SmackerNurse

I am PRN and we work when we want to work. I make my own schedule with my patients. If a SOC comes in and needs to be opened on a holiday, our scheduler will find a nurse to do the SOC that is willing to work on the holiday. Since we are contingent, we do not get holiday pay, CTO or any bonuses. However, we do get paid very well, do not have a quota or set patient load, and have a lot more freedoms. I don't think I would love homecare like I do, if I had to see a set amount of patients a day/week.

Ohio university has a great RN to BSN program. Pain free transfer from WCCCD...I recommend taking all of the gen ed classes you can at WCCCD now...chem 105, statistics, history, philosphy, foreign language, etc...then all you will have is the nine nursing classes and junior comp. Nursing classes are 5 weeks long and you can take three each semester one every five weeks....you can finish in three semesters if you dont have any gen ed classes to take....good luck

Just seen the email. smh This should have been said at the beginning of the week at the very least. Time to jump on the treadmill and step up our game. )

So true, so true! This was one lesson I learned even before I became an RN. I was working as a nurse-extern at the time. It seemed like every time I received report I was told, "this one is mean and grouchy" or "this one gave me hell all day, beware." What I found was that it was not the patient who was the grouchy one and if you approached them with compassion and an open mind, they were not what you were told. Great post!!!!!

You are so correct! Nurses are not being paid more for getting a higher education and that is wrong. When the nursing profession decided to up the anti for the nursing profession by trying to make BSN entry level...they did not think this out very well. Shaking my head too!

Hope3456 hit the nail on the head. Just like the saying, "no one can love you until you love yourself first," it is the same for nursing. Others will not respect us until we can respect ourselves and each other. When patients, doctors and other persons see us disrespecting each other; how can we expect others to respect us as a profession? We need to change the way we behave and treat one another before we can expect others to respect us. jmho BTW, at my hospital there is a great divide on how nurses are treated. On the ICU's the nurses are very respected by the MD's and most patients. You get those few that believe you are their personal servant and expect you to attend to their needs yesterday. "you only have two patients, what took you so long?" But for the most part ICU nurses are very well respected. Not so much on the GPU's, from what I understand. The nurses there are treated more like work hogs and like they are replaceable at any moment. Managers digging for something to write a nurse up for so that she can't transfer off the unit for a whole year. (My hospital policy) It is very sad how differently nurses are treated on the different units in the same facility.

First, congratulations on the pregnancy! What a blessing! Second, why are they not shielding you to begin with? At my facility everyone is either cleared from the x-ray or shielded if stepping away is not an option. It is hospital policy! Being exposed to an x-ray should not be considered hazards of the job when there are simple precautions that can be taken. I realize that shielding is not 100% but it is better than nothing at all. You and your baby are more important right now, which I am sure you already know this...I wouldn't take any chances!

I have a friend who was awarded a failing grade, (needed a 75 and her final grade in the class was 74.8) and when we recalculated her grade she actually earned a 78.4. The instructor calculated her grade incorrectly and when my friend went to her about it, she said there wasn't anything she could do, all grades are final and that her final grade was 74.8. My friend filed a grievance and had a meeting with the dean upon which the dean told her that all grades are final and if that instructor gave you that grade then that is the grade you earned. My friend didn't have the money to sue the school and she feared not graduating or her grades being further tampered with as retaliation. She accepted defeat, retook the class (you were only allowed to fail one class, one time...two fails in nursing school was an automatic dismissal) and went on to become a wonderful nurse. Was there fraud or fowl play with those instructors? Maybe. Could she have proved it? I don't know. But I do know that if she would have sued for that grade even with her being right, she would have been a target and they would have done everything to fail her out of nursing school. You just don't make a university look bad. Anyway, back to the OP. I have one question. Why not ask for your grade and the others who's grade wasn't changed to be changed so that all of you could graduate. Why not ask for monetary awards that would equal the loss of income as a nurse from the time you failed until the time they changed your grade to passing and you could sit for the NCLEX. Ask for a review course if it has been some time (2 years) since your last nursing course and ask for the school to cover the cost of any NCLEX review courses that you wish to take. In my opinion, asking for a huge settlement is just as fraudulent as them not changing your grade along with the others. You should receive only what you lost and nothing more. Then again this is just my opinion, and what I would have done.

I didnt have any issues with the assignment. As I stated before I thought it was pretty straight forward. My grades were submitted today too...definitely on the right track :) Glad everything worked out for you as well. Oh and thanks for clarifying about that email. The post on BB from the TA made it seem like there were specifics about the project. Anywho, thanks.

The email you are referring to here. ) I didn't have any issues with the assignment, thank goodness.

I understand, when I was planning on attending WCCCD for my ADN I had a lot of folks telling me not to go there. I choose WCCCD for one reason and one reason only, they did NOT have a wait list and I did not want to wait 2-3 years longer to start nursing school. I do not regret my decision. You will hear a lot of disgruntled students talk bad about WCCCD, mainly because they either failed a class and wanted WCCCD to baby them, or they had a bad instructor and that is all they can focus on. I can tell you that there are other programs locally that these same "bad" instructors teach at too and if you fail a class at these other schools they don't baby you either. The grass isn't greener at any nursing school, they are all the same. I think people look down on WCCCD because it is an "urban" college and so forth...but in reality it is a great school overall. I am finishing up my BSN at OU and I can tell you that WCCCD prepared me to be successful in my BSN nursing classes. BTW, the same rumors were going around about WCCCD not be accredited when I went there. SMH...I don't understand why people always say that when they are accredited by all the necessary accrediting bodies...just not the voluntary ones... Good luck and I hope you get accepted. Let me know )

You are welcome, Wen. I can tell you this, WCCCD nursing instructors care deeply about their students success. There is always one bad apple in every school, but I found that the majority of their instructors sincerely cared for their students. Their program is tough as any nursing program is. Nursing school is no cake walk and rightfully so. However, if you want it bad enough and you put forth the effort you will succeed and WCCCD can give you that and more. Of course I graduated in May 2010, so I don't know how it is now, but when I went there it was a decent program. Their NCLEX pass rate for my class was 98% pass. I think that says something about their educational success. If you decide to go there, pm me and I can give you specific details about the classes, instructors and what not. Good luck!

Thank you so much! This is so helpful. I am not planning on applying until the beginning of next year, but I wanted to get a head start now so that I can be prepared.

I am looking at Walden for FNP. To those of you in the program; how did you find clinical locations and preceptors that are required? I seen that you have to give a list of prospects for the admission process and am concerned how to go about finding such locations/persons. Any insight would be appreciated.

I am taking this class too. Seems pretty straight forward, although I didn't receive the email from the professor even though I have already submitted the first assignment. If someone could please forward it to me. I will pm you my email addy. Thanks a bunch!

I graduated from WCCCD and I know several of my classmates who were hired at DMC, Childrens, and HFHS. I even know of a couple graduates that were hired at the VA so the rumor that government facilities wont hire WCCCD students is false as well. My only complaint about WCCCD is the famous complaint, "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" or "ask four different people receive five different answers." However, this seems to be the case for all nursing programs because I hear this complaint from everyone about their program. I felt that WCCCD prepared me to be a nurse. Keep in mind that the real world of nursing is not the same as the textbook nursing when you graduate and start your first job. You will feel like a fish out of water drowning in your own fear and uncertainty. If you got in to WCCCD's nursing program go for it. Study hard, do the work on time, be at clinicals on time, prepared and ready and you will do just find in their program.

I was able to switch into professor "male" a week before class started. There was one spot that opened up and I grabbed it. Did the happy dance too. lol Can someone PM me the link to the facebook page. I don't think the one I am on is the same one that you all are on. I would appreciate it. ) TIA

Thank you RNinC for the wonderful advice. I appreciate your input. This helped me a lot. :-)

Ok so I am one of the unlucky souls who has to take Prof. for Junior Comp. Anyone else take this prof. in the past and do you have any suggestions as to how to make it through the class successfully. Is calling her mandatory for assignments or just if you have a question? She sent us the first email about the textbook and all I could focus on was the "call me today, now now NOW" geesh freakishly controlling I would say. Anyway, any help or suggestions would be ever so appreciated. This is my last semester...Please help!

I am taking this class Fall 1. It seems ok so far...nothing too involved...we shall see. Just curious, RNINME...what has changed with the classes? Have they changed that much with the switch from quarters to semesters and the combining of classes?

I inquired about the MSN program and received an email stating that due to changes in the requirements for Ohio, that only Ohio residents of Ohio can receive their Master's degree from an online program. I have not researched this at all to know the validity of it, however, I have heard horrible things about their MSN programs so I will be going else where for my MSN. I, too will be finishing up my BSN this Fall and was planning on starting my MSN in the Spring...Walden University was highly recommended to me by my neighbor who received her MSN from there and is now working on her DNP there. I am considering all options but price is a big factor for me.

Great!!!! Start with the lecture and lab book and read those first! Ask a current student on here if they can tell you the chapters to read first because they don't always go in order! Too bad you don't know what teacher's you will have...That would be a big help. LOL Anyway, you will be so far ahead of your classmates if you keep up this momentum )...Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions. I don't get on here as much as I should, but it will come to my phone if you send me a private message or reply to this thread. If you are wondering why I am so helpful, well I want to be a nurse educator in the future and I love to teach and inspire others. It's my nature I guess )

LOL yes she is working in the ICU downtown! She is an awesome nurse! It's just funny how far we come from start to finish. You will see what I mean...that first semester is a bear, but you get used to it and it makes the other three/four semesters seem like a cake walk in comparison! You are doing a great job reviewing and getting prepared ahead of time. BTW, you should really be reading the Kozier book for Fundamentals and not Iggy. Look on craigslist for those books. There are alot of people who sell their books on there. Iggy is for med/surg1 and that is the second part of the semester. Hope this helps! )

Hey rbrandnew, Thanks for reposting my post ) You are doing yourself a huge favor reviewing medical terminology. It is invaluable to the new nursing student. I have a funny story for you...during med-surg 1, I was studying with a really good friend of mine. As we were studying, she asked me what Hypertension was. I laughed so hard because I thought she was joking, but she was dead serious. We went through the first 8 weeks of fundamental lecture and lab learning how to take blood pressures and everything and she didn't know what hypertension was. When I told her it was high blood pressure, she was like, "OHHH now that makes sense!" If she had taken a medical terminology course before hand, it could have saved her this embarrassing moment. We still laugh about this today! BTW she is an ICU nurse in a major hospital downtown. While you are doing your reading, always ask yourself these questions: What will I hear? What will I see? What will I do? You will learn about the nursing process and you will see how these questions fit into that process. ) Good luck!

You are very welcome!!! One more pointer, after you complete your first semester start looking for and applying for Nurse Extern or Nurse Tech positions. It is an important step to getting your foot in the door to get a position in a hospital as an RN. Jobs are scarce for new nurses coming out of school and most people have to start in a LTAC or nursing homes. You are only required to work 32 hours a month minimum, you can work more, but you don't have to. Good luck in the program! If I can do it anyone can! It was hard, but so worth it in the end!