juliaann

I work what we call "weekend option" at my hospital. It's a contract that adds an additional hourly differential. It's still 3 12-hour shifts a week, either F, S, S or S, S, M. They have to be consecutive - Friday, Sunday, Monday wouldn't qualify. But I end up getting my nights diff, my weekend diff, AND my weekend option diff. It's a nice extra chunk of cash. My husband and I are both in our 20s and have a 6-month old baby, and I don't feel like our lives are any more restricted by my work than before I went to weekend option. There are some stipulations about time off and whatnot in the contract, but I don't feel like it's very limiting at all. I am very happy working weekend nights.

We SLED our own patients. It is a 1:1 assignment. Our dialysis nurses do bedside HD.

When I first started working at my hospital a few years ago (I was a CNA then), it was owned by Ardent. My hospital is now a public city trust. This hospital loses money. It was potentially going to be closed when Ardent was done; thank goodness my city stepped up to keep us open and serving our patients. That's really my only experience with Ardent. I wasn't a nurse yet then, so I can't speak to those questions of yours. I did have excellent benefits with Ardent. And they gave me my first job in healthcare! :) Ardent owns another hospital in my city still and it has a gorgeous new cardiology addition. It has a good reputation. A few fellow nursing students from my class got new grad jobs there and seem very happy.

I knew where I was going to work (ICU - got my job offer in my 3rd semester), so I viewed my leadership semester as one last opportunity to get any other kind of experience. I left my preferences blank, assuming I would learn from wherever they put me. I was placed on a geriatric med-surg unit and LOVED it. I never would have chosen it, but it was a fantastic experience. If you can't decide, let your instructors place you! No matter where you end up, it will be a great learning experience!

I have 2g lobes and wear/wore Pyrex colorfronts throughout nursing school and now at work. No one in school noticed, and only my preceptor at work knows, because one day I forgot to take my earskins out and put in a pair of colorfronts until she mentioned it. I switched them out and either no one else noticed or they just didn't comment. It hasn't been a problem for me. I don't plan to stretch any further.

You have to wait to know for sure. You got the "good pop up" message for the Pearson Vue trick. I tested this summer on a Thursday and my quick results were not available until Saturday morning. It isn't instant.

I received my ICU job offer while in my third semester of nursing school.

I received a job offer for the ICU of my 1st choice hospital while in my third semester of nursing school. My inexperience did not seem to concern them. I will have a long, thorough orientation and am so excited to be starting where I want to work!

At my hospital, we actually work 0630-1900 and 1830-0700. We refer to it as 7a-7p and 7p-7a as "shorthand" for day shift/night shift. We overlap for report from 6:30-7:00 and are out the door by 7 on good days. :)

Wong's Nursing Care of Infants and Children. I sold it back in my third semester. I don't think I ever opened it.

Hmmm...we've lost 0 students due to academics (1 left because of legal trouble and 1 left for a job offer in her former field). We picked up 2 students from last year's class who got pushed back for either an academic or personal reason...I don't know. We started with 32 and it looks like we'll graduate (in JULY!) with 32. :)

This is exactly what I saw during my psych rotation. It is really, really sad. It turned the one person in our class who was interested in psych nursing completely against the idea. She was hoping for meaningful patient contact and education opportunities...yeah right. I felt so bad for those patients. I can imagine it must be hard for you!

I'm in an ABSN program and I was offered my dream job (ICU) during my 3rd semester. I did an externship at the facility, worked my ass off, introduced myself to everyone, and then applied when I saw an opening posted. :) I cannot wait to graduate in July and get to work!

Yes! My hospital offered a differential for any hours worked after 3pm and any weekends. I don't remember exactly how much (I've been a full-time nursing student this past year and haven't worked as a CNA since last year), but it was nice. My hospital also payed time and half for holidays. It adds up nicely, but I still think it is nowhere near what a CNA's workload deserves. Good luck with your certification and getting a job! I'm glad I did it, despite the poor pay.

In Oklahoma, I made 9.25/hour full-time in a hospital.

Congrats everyone! I'm a current ABSN at OU-Tulsa, so if anyone has any questions or wants a current student perspective on anything, feel free to ask here or PM me!

I use my iPad allll the time for nursing school. I have a bluetooth keyboard and I'm good to go. I don't even bring a backpack most days, because I have all my textbooks on my iPad, so all I have to do in the morning is throw my iPad and keyboard in my purse and head off to class.It's important to still have access to a laptop or desktop at home for long papers and presentations and stuff, but for on-the-go, you can't beat an iPad!

We're required to chart anything that we do. Daily assessments/PCA assessments/restraint assessments have to be co-signed (electronically) by the patient's nurse. Daily care, meds, IVF, skin score, food, and pretty much anything else we can chart under our name with no co-sign. Our instructors have access to everything we chart so they make sure nothing looks strange, but we're supposed to chart everything for our patient/s. I'm glad, too, because that was we get more of a feel for what it's really like to be a nurse for our assignment.

I agree with waiting until after you've found work to buy very many pairs (or super expensive ones).For my CNA class I had to wear royal blue for clinicals, but at my job we have to wear khaki. I only wore my royal blue for about a month and I still have them but will probably never wear them again.It's the same with nursing school...I have to wear crimson to clinicals, but once I finish school, the hospital I'll be working at requires nurses to wear navy blue. So when I'm done with nursing school I will have several pairs of royal blue and crimson and a TON of khaki that I will probably never wear again. And nice scrubs can really add up in price! I've learned to go with the bargain pairs ($10 a pair) for school, and save spending big bucks on super comfy ones for once I start working as an RN!

In my BSN program we had skills lab starting the first week of the first semester and we were in the hospital doing our first med-surg rotation at the end of the first month of our program. I'd say we've had as much skills practice as possible - both in the lab and in the hospital. I guess things must be different wherever onyx77 is, but I can assure you in my area BSN and ADNs all do plenty of foleys, dressing changes, IV starts, and everything else.

You mean parenteral? We do in Oklahoma, and in my program we did in our first clinical rotation and ever since.

It will probably depend on the job market in your area. Can you look at pct listings at the facility/ies you're interested in and see what they put down for required education and experience? Or maybe call and ask? It definitely wouldn't hurt to have that certificate, but if you can find a place with on the job training why spend the time and money yourself? I only have my CNA certificate and was offered paid training when I was offered a promotion from CNA to EKG tech....but I live in Oklahoma where there are jobs aplenty, AND I already had a great work history with my hospital as a CNA, so they were willing to invest in me.

As a fellow nursing student who has had the full range of positive to negative interactions with the staff nurses in clinicals, all I have to say is I've learned for me it's very important not to take it personally. You're there to learn, but if the nurse is too busy to hold your hand or just doesn't want a student, find other opportunities to make the best out of your time in the hospital! After taking care of my assigned patient/s and getting what I need for my care plan, I just find work...I ask the other nurses if there's anything I can help them with or observe. I ask the techs if there's anything I can help them with. I ask my clinical instructor to check me off on something or show me something new. I answer call bells. I clean. I read references. I listen every time anyone says anything, and I look up anything I don't know instead of wasting their time by asking. Learning really is what you make of it. It is not all about the staff nurses attitude. Some people are fantastic teachers. Some people have bad days. Some people are burned out. You can't let it make you bitter. Whatever. I'm there to learn, and I'm going to try my hardest to learn everything I can, even if no ones going to hold my hand. And I'm going to help with vitals and code browns (and therapeutic communication) because I need the practice, not because I'm doing the nurse any favors.

Even if we don't have our three shifts for the week yet we sometimes get canceled if the patient census is low enough to not need all the scheduled staff members.

I'm in OU's ABSN program in Tulsa. Have you seen the admission statistics? That should give you a pretty good idea of your chances. Go to http://nursing.ouhsc.edu/Prospective_Students/index.cfm and then in the right column under Counselor Links there are the last three years' worth of stats. Looks like your GPAs are right on target with Duncan's accepted students stats! Good luck!