Lizzyru

OP, thank you so much for sharing your first day in ED! I started as a new grad in July in ED and just came off of orientation 2 weeks ago. Since The first weeks in ED, I have come a way. Knowing where everything is really is half of the battle and now I know where to find things i need Or who to call if I need something. One advice my wonderful preceptor gave me throughout orientation was "Be patient and kind to yourself"and to "find people you feel 'safe' with for help and questions. I have been on my own for the past 2 weeks and my day at work is so much better when I have 1 or 2 RNs that I can go to. I feel like I'm up against a wall and my heart tanks on days that I stand in the huddle and only recognize very few faces. That's why I feel connecting and getting to know my coworkers are so important. I always thank the techs who helps , and compliment for their thoughtfulness or for their skills... Really goes a long way in making their day better too. If you are working with an educator in your unit, keep a close and positive rapport with him/her. She's one of your best allies as you go through your orientation! Best wishes to you with your new career and for your pregnancy!

Hi, KNRZN 2013! I'm also a new grad ED RN! I just completed my orientation and felt I needed a tool to keep me better organized and to keep track of when I need to assess which patient. I made a sheet for myself that has worked really well for me and since then, a bunch of RNs in my unit asked for copies for them. PM me and I will be happy to share a copy! Hope all is going well for you!

Several of my classmates and I have received calls for interview at Banner after we graduated in May with BSN. I know of one candidate with ADN who interviewed with Banner but mentioned he never received a call back from HR. We started applying after we graduated but more aggressively after we passed Nclex. So far 3 offers out of 3 interviews in my group. I declined and accepted an offer elsewhere.

Cowgirl_RN, I think I must have had the same classmates because those were my exact thoughts! It is really unfortunate. I had never heard or seen so much 'incivility' until I started nursing school. Honestly, I have had to weed through a group of people and found that I could only trust 2 classmates who always had my back. Others.. not so much. I had one student who pretended to be my BFF when she needed something, then when I needed any help she never had anything to share. Another one became really close just to get info on the job at a hospital where I worked. People constantly talked behind each others' backs and complained. 2 of my classmates and I tried all we could to stay out of the 'drama radar'. Since we graduated in May, I've kept in close touch with 3 of my classmates. We took Nclex together on the same day and we all passed. Those of us who stayed true & supported each other while staying out of the drama really became close. We never talked about each other behind our backs but defended and protected each other. You do need this kind of friendship to make it through nursing school and when you graduate, your friendship is that much stronger. Choose your friends wisely.. and stay with the ones that truly have your back. Just my 2 cents!!

Ours was also set up by the school and notified to us the day before. A rumor of a student using substance was reported to school and she was drug tested but that's the only occasion I heard of any random testing. That was it really. I'm with nmsxx6454 - just stay away from anything questionable and you are good as gold!

toy85 and other hopefuls, Our cohort just graduated yesterday from GCU (fast track). It is a rigorous program but you will learn so much in a very short time. Study hard! 4 kids, part time job but I still finished with honors. You can do it! Good luck!

1) What has been the hardest nursing class for you and why? I found Peds to be really tough - not because it was a difficult course but we unfortunately had a brand new professor who had never taught before (we were often called her 'guinea pigs') and had the meanest clinical adjunct! Boo!! 2) How often do you have to study for tests? I studied every day; develop whatever study method that will work best for you. I read the textbook/module learning tools prior to lecture then took notes, studied power point and also recorded my lecture so I can fill in where I may have missed during the lecture. I am a read/write learner so I did a lot of re-writing on index cards to process the information. Before the exam, I would have stacks and stacks of index cards. Just writing them down helped about 70% then I went through the cards to pick out ones that needed to be emphasized in my studying. 3) What are the most comfy scrubs and shoes for clinicals? Grey's anatomy. :) Our school allowed us to buy Grey's anatomy in our school color then have the logo embroidered. Love them! I bought 2 sets. 4) What are clinicals like and are they scary? I has a needle phobia when I started nursing school.. so it has taken some serious desensitization for me to overcome this. lol I was totally fine until we started complex care (ICU) then everything was new all over again. Having had an incredible professor and adjunct professor for clinical made it a great learning experience. 5) What's your favorite and least favorite aspect of nursing classes? Favorite - I love the whole concept of holistic care involving therapeutic communication and patient centered care. I love getting to know my patients and to know that I am caring for the whole person, not just the disease process. Least favorite part... is students are expected to be super flexible when there is nothing flexible about being in nursing school - period! But rest assured... we made it. :) Our cohort graduate on 5/2! Yippeee! :) Good luck to you~!

I agree with elprup - LOTS Of index cards if you are read/write learner. If you are an auditory learner, I highly recommend getting a digital recorder with a USB or if you have an iphone, download an app called SuperNote to record your lectures. Good luck!!

Our program also places a strong emphasis on ATI and we have had to take a comprehensive test at the end of each course. Our professors opened the practice tests (A & B) prior to the test date and that helped some - but we often found that ATI used outdated data or banned medication on tests which caused more confusion than it was absolutely necessary. We just finished taking the Nclex predictor portion and had to score 90% (national average?) to pass. I'd say half of us passed and the other half will have to retake it again prior to graduation. What a pain!!

studentnurseCT & PatMac10,SN congrats to both of you! I haven't ordered my pin yet but just received my cap & gown last week! Woohoo!! Our cohort finished our final exam on Wednesday and my last clinical day today prior to starting our capstone and practicum next week. Best of luck to you all for the next few months toward the finish line! We are almost there!!! I am just curious how the job market for new grads look like in the areas you all live. Take care! 9 more weeks!!! :) Liz

OMG... our semester was horrendous. Community Health and Home/Hospice health... these 2 classes should have been combined but instead, we had to to weekly assignments for each and paper, health teaching, research, etc for both courses. It was pure terror...but I made it!! I'm so glad it's OVER!! We have a 3 week break then off to Complex Care & Leadership something rather online. Then we have a preceptorship & Capstone starting in March. Does anyone else having to do the Capstone? Not looking forward to this. Congratulations to all of you who made it through thus far! End is near... we just have to keep on keeping on for 4-5 months! Our cohort graduate on May 2nd!! Yay!!

We are doing preceptorship selection right now.. anyone else? Which specialty are you choosing for your preceptorship? We are finishing up Community & Home Health... Community Health has proven to be a bigger headache than I anticipated with all kinds of busy work. sigh... 12 more days till winter break!!! Yippeee! Of course I have to pass these classes first.. sigh... Good luck to all of you with the finals!

What does your average week look like? I am just curious. :) This 8 weeks we have clinical rotations on Wednesdays and lecture on Thursday (from 5-9 pm) plus an online required course (this one is specific to our college - nothing to do with nurse.. boo!!!). Next 8 weeks, beginning at the end of October, we have home health and community health back to back Monday (home health clinical), Tuesday- home health lecture, Wednesday (community health clinical) then Thursday Com health lecture then I work on Fridays. This 8 weeks has been like a deep breath before the plunge - but I am just going to buck up and get through because that 3 week break in December is not too far! yay!! Hope you all are having a fabulous day!!

Wow, most of you are doing Peds/OB rotation this semster! We did Peds/OB during block 3 (this past summer) and this semester we are doing Mental Health/Community health & Home health. I really loved OB!!! I hope you all enjoy it. When I finally got to help with the delivery it was such a wodnerful experience. I was so afraid that families wouldn't want a nursing student in there coming to observe but after working with the patient and her family all day, they insisted I stayed and watch the baby's arrival. Even though I have kids of my own, it was still very moving experience each time a baby was born. Something for you all to look forward to. Peds was great. :) I love working with kids but med math really got to me. lol I don't hate math. It was just confusing! Have you all done the calculation for reconstituted meds? I actually enjoy math... but this one was really tricky! Anyone in Mental Health, Psych yet??? I didn't love Pharm and boy do we have lots of drugs to learn in this class! If you have any great learning tips for learning meds, please share. :)

@StudentnurseCT, @Katie71275 and @Elisheval, we are almost there. :) What classes are you all in right now? How's clinical going? I am doing mental health. I'm enjoying the theory portion but clinical experience has not been the best. Anyways, I'm so glad you all wrote in! Let's keep the excitement going & our spirits up till next May!

Are you graduating in May or June, 2013? We have 7-8 more months to go! I would love to get a thread going to see how many of us are 'here' and see if we can keep each other encouraged till we see the finish line! We are almost there!

If I could only choose 1 nursing care plan guide before being shipped off to a remote island, I would definitely pick this; Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice Sandra M. Nettina Sold by: Amazon.com LLC ISBN-10: 0781798337 | ISBN-13: 978-0781798334 It's a little pricey but it does come with a nice hard cover. It offers wealth of information, nursing diagnosis, interventions and desired outcome. The best of the 4 care plan books I own.

I feel the same way! iluvpatho, are you graduating in May? I'm also in block 4 and will graduate in May! I used to be so motivated to finish assignments and papers way ahead of time but for some reason, this block has been so mentally & emotionally draining. Constant assignments, studying for exams and writing papers and discussion questions... it's endless. I am very much counting down to the 3 week holiday from school in December/January. I can't wait!! That's my huge motivator right now... like a carrot dangling in front of me. :) We can do this!! We have 7 more months left. :)

It seems like almost all professors I've had had a little phrases, like "you may be seeing this again" or "this would be fantastic for you to know". Do your professor have any phrases he/she uses to emphasize you will want to know certain concept in lecture? Are you an auditory learner or a visual learner? Because I am a visual learner and definitely not an auditory person, I use a digital recorder for lectures and have the lecture handy just in case I am missing some information. I also have a small circle of friends that I exchange notes, quizzes from our book/online resources. We also use ATI in our program and believe it or not, those little paperback books have helped with exam prep. Try to focus on the "cardinal signs", nursing assessment and interventions. For our program, Saunders Nclex book has been a life saver for Med-surg. It's a school/professors favorite and we found lots of questions from that on our Med-surg exams. :) I wish you the best of luck for your next exam!!!

jtboog2003 is right - whether someone else slipped couple of words or half a page, you are still held accountable for your own work. I think others gave you a great advice to sticking it out and continue to keep doing well in school. We've all made some kind of mistake or had a set back but we kept going. Remember the effort and hard work you have put in to get to where you are. You can do it. Don't let this stop you from following your dreams. Put it all behind you and keep going. There are plenty of opportunities to show your quality work. By the way, writecheck.com is a great website to get your work checked prior to turning it in. It's saved me a ton!!! Good luck!!!

I think what makes our nursing program so challenging is that when we started, they created a mental image in us that this is a survival of the fittest - like a boot camp almost! It somewhat prove to be true since on our small satellite campus, we started out with 25 and we've already lost 7 by level 3. Not only that, I feel like what should be a unified, 'we are all in this together' attitude we should all have but instead, we are out there only for his/her own. We are already into block 4 and we feel like not all of us have someone watching our backs. I know not all classes are like this - those in block 3, their group is such a unified class that is willing to help each other. We kind of missed out on that. I am hoping that that can still change. We are in a 5 block program (BSN) and will graduate in May, God willing. Keeping a small, support group within the class really helps. I am fortunate to have a handful of classmates that I can rely on and at least a couple that I can really trust. Having that "we are all in this together" attitude will not only help you but your classmates too. :) Best wishes!!!

I am so sorry you had a such a rough day. Being in nursing school is stressful enough and to be sick and to have a fever would push anyone of us off the edge. I think each of us in our class had 'a moment' at least once during the first block when we felt so overwhelmed that we just sat and cried. In our program, we only had nursing classes to deal with during block 1 and our professors understood the pressure and stress we were under. I am taking a required course outside of nursing right now along with mental health nursing during this 8 weeks and I am convinced that this professor has no idea what kind of work load nursing students face in an average day!! So give yourself some time and space, get well then go & meet with the professor to explain immeasurable pressure you are under. Get well soon. You can do it!!

If you are set on applying for an evening program, I would recommend double checking with your admissions counselor just to make sure they are offering evening program again. The group that just started in August at our Scottsdale campus is a full fledged day program. I would actually be surprised if they are offering evening program again. Just a thought. :) Good luck to you!

I am in block 4 now and I don't think my arm and shoulder would have made it had it not been for my rolling laptop portfolio case. It has a spot for your laptop, plenty of space for your textbooks, notebooks and binders. I absolutely love mine. I started out with a laptop brief case that I carry over my shoulder but then by the time 2nd week came around, I was shopping for a rolling case. Don't worry about what others think!! They are just waiting for someone to start the trend.. I am serious. After I bought mine, it seems like everyone else joined. I am always thinking of ways to cut down on stress and this was my very first intervention. :) I have since tried a messenger bag, backpack, etc. but they were all every short lived. Save your back and enjoy your nursing school experience. It's tough enough on your body as it is... less sleep, lots of hair pulling assignments and exams.. be king to your body. :) It will thank you! :)

Hi there. From what I understand, they are no longer offering the evening class option on SHC campus. It's very unfortunate but it is also true that majority of students that began the night program with jobs are no longer employed or only working minimal hours to keep their 'foot' in the foor at hospitals. Good luck.