happilymarried

Please don't take offense to this because it is not meant that way but your critical thinking skills ARE still lacking! You are a first semester student with no medical experience! I can say that because I, too, was a first semester student and worked as a receptionist at a diesel engine shop (I'm about to start my fourth semester now and I still work at the diesel engine shop)... However, three semesters later, now I have 10 times the confidence during clinicals. Just give yourself time, you will get there! I still have tons to learn and there are still many times when I feel inadequate but I am getting there and you will too!!! Best of luck to you!!!

Each person is different and will have a different experience while in ns. I started ns with a 3.94 GPA. I just completed my third of four semester and I now have a 3.90. I have made A's all the way through ns but I recieved my first B in third semester. I work full-time and have two kids. My husband works full-time as well and he started law school last August. We are incredibly busy and we work hard to get everything done everyday. I learned how to study differently for ns and that has helped me tons! Being open-minded toward school and being flexible in how you do things will only help you! I remind myself often that the time is going to pass no matter if I sit on the couch eating Doritos and watching judge shows all day or if I work my tail off! The difference is, in May I will be able to put RN after my name. I wish you the best! You sound very organized and on top of things. Nursing school is hard to get into and it is hard to complete but thousands of people have done it and you can too!

IMO, a large part of being an effective nurse (or nursing student in my case) is to be in tune with the patients. I don't "feel" the pain the patient is experiencing but I am aware it. As nurses we are in a great position to explain to the patient what they may experience during a procedure. I think that being a sensitive nurse to your patient's needs equals being a caring nurse. It sounds to me like you are going to be an empathetic, caring nurse.

Thank you for the kind words! I am thoroughly enjoying my break now!! I hope you and yours have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The most challenging for me was the one I just finished... After every single semster I have truly felt that way!! So since you are asking me right after I finished third semester I will say... Third semester!! But seriously, it is probably different for each person. What I am most/least interested in really helps (or hurts) my ability to learn the information. A different way to look at the challenge would be the grades... I have had a 4.0 all the way through nursing school but I just lost that I got a "B" in OB/Peds last semester. But let me tell you, I have ZERO desire to work in OB and it made learning that content such a challenge! So in the end, I hate losing my 4.0 but I am thankful I passed and I earned that B, let me tell you!! I wish you the very best while you are in nursing school! It is the hardest thing I have ever done but also incredibly rewarding and the time absolutely flies!!

Congrats to both of you!! I am also starting my fourth semester and I am SOOOOO excited! I can't believe how fast ns has gone by!! Yay us!!! Lol.

Changing jobs can be very stressful and we all know how stressful nursing school can be. If you are at a place where they will work with your school schedule I would stay there! I have been a receptionist at a diesel engine shop the entire time I have been in ns (about to start 4th semster now) and I am not going to leave that job until I graduate. They work with me and I don't have the stress of learning a new job to deal with on top of being in a difficult program. Good luck to you whatever you choose!

I am a traditional student and just completed the third semester of my RN program. My advice to you would be to thoroughly check out the LPN to RN program before you go that route. When my third semester started we had 10 LPN's join our class. We took our last final for third semester on Monday and 5 of the LPN's failed. None of the traditional students failed. Please don't take this as if I am implying that LPN's can't handle an RN program, I don't think that at all. What I do think is that third semester (at least at my school) is incredibly intense! When you couple the volumous workload with learning the ins and outs of a new school and trying to approach problems from a different viewpoint it may add up to a disaster. That was certainly the case for the 5 LPN's in my class that did not make it to fourth semester. Those nurses are incredibly bright and contributed a lot to our class and they still didn't make it. Just my , take from it what you choose. Best of luck in whatever way you go!!

Well, people with CHF have fluid on their heart making it pump less efficiently. This causes a back up in the blood returning to the heart. So the client basically has blood hardly moving in his/her extremities (usually the legs). So I would say the increased edema is from increased venous pressure but I'm not sure you can pin it down to only one thing. CHF causes a domino effect in the body.

At Rose State we wear royal blue pants, white top, white shoes and if we want a jacket it has to be royal blue. I actually like our uniforms... Well, the white shirts aren't my first choice but overall I like the look.

It's funny, my priorities have changed a lot in ns but they changed because I changed them. My family has always been my #1 priority and they still are. However at times I have to put school higher on the immediate list than my family but it is for them that I do this. My ns friends have started becoming a kind of second family to me. I see them as much as I do my real family. My extended family and peripheral friends have kind of gone by the way side because I just don't have the time to visit them. Ns is so different from typical degree programs that I have found that regular people do not understand the amount of time/dedication you have to exert to succeed. That is a large part of why I don't bother discussing ns with those people. Because of how it consumes most of my time/energy it is hard to talk about anything else and those peripheral friends/extended family don't necessarily want to hear me talk all the time about ns. I work with several people working on their degrees. I hear them talk about how hard their programs are and I want to say, you have no idea! But I don't because until that person is in ns they will never understand how difficult it is. So I use this forum. You all do understand what ns is like and I appreciate what you have to say about it! Thanks everyone for being there for me, this forum is like my third family, lol.

I think most community colleges will allow you to take a zero credit hour math course if you do not score high enough on the math portion to go directly into college algebra. Go talk to your entrance counselors and find out, that may take the stress off of you. I know it is no fun taking classes that don't apply toward a degree but if that is what you have to do then go for it!

I would check to see if transferring is an option first. You said they kicked you out of the program because you got below a C... If you aren't in a nursing program you probably won't be able to transfer to another one. The act of transferring means you are currently in a program. I would make an appt with your school and talk to them about what options you have there. Then I would take your transcripts to a few other schools and talk to them about what they can do for you. Then you just have to weigh your choices. One thing is for sure, the time will pass whether you are in school or not, the difference is you can sign RN after your name if you continue on and finish nursing school somewhere. Best of luck to you!

One day during second semester, my prof was watching me put in a foley. I could feel the sweat running down my back I was so nervous! I was thinking in my head that I was screwing up everything I touched. After I finished and we left the room my instructor said, you seem so in control and compassionate. I was totally floored! Here I thought she was gonna tell me how I need to re-read my skills and work on chilling out or whatever and she said completely the opposite! My point is, just because you are shy doesn't mean you care any less or are less able to be a nurse. Generally I have a big mouth and I am pretty outgoing in a comfortable setting (not so much in clinicals). Time and time again my big mouth has really made me look like an incompetent boob because I needed to fill the air space so I said something stupid. I think quietness and calmness are very good virtues to have when caring for the sick. It shouldn't be a three ring circus in the pt's rooms anyway!

[quote name= happilymarried - the drive? LOL...boy oh boy. I have so much drive enough for 5 RN students 'n more. I petitioned, but it was denied. My mentalhealth counselor & I are going to meet on Monday & she is going to call the School of Nursing and talk to them to get me back in. Lol, yeah I see your point! Well I sure wish you the best with everything! BTW, can I borrow some of your drive later on if I need it???

I'm sorry to hear that... Do you have the opportunity/drive to repeat 2nd semester?

Take a multivitamin EVERY DAY!!!! I started taking a Centrum vitamin within the first week of my first semester and while I have missed class once or twice it was never because I was sick!

In my ns class (we are about to start 3rd semester) there is a wide variety of backgrounds. There are those who breezed through high school, never having to study and still acing the tests, there are some that got a GED because they dropped out of hs (I fall in that category, dropped out the first couple days of 10th grade and got my GED a few years later) and there are those who made good grades in hs because they studied hard for the grades. From what I have seen, the ones who find ns the most difficult are the ones who never had to study because school came easy for them. They are the ones who do not have good study habits because they didn't have to study in the past. I don't know how other people are, I am just talking about the people in my class. We lost one of our class members last semester who thought he didn't have to study because grades came easy for him in the past and he has worked at one of our metro hospitals for almost 20 years. Thankfully the school is letting him re-take the semester instead of making him completely start over. I made terrible grades in hs, and like I said, I dropped out in the beginning of tenth grade. I am now in my mid thirties and have 102 credit hours of college. My overall gpa is a 3.903. Both semesters of ns I have completed I have made a 4.0. I work very hard. I practice NCLEX questions, I do and redo quizzes online that my school makes available. I read the material, I actively participate in study groups, and I do not miss class/clinicals. On top of all that I work a full time job and have a husband and two kids. IMO, you have to really want it to get through it, but it is very do-able if you have the drive and the ambition. I wish you the best!

I wouldn't say nursing school is hard, it is just different than any schooling I have had up to that point. It consumes me. When I am not in class I am at clinicals, when I'm not in clinicals I am studying. When I am actually doing something that isn't nursing school related I am thinking about what I need to be doing in nursing school. Nursing school instructors teach you to look at the world through different eyes. It is challenging to learn how to think in a way you have never thought before. You are re-training your mind and that takes time and repetition (believe me, you get the repitition in ns). Just remember that the harder you work for something the more rewarding it is when you earn it. There are thousands of nurses so it is obvious that it is do-able, focus and make it a very high priority and you will get through it!

congratulations on starting nursing school! i stay organized with an expandable accordion folder with a band around it (i got it at wal-mart for like $7.00.) it has about 10 slots so i put each set of notes for each lecture into its own slot for that testing module and after the test i bundle all of it together and put it into a folder marked "test one," etc. then for the mid-term and final i have all my sections divided into test numbers and it makes it easier to figure out what to study. at my school they tell us on the midterm and final how many questions they will ask over each test module we have had. it makes it nice for studying purposes to keep track of what is more important within each section. i try to read the reading assignments before class but sometimes i don't get around to it. our instructors post our outlines only a couple hours before class begins so i don't read over them before class. during lecture i will highlight things the instructor emphasizes and i will put a big star next to something i think will be on the test. i study how ever i need to to learn the information. i have made flash cards, i have made my own outlines, i have made graphs and charts. i record lectures and then listen to them again while i read the outline. something i have learned that is much different from most prereqs is that in nursing school they do not give reviews for tests and they will ask questions that they did not cover in the lectures. any readings that they assign are fair game on tests so it is important to be familiar with all the reading assignments before the test. the best advice i can give you is to pay attention to what works best for you and do that! there is a ton of information covered in nursing school and while the small details are very important the overall big picture is just as important. being able to focus on a tiny tidbit of information then pull back to a larger viewpoint and look for connections between the small details is a big part of nursing. i am about to start my 3rd semester and i love nursing! i hope you find it as fulfilling and rewarding as i have so far! best of luck!

I am in an ADN program and pathophysiology is by and large what my nursing school is centered around. I would assume the same for all other RN programs. I do not think one could pass the N-CLEX without it.

I go to ns with a girl that was pregnant first and second semesters. She actually had her baby during spring break week! Good timing on her part! She was back in class the Monday after spring break. She talked with the instructors regularly because she did have to miss here and there after the baby was born. It was quite stressful for her, I think any life changing event would be but It all worked out in the end. She was very eager to get to summer break so she could enjoy her baby without having to worry about all the school work! Just hang in there and communicate with your instructors! Study as much as you can every chance you get. Try to boost your grade as much as possible so that if it dips when the baby is born it doesn't sink you. Hang in there! And congratulations on having a baby!!!

http://www.google.com/products?q=Timberland+Xtreme+Performance+Upright&hl=en I googled it and copied the link above. Looks like about $90.00-$200.00. It's a good thing he bought it for me because I would have never spent that much for a backpack, but I do love it!!:heartbeat

I never envisioned myself being a nurse. I chose nursing because I knew I could find work being a nurse, it is a respected profession, and I will be able to support my family on the income. I am 34 years old and I am now finished with my first year of nursing and I must say that the more I learn about nursing the more I love it! I did not know anything about the medical field before nursing school so I can relate to you. In fact, I really didn't like being around sick people (because they can be so demanding) but my attitude toward nursing (and sick people)has changed so much since starting nursing school and doing clinicals. Before nursing school I figured I could work for an insurance company or in administration as a nurse so I didn't have to be around sick people, lol. It is strange though, once I started gaining an understanding of why people are experiencing their ailments or whatever, my attitude toward "sick people" drastically changed! I can't speak for you and tell you that you will love nursing. That is a risk/decision you will have to make on your own. I can say that for me, I am drawn to the nursing profession more and more each day. I wish you the best in whatever profession you decide to go into.

Unfortunately, I work full-time and attend school full-time. Because of this I have to tote my backpack with all my books in it practically everywhere I go. I do get to study at work when time allows so I need access to my books in case I get an opportunity to study. After my first semester when my rolling backpack was literally falling apart, my husband got me the best backpack I have ever seen for nursing school! It is called "Timberland Xtreme Performance-Upright." It is at least twice as big as regular full-sized backpacks. It is heavy duty so it can handle being bounced down stairs, etc. It also came with a smaller backpack inside it that works perfectly for clinicals. I have my "clinical backpack" ready to go all the time and my monster sized one fully stocked with every book under the sun! I am about to go into my third semester and this rolling backpack is holding up like a champ! I highly recommend these to all nursing students!! Five stars for sure!! :starornament::starornament::starornament::starornament::starornament: