Bazooka

i have a few questions for all of you new grads.. 1. when did you graduate? august 13, but got my rn license yesterday :) 2. do you have a bsn or adn? bsn 3. are you still looking for work? nope. i got a job as a student professional nurse in dec. 2009, and i will continue working for the same hospital in a graduate nurse residency program starting monday. 4. if not, how long did it take you to find a job? i got the official "yes" on my job a couple days after i graduated. 5. if you don't mind my asking, those who are working, what type of job or floor do you work on. general med-surg. at first i wanted labor and delivery or women's services, but those floors weren't hiring new grads. i am very happy to be working on a general med-surg floor, it was my next highest choice. thanks y'all. this is just straight on curiosity. :) thank you :) i think it's important for those interested in the nursing profession to know that there are good jobs out there for new grads. sometimes you have to start looking for programs to get into before actually graduating. it is a smooth transition, and it benefits the new grad and the hospital. i live in houston, texas

great news!! the trick works :) i took the nclex-rn on tuesday, and i checked for the pop-up immediately after i got home. at first i was a little paranoid because i got this pop-up, "the candidate currently has test results that are on hold. a new registration cannot be created at this time." i tried again a few hours later, and i got the "good" pop-up, "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 test seemed really tough, and i got about 20 select all that apply questions. i it cut off at 75 questions. yesterday morning i checked the texas board of nursing website, and my registered nurse license was posted at around 8:30am!! it posted before i would have had to pay for the quick results, so that was an exciting moment! good luck to all who plan to take the nclex, you can do it! :)

I'm in a summer program, and our last semester started on May 3rd, and our last day of class is July 26. After that the school has to send everything in. I think a lot depends on what area you live in, but I think it's good to stay positive! Our school told us to start applying a month or so before graduating. I have applied at 2 places, and both places have HR keeping me in the loop about what positions are available or will be available.

Thank you for your responses! We were taught in school to go with evidenced based care, and let the mother push the baby out with the urge. We were told it was best to use the most natural techniques possible, unless the woman had a heavy epidural or didn't know how to push. I was surprised to see how it was done at the other hospital....the counting and direction didn't seem to be effective. I know everyone is different with labor, but it's no wonder there are so many c-sections. I am curious if this was just a unique case for the hospital or if all the births are done like this (it seemed standard with the particular nurse I was with). Who knows, maybe if I precept with a different nurse it will be different. Thanks again for responding.

I have just finished my OB clinical rotations at a hospital that uses midwives. I loved being at this hospital because the midwife and nurse were with the patient the whole time while she was pushing (encouraging her), and the baby came out in about 25 minutes. This patient had an epidural, but the nurse wasn't standing there counting to ten the whole time, etc. It was a beautiful delivery. I work at another hospital as a professional student nurse, and I had the wonderful opportunity to transfer into the OB department. At this hospital, there are not any Nurse practitioners or midwives working in the OB/neonatal departments. I was able to observe/assist with a delivery, and it was a completely different experience. Here, the nurse was counting to ten 3x during each contraction when it came time to push. The baby wasn't descending easily, and the patient was pushing for over an hour. Finally, the nurse said she would stop counting and let the patient push with each contraction. We were afraid the baby was getting a lot of caput. The OB came in, and the nurse explained that she was no longer going to count with the patient. Then the OB starts counting! The patient delivered after 2 hours of pushing. I have only seen 3 deliveries in my life, but I am really wanting to be an OB nurse. Is it pretty standard for all the nurses to do the same thing per hospital or unit protocol? I am going to ask them more about this when I get to know the nurses on the unit a little better. What are your thoughts on pushing techniques, and does it seem like the hospitals/OB's/midwives determine the protocol or the nurses at the bedside. I was thinking that the patient should be the one to decide how she would like her labor experience to be, but sometimes 1st time moms don't know what to expect. They just do what they are told....Thoughts?

I just got a job in the medical center in Houston as a professional student nurse. The hospital told me that they last hired 26 new nurses, however they typically hire their student nurses as GN's before other new graduates. There are about 18 student nurses, so I guess that would leave about 8 open positions for a new nurse (assuming all student nurses got hired on...). I asked them why there is such a problem for new nurses, and they said that the new graduate nurses typically stay with the hospital only 1-3 years. It's very expensive to train a new nurse, and for the 1st year they make around $21/hr. Many of the new graduates are young (around 22 or so), and have never had jobs before. After they begin working as a nurse they realize it's not for them, etc...or they end up pregnant and don't want to work. I would just be sure you have a job secured before moving to TX because there are a lot of new nurses in TX that are also looking for jobs...

I'm going at UTMB (University of Texas Medical Branch), ummm...there were a lot of pre-reqs, you can find them on the UTMB website. They are no longer doing the summer program (i don't know why), i guess i'm lucky. Our 1st semester is over, and I did pretty well! It was a lot of work though! GOOD LUCK!

Hi! I actually don't think they are doing another summer program, I think it changed to Spring 2010. I am not for sure, but I think that's what it said on the website. As far as I know, all the prerequisites need to be completed before the program begins. I'm sure the school of nursing would be able to advise you more on this. As far as the personal statement, I just answered the question. It was a little personal, and I just basically talked about my college experience, why I want to be a nurse, etc. I can email you mine if you would like to take a look, just send a private message with your email address.

I'm in the traditional BSN (meaning that I do not have a previous Bachelors degree or RN certification), but our program is a 15 month "fast track". We started classes on May 4, and our first semester ends somewhere around August 10. Our second semester begins September 1- December, third semester Jan.-May 2010, fourth semester May-Aug 2010. We get a 2-week break between semesters. I heard that the traditional BSN students in the 2 year program also had health assessment in 6 weeks, and I think both programs are set up to be very similar (it's technically the same program, you will just have summers off). Having the summer is a good advantage because you can do internships during the summer, or just have a really nice break. We get holidays off, of course, and I enjoyed my memorial day weekend!

Hello! We are in health assessment right now (which is a 6 week class...get ready!), then we will have an ILE training class 3-5 days I think. After ILE we will begin our clinicals. I am anxious about starting clinicals, but the health assessment class is helpful in preparing us. I don't know how your program will be structured. I go to school monday 8-3:30 for patho/pharm and intro. to professional nursing. Tuesday we go for 1 hour for the health assessment lecture, and wednesday we have health assessment lab from 9-4. (some students have their lab on thursday, they make the decisions alphabetically). Right now we have classes 3 days a week, but that will change when we start clinicals. I don't know exactly what the differences are yet. When you get your syllabus, read it carefully! The classrooms might change from week to week, so you have be aware of that. lol.

Right now I am in 3 classes. Health Assessment is a 6 week class. After health assessment we do an ILE class, and begin Adult 1. Right now I am also taking the patho/pharm class, and intro. to professional nursing. I like how everything is set up. I would say it's important to keep up with the work load, and if you study hard you will be fine. I have only taken one test, so I still have a lot to learn. UTMB likes incorporating group work in the program, which is a little different from what I'm used to. It's good to form study groups, and make lots of friends! You are going to be with the same people through the program, and you will get to know them really well.

When I got accepted it took a couple days for e-connect to update... Congrats to those who got in!! I actually took my first test today! I think I did pretty good....but the "official" grade hasn't posted yet. I am really happy with UTMB so far.

For the summer (15 month), we didn't have to submit anything for an entrance exam. However, they do require a personal statement. I don't know what chance you have at getting in. It really depends on how many students apply per semester. I think there were about 300 applicants for the summer semester (2009), and I know of at least one person who got accepted the day classes start. They look at experience in the interview, so being a CNA will help you. Good luck!

My first day was Monday, May 4th. I have had a very good experience so far, and there is a lot of work involved! Let's see, our orientation was Friday, May 1st (3 days before the official start date). We learned as much as we could about policies/procedures & we attended "e-camp". The syllabus for each class posted on Monday morning (i got mine at about 6am.), class started at 8. Well, we found out that to have the "full" syllabus we have to buy it from the library. To buy the syllabus from the library we have to put in an order, and it was ready on Tuesday after 12:30. I finally got my badge today, but that's not a really big deal. Overall, I am very happy with the program so far, and all of my teachers are really great. I am in a "fast track" program to get my BSN in 15 months. Our health assessment class is about 5 weeks long, and we have a mid-term, a final, and a final assessment examination. In another class we have a mid-term, final, and a group project. I am excited about this opportunity, but I am a little anxious considering our grade is determined by 2 tests!! lol, hopefully I will do well.

I started Monday May 4th!! I am so excited to be in nursing school! Good luck to all of you!~ I am in a "fast track" BSN program (15 months)

What are you guys bringing tomorrow? I am going to bring my backpack with a notebook & pens, my PDA, my CPR certification, and a few forms we received in various e-mails (ex: orientation schedule). Should we bring any books? Does anyone live in the League City area? If so, I am interested in carpooling! YAY, i am looking forward to meeting everyone!

Congrats LuckyNurse!! I sent you a private message, and I look forward to meeting you on Friday!

I didn't call the bookstore, so I wasn't sure what the PKG meant... I did purchase a study guide, but I guess we don't need that book until June anyways. If there i a problem with what I got, then I can always send it back. I might be ok without the videos (?). Sometimes there are extra things in packages that aren't absolutely necessary. I am going to wait until class starts before I make a decision on what to do about my 6th edition Patho book. The good thing is that we will be using these books throughout the entire program. I think there are only a couple more we need to get before we graduate. I did want to get some books before class starts so that I have a chance to look through them. I think that is why they posted a book list.

Hey Toady123, Is the software listed under the link at the SON homepage "PDA discounts"? That is where I saw all of the skyscape downloads.

It's hard to be spending this kind of money after I just quit my job to be in the program...

I already have the Porth Pathophysiology book (except mine is the 6th edition...not the 8th), so I will ask them about it later. At amazon my total was $370 for all the other books (including shipping). As long as I don't have issues with them, then I think it's a good deal. I don't want to endorse them because I have never had an experience with them before, so it's hit or miss. On the orientation email they said to bring the pda with us to orientation with the appropriate software, so I'm probably going to call them about the software (after I get my pda in the mail). I'm a little paranoid about the whole shuttle thing at 7am too. ugh.

Yeah, I'm excited we have all the information now! I still need to get in touch with financial aid, and make sure everything goes through. I'm not sure about what software we need for the pda. Debra, I ordered my books from amazon.com. I am not sure if there is a place where you can order books from previous students. I know at the community college they have bulletins where we could post books we wanted to sell.

Ok, well I borrowed this idea from the UT Houston Fall 2009 thread, and I created a facebook group for the summer 2009 students. It's called: UTMB Summer 2009 Nursing If you are interested, let me know. It's brand new, and I'd like to have some activity on it! Especially since I am SUPER SUPER bored! haha. I look forward to school starting because it will give me something to do! I am going crazy here!

I ordered mostly everything last night. I never really bought many books on-line, but I have to be really tight with my money right now. Hopefully I get the books before class starts....I ordered ground shipping so it could take a while. I got the Ipod touch 16G as my PDA. Wasn't able to get a cell phone/pda (oh well, hopefully the itouch will be ok). Didn't want to get it before orientation, but after finding out we needed it, i caved. I had my interview at 2:30pm, so it wasn't me! I had to drive myself because my husband was at work. I look forward to meeting you though! I think it would be nice if we could find out who everyone is before classes start! That way we know who we've been talking to during this whole process.

I did my FAFSA on Tuesday I think, and I found out everything Thursday. The information goes through really fast. All I have to do is accept my "award". Scholarships vary, and you have to apply for them individually. UTMB offers some that you can find on the website. I heard that there isn't a whole lot of funds for available for the summer students because a lot was taken out from spring and fall, but it doesn't hurt to apply (there are still some funds available). They said it's also a good idea to complete the 2009-2010 FAFSA to prepare us for fall. By the way I went to amazon.com and found all of the books for a low price!!! I am still unsure of what software to purchase for the pda??? Oh well. Hopefully I will find out soon.