atomRN

Our NP's are either family or acute setting NP's with a background in ortho.

With my degree in Anthropology, I found that I could play a mean game of trivial pursuit and also work as a restaurant manager. You think nursing has long crappy hours, wait until you open and close a restaurant! Wanted to do something that didn't require 5 day weeks and didn't have me making money for GE or something. Totally love it and have gotten a couple of male friends to get their nursing degrees!

Seems like the hospital has a lil cash to throw around so our inpatient rooms are getting cardiac monitors. I have been gifted with writing the process standard for this. I do have a big question though, what do you do when you have monitored patients and you go to lunch? Who minds the phones? Also, is there any of you out there working on a tele floor without ACLS??

Always have somebody there with you when you put on a CPM. I make my aids take me with em. That's a quick way to a back sprain!

Don't be afraid to ask questions to people with more experience. I have found that nobody will say no, especially if you are completely honest. I hit month five today and I have to say that the older RN's and NP's at my hospital have been invaluable.

Poop and pee are no problem for me. For me, the worst of the worst is trying to put in an IV line on a patient who has no veins whatsoever. All the old pros tell me that after 500 trys I will be good. I have about 450 more to go!

Spend as little as possible, I would say. Everybody takes the same NCLEX exam. Have the hospital you work for pay for the BS in BSN. I did an accelerated BSN and I can tell you our passing rate was something like 15 points lower that the CC's and hospital schools rates.

Technology means you need to own a computer and probably and PDA. You should be able to get government loans. Depending on the state you live, you also may qualify for state loans. I ended up getting an extra $2k in scholarship money by basically applying to everything out there. Trust me, there has to be something you qualify for.

Oh my undergrad was pretty terrible, like a 2.7 with a BS(tell me about it) in Anthropology. But when I did my pre-req core classes, I had a 3.5. I also had eleven year of work experience including 2 as a manager and 4 as a lab supervisor for a physical therapy DPT program. I ended up graduating with a 3.5 from UMD. I also passed the NCLEX on the first try, so all in all, a success. Hopefully they have the bugs worked out with the program, because there were quite a few when I attended from '06-'07. I think Dean Koslowski was turning it around my last semester, but it has to hit rock bottom before it gets better, and for me, rock bottom was a voluntary Saturday clinical (which ended up being pretty damn awesome, I would suggest it), a half crazy clinical capstone teacher, a more than crazy psych professor in which I learned jack, a despotic gerontology teacher who would threaten us with test we couldn't pass. And I still couldn't tell you who the dean was since we went through 3 in those months, but that was also at the height of the UMDNJ shake up. I am not trying to discourage you at all, but just be prepared for the unexpected. Which is actually a pretty good rule to live by in the profession as well.

Keep calling if you don't get a response. They are a little slow. I can say that at least as far as my experience, UMDNJ churns out the best self taught nurses out. It really depends on the luck of the draw with your clinical instructors. Oh yeah, and Saturday clinical is a definite possibility.

I am a graduate of the program. Be prepared to kiss everything good bye for 16 months, but it is well worth it.

I had an awesome time that I can remember the first time as an undergrad. Starting school 6 years after I some how got my first degree seemed daunting. I thought I was going to f up chem, A&P and Micro. I ended up getting all A's. I finished my BSN with a 3.5, which would have been higher if I had cared a bit more.

Hey I am Atom, recent graduate of UMDNJ accelerated nursing and looking for my first nurse job in NYC.

Go with Nike Shox. Your back won't hurt after 8 hours.

I took my test last Wednesday and it was posted this last Saturday in NY.