missmatched

- communicating with MDs - charting - clinical skills: IV, foley, PCA, lifts, everything - chart checks - how to ask for help balanced with independence - juggling, juggling, juggling

a better stethoscope, then 5 pairs of "work" shoes

on my 10th week, 5 more shifts to go before I'm let loose.

My last scheduled shift as PCT was 10/14. Finally got word today that I now have a fulltime position in another hospital where I'm finishing up a residency program. Had my RN license since February. It's been tough to find an RN job. I guess it just depends on the facility and the state board.

thanks. Being so new at the Clinacial stage of nursing school, I felt like I didn't know what I was doing most of the time. Your post gives me hope for the next semesters.

I'm not in the accelerated program but I had 2 semesters of dosage. First of all, how comfortable are you with math, simple math. That's all there is. I'm also over 35, in the regular nursing program. Dosage tests are really quite easy. Don't worry about which method, they pretty much accept the answer as long as you can show how you arrived at it. Most important thing is how to round numbers. I suggest you do the questions in the manual that they'll give you.

What your pharmacology class is like? How your teacher teaches it? Had 2 semester of Patho/Pharm, the first taught with an old-fashioned projector and the pther with PPS. They both gave us the notes, then breezed through it the whole semester. One gave case studies to practice on, one gave frequent quizzes. What you think of your book? Lehne(pharm) used it a few times for the 1st semester, never for the 2nd Porth(patho) used it basically for the pictures and diagrams(visual learner here). What tools do you use that you feel help? NCLEX reviewer(Saunders), rewriting the notes, organizing it in a way that makes more sense to me, searched for pictures and visuals

Think first, open mouth later, much later. I hate it when you show up for a test and there's already a regular Roman forum going on in the hallway. Classmates so eager to tell you what they've learned/studied. Annoying and confusing, makes me feel like I haven't studied at all.

took ATI Foundations about 3 weeks ago, passed with a Level 2 (needed to be level 1 to pass). I took the ATI practice test half an hour before the actual test, it was a disaster @ about 53%. We were given a book, which is a good Cliff's-notes type but not much practice testing. I think using Saunders NCLEX review didn't hurt. For our test, I wished I'd known that you can't go back to a question you skipped once you go to the next page. It helps to be aware of the time and use it wisely because when you get to the last page there is no turning back.

last test was on May 14, I'm already bored. 2 semesters down 3 more to go before BSN. I plan to work as a nurse aide or something during the summer to get more experience in a hospital. Of course I can organize my notes from last semester, especially my care plans so I can copy and paste next semester (if it applies).

Nobody's too old to do anything they want to do. Hi, I'm xxxxx and I'm 36, I'm older than my instructors and I graduate in 2010. It's often said that regrets in life are for those things that you didn't do, not the things you've done. Go for it, if it's really what you want to do.

Here's a website that makes ABG's fun. just note that they may have different values than what your instructor tells you. In my school we go by PaCo2 of 35-45 and HCO3 of 22-26. I agree with Daytonite on how it works. http://www.vectors.cx/med/apps/abg.cgi

I learned that E and NE are adrenergic/catecholamines and of the SNS not parasympathethic(which is cholinergic). Ach is for PSNS. Just finished the patho /pharm test today. My teacher did not differentite btwn alpha 1 & 2. But it was easy to remember that alpha was for puils and blood vessels, Beta1 is for heart(because you only have one heart), Beta2 is for lungs(coz you got 2 of those). Those functions you listed are the same as what I learned. Agonists are going to copy/mimic what the body normally does. Whether it be SNS or PSNS. Antagonist are going to block or inhibit those normal responses. In a sense, SNS antagonists/blockers are going to act like PSNS and PSNS antagonist/blockers are going to act like SNS hope this makes sense

I'm from the Philippines myself, but i'm still in nursing school. I guess, it's not unusual, all my friends from home who live here are nurses. where did you go for nursing?

Are you from the Philippines?