bdanders

I did my practicum in an Emory ICU and applied to the new grad program. I have an interview scheduled for Monday with the unit director of the floor where I did my practicum. Hopefully everyone hears about interviews soon!

First try pass rates up through 2009 http://www.usg.edu/health_workforce_center/documents/nclex_rates.pdf

Perhaps you need to narrow down your topic. General "heart assessment" is very broad and not likely to result in many articles you're interested in. What is it about cardiac assessment that interests you and what outcome are you looking for? Are you looking at pediatric or adult populations? Does your target population already have a diagnosed cardiac condition? There is a lot to think about! For our evidence based practice research we set up our research questions in "PICO" format (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) and then conduct our literature search using these criteria. Learning to navigate the databases can be tricky and frustrating at first but you'll get the hang of it!

Whether you resign or are fired within the three months still means you did not meet the terms of your contract. The way I (and I imagine most employers) see it is that the $10,000 doesn't belong to you until you fulfill your contract. They were just kind enough to let you hold onto it in the mean time. If you're planning on resigning soon, look at it this way. You expect to receive $10,000 plus your agreed upon salary for 1, maybe 2 months of work? Use your critical thinking skills, this is not reasonable.

Sorry you're in such a tough situation. It sounds like your program needs some revamping... What do your school's NCLEX pass rates look like? If people have been continuously cheating, I imagine many would have a hard time passing. I would bring this cheating to the attention of the professor for the course and if you don't get any response there, to the administration. Any professor or administrator worth their salt should take your report seriously and look into the matter. It sounds like this 'group' is making it rather public that they have old exams or have access to exam material through other sources. They're bound to get caught sometime. I know that our academic honesty policy states that if you know of cheating and you don't report it, you're also responsible. I would be documenting (dates, times, places, people involved) and reporting accordingly so you don't go down with the ship!

Most (all?) schools consider it against academic honesty policies to post previous exam questions. For practice questions you can use the CDs and study guides that go with your text books or get a couple of NCLEX review books with practice questions.

We're using the same book for our Med-Surg course. Definitely get the study guide that goes with the book. There are a lot of NCLEX style questions and case studies that really test your ability to apply the material in the chapters. Good luck!

I would just say, "I'm sorry, I wish I could help you out, but my work schedule has been set and cannot be changed." Leave it at that and don't feel guilty. You're in school for YOU, and you've made appropriate arrangements to accommodate your clinical schedule. Additionally, re-rearranging your work schedule when you already had something worked out may make you appear unreliable with your boss, making him/her less likely to work out such arrangements in the future. There are 8 others from your group she can ask and ultimately it is her responsibility to make it work.

I can only speak for first semester and only for Athens as the other campuses have different lab/clinical schedules. For the first part of the semester we had lecture on Mondays from 9-4 (with 12-1 break) and lab most Tuesdays and Wednesdays (either morning or afternoon, sometimes all day). Clinicals start at the midpoint of first semester and then the schedule shifts to Monday (all day lecture), Tues OR Wed (clinical - 7-3) and Fridays (labs/skill check offs). For clinicals we have to be at the hospital at 6:30am, which makes for a very early morning especially if you'll be commuting from outside of Athens. There is also paperwork that needs to be completed the evening prior to clinical and additional documents to be submitted the day after clinical. First semester requires the least amount of clinical/lab time (185 clinical/lab hours). I believe that in 2nd and 3rd semesters we will have ~2 clinical days each week maybe more in summer since the semester is shorter (total of 285 hours each semester). 4th semester we do a residency with an average of 36 hours per week in clinical (total of 585 clinical hours). As far as time commitment goes, there is always something that needs to be done and once the semester gets going exams, quizzes, papers, and skill checkoffs come one right after the other (ie, time management is invaluable). Yes, its fast paced, but absolutely doable. To answer your question about how things are recorded, all of the lectures are recorded using a program called Tegrity and can be downloaded to an iPod.

You're definitely not limited to only working in Georgia. Once you pass NCLEX your RN license has reciprocity so you can work in any state. There may be some paperwork to complete to verify your license in a new state, but its no big deal. If there's a specific state you want to work in after graduation you can even just take the NCLEX in that state and avoid any additional paperwork!

Looks like the consensus is no (link) pudding is not counted as intake. Good question, though!

I agree with everything that Chenda said. I'm also at the Athens campus and love the program. Our group is amazing. We have very diverse backgrounds and work very well together. I love that there aren't classes scheduled every day. I'm usually doing school work on our days 'off' but not having to physically be at campus makes things a lot more flexible. One thing I would add is to have someone look over your resume, and definitely highlight your tutoring experience. Being able to teach others is a great quality to have, as patient care will involve patient and family education.

While a person with loss of cognitive ability may be able to move, they may have limited sensory perception, which is one factor analyzed in the Braden Risk Assessment Scale. In otherwords, they may have the physical ability to move, but the signal that says "hey, I can' t feel my sacrum, time to switch positions" may not be functioning. As for bone pain causing immobility, when something hurts, we avoid the stimulus that causes the pain. If bone pain is bad enough a person may avoid movement to the point of becoming immobile.

nope, I decided to attend MCG's accelerated MSN program. I've heard great things about GSU's program, too :)

In general - majority of pre-req's completed, 3.9+ pre-req GPA, and 90+ on your TEAS and you're in, without consideration for the remainder of your application. They do send out acceptances on a tiered system (X GPA, X TEAS - Tier 1 -acceptances go out first. Y GPA, Y TEAS - Tier 2 - next round of acceptances, etc.) The breakdown of 'points' assigned to applications as well as other useful info can be found here.

Here's what my program recommended. Its an interactive CD with modules that walk through anything you need to know regarding drug calculations (including reading labels, general unit conversions, input output calculations, IV titration, etc.). The CD has numerous practice tests and there's a book of practice questions. De Castillo, SLM and Werner-McCullough, M (2007) Calculating Drug Dosages: An Interactive Approach to Learning Nursing Math (2nd ed). F. A. Davis ISBN 13: 978-0-8036-1532-8

I know you asked for a text book type answer, but a blog written by Head Nurse last spring covered the issue very well. Enjoy! ETA: You really should do your own homework... Hope your exams go well!

I don't know if any of these offer late start or condensed classes, but here's a start. Need online pathophysiology class - Nursing for Nurses

That's great to hear you're already on top of the volunteer experiences and considering lots of schools. Most people apply to several (I know I did!). You'll find something that's a great fit for you. Best of luck!

Great job! Congrats on your success!

I'm a current MCG student in their MSN-CNL program. All nursing schools (regardless of BSN or ADN) are extremely competitive and although they give a stated minimum GPA, most of the time students accepted (at least in GA BSN programs) have GPAs well above this minumum. How were your ACT/SAT scores? For MCG they look at these scores in addition to any community service, leadership and health care related experience. MCG looks at cumulative GPA, not just pre-req. If you're near the Atlanta area, Georgia State only looks at pre-req GPA. If MCG (or any BSN program, really) is your ultimate goal, work your tail off to earn those A's in the pre-reqs and be prepared to retake some classes to bring up your GPA and show them you're serious, get involved in community service (especially health care related!), and develop good relationships with your professors especially those from your science classes, you'll need letters of recommendation. Nursing is a great profession, the hard work getting into and through nursing school will be well worth it.

Yes, this definitely works. It worked last semester a couple of days after interview letters were sent out. My mail is super slow I think I was able to sign up for my interview 2-3 days before the letter actually came. I think it was the same for acceptance letters (or email for fall 2010 accelerated program), I was able to see that I was eligible to register for the nursing classes several days before the acceptance letter came.

Link to Nassau thread on NY Nursing Programs forum Another Nassau CC thread

I went ahead and bought all of the books (including all of the recommended ones for NURS6700) I got pretty much everything from Amazon.com and I ended up spending about $550.

Go to Pulse-->Registration-->Look Up Classes-->Semester:Fall 2010-->Subject: Nursing, Campus: Athens Campus, Course Level: Graduate Semester It shows capacity, actual number registered, and spots remaining.