jesswus

A lot of people I know took hurst review and passed. I found saunders a joke, the questions are so easy. I didn't want to spend much money so I went to the ncsbn website (people who actually write nclex) and paid 50 bucks for a 3 week online review, passed in 75 questions. That is my suggestion. Good luck!!!

All these posts are sooooo true. I have never regularly worked m/s but float there quite often. My fellow icu nurses are always bewildered when I tell them the nurses I have the utmost respect for are m/s nurses. The only advantage an icu nurse may have is in running a code and assisting with intubation, everyhing else a m/s nurse blows us out of the water. I can already hear icu nurses chirping about " critical thinking" on a unit. M/s nurses critical thing every bit as much or more, they have 5-6 pts try have to do it on. Nothing but love for m/s nurses from me.

Curious how big your unit is? If you average a code and death per night, which means basically two codes a night something is wrong- weather it be physicians or nurses. I work at the biggest hospital in our state in SI. Our MI has 20 beds with very sick folks, they may average 1 code a week. If there were 2 a night I suspect someone would be looking into it. Good luck in your endevours.

20 beds 12 RNs or more in SICU

"In fact, LSU will not hire NSU grads straight out of school to work in their ER, but routinely hire fresh Panola grads. We graduate with ACLS straight out of school. That's just one example..." I now work at WK, but have worked at LSU and have several friends who currently work there in SI and Neuro ICU, and this is news to me. I don't know who told you that but its simply not true. I would love to sit in on that selection process: "Hmmm well, we are very short on nurses and candidate A seems great but is a southern grad, but candidate B went to Panola, I think we will hire them for an ER job that we don't even hire new nurses for". Im calling BS on that one. "We graduate with ACLS straight out of school. That's just one example..." One example of what? That Panola is a better school? Don't make me laugh. Also, I am not sure how it is now at NSU but they used to offer ACLS as well, but it is not near what you get from ACLS provided by hospitals, and you have to pay for it. I would pay to see someone fresh out of school with ACLS work a code....Me personally I would rather get the better, free ACLS provided by my employer.

Most right around 20 give or take and goes up with completion of ACLS and Telemetry if you don't already have them within the first month. If you don't need health benefits, can increase by as much as 6 an hour, not really sure how all that is gonna be affected by new HC legislation though. Differentials is what makes the diff, and of course a specialty (cath lab for example) would add another 3 an hour or so i believe. Oh, and good luck in 2nd level, a good friend of mine graduated from panola.

Remember, NSU instructors are tough, they do not babysit you, there reputation is for putting your future patients first, not you, and you will be better prepared because of it. I am not going to knock other schools, but I can tell you from my personal experience the BEST nurses come from NSU. I am not saying all of them, but the majority definately do. When you are in the ER and a pt is going into hypovolemic shock or having a AAA, you BETTER know what to do. Nobody is gonna be right there to "hold your hand" and tell you everything will be ok. I remember thinking how horrible they all were, but when you are done and in the real world, you will think back and thank them for it, trust me. If you are an EMT you will breeze through the cardiac stuff, most of it is just recognizing the rhythm (different blocks, SVT's, Junctionals, etc) and the treatment, which im sure you already pretty much know. I LOVE cardiac, I LOVED 4th level because of it. I personally found the psych stuff easy, I guess it just depends on how you think. The neuro is basically med-surg, so it is easy. The OB is easy, but I did the worst on it because I hated it so much, and clinical was dreadful...ugggghhhh. Sorry having flashbacks. Anyhow good luck.

Second level is by far the worst. 3rd level is like a vacation, but the OB stuff is so boring you will be falling asleep in class. 4th level is challenging for some, the cardiac stuff presents the most problems and the pedi stuff is pretty basic and easy. If you can make it through 2nd, you should be pretty home free. From what I hear none of the instructors are going, but I may be wrong, and I'm sure none of them would announce that they are leaving anyhow. Good luck

Wow, I am sorry you had such a negative experience with NSU. The difficult thing about nursing school is the instructors are trying to teach you a different way of thinking. It is called critical thinking and it is a skill that takes practice, some people just never get it. Based on what you said about never passing a single test, I can only conclude that nursing is just not for you. Instructors teach you information, but on a test you have to apply this information. They do this because a patient is not going to tell you what to do to help them, and based on the pt. and symptoms, a barrage of nursing interventions may be necessary. To do the appropriate thing requires critical thinking. "Another thing I'd like to mention is that if you are an ADN student, they will do everything in their power to get you to do the BSN program or pretend that they do not know much about ADN Curriculum when it comes to advising" This is absolutely true. NSU will only have the ADN program for maybe one more year, after that it will be taken over by BPCC, in fact they are beginning the curriculum for it starting this fall 2010. It is in NSU's interest to have BSN students bc they make more money off them, and they will be staying in the program. I found this annoying as well, but there is a reason, and like it or not, higher ed is a business. They really don't teach the dosage calc because it is such basic math. They assume that if you took all your prereqs you should be able to do these simple problems. I'm not sure who your instructors were, but I have a friend in first level now and she said there is plenty of help available for dosage to those who seek it out. She also said after the conclusion of 1110 only five students dropped, but quite a few are currently on the fence for 1100, so I think your numbers may be slightly exaggerated. At any rate, I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours.

Like I said, I was not trying to be rude. As a graduate of both LSU in business and NSU in nursing, please understand that it is human nature to defend one's alma mater, so nobody on this board should post things about either LSU or NSU and not expect a challenge from me. Again, I am not bashing any school, I think a student should go where they feel the most comfortable, if that is panola, great! Now I want to address your post: "1st of all I'm not on here to write an essay. Therefore I'm not on here to worry about how you feel about my writing... And as far as you not trying to be rude... No you were Immature for trying to judge my writing instead of giving you opinion and being done! 2nd of all as far as me taking english classes; I have been there and done that..." Look, I do not have perfect english either. However, your spelling, sentence structure and punctuation is beyond horrible. I just think if you want people to take you serious, you may consider honing in on these skills because you are at about a 7th grade level in this arena. "3rd of all as far as NSU being on probation, that is TRUE! Don't know how things have turned around now for them but I wish NSU the best I don't knock any school!" Like I said before this is FALSE. I like to have my facts straight before I post information that may be inaccurate, perhaps you should try the same. Follow this link to the Louisiana State Board of Nursing and under NSU for BOTH ASN and BSN programs you will find where it states approval status is FULL! http://www.lsbn.state.la.us/Documents/Schools/Schools.pdf If either program were on probation this would state CONDITIONAL! I wont waste mine or your time by copy and pasting your "knocking" on NSU, but you did. "And as far as I'm concern if you see any posting of mines please don't reply... *** I don't let any school make me; I make the school... That's what I pay them for*** " Look, how can you post a reply to my post and expect me not to reply? That is just silly. I mean no disrespect, but this is a message board. It may not always be warm and fuzzy. If you don't like to be challenged, by all means do not go into nursing.

"hmm...I haven't really heard anything about the shreveport/bossier hospitals giving preference to NSU grads" Look up the NSU/WK partnership program. Regardless of your opinion of WK, they are the leader in healthcare services in this area, and they chose to partner with NSU in hiring nurses, which I believe speaks for itself. These students from NSU are given preference before all others from other schools.

"Hospitals will except NSU grad before panola... maybe so but that needs to be stop as well because I feel all of NSU students can still not know everything but be judge just because of the school they attend... what about those who struggle but strive to get what they have....maybe they didnt get a degree at NSU but does that make them non education just because or be judge because of the school they attend... " Please do not take this the wrong way, as I really am not trying to be rude, but you really need to take an english class before you even contemplate nursing school. That being said, nobody said NSU students know everything, if they did, they are foolish. And yes, people should absolutely be judged on the schools they attend. I fully well expect an employer to hire a Biochemist from MIT before one from LSU with all else being the same. Its called competition, the basis of capitalism which until Obama destroys it is still the basis for our economy. Nothing is easy, and nothing is free. Sacrifice and go to Harvard, when you graduate and get a job before anyone else, good for you, you EARNED IT!!!!!! "look at NSU now...half of the students that wanted it bader are gone or either stressed out ready to give up... Now there on probation suspension due to their so stressed they cant even pass the test..."WHAT DOES THAT TELL U..."believe me I know because I was one of them... so for the one that did go the NSU and made it GREAT but dont knock those who want a opinion... " Bader? Anyway, remember competition is king in nursing school. ONLY the best and brightest get in, and of those, a fraction make it through. I don't care if you go to Southern, Panola or NSU you will be stressed out! If not, you need to seriously consider the legitimacy of the program. NSU is not on probation, that is false. And, the reason most don't pass NCLEX is the result of the student and preparation for the exam, not the institution they attended-anyone who tells you otherwise is simply foolish or biased, again a lot can be said for personal responsibility. Another poster said it best, peoples lives are at stake, not everyone is going to make it through and be a nurse, and not everyone should for that simple reason.

Again, I am not sure where "here" is, but I don't feel like that is the case in the S/BC area, as most of the RN's working in hospitals in this area were educated at NSU. I Graduated from LSU and attended NSU, and it is truly a mess as far as administration goes as well. Generally, it has been my experience that a lot of the heresay about NSU is from people who 1. Never attended 2. Attended but could not get into clinicals at NSU. One of my very good friends could not pass clinicals at NSU, so he attended Panola, graduated, and is an excellent ICU nurse. He does not have the best of things to say about the program at NSU, then again, he could not pass there, so why should he? The best thing to do is go where you feel the most comfortable, and where you feel you will be the most successful. It is however, interesting to note, that several hospitals in the S/BC area will wait to hire NSU grads before grads from Panola and Southern-shreveport.

I know, and have worked with people from both the Panola and NSU program, and I can tell you without a doubt the NSU program is better, and considered so by many of the hospitals in the S/BC area. WK has a stipend program with the NSU folks, if the program were poor, I doubt seriously WK would make such an investment. If you want to be better prepared, and more challenged, go to NSU. Please understand that having said that, Panola is not a bad choice either. Remember, there are many factors that go into NCLEX pass/fail rates, and a lot of it has to do with preperation on the part of the test taker. Many programs have and pay for pre NCLEX courses for students, this is included with admission into a nursing clinical program (southern in shreveport for example), which has a positive effect on NCLEX scores. NSU does not do this, much I believe to their detriment. However, these classes give many sample exams, and much of the success by the students who take these prep courses are by memorization, not what they learned in their respective program. Hope this helps some.