lemidora

iluvoranges, both of the 1100 gned courses are fairly easy. I took 1102 and found it interesting and easy. I heard 1101 was a piece of cake as well. Any gned you take will have papers and assignments so they`re all fairly equal. The first two years of the program are very readings/papers/assignment heavy so you just have to buckle down and get through it.

I took the globalization course through them (one of my school's gen. ed requirements) in the summer as I wanted an easier course load during the semester. I didn't find it too bad. The syllabus was well constructed and made it easy to plan how much time I needed to spend on each unit. There was quite a lot of reading involved but again, it was easy to figure out what was important and what was not so I only ended up doing half of the required reading and finished the course with an excellent grade. I must also note that social studies has always been my weakest area but I found this course to be quite easy.

I am starting as an NA on an acute care burn unit in a couple of weeks and the unit manager has told me that she likes for nurses and NA's to have a mini meeting at the beginning of the shift to discuss what needs to be done for the patients because it eliminates a lot of confusion down the road. I am hoping that's true because I think it makes everyone's job a lot easier. Personally, I have yet to see the nurses give NAs reports in my clinical rotations but that might be because I have only been on general medicine units so far.

Thanks everyone for the advice! Makes me feel less nervous about the upcoming semester :)

Hey guys! So I am finally here. I'm finally starting clinicals in a week. Exciting, right? One problem- palliative care unit is the one thing that scares me to death. It's not the idea of patients with incurable diseases or the fact that they're dying that scares me (all of that I am fine with), it's what to do/tell the family after a patient passes away. I've always been terribly awkward around people mourning the loss of someone close to them and it's pretty bad (for example, when one of my parents' co-workers suddenly passed away of a heart attack a couple of months ago I found myself rattling off the reasons for a sudden heart attack to my deeply upset mom- bad idea. I'm pretty sure I only scarred her more.) You guys get the picture... So my question is how do you deal with a family that just lost a loved one? How do you seem sincere about being sorry for their loss without being too emotionally attached? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

It's not possible to request the times for your clinicals. All clinicals have set days- for example, you first round (nurs 1214) will be on mondays, your second round (nurs 2114) will either be tues+wed or thurs+fri. You will either have the morning shifts starting at 6:45 or the afternoon shifts starting at around 2:30-3:00. Most of the time you blindly register for a certain section and won't know where/what time your clinical will be up until a week or two before it starts. However, if the location or time doesn't work for you, you can try to find a person in another group who'd be willing to swap sections with you.

Yes, you can take general courses over the summer to lighten things up during the year but I should warn you that there is a lot of people that like to do that so you could be out of luck if you're at the bottom of the list to register for classes. Having said that, you can do some gen eds as a transfer credit through Athabasca. As far as fast tracking the program, there is an option to graduate a semester early if you don't take a break between your third and fourth years. Again, the spaces are very limited and go by first come first serve basis so a lot will depend on when you're allowed to register for classes. The way registration at MRU works is by the number of credits- the more credits you have, the earlier you get to register. On the topic of working as an NA, despite the fact that MRU says that you can do that after completing all of your 1100 and 1200 courses, most places want you to have finished the first two years of the nursing program because you only get to pathophysiology and pharmacology in the second year. I'm pretty sure we don't get any certification because technically we're not "certified" nursing assistants but are simply deemed to have enough knowledge/skills to be able to perform at an NA level. I believe Bow Valley college has the accredited CNA program. If you want to get your foot in the door, I suggest sending out resumes to AHS for support staff positions such as food services and shipping/receiving because you only need a high school diploma and it's a great way to get to know how the hospitals work. Anyhow, if you need more information you can PM me!

In my program they get us to start practicing IVs in lab on mannequins in the second year and then we're allowed to do them on patients at the end of third year.

Nursing school is as difficult as you let it be. If you freak out over every assignment and test, school won't be kind to you. If you put in the effort, you'll be just fine. It sounds like you know how to manage your time well so that will be key. As for everything else- go with the flow and don't forget to relax sometimes.

Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind! (Here's hoping I never actually have to act on it). Until then... back to my applications.

It was at Foothills where I was told that. I was definitely taken aback that staff could openly say that. I'm not trying to be disrespectful or anything, but just want to put it out there that it still happens where someone can get hired if they know the right people. And I agree with Fiona59- that's exactly what's wrong with the hiring process. Trust me, I would be so happy to apply for jobs only through the website but desperate times call for desperate measures and I'm doing everything and anything I can to get a job- just like everyone else that's looking for a job.

"Getting a job through the website is the ONLY way to be hired by AHS, internal applicant or not." janfrn, I realize that you have a lot of experience and know way more than some little second year nursing student, but that statement is simply not true. A friend of mine has recently gotten a job with AHS without stepping foot on the website, metaphorically speaking, and I know for a fact that many others working at the same place got their jobs through other channels (e-mailing the manager directly, etc.). The reason I said that it'll be extremely hard to get a job unless she has somebody on the inside is because of personal experience. For example, just recently I went in to talk to a manager at a facility and while waiting at the door a few staff walked by and said to my face that unless I have a relative working there, it's a lost cause. What I'm trying to say to the OP is if she wants to get a job with the AHS, she'll have to do a lot more than just send resumes to their website- networking being her best bet.

You are honestly the first person I've heard that from. Maybe there's hope for the rest of us yet!

Are you an internal applicant? If not, then you are probably out of luck. I have been applying for a year now and the only kind of response I've gotten are emails saying that "due to unforeseen circumstances, the above noted Requisition has been cancelled." It's frustrating as heck but unless you know somebody on the inside or if you're willing to go and talk to managers directly (note: many managers REALLY hate when people do that- speaking from experience here) then the chances of getting a job through the website are slim to none. Personally, I've yet to hear of anybody who's gotten a job by applying through the website because as I've been told, AHS usually already has somebody they'll hire for the job before posting it online. I know this is less than stellar news to hear but keep talking to people and maybe you'll have some luck. Let me know what happens because I'm going to start looking for NA positions in a couple of months as well!

That's a great idea! It never even crossed my mind to borrow the ones from the library. Thanks! I really like the program so far. Not going to lie- first year was a bit of a drag because I didn't have many nursing classes but I loved the ones I had. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the program because I have a lot of clinical hours coming my way and nothing but nursing courses from here on. As far as the area I want to work in, I've set my sights on forensic nursing for now because I kept going back and forth between getting a nursing degree or a criminal justice degree so I figured combining the two is the best thing for me. However, I'm not ruling out any of the other areas... who knows, one day I might get over myself and realize that I like peds!