DahliaDaisy

And on that note, I think I'll stop listening to YOURS LOL! ?

Jeepers, and to think I was considering starting my own post, on a somewhat related topic! Bullet dodged, and I'm sure I'll get flack for these few sentences LOL! I joined back in 2007 when even nursing SCHOOL was just a dream, and one mostly for my then 14 yr old daughter. We used to research everything together ❤️ . I said used to, because she died at 19, and I ended up going to nursing school in my mid 40's (for "both of us") and have now been an RN for over a year. Still SO much to learn, but feeling like I've learned an insane amount already! Anyway, I was gong to say, it seemed people on here were a BIT more gentle and supportive with each other back then, just a BIT mind you LOL, but it's sad that many of us are afraid to post or start a topic, lest someone with an axe to grind or insecurity about a specific subject comes barreling down our trachea, claws flexed! Stay safe and well everyone, peace...

As a new nurse, I've already come to sadly accept that most of my time will be spent writing ABOUT my patients rather than, you know, actually taking care of them. They might as well put law classes in nursing school now because that's what it's become about.

I'm a new nurse as well, graduated in Dec. 2018 and started in March at our local state psych facility. I'm a bit older and went into NS knowing I wanted to do psych. I think my "favorite" part is wearing blue tooth head phones on the job lol. First day, I was charge nurse of my floor of 23 patients. By the end of the second week, I was doing both meds and charge on weekends. Between the phone calls, the staff I have to manage, the other disciplines in and out asking questions, AND my needy patients, I can barely find time to pee or eat more than one bite of food at a time, I can't imagine having the luxury of not being "all ears" at all times! Ooh, and I forgot all about the alarms!

^^^THIS, is all brilliant advice and I wish I had read it before I started! In hindsight though, I probably wouldn't have understood it, and the reasons behind it nearly as well as I do now. #4 is GOLDEN and sums up my philosophy in school. Some people wanted to race through the modules and tests like hurdles in a race. I looked at them like mysteries I was determined to solve for my own curiosities sake. Two years later when it was time to take the NCLEX predictors, It was a cakewalk as was the NCLEX itself. Dive in and learn how the human body actually works, It's fascinating stuff! And the rest is just hard damn work and not giving up!

Nurse dot plus has many free exams on all of the different topics! I used that and paper books someone gave me and passed in 75Q.

And what is wrong with that? I entered nursing school in my 40's KNOWING I wanted only to go into psych and/or addictions nursing. I too enjoy the academics and have consistently high scores on the ATI predictor (putting me at 99% chance of passing the NCLEX, mine is a Associates degree program at a community college). I have lost too many people to addictions and then the pain I went through after all the losses gave me great empathy for the mentally ill and suicidal. I can't wait to graduate and go into the field, it seems to not be a popular option so getting jobs in my area does not seem to be a problem. Oh, and I hated clinicals too, mostly d/t the adjunct professors who hated their jobs and took it out on us, and after spending a day in the MICU, I realized that if that was the only kind of nursing there was, I would drop out of nursing school that DAY lol. But I enjoyed the psycho social aspect of brightening up the patients day! That's how I tried to look at it on those cold mornings when I had to get up at 4am for clinicals, we had to look up our patients at the hospital the night before, so I knew all about them and I would think to myself " I'm just going to do my best to help out Mrs. C and Mr B in whatever way I can!" So, obviously you know which way I'm leaning

I'm sorry I wasn't clearer. The 100 pt head to toe assessment we had to pass out of in procedure testing that I was referring to was literately assessing 100 aspects, including testing all 12 cranial nerves. Of course one realizes that any and every patient can develop unexpected complications, but if you are telling me that every single nurse goes through a 100 pt check list including auditory tests on an appendix and making all five of your patients sniff coffee or menthol to make sure their olfactory nerve is functioning 100%, well you are either incredibly efficient or Flash Gordon lol.

We had in school "labs" they were called, for the first 8 weeks. It was then that we learned a BASIC head to toe assessment that we used for our first 8 week hospital clinicals. We also learned to pass meds in stages; PO, then Injections, then IV bags and secondary or piggyback IV's. You could only do in clinical what you had passed in procedures testing. During our second semester we had to pass out of a 100 point head to toe assessment by doing it on a friend in front of a professor during procedure testing, but you never will have the time, nor will it be necessary to do every single thing on that list with every patient. Part of critical thinking is learning how to focus your assessment to that specific patient. For my last clinical, I had an adjunct instructor who is a full time instructor at another hospital based program and it was NOT pleasant. She wasn't familiar with this hospital (the biggest and best) or it's pyxis system, and though our NCLEX pass rates are the same, 97%, their program costs a lot more and has more resources so she was often rude and insulting to us. Glad THAT'S over and now on to 56 hrs working with a nurse for Role Transition and hopefully a Dec graduation!

I could be here for days if I were to recount some of the biased, DATED, you have to know the professor to guess the answer, questions Ive run across! Deep breaths, let it go and concentrate on passing the stupid things for YOURSELF! I'm doing great on the NCLEX predictors and about to graduate in 8 weeks.

I took predictor A in August, got a 76 which was the 2nd highest in my class of 40. Then after 8 weeks of helpful quizzes and annoying homework, I got an 89.3 on part B, and last Thursday I took the 185 question predictor and got an 84. Our school just requires that you hit 70, and friends passed the nclex easily without ever getting above high 60's. Mine is an ASN community college program with a 97% NCLEX pass rate. Im feeling pretty comfortable at this point. Its mostly getting into the groove of the nclex question style and yes, labs!

Everyone above gave you great advice, and I can't agree enough with the part about "befriending" the aids! They are less stressed than the nurses and know all of the ins and out, I have found them to be very helpful and kind resources when the nurses are too busy. This next part might seem odd and was more a product of bad luck than anything, but if it helps one person...My very second clinical day ever, my assigned pt was discharged so the instructor just picked someone one the fly. She was in her mid 40's, obese and had idiopathic head aches. I am late 40's, in shape and was previously in the entertainment business (no, not ADULT entertainment lol). She said she had looked into nursing but "decided against it" and was SO friendly, she asked me a million questions about myself. Long story short, at the end of the day she complained about me to my instructor saying I was unprofessional and she both took things waaay out of context and also outright lied. I can only think she was a very unhappy person who was jealous of me, partially because I was doing something she wanted to do, and in retrospect I don't think she could get in to nursing school resented the fact that I had. So I had only been in in NS for a short time and this was my second clinical day ever and I was called in to a disciplinary meeting Luckily, they believed me and switched out my clinical assignment and I should be graduating at the end of this semester. I came very very close to quitting the program. I was so shocked and hurt and scared that if a patient that I had done nothing but shower with kindness could go out of their way to act that maliciously to a near stranger, did I even want to be a nurse anymore? Hopefully this seldom happens, but I learned the hard way to not tell anyone anything about me, no matter how kindly the questions were phrased. They know where I go to school, that I am a student and that I have two dogs. And that is IT! Good luck to you!!!

You mention Biology, but what about A&P I and II, and maybe Microbiology? My state school in NY looks at those the most and if you aced those, it will go a long way to overcoming your C in Bio 101. We also have to have a C+ for any pre-req to count so look into that. By the time I was ready to apply, I knew more about the program than the Health careers adviser!

Also in Upstate NY and there are a lot of programs here of all kinds AND, a lot of jobs! Everyone I know graduating from my ASN, Community College program are going straight into whatever field they are interested in: Peds, Neuro, ED, NICU, Oncology,Ortho, all within the last year. A few of the professors also teach and/or do clinicals for a a private college that offers approx a 16 month, Bachelors in anything, to BSN for around 60k, and they all say we are getting a much better education. Almost all of the jobs pay for continuing education too, so a chance to use credits from our other degrees and just get the BSN online quickly and cheaply. I am in my late 40's, lost a husband to epilepsy in 2009 and then my only child who was doing NS pre-reqs (4.0 student) at 19 yrs old from a heroin OD right after she started using. So I did this thing I had always wanted to do; I decided to go to nursing school and started on the pre-req path, because frankly I had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life! I should be graduating the Dec. I went in 90% sure I wanted to do psych and then my 8 week clinical only confirmed that I loved it, and there are definitely jobs in that field here, and many places from what I hear. Good luck, have you committed yet?

I live in Syracuse and am in my second year of an ASN program. Everyone I know is getting jobs IN the specialty they prefer even before graduation. The starting salaries sound about average and the cost of living is relatively low. A place is what you make of it, because our major industries are education and medicine we have a relatively "cultural" population with pockets of pretty extreme poverty. I personally own my own theater group and there is lots of music, theater, festivals and ethnic restaurants. If you have specific questions feel free to PM me (if you can, you need a certain amount of posts I believe) and I will try to help further, but as far as getting a job, easy peasy.