lemonaidangel

Practice questions, practice questions, practice questions. Saunder's NCLEX review book saved my life! And I don't know what kind of text you are using, but Brunner's Med Surg has a program called NCLEX 3500 on the accompanying CD in the back of the book. (It is also available on their website for you to download if you need to.) There are tons of review questions relevant to anything you are learning in class, whether it be renal or cardiovascular or whatever. And then on their website, there are also some more review questions for the end of each chapter. How I studied for Med Surg: read the entire chapter once, review all the important boxes and care plans in the book a second time, look through all of my notes and power points 1-2 times the day before a test, skim over the topic review in Saunders, and I did as many practice questions that I could get my hands on.

I can't even begin to imagine having to learn all that stuff in one week. That's insane. My school had us take an actual assessment class that lasts an entire semester, with lab every other week for us to practice on each other. The big final was a complete head to toe assessment. Sheesh, and I freaked out about that, even having all that time to prepare. No wonder you guys are so stressed!

I am done with all my med surg classes, and we used Brunner's as well. I will tell you that while there were no straight up pathophysiology questions, you did have to have a good understanding about the patho in order to answer some of them logically. My teacher tended to focus on the signs and symptoms you would expect to see, possible complications, and nursing interventions. I relied heavily on my Saunders NCLEX book to review before tests, and that helped tremendously because it really cemented in my brain the appropriate nursing interventions for each disorder.

Aww, that sucks. I'm sorry you are having such a rough first semester. But please don't think that it will always be like this. There are some truly nice people in nursing school that won't give you all of this highschool drama, you just have to look for them. And when you find them, cling to them for all they are worth. Friends are what will keep you from falling apart in the months to come! As far as care plans go, there are other interventions for constipation other than increasing oral fiber intake. Is your client able to ambulate? Walking is a great nonpharmacologic way of helping constipation. Review her medications, that could be a causing factor. Maybe you could collaborate with the physician about switching or lessening the dose of the drug(s), or possibly ordering a stool softener. Or you could increase fluids through the IV, if it is not contraindicated. Adequate fluids are crucial. If the person has a feeding tube, you can still give high fiber if you consult the dietition. You could use something called Benefiber because it tends not to clump or get thick, all you need to do is just flush it with water and there should be no problems. So basically most of your nursing interventions will have to be collaborative, but there are many NPO things you can do. Another big thing: ASSESS!!! Unrelieved constipation can have many complications, so definitely do a lot of listening to bowel sounds and pay attention if your patient complains of belly pain.

In our last semester, my leadership clinical goes from 2-11 PM, 2 days per week. We get assigned our patients (anywhere from 3-6 people, depending on census) and we have pre-ward conference for 45 minutes, and then we can take a quick peak at our charts for 15 minutes before having to get report. After report we get set loose on the floor. Thank God we only had to do one care plan this semester, but in previous semesters we would be doing them over the weekends based on what we acquired during our assessments.

What proof do you have that they are cheating? Do you have an honor code in your school? Personally, I would not go to a professor unless I am absolutely 100% certain. In fact, I try not to worry myself about what anyone else does. As long as I have a clear conscience, that is all that matters. Cheaters will pay their dues in the long run, whether or not I tattle on them. Besides, cheating isn't going to help them on the NCLEX.

I love all the lifelong friends that I have made. I love feeling more confident in clinicals with each passing week. I love the hour drive home from school. I love making patient's and their families smile and feel more comfortable. I love when nursing staff has told me that they think I will be a good nurse. I love doing IVs. I love that I am in my last semester.

I am in my last semester and we have always had to do charting on our patients. The first semester we mostly just charted vital signs and basic assessments, but as we worked our way up we did more and more with the charts, including nursing notes. Obviously the RNs like to do their own charting just to cover all their bases, but for the most part we are pretty proficient at working our way around the computer systems and paper charts by now. I think it is a great learning opportuntity. After all, when we graduate we are going to be charting on everything. We might as well get used to doing it the official way now so that we aren't so clueless when we work on our own. As far as codes go, I would think the best thing would be to look up hospital policy. Certainly if the patient isn't breathing or has no pulse you should call a code immediately and start CPR, but if you aren't sure what is going on with a patient you should grab the closest nurse and let him/her assess the situation. Like the above poster said, on a telemetry unit, there is always someone at the nurses station monitoring the rhythms.

LOL! Yup, it's called a reflection paper. We are supposed to take a few minutes to "reflect" on what happened during clinical and then write something that we learned from our experience. I think it's a waste of time, personally. But if that and one care map are the only things I have to do as far as paper work in leadership, I guess I can't complain too loudly.

I was assigned to an LPN yesterday and she was amazing! She was so nice and helpful, and she really knew her stuff. Even though I am in leadership clinical, she was definitely more than qualified to help me learn what I need to know. There were only a few things she wasn't allowed to do, like IV pushes, so I had to grab my instructor for those, but other than that, I was very happy with my nurse. She is going back to school to articulate into the RN program next fall. I wish her the very best! Oh, and never underestimate the value of a good aid. As far as basic skills go, (like taking blood glucose or vitals or making a bed with a patient in it, etc.) you can learn a lot from them.

1) Phlebotomy. Even though I am in my last semester, I have only had a chance to start a couple IVs and I am desperate for more experience before graduating. 2) Spanish related to the medical field.

I tend to think of demented in a derogatory manner. It is a term that people use to insult each other, and basically it means they are insane idiots. Dementia, however, refers to someone having a disease. They aren't crazy, they are sick. You see what I mean? According to dictionary.com: demented: crazy; insane; mad; dementia: severe impairment or loss of intellectual capacity and personality integration, due to the loss of or damage to neurons in the brain.

Yeah, I guess it isn't anything to really worry about, and boy will I never forget again! But I still feel it was a little harsh having to fill out an incident report over something so small, and it definitely did not help put me in a good light with our instructor the first week! I have kicked myself a million times for making this stupid, yet honest, mistake. In my years of clinical, this instructor is the first one to have us email her stuff. Most other teachers have us turn our paperwork in to them the next week if we were unable to complete it the day of clinical. I don't do well having to email important information. I would much rather give it in person, that way I won't have a problem of forgetting.

I don't have a problem with sharing grades either. I'm not going to run around bragging that I got 100% because that might make someone who failed feel bad, but if someone asks me I don't weird out about it. Pretty much everyone in my class shares grades with each other. We figure if the majority of the class did terrible then there must be something wrong with the test itself or the way the teacher instructed the topic, and then we find a diplomatic way to talk to her about it. Or, if we all did really good, then it is kind of like a celebration in the hallway with lots of "Great job!" or "Good for you!" and pats of the back. It kind of helps build a sense of comradery. We are all in this together. I don't get the vicious competition and secrecy amongst y'all. I can understand prior to nursing school when you had to be cutthroat about your grades in order to get accepted into the program, but that I don't feel that should be an issue anymore. We should be encouraging one another, pass or fail, without any of this highschool drama. And besides, if people think you are stuck-up because you got a good grade and they didn't, I imagine that they would dislike you even more if you sniff your nose at them with a haughty attitude and refuse to be part of the group.

We are in leadership clinicals right now, and since it is our last semester and we are taking on a heavier patient load, we don't have nearly as much paperwork as we used to. We don't have to turn in any more care plans or 13 page assessment profiles, and we don't have to make drug cards or do any other busy work like that. Thank God. The only thing we are required to do is write a 2-3 paragraph reflection statement each week pertaining to what we've learned at the hospital. This was our first week we had to turn it in, and our instructor was very nice and laid back about it and told us that it would be okay to email it to her the next day (Saturday) instead of having to rush to write it and turn it in during post ward. We were all pretty happy about that and thanked her and left for home. Well, it turned out I had to work all day Saturday and Sunday, and we had our first test of the semester scheduled for Monday and I was so axious about studying for it when I got home from work, that I completely forgot to email it to her! Ordinarily I am an extremely good about doing homework and turning everything the teachers assign on time, but this totally slipped my mind, and honestly I don't think I would have even thought about it if she hadn't emailed me this afternoon. Along with her reminder, though, she sent me a clinical incident report that I have to sign and come up with a "corrective plan for my behavior", and it has to be turned into the nursing department immediately. So I emailed her back with an apology and explained why I forgot, I thanked her for bringing it to my attention and that I will bring the signed report in with me to clinical. And then I hastily wrote a reflection statement and emailed the attachment to her. I was very polite and humble, so hopefully she won't still be upset with me when I see her. This is the first time I have EVER, EVER gotten in trouble with my clinical instructors. I know that it is my fault and I understand that I shouldn't have forgotten to send it to her when she first assigned it, but I still can't help but be upset. I was always under the impression that in order to get written up at clinical, the student had to make a huge mistake like chart under the wrong patient, or make a medication error, or skip going to the hospital entirely without calling. Is a late, 2 paragraph reflection statement really something worth getting reported for?