Marlene39

Stethoscope

I wear my bootleg scrub pants (I prefer KOI or Grey's Anatomy) and usually a cute nurse t-shirt or a fitted scrub top. I have t-shirts that say "iNurse", "I'm a Nurse, what's your superpower?", "RN" (that looks like a superman logo), "I'm a nurse, I fix things" (and has a nurse with a bandaid), and a few others I've picked up at Café Press (cafepress.com). I also have several shirts that are autism related. On Fridays I wear jeans and my school t-shirt (school pride). I never wear my pin (I should though, that's a great idea!), sometimes I wear my lab jacket if I'm going to a meeting, and I only wear my bear claw when it's asthma season so it's handy. I almost always wear nursing shoes since they are more comfortable and you can run in them when needed. I do think that we should dress like professional nurses no matter where we work. The students and parents can see me from far away and I think it makes them feel somewhat safe to know there is an RN at school. I try to fit in with the teachers with my friendly personality, not my clothing (except on Fridays).

I had a 3rd grade girl come in and tell me she needed to use her inhaler. I had never met her before and didn't have any medications for her. She actually had no history of coming in for the years she was in school and this was in March. She said she has asthma and comes in every day to the nurse's office to use her inhaler. I told her I'd never seen her before and didn't have any medication for her. She insisted again that she comes in every day and I must have not have ever been there when she comes in (I'm the only nurse and the only one who is in the health office). I checked her lungs and they were clear and she didn't appear to be in any distress at all. I called her teacher who told me the girl said she comes in every day at recess to use her inhaler, but the teacher had no prior knowledge of this. So, I called her mother and she said the girl doesn't have asthma and never has had any breathing problems or ever used an inhaler in her life. I swear this girl looked me straight in the face and lied outright about something she knew I could easily check! She just kept looking at me when I explained that her mother said she doesn't have asthma or use an inhaler. She just walked out the door. I never saw her again after that either. Very weird!

All injuries at my school are sent for assessment in the nurse's office. My letter was in regards to normal, common loose teeth which happens naturally. Sorry this happened to your child, but it has nothing to do with loose teeth. I can't speak for everyone, but I am VERY careful in assessing the children who come to my office. However, I don't enable learned helplessness.

The one 5th grader asked me to call her dentist. Right, I'll get right on that...

I seriously had 3 kids in one day with loose teeth! Only one actually lost that tooth before school was out - and came back even though I gave her the cute little treasure chest to put it in when she came in the first time. She wanted to show me before she put it in the box. Really? This was a 5th grader. One especially frustrating playground aide asked me what to do if a kid had a loose tooth at recess. I'm like - "Uh, nothing." DUH!

I know you all know my pain! I get way too many students in my office for stupid stuff (loose teeth, bug bites, invisible injuries, etc) and so far I've come up with a letter for loose teeth. There are so many reasons to not send healthy kids to the nurse's office for no reason. It is really helpful to have the administration on board with keeping kids in class to promote learning time. BTW, I haven't seen a kid in my office for a loose tooth since. Next I will tackle bug bites (Really? Stop scratching!) and the kid who comes into the office 15 minutes before the end of school with a 2 week old abrasion that happened at home and you can't even see anymore. Come on teachers, get a grip! Dear Teachers and Staff, I have had several students come to the nurse's office since school started with loose teeth. I cannot do anything about loose teeth and it is a natural process that happens approximately 20 times in every child's young life. Students are missing valuable learning time to come to the nurse's office (often accompanied by another student who is also losing valuable learning time) to tell me about a loose tooth. Play-time, lunch, exercise, music and art are also valuable to student's learning. And most importantly, student's who visit the nurse's office are exposed to viruses and bacteria that cause illness. Unless they are bleeding from the mouth, please do not send students to the nurse's office with loose teeth. I am happy to provide teachers with containers for lost teeth for those happy moments when the teeth actually do fall out. School Nurse

I would just add that I am new too and I found that you can get a lot of free posters and materials from cdc.gov and other government websites on just about everything (dairy council, nutrition, head injury, dental, etc). I made a really cool My Plate board all from stuff I got free (except the really cool health foods border). I refer to it often when teaching my sick students about how to help your body fight off sickness. Rest, hydration and healthy food, plus lots of HAND WASHING! Why spend a lot of your own salary if you can get stuff free???

Well, I haven't ever been a school nurse, but I had an interview for a school nurse position yesterday and got the job. They had a list of questions, some nursing questions with prioritization (think ABCs) and some that asked what I would do in certain situations. I remember a question that was something like, "Johnny has come into the nurses office 10 times in the last 2 weeks and doesn't appear to be sick. What would you do?" I said that something was obviously wrong with Johnny, even if it wasn't physical, and would talk to his teacher and any other staff that works with Johnny, maybe observe him on the playground, lunch room or PE and see if I can detect anything unusual. I would also develop a trusting relationship with Johnny and hopefully he would open up to me about why he didn't want to be at school or in class. Who knows, maybe Johnny just wants attention or maybe Johnny can't actually. Either way, it is important to find out. Most of the questions were like this and were attempting to see if I had a brain or would just sit in the health office and wait for kids to come in to treat their boo boos. There were some general first aid questions and they even asked what I'd do if a teacher came in with a headache. Assessment is always your first and most important tool. Giving out a medication is not going to be your answer in most situations. There was also a diabetes question. Assess blood sugar first then treat. Oh, and they asked me if there was anything I was passionate about that I would want to implement in the schools. I'm a nutrition buff and feel that kids aren't getting the information they need to make good healthy choices. Parents don't always know what constitutes a healthy diet, so there needs to be a lot of non-jugemental education. There are tons of other things you could pick too, but that one seem to impress them and I can't wait to get started! Oh, and dress like you are the professional nurse that you are. I was pretty shocked to see another interviewee in casual khakis and a t-shirt. School nurses are an intergral part of the education team! Best of luck with the interview and let us know how it goes!!

It is a super difficult program for sure. I only went for blocks 3 and 4 so I can't comment on the first 2 blocks. I did hear from fellow students that block 2 was virtually impossible to pass. I know several students failed for non-academic reasons, but only 5 students continued from block 2 to 3. If you are used to getting decent grades, then you will be shocked and disappointed not to be able to do this at CGC. There are many reasons that make getting an A impossible, but lack of effort and studying isn't the problem. I will agree that some of the teachers don't know what they are doing, but there are a couple that are good. Reading powerpoints to the class isn't teaching, but I saw that a lot in block 3. Block 4 was different though. The teachers were good, but some of the tests were out of our knowledge base. They seem to be written for very experienced RNs, not entry level. I'm a really good test taker and I study A LOT and it was hard.It is so difficult to get into a program that sometimes you have to make the best of things. Learn as much as you can about how to answer NCLEX questions BEFORE starting class. Having good test taking strategies will help. No insignificant little bit of knowledge is off limits on a test at CGC. The tests I had were not on the general but on the specific. I'm sure the early blocks were more general. Make sure you do every assignment to the best of your ability and don't think that even 1 point doesn't matter. It is possible to fail by 1 point in the end (I've seen it happen and they don't give you points for good behavior). And learn the dosage calculations before starting class. You have to pass them 100% and they take off a lot of valuable points if you don't pass with 100% the first time. they are done every semester and are worth a lot in the grade scheme of things. Have someone show you the easy way to do them and then practice. Know the rounding rules and make sure you look at each answer carefully for rounding errors before turning the test in. Most mistakes are in the rounding. Label correctly. Look at the question and make sure your answer label matches the label they are asking for. If it doesn't you might have done the wrong calculation. There are just so many little things I could tell you, but they kind of go for every school. Every point counts in nursing school!!I'm happy to help anyone who needs it. Nursing school was the best and worst time of my life. I'm so glad to be done!!! Best of luck!!!

They contacted me. None of the schools I contacted would even talk to me personally. I called and sent emails. It was weird!

I don't think it had anything to do with HESI scores for getting into other programs. I got a 1122 and the only program I could find was CGCC and there are people who also got in who got in the 900s. I'm not sure how many people are still waiting, but I would say half. We lost 3 people I think for block 2. Not bad really. We had an exceptional class IMO. :) GWCC told us a lot of stuff that wasn't exactly accurate. They said to call other programs and tell them your score and grades, etc and that would help us get in. That did me nothing. I tried Scottsdale, MCC and Gateway. None of them would even talk to me regardless of my grades or HESI score. I think that the GWCC teachers are going on old info because after graduation I called the head of the GWCC nursing program and she basically told me there were no slots available and that there were a lot of people waiting from the previous semester. She said to grab whatever I could get somewhere else. So, expect a wait and if you are lucky and get in right away, then rejoice! Also, they told us that LPNs are in great demand. Uh, not so much! I still haven't found a full time job as an LPN. Some of my classmates who had an "in" have gotten jobs, but I don't think very many. Maybe experienced LPNs can find jobs, but new grads are not in high demand. Almost every ad you find says they require at least one year of experience. They won't even talk to new grads. I think I've gotten more accurate info about everything nursing school related on this website than I've ever gotten from a school. We were told we are the last graduting class for Maricopa County Community colleges to do preceptorships. I'm waiting to see if that is a fact. I hope not since preceptorship is such a great thing.

I got in right away, but a lot of my class still haven't gotten in (we graduated in May 2011). At GWCC they will tell you if you get over a 1000 on the HESI you will get in right away to the next block. It didn't seem to matter what the HESI score was. If you were lucky, you got in. Only one person got into Gateway the following semester and it was to the Banner Fellowship program. Some of us got into CGCC because they lost a lot of people due to some kind of cheating scandal. Otherwise I'm sure we would still be waiting (even with high HESI scores). It's still faster than waiting on the RN waiting list and Gateway LPN fast track is such an amazing program that you will be well trained going into block 3. :)

They took all my prerequisites including ones from 20 years ago. I think you'll be fine. Best of luck!!

I think you are pretty safe with a 45 point safety zone. A lot of people went into the final with only 2 or 3 points they could miss. Some passed, some didn't. It was very much like all the tests you have the whole semester. I think you are home free, just study like you've already done and you will do fine. Good luck!