Fortous

Hey there everyone, I hope today finds you well! I hopefully will be scheduling an interview with the nurse manager of the Cardiac Critical Care unit (CCC) of the hospital I current work for as inpatient RN position. To give you a little background on me: I have worked on a general sub-acute care telemetry floor for 18 months. That is the only experience as a nurse that I have. During that time I have been promoted to safety coach and relief charge nurse. I have also been studying the meds that they use most frequently on CCC, practicing ABG interpretation, and hemodynamics. I have been asking the charge nurses of CCC for that information and two of the charge nurses gave me a written recommendation for the position. I was wondering what are some good questions to ask during the interview that have to do with cardiac issues or basic questions? Thank you all in advance for the advice!

Fall 11' Grad here: 1: For me the topic i wished i payed more attention to was developmental psych! I know it sounds odd but truly in level, as you are finding out currently it plays a heavy role. I just passed my NCLEX and it is a big topic in there too so pay attention! 2: Trust me when i say that being flexible in not knowing what topics might be covered will save you a lot of stress and heartache. 3: In all levels you have a chance to do clinicals at UNMH and Pres. UNMH is the biggest hospital in the state so a fair amount of groups go there. Level 2 is very similar to one expect that you will be at the hospital longer. In level 3 you do the OB and psych rotation. In-patient psych is only done at UNMH, the OB is done either at UNMH, Pres, or Lovelace Women's. 4: When you are writing care plans on Wednesday and Thursday nights; do not expect to do anything but write the care plans. Real to de-stress and it will be a much more enjoyable experience. 5: When level 2 starts buy a NCLEX review book, my favorite is the lippincott Q and A 10th edition, not for studying for the NCLEX but studying for the exams in the course! Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions at all

First off, I must give a big thank you everyone here: Without everyone here, I am sure I would be posting about taking the NCLEX for the second time! Now onto getting my first job. I have been applying for jobs since December 10th, 2011 and have had two interviews for one job and another interview. Unfortunately I didn't get jobs either of the two jobs. The question begs to be asked: How do I go about getting job? I have been applying to the jobs that I want and have not been called back. Here are some of my main concerns: 1. I have no paid medical experience at all but I did volunteer for 100+ hrs at one of the big hospitals, I also was a committee member for the New Mexico department of health for some years and was the only student rep for my program's Curriculum Committee for the summer and fall term of 2011. All of the above is on my resume, should I take it off? 2. I have a 2.78 GPA for just my nursing program but my overall college GPA is a 3.04; Should I put that in my resume? 3. So far I have just been applying for in and out patient RN positions at the big hospital systems in my city. Is it really true that a lot of hospitals do not like to hire brand new nurses? 4. I know that I cannot just apply for a job and wait for them to call m. Although what is a good amount of time to wait before I start calling them? If I left anything out please feel free to ask any questions Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Ok that's sounds like good news since I answered exactly that! Now the waiting starts. Along with me spamming my SBON website to see if they posted my license, hopefully!!!I have an interview today as well so I have to go get ready for that!!!Thank you very much for your quick reply

Hey there: I just finished my NCLEX-RN here in New Mexico around 9am with answering between 85 and 95 questions. I did the PVT and it gave me a pop-up that said, "Our records indicate that you have recently scheduled this exam. Please contact your Member board for further assistance. Another registration cannot be made at this time." My quest question is that how do I answer the 3 questions of Have you ever taken an NCLEX exam before? Have you ever taken an NCLEX exam to qualify for the same license? and Have you ever taken an NCLEX exam to qualify for a different license? I have answered the questions both ways, as if I failed the exam and as if I was registering for the first time, and have got the same pop-up as above both times. Does this mean I have passed?

I have a pair of regular all white champions, all white that I have used for fencing, the sport, and clinicals, the last year and they work out well

I would be happy to you can contact me at [email protected]

I can only speak from a nursing student perspective. I think most nurses will agree with me when I say that nursing school, no matter if you are in an associates or bachelors program, is difficult. Here is a little of my background: I am a 26 year old male, engaged with no children. The only experience I had with the medical field was when I got my EMT licenses, about 5 years back; I decided to go back to school for my RN because I loved the science of medicine but disliked the extremely short duration of patient contact that being an EMT offered. In my mind nursing was the right choice, so I started working on all the required courses I had to take in order to apply to the nursing program at my local community college, it is called CNM. For me the anatomy and physiology classes were by far the hardest required courses I had to take. Although, if you learn how to study the right way it is a great prep for the nursing courses itself. Then when I took the nursing assistant course (this was the last course I had to take before starting the nursing courses), I was shocked at the difference between nursing and EMS; since you will not have the issue of "unlearning" pervious training, I will not go into it. Here are some tips that will help you get through the academic part of the required and program courses: 1) Buy a Latin to English dictionary because most medical and anatomical terms are based in Latin. Instead of memorizing each phase, you can just remember what each word part means. For example the hyperglycemia has three latin word parts: hyper- high or elevated, glyc- glucose, or sugar, then emia (which happens to be greek)- of the blood. When you throw all of it together you know that the phase means high blood sugar. 2) Flashcards are your friend! I know that everyone hates flashcards but they will help you learn so much! Plus they are a great thing for a nursing student on the go to have 3) Take the free online test called the VARK(here is the link http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire). Remember that just because read/write may not be your best style doesn't mean you should not study like that! Learning theory and my personal experience shows that the more senses you use to study the better you remember it! The very soul of what defines nursing... patient contact! This is something that I still struggle with to this day, and most likely will until I have a good amount of experience, but here are some useful hints I have gotten or come up with myself that have helped me with patient contact: 1) Learn to relax 2) You will not be perfect your first day as a student nurse, we are human and as such are prone to errors! 3) Strive for learning and understanding, not an A in a course 4) Always, look for points of improvement 5) Focus on delivering safe care first then start tweaking your certain style of delivering care Well I think I have covered all the major things. If you want to know more of my experiences or anything else please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. Good luck and best wishes!

I am not sure what the policy is at your school; but i do know at mine and some others across the nation you have to take more classes if you are doing a bridge program. For example: If you get an associates in nursing (takes a total of 2 years going full time to earn) then do the RN to BSN bridge program (can be finished in 18 months); you also have to take some transition classes as well, that your BSN counterparts do not. I completely agree with loriangel14, go straight for your BSN. I would highly recommend talking to the colleges you want to attend and look for what are called work for service contracts. This is a progam that some states have that if you agree to work in certian hospitals for a contracted period they will pay all or part of your student loans. Hope this helps

I have been a long time student at CNM, or TVI, and I was able to take A and P one lab while taking A and P 2 theory and lab. The one thing is that in order to be able to register for both you need to get department approval ahead of time. Hope this helped, Fortous

Thank you very much to the both of you. I have taken Developmental and Abnormal Psych. I have also worked on a locked pediatric mental health ward for two years as a tech. That link looks wonderful, and will be great for me look over and study. Does anyone know it a company offers a NCLEX exam prep course? I ask because i live in New Mexico and are resources are few and far between. I was thinking of buying the prep course book and reviewing that as i went through my nursing courses. Gotta love teens and two year olds Thank you very much, Fortous

My start term is Fall of 2010, at the latest, i will most likely start this next summer. I have taken A&P 1 and 2 with the lab classes, microbiology and the lab, pathophysiology 1 and 2, and the CNA course. I also hold a current EMT-B, EMT-I, and CNA license. The reason i give your this list is that course sign ups start in about two weeks and i have no idea what to take for my Fall of 2009. Thankfully my program allows me to take pharm two terms before i start the program and dosage calculation one term before i start the program. My question to you is that is there anything i could take or do in order to prepare myself more. What do you student who are in the program wish they did before you started? If at all possible i would love some tips and hints to refine my fine and gross focal motor movements that i could practice at home? Thank you in advance for all of your ideas The Readiness is All, Aaron

Tozz, I am going to give you a little information on myself before I lay some advice on you. I am a 24 y.o. male that will be starting, at the latest, my LPN program in Fall of 2010. I have A.D.D. and was diagnosed at the late age of 16. Since that day I have researched A.D./H.D. since that day. My pre-nursing course overall GPA is in the higher 3.85 range. Enough about me and on to you! I must commend you for noticing some that you could improve and seeking help. Knowing the best way to study for you can be a daunting task. The best thing you can do for yourself is to know what is the best way to study that yields the best results. This is a skill you will carry with you for the rest of your life. Now onto the different things and resources that you can use. I would highly recommend taking a learning style survey called the VARK. This multiple question survey is meant to tell you what styles of learning you are more prone to use and therefore will retain more of the information you study. Just go to http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire to take the survey, it is free!! That is enough for one day. If you would like I have written a manual of sorts that goes into greater detail about how to set-up, maintain, and use healthy study habits. Good luck with nursing school and all that follows The Readiness is All, Fortous

When comes to the gait belt, Use it. You should never be shy about asking for help because if you are nervous about lifting someone by yourself, the person you are lifting well become nervous too.When ever you touch the patient or the patient's things, including the bed, with any of your body part; one thing should pop right into your head and that is infection control. When it comes to using the calf muscles, they can carry a good amount of weight, but the powerhouse muscles of your whole body are your superior leg muscles. Remember that you use these muscles every day so the should be in good shape. Also where you ever taught the teeter-tooter method for moving someone? It is very useful if you are much smaller than the person you are lifting. Also good luck. The readiness is all, Fortous

Are you looking to make a career out of this or do you just want to get your feet wet and move on? We all of to start somewhere, right? Just remember that life, and most things in it, are what we make it. The readiness is all, Fortous