everlasting

I am interested in working as a CNA during Nursing school. I can only work on the weekends, so I've been going some job hunting. I found a job opening that is PRN; weekend days. This may be a stupid question, but how exactly does scheduling work for someone who works PRN? Would I have a schedule in advance or would I just be on call? Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

You can't use "I've been sick" as an excuse forever, you know. Your excuse for not doing the project was "I was sick?" Really? We've known about the project since the FIRST day of class and it's worth 25% of our grade. You've been sick for a week, not for a couple months. I'm even more shocked that you turned your project in three days later. Just so you know, it was due THREE DAYS AGO! You have no sense of time. You are at least 30 minutes late EVERY day. And when you finally decide to show up, stop announcing to the whole class why you were late. Just so you know, we don't care WHY you were late. And your story about the long line at Starbucks sounded so dreadful. Maybe next time, skip the coffee and get to class on BEFORE it starts! You really didn't bring a pencil to our exam. Where have you been all semester? We have been taking paper tests since the beginning of class and every exam day you never have a pencil. And no, you may not borrow mine. Would it kill you not to slam the door as you leave when you've finished your exam? There are about 30 other people in the class and we would love to not be scared out of our minds by the door slamming every five minutes. It's also distracting and extremely annoying. Must you ask EVERY week where we're going to be for clinical? I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but we have this thing called a calendar and it has numbers and words on it. It tells you when things are due and where clinical is going to be every week. Print it off please.

It takes me about 30 minutes to get to campus. Both clinical sites (hospitals) are about 5 minutes away from the main campus, so it only takes about 35 minutes to get to clinical from my house.

Oh my wow, please stop talking! It wouldn't be so bad if you had something constructive to say but you can talk about nothing for hours! You could talk about the color blue the whole clinical day. I've never met someone who talks as much as you do. It's exhausting and it's getting to the point where no one listens to you because you've become background noise. Just. Stop. Talking. Your scrubs are beyond wrinkly. It looks like you wadded them up while they were still wet and threw them in the corner for a week. Iron them please. I'm surprised you haven't been sent home yet for this. I can't believe you called one of the students and told her that you weren't going to make it to clinical because your car wouldn't start. It's not her responsibility to tell the instructor. It's yours. Our clinical instructor gave you her phone number for a reason. If you lost it, then call the hospital! Don't call one of us.

Just because you use to be an EMT doesn't mean you know everything about nursing. Stop interrupting the teacher to chime in "Oh I did that as a paramedic" or "One time, as a paramedic..." Just Stop. Please. Why can't you ever be on time? I can't believe you asked "Are identical twins always the same sex?" during our OB lecture. The key word there is IDENTICAL. lol. Do you have to restate everything the instructor says as a question? Instructor: "Patients on Coumadin therapy should avoid Vitamin K." Student: *raises hand* "Okay, so, Vitamin K shouldn't be avoided by a person on Coumadin?" Seriously, she JUST said that.

What really helps me is to record the lectures. Once I record them, I upload them onto the computer, print out the power point, and take notes as I go. If I miss something important, I can just rewind and play it again. I've even put the lectures on a CD and played them in my car. I have a 30+ minute drive to campus and clinical, so it's perfect to play them during your drive. I read the chapter(s) before lecture, print off the power point that accompanies the lectures, and then during class, take notes on the power point. It really helps me to read before going to lecture. That way, everything you go over in class is like a review. I also really like flashcards. They've always worked well for me. Some people hate them, but I think they really help. I think they work well when studying different types of drugs. I make drug cards with the drug name on one side, and then the drug class, side effects, dosage, etc on the other. I do a lot of NCLEX questions as well.

I can't believe you actually answered your phone and said to the person who called you "No, I'm not busy. What's up?" In the MIDDLE of lecture! I know how much you enjoy texting, but next time, please turn the key volume off because all I hear is beep, beep, beep, beep. Ugh. It's distracting! Or better yet, leave the room to text! Please. When we are going over the test, stop debating the answers with the instructor! You got the question wrong. Accept it and move on. If you want to debate it, see her after class. Don't waste our time. Since you're the "all knowing" why don't you teach the class? I really don't understand why you get so upset when you fail an exam and yet you told me you didn't study. And you're shocked you didn't pass it? Study next time!

At my school, acceptance letters are sent out first, followed by alternate letters and then denial letters are last. We've had people called the first day of class because someone dropped or never showed up. I couldn't imagine having such short notice. I need time to prepare!

I'm in the same situation! We started on a new curriculum, so my class is the last one on the old curriculum. If we fail a class, we usually could wait a semester or two and retake it. Now, if we fail, we're done. We would have to reapply, and go through the whole process again. It is BEYOND stressful! We weren't told until August, when we started the program, and it was too late to back out.

We lost quite a few people because of the dosage calculation exam. You had to make a 90% to pass and you got one retake. There was one girl who hid flash cards in the pocket of her hoodie so she could use them to cheat during the exam. She got caught and was kicked out. We had certain skills we had to pass off at the end of the semester. There were quite a few people who failed because they couldn't pass off the skills - BP's gave people the most trouble.

We lost the a lot of students during Fundamentals. I'm in MedSurg I/OB now, and I have a feeling we will lose a lot after this semester. OB is notorious for being the weeding out class.

^This. I wasn't responding to your post. I was referring to someone in my clinical group. Sorry for the confusion! :)

- You have a never ending supply of black pens. - You are always broke. Always. - When your idea of fun is going to Wal-Mart and buying flash cards in every color. - When you first meet someone and tell them you're in nursing school, they tell you their entire medical history and what medications they are taking, and if I believe the medications are effective. (True story! haha.) -You travel with a BP cuff and stethoscope in your car because people are always asking you to take their blood pressure.

I really don't think it's the best idea to say every cuss word under the sun in front of your patient. If you mess up, or drop something, stop acknowledging it with a bunch of profanity. You come across as really unprofessional. To the people who sit behind me in lecture, please STOP talking! If you're going to talk bad about the instructor, make sure she's not standing a few feet away from you when you do. She can hear every word your saying.

I hate doing care plans and IPR's! I also hate how disorganized everything is. There is a girl in my class who was told she was in PEDS this rotation, bought her books, and went to clinic on the first day, then was told that she'd been switched to OB that morning. Ugh. It's happened to more than one person too.