almamatters

Thank you, I will message you.

Hellooooooo! I moved to Colorado summer of '16 and took the online portion of Central CO AHEC's RN Refresher course last year. I'm now trying to find a place and person to complete the required 120 clinical hours here in the Loveland/Fort Collins area (and willing to travel farther) but having absolutely no luck. ( My prior nursing experience in Illinois was on a high acuity Med-Surg unit, what seems like a lifetime ago, hence the need to complete 120 hours.) The school does not provide or help with placement, so this feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. The disappointment and frustration is overwhelming at times, but quitting is not an option. I'd really like to get into behavioral health, and ultimately become an APN. I have the intelligence, time and passion to commit to nursing and serve the field of behavioral health, any help out there please and thank you? Anyone else in the area have any luck with finding a clinical site they could recommend (with contact info)?

i'm the wrong person to ask about that, i love my books and never get rid of them. in fact i bought alot of extra references and textbooks throughout school, and still do. i didn't love the Martini A&P text i used for A&P at JJC but i kept it and then bought a bunch of other better ones because anatomy is so important to know. if you get rid of yours, i would recommend replacing it with something better but have something good on hand. finding a vein to start an iv on is easier when you can picture the venous anatomy, especially in your patients that appear to have none. i especially like atlases because for me pictures are more helpful than words when it comes to anatomy, and since having my own cadaver is illegal. jk!

congratulations to you! i still remember how exited i was to begin the evening program, and more so to finish (graduated last year). i got through it as a single working mom, just keep your eyes on the prize. if someone could have told me before i started what to study that would make my life easier every semester, it would have been pharm and fluids/electrolytes. for me rote memorization is not helpful, i need to know why things work or don't, which helps when it comes to much of the content like disease processes and how/why drugs work. but for some of it, like the different kinds of insulin (onset, peak, duration), different classes of antibiotics, and lab levels you just have to memorize it and know it cold. you will be asked on tests and in clinicals to apply that knowledge throughout all 4 semesters to one degree or another, and it's something you can start on at any time. i agree that the "Made Easy" series of books can be a good starting point to give you a simplified, organized overview. pharm is a huge area, the sooner you start on it the better. just my humble opinion. also, if JJC is still doing pharm online, be forewarned those timed tests can include questions on random drugs you didn't even cover, the instructors want to see how well you work on your feet to find the answer. seemed unfair at the time, in retrospect that's just a glimpse of what's to come so maybe wasn't such a bad idea. also, i am a total geek when it comes to a&p and pathophysiology, that's just me. some evening instructors will stress it, some will tell you that you're not a dr so you don't need to know it (don't get me started...). i say, do yourself and your future patients a favor, and don't skip it even if you're told you can. it's not enough to memorize renal failure symptoms; know why they are occuring and you can anticipate what you, as the nurse, will be told to do, what drugs you'll be giving and why, and what you need to watch for that will require you to call the dr and get an order someday on the floor as an RN. also more immediately, those kinds of questions will be on your exams, will happen in clinicals, and will be on NCLEX. i promise if not first semester then every other semester you will get tons of test questions asking you to prioritize patient care (e.g. you get 5 patients with different situations, what order would you see them in). and for that you have to be able to include anticipating what could happen as well as assessing what is happening. that's pure pathophys! anyhoo, good luck to you, and feel free to contact me with questions.

i was told last week by a rep at a large teaching hospital here in Chicago that that hospital as well as several other prominent hospitals in the city have made the decision to only hire BSNs going forward. and my bachelor's in another area doesn't matter.

it worked for me and everyone i know that i graduated with in May.

oh, what a truly sad surprise. as a graduating nursing student i have counted on her posts to explain and teach so many different topics, and even if i wasn't looking for anything in particular if i saw her name i knew i would be interested and informed. what a genuine loss for all of us! God certainly blessed us with her generosity, may He continue to bless all those she left behind with His peace and comfort.

nah, don't be nervous. after a short while you'll hit your stride and be great. i don't mean to slam the program but i do have to impress upon you that i, and others, have found it to be somewhat disorganized. so don't be surprised (but you probably still will be) when things get changed at the last minute or don't quite go as smoothly as you think they should. every semester the syllabus has had the wrong texts and reading assignments on it, or we have been told some required reading/video would be on angel and it isn't, or the answer keys to the exams are wrong and everyone is running around like henney penney after the exam to point it out so they can get their points back. it just makes me laugh now but not so much before when i was trying to stay on top of everything. keep your sense of humor, you'll need it. also, some of nursing is that gray area of discretion; what one expert might say is the right thing to do is different than another and this will be a theme on your exams so don't be hard on yourself if you don't get them all right no matter how hard you study because there will always be at least one or two questions you just might not agree on with the instructor (e.g. patient presents with xyz symptoms, which of these interventions would you do first...). if you get sammie for an instructor for anything, she's great and tests very fairly. as for managing your time, you'll figure it out. try to stay on top of the reading, but if you can't or get behind take copious notes because usually the tests are straight from the lectures. honestly, i can't stress that enough - take lots of notes and you should be ok on the tests even if you do nothing more, especially in clinical topics! you can record lectures if it helps (i don't but many do).

kimbly9, i just saw your message and i'm not sure how to respond directly to you but if you want to talk about anything please let me know, i would be glad to help out any way i can. congratulations on starting the program in a matter of days, hope you enjoyed the summer. now buckle up! :)

i am finishing my 2nd semester and can tell you this much. as far as what happens before you start the program (i.e. prereqs, applying, acceptance/rejection) it's nothing you're going to be able to pin down. i am very grateful to have been accepted but having said that, i am not sure what goes on in the admission decision process because as far as i can see when i look around the classroom, the admission standards must be very flexibly applied (despite how intimidating they make it sound) if you know what i mean. but once you are in the program it's very straightforward - 4 semesters, fall spring fall spring, period. no summer classes in between. first semester you'll take your core class plus halfway through start an online pharmacology class that goes through the first half of second semester. second semester you'll take your core class and a pediatrics class that runs half the semester (you want to try not to overlap with the rest of the pharm class). 3rd and 4th semesters you just take the core classes. each semester's core class consists of 3 components: theory (2 classes per week), clinical (hospital time, about 7 hrs. once per week), and clinical topics (1 class per week). the classes are registered for on a lottery system instead of through the usual college registration method so you show up one day, get a number, and it's first come first served as far as clinical locations but everyone's theory and topics classes are the same. admission requirements aside, it is in your best interests to take all your prereqs before you start the program because you will have plenty of work to do as it is, believe me. i am 44, single mom, work full time and in the night division. i have previous degrees and school has always been easy for me, but i am AT MY LIMIT. that's not to say that i don't squeeze in down time but it's always knowing i should be doing something for school instead. IMHO, this is not a difficult program or difficult content; it's the sheer volume of information to learn and retain on top of all the "busy work" of papers and quizzes, etc. that is daunting. i already have a bachelor's in another area, i have no interest at this point in my life in sitting through a bunch of liberal arts classes i don't need. i wanted to get in, get done, get out, get practicing. if time is of the essence this is the way to go, except you can't control when/if you get in but then that's true anywhere. long-winded way to say apply everywhere and see where you get in, get your prereqs as cheaply and quickly as you can and keep your fingers crossed. the waiting is the hardest part, no way around it. my sympathies. good luck!!!

only if you believe you are. and even then you might be wrong. i'm 44 with the muscle tone of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and a brain that, although having performed at premium processing speeds in the past, is increasingly requiring repetition like a rat on a wheel to retain new info. i'm second semester and LOVING it, one of the best choices i've made in my life. if you love it, do it.

hey, cut yourself some slack! first of all, you took on quite a courseload with A&P, chem and micro, whatever your circumstances. your grades in A&P and chem are respectable and you have a plan for micro. you didn't say what your problems with micro were, but i'm sure having gone through it once you'll do much better the next time. don't give up on nursing yet, and more importanly, don't give up yourself and your aspirations. nursing takes resilience and persistence and it seems like you have both qualities, so just stay positive and focused and listen to your intuition (p.s. your intuition would never call you names so stop it ). best of luck to you!

tell me about it. just finished my first semester yesterday with last exam - pharm - and crammed in all of a couple of hours of studying before the exam. of course i did not do as well as i would have liked and i have noone to blame but myself but i just couldn't find it in me. i work full time days, go full time at night and am single parent, there's just so much to go around. BUT i must also admit that i am not the most disciplined person. i realize that if i don't get my s**t together for next semester when the workload increases i am going to be steamrolled flatter than a cartoon character. i guess we have to be our own best motivators, and it doesn't take much analysis to see that i did not make the best use of my time consistently all semester. cramming at the last minute always worked before but it's not going to cut it in nursing school. i think a great deal of my burnout is simply because of all the stress i put on myself at the end because i didn't do what i should have done when i should have done it! and i didn't play enough when i had the chance. too much rabbit, not enough turtle. lesson learned. play hard, work harder, carry on!!!

i just started the evening program at JJC last month (yippee). i have my bachelor's in another area, not sure what advantage, if any, that gave me, but i did very well on the TEAS (99th nat'l percentile) and have 4.0 in prereqs (had all but 2 - bio 251 and psych 215 - when i applied). i am not a cna so i have to take 140 this semester, i guess that wasn't a problem either. with all the competition to get in i am kind of suprised that JJC doesn't use an interview and/or essay process but that's off the subject. great scores and grades alone aren't going to make anyone a great nurse, there's so much more to it. being on the "inside" now, although only at the beginning, i can assure you that there are varying intellects in my class, as in any class, so it can't all be about the best scores and grades. most everyone i talk to applied having a different combination of completed prereq's, GPA's, TEAS scores and CNA cert, if there's a formula they're strictly following during the admission procedure i'm not sure how it worked out but clearly there is flexibility during their consideration. go figure. call it luck, karma, fate, destiny, that's part of it too. that said, there's no mystery to the part you can control - do the very best you can, not just because it matters to getting in - but because the discipline, persistence and knowledge will continue to serve you in whatever you pursue. i think getting in was the hardest part because all i could do was wait and hope, but i have alot of faith that doors open as/when they're supposed to. sometimes you just have to stop and breathe.