VetTechingWasEasier

I went to an LPN to RN program. 1st year, did practical nursing jobs...patient care, meds, reports. Next year, the "RN" year, it was a touch of med/surge, some clinpath and a WHOLE lot of theory. Capstones capstones capstones till you scream. I have a cousin who's been an RN in Florida for 6 years. I guess there must be a huge difference in the education. I didn't exactly go to a top school but I'm getting more and more surprised at students who graduated from more prestigious institutions. I recently saw her at a family-reunion type occasion in Southern California. She had allergies and wanted some benadryl. We didn't have any, but we had some Nytol which is the exact same chemical (diphenhydramine HCl) Her being a nurse for that long, I thought she'd know OTC meds like that cold. She was amazed that I knew it. I kind of joked "Long time since Pharmacology classes, eh?" and she laughed "Oh we never had to learn anything like that!" "Well don't you pick up stuff like that on the job, then?" "Ah no, I don't know what anything really is, I check the name, patient, dose, (etc) and down the hatch!" "....you don't know any of the side effects/adverse reactions/unsafe dosages, you know, so you can REPORT them?" "That's the doctor's job" (WHAT??????????????) ok fine, even the girl who got the Nightingale award at my school was far from being a walking Merck's manual but I was surprised that apparently 1) one can pass the NCLEX-RN without even a rudimentary familiarity with basic pharmacology 2) One can competantly pass meds with Nursing Theory alone 3) You can leave the task of checking for med related mistakes to the DOCTOR and not be fired out of a cannon..

I already have my Micro taken care of... I was wondering what "mandatory" classes they start in for 2nd year?

I'm planning to take my LPN program certificate to CCP and apply for accellerated admission. I'll be taking care of whatever prerequisites my academic advisor tells me that I still need, this fall and next spring. (Like Dietary class and LPN-RN transition) What classes are required for Fall and Spring of the 2nd year? I couldn't find a schedule online. I'm hoping to find out what kind of time I can expect to spend in class. On side note... I'm having trouble finding a job as an LPN because I let it slip that I'm going to try for RN as soon as possible. The response has been "But we need an LPN... if you become an RN we can't have you doing the same things and we can't guarantee there will be an RN position for you.." For this reason I'm considering going back to Vet Teching until I have my RN , and now the vet clinics are scared I'll get my RN and fly the coop!! Yay, can't get a job unless I don't tell the whole truth about my career plans!

No HESI at Cumberland!

update... I work under the table as a freelance mason/painter. It's good for making my own hours and I listen to my class lectures on my iPod while I'm working. Today I'm going to apply for a job as , yep, a vet tech again...the pay I expect to really be garbage but it keeps the material somewhat fresh. :twocents:

Woah. Tell you what,... If your school requires a score of 1000, and more than half of the class still manages to pass (WITHOUT spending hundreds of dollars on outside tutoring) , what can I say, sounds like the kind of school I wish I went to! Like I said in a previous post, if the cutoff at my school was even 950, all the girls who graduated would've all fit in the back seat of a hatchback car. When the nursing boards catch on that the do-or-die HESI policy in nursing schools is producing artifical competancy at huge expense to the students, they will change their ranking system.

Don't let the staff intimidate you. When it comes down to it, they're all very much accountable for the program they run, and if what they're saying was truely policy, it'd be in writing somewhere. They are just scared for their jobs because if too many students fail, the program is in for disciplinary action itself! As for the HESI...don't forget to relax and trust yourself. There is no reason to believe that all your work will be for nothing if you don't get through without a bump. You wouldn't have even gotten this far if you were not nursing material!

Cumberland doesn't require an exit exam? interesting..

I'm sorry, I was so busy ranting that I didn't answer your question! The only ADN program I know of that doesn't require a "Do or Die" exit exam, is Del Tech in Georgetown, DE. NY nursing schools, do not require a HESI, but they do require a very, very high score on the NCLEX to get your license. (2nd only to California)

More and more nursing schools nationwide are jumping on the HESI bandwagon, because it artificially raises their ranking through finding a new and creative way to make sure that students who won't pass the NCLEX on the first try, don't even get to sit for the exam regardless of their academic performance. Don't ask me what kind of nurses this system will produce, because real life isn't multiple choice. One of the girls in my class who failed the HESI, saved a patient's life during one of her clinical rotations. (She noticed that the RN she was shadowing was about to give someone a killing dose of the wrong insulin IV!!!) Meanwhile, one that left an incontinent patient in a bed full of his own waste when it was time for post-conference because "She already changed him THREE TIMES" got an award for her high GPA at pinning. Go figure.

As a matter of fact...the HESI has another purpose, according to their own web site. It's other purpose is to make sure that schools are actually teaching a proper curriculum. How many of us were missing questions on the HESI that were about subject matter we NEVER went over in school? Plenty. How many of us had to use SAT-type answer elimination strategies to even muster a passing grade? Again, many. I believe schools should be ranked by their HESI pass rate!!!!! I think we'd see a massive change in the curriculum and the quality of the classes. If they're ranked by pass rate of the NCLEX and only graduate students who'll pass, according to the HESI model, a school can legally just have their students play kickball for 2 years, graduate just 1 student who passes the HESI, and STILL CLAIM A 100% PASS RATE and pocket the other 80+ student's tuition with impunity.

Isn't that a screwed statistic, pretty much having the students take another version of the NCLEX and only let whoever "passes" sit again? that's like me having a Marathon Running School. I guarantee that YOU can run 26 miles after you graduate!!!! However, to graduate, you have to run 40 miles. Hahahahahha! Unethical? Maybe.

Is anyone from a nursing school that ties your HESI score to a grade in a specific class? In mine, we have a 10-credit hour MedSurg class that if you fail the HESI 3 times, you get a 10 credit F added to your transcripts. To reapply to the program, you have to also re-take all the 1st Semester final exams. Once in, they have to retake all the 2nd semester classes + clinicals, then re-take the HESI and you get only one shot. If you fail, you can never reapply for the program. Nice, huh?

According to the HESI website, the test is also made to put the school's curriculum to the test, to see if it's truely preparing the students for the boards. I myself came from a nursing school where 60% of the students passed the HESI and were able to graduate, and we had an 850 point cutoff. If our cutoff was 900 or even 950 there would've been maybe 12 girls at pinning. I believe that if less than half the students can pass this Do-Or-Die test, doesn't that mean that the SCHOOL isn't doing it's job?

My LPN year was going smooth, I was even enjoying it, until 2nd semester I started hitting serious money problems. If my family didn't pull through for me when they did, I would've probably quit to start working full time again, rather than let my credit go to hell and finish the last few months of the school year living in my car!