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Not a nurse yet, just a student but.... When you're watching an abdominal surgery being performed around lunch-time and all you and your fellow student/nurse can think of is how much different pieces of anatomy look like weird versions of food. (Hysterectomy - removed ovaries looked like deflated grapes.)

What I had done last semester seemed to work out fairly well for me. That being said... there are a few things I would do a bit differently. -start studying earlier than 2-3 days before the test/final... while it did work out and I made excellent grades, I'd like to feel a bit more confident in my knowledge than I did last semester. -READ!!! I had started out reading everything that was required and by the end of the term, I had completely abandoned that plan in favor of having that time to relax. Well, no more of that! -Starting assignments and finishing them as soon as possible, instead of the 'leaving it till the end' kinda thing I did last semester. It kind of bit in the butt around the end of the term. -Enjoy myself!! I did get caught up in some of the class drama and I kind of regret it.

Thanks for all of the kind words everyone. I did speak with my clinical instructor, and she was really great in helping me set goals and answering questions that I had about how things work and what to do. I felt my clinical day today was much better because of it and I'm starting to get my 'clinical legs'. .... But yes, thanks for all the kind words... It really helped to buoy my confidence.

Hey all, this is somewhat of a vent, but more of a plea for guidance. My class is currently in our first clinical. We're in nursing homes caring for geriatric patients and this is our first time out into the real world after a semester of theory and lab practice. Now, before we went out to clinical... I felt great! As far as marks go, I'm top of my class and I feel like I have a really good grasp on what we were taught. That being said... I feel like a total dummy when it comes to clinical. I'm nervous, terrified and feel like I don't know anything. I don't know what to do, what to say... and we're not even doing anything crazy... just bed baths, am care, feedings, ambulation and suppositories.... so nothing too major. I don't know if it's just me or what. None of the other students in my clinical group seem to mind. They're all doing great, while I still struggle on the most basic things. I dunno. I don't know if maybe my lack of experience in the health care field (all of my clinical classmates were CNA's previously) or what? I mean, as far as myself goes... I've never been around an ill geriatric person, or someone who is severely mentally or physically handicapped, which I feel has been a huge part of my not doing well. Have any of you felt/feel this way? If so... how did you cope? Any words of wisdom would be very much appreciated... I feel like I'm drowning and this is only our first time out!

Well, as far as this semester goes we were slammed with courses. We had six different classes a week, 8:30am to 4pm, plus lab... where we went over all the skills necessary for our clinical. So, I guess they just decided to lump our clinical all into one. We have two weeks where we're in the hospital/nursing home setting every week day. We're going to be there from 7-3, so five, 8 hour shifts a week. It's going to be my first time in the clinical setting and my first time really working in the clinical environment... I've been a patient plenty of times, but never the care giver! The nursing home I'm going to is a fairly large facility and I'm really nervous, I hope I do well! As far as care plans go, we were pretty lucky. We don't have to do up care plans, but we do get patient assignments and have to be aware of everything going on with our patient, including dx, tx, meds and all that good stuff. We haven't really gone over the whole process of making a care plan... we've done one, but I think the raeson for that is because of how my class is setup. My class is also a LPN student/PSW (personal support worker) mix... so there is about 16 lpn students and 20 PSW students. Next semester we are doing another week or two week long grouping of clinicals and then when we split up from the PSW students in April, we have another two week clinical block in the hospital. It's really great how they've set it up in my opinion... having classes and clinical at the same time would completely mess me up! Especially with 6 courses. ... That was actually part of the reason our instructors decided to hold our final exams before clinical... so we could be able to retain the information and do well on them. But that all being said, next semester, our skills work is done without the PSW's so we'll be learning much more advanced skills. (catheters, wound care/dressings, IV's, med pass, etc) But yeah, that's my course . From what I've read on here it does seem a bit different or unconvential from most schools. Thanks for asking about!

Hi all! I just wanted to celebrate a bit... I've finally made it through my first semester of nursing school! ... My exams are all done and over with and now we're on to two weeks of clinical! The clinical group I'm going with is going to a local seniors facility with 81 patients and a very big mix of full-care to fully mobile patients with varying levels of dementia and whatnot... it's going to be a great learning experience! We start on Monday! I'm also so very very excited about my overall average right now! I'm rocking a 92% average for my 6 courses! So yeah, you could say I'm excited and very happy!!:monkeydance: So yeah... haha, I just wanted to share my excitement and my nervousness about my upcoming clinical! If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears!

I'm in an LPN course and it's 75% to pass.

Hi... I'm a current nursing student. I don't really know anything about the TEAS, as my school didn't require it. But as far as research, writing papers, speeches and doing projects go... yeah, you will get those in nursing school. I'm in an LPN program and have only started on September 11th, but we've already had one 20 minute group presentation, and 2 essay, research projects and we have had two take home tests.... So yes, you are going to need to know how to research information, write it out or prepare a presentation. Usually each school has a specific writing format that you need to know as well, but I'm not sure what yours would be... for us it is APA format. The best advice I would give is to take some writing courses/english courses as well as some sciences, (biology/chemistry) and any health related courses available to you. Make sure you have all the necessary courses to get into the college/university of your choice. Good luck!

This is probably going to sound banana's but....... So far I've made 102% and 108% on the first two A&P test of my lpn program! (after bonus marks of course).... I've never, ever, ever, ever made that good of marks... I know that the grades don't necessarily reflect how good of a nurse I'll be, but darnit... I'm going to be proud! I struggled all through high school and have really worked hard at this and I'm extremely proud to say my lowest mark has been a 92.... I've never felt like I could do this more then I do now! BTW... this is a great thread! It feels good to tell others of hard earned accomplishments.... kudo's to everyone who's posted a 'for the win' moment in their lives!

Something I would love to say to a fellow student would be to stop grabbing my notes and knocking me out of my seat when you want to see what I've written... if you can't even make the effort to pay attention and take your own notes, you sure as heck aren't going to get mine. On that note.... Don't ask me the answer to a question that the teacher JUST GAVE THE ANSWER TO!... it's once again on the same vein as the previous complaint... PAY ATTENTION!! Okay... vent done ...

Hey all... I've been lurking around for a while now, and finally got to get a start on my end goal of becoming a nurse. My 18 month LPN program just started this past Tuesday.... and I'm already overwhelmed!! We received some homework for today, chapters in A+P, Clinical Skills, Elder Care, and Healthy living... plus, we have a skills lab test tomorrow on proper hand washing technique (admittedly, not that hardest thing in the world) and a chapter of work to do in our A+P workbook. Just trying to read all the chapters alone is difficult, but trying to study them and glean any actual info from them just seems impossible! I know it's only the first real day of studying... I just can't seem to get any of it to stick! Right now, I'm reading the chapters and then I plan on highlighting and writing down any seemingly important info... afterwards, outline the chapter and go over the notes I've made as well as the things I've highlighted. I don't know if anyone finds that to be an effective way to study... but if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears! Anyway, that's my vent for the night! I'm off to do more reading/studying!:nuke:

I managed to fix up my student loan issues... so now, I'll be able to get my books before class starts on Monday (tomorrow!!). I'm starting to get nervous and excited and jumpy and all those other things. I've been driving my husband crazy from all my bouncing around. I just can't contain myself!! I've got so much nervous energy... tomorrow morning can't come fast enough! I'm going nuts with how many books I have to pick up for first term! I have to buy 13 books!! ... it's crazy!

I'm in an 18 month LPN course starting tomorrow... We start skills labs the first week of school and then our clinicals start the last 4 weeks of the semester.

I start the same day as you do. I've been having first day jitters for the past week or so... It's been aggravated by the fact that my student loan won't be coming in until 3-5 days AFTER school starts... so, I've been kind of freaking out. I won't be able to buy books, scrubs (thankfully I already have a pair for skills), blood pressure cuff, bandage scissors, lab coat or shoes. I've managed to get some school supplies together, so I'll be able to take notes and what not, I just will be without reading materials. Thankfully, I have some good friends who are willing to let me photocopy the pages of books that we need to read. So hopefully I'll survive until my funds come in! I have orientation tomorrow, so I'm going to speak to the teachers and find out if they have some slightly older books kicking around that they might want to lend me. Best of luck to everyone on their first day! We're finally here!

For my LPN course, these are the books we have to have for first semester. Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques - 7th Edition - Text and DVD Skills Performance Checklists Manual of Nursing Practice 9th Edition (freaking huge book!) Caring for the Older Adult Holistically 4th Edition Medical Terminology 5th Edition A - Short Course LPN Notes - Nurse's Clinical Guide (optional but highly recommended) Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine Nursing and Health 8th Edition PR Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology SG 5th Edition Communication in Nursing 6th Edition What Every Student Should Know About Citing Sources With APA Health - The Basics 4th Edition Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses, With Resource Kit CD-Rom 12th Edition (Freaking huge book too) There are way too many! haha, ah well... guess it just means I'm in for a lot of reading. uhoh3