real? It is true that some patients/family members are having a bad day. It is also true that some of them behave as if you are their personal servant and that they are residing in the Hilton. Just because I am at work does not mean that I don't feelings. If I can ignore rudeness I will but inevitably there always comes a point where you have to respond or your whole day is going to be run by that pt and their family. I do not treat pts rudely and will not let them treat me rudely.

I think you'll like recovery. I love it. I think there are parts that get to be routine but I think all areas of nursing have some form of that. You are definitely right in saying that endoscopy recovery is more focused. I've recovered some endoscopy cases but usually after we recovered them in pacu they went back to endoscopy for discharge. Mainly we recovered patients that had issues, aside from GI, that made them unstable. Even then, most did fine. I still think it would be worthwhile for you to read some books on recovery. I like Drain's Perianesthesia Nursing, it is very in depth and gives information on all systems, drugs, etc. It reads more like a textbook for critical care but it will be helpful to you as it has a very in depth GI section. If I were you I'd get an inexpensive copy that is not the latest edition (I think the new editions cost about $80). Clinical Coach for Perioperative Nursing is a much smaller book that you can carry in your pocket and it gives the basics on recovering patients, it was very helpful to me when I first started. It's about $30 but it tries to give a brief overview of the periop process from preop to or to recovery. There are a ton of books on ambulatory surgery which may benefit you more than Drain's or Clinical Coach because they have more info on the criteria for discharge home. Try Handbook of Ambulatory Anesthesia or Ambulatory Surgical Nursing. I think any of these books will have a lot of info that you can use. In any case I hope this helps and I wish you the very best. Btw, I can't believe you will be working 6 days a week. Be careful not to burn yourself out.

Recovering endoscopy is somewhat different than recovering post surgical patients. I've worked pacu in 2 hospitals and I don't think I've ever seen a patient get general for and endoscopy. This means your patients will wake up fairly quick and should have little to no pain. You can recover them and get them out the door in a very short period of time. Pt's in pacu almost always receive general anesthesia so it takes longer to recover them and probably 97% of my patients have to be medicated for some level of pain or discomfort. In pacu my day isn't scheduled as much as I have routine. I never know what's going to roll out and I may have one pt or two at the the same time. We rarely have more than 2 at once. My routine with my patients is putting on oxygen and monitors while listening to report, then depending on the state of the patient I may do my assessment first and then chart, or I may do a quick initial assessment and then medicate for pain and nausea or any problem that comes up. Once pain and/or nausea is under control and I've charted I get them to day surgery or to the floor. Depending on the patient this can take an hour or more (my hospital likes us to try for an hour), the minimum time we keep them is half an hour. In my pacu we typically use fentanyl, dilaudid, morphine, and toradol for pain relief. For other issues we medicate accordingly, this include hyper/hypotension, brady/tachycardia, etc. As far as my biggest challenge, I would say it's knowing which doctors like what. We use order sets but anesthesia may put a drug on the set that the surgeon hates. My advice to you is to make sure that you are comfortable with knowing what do with a patient in case of obstruction (chin lift or jaw thrust) or if an emergency does come up. I think in endo your patients will mostly do just fine. I think the hard part will be managing 4 patients at once and trying to get them out in 30 minutes. Hope this helps