MsAng

My elementary school participates in the Universal Breakfast program, which provides free breakfast for every student everyday. We also have the weekend FUEL program that provides food for some students for the weekend. We usually have a great number of excess food from breakfast from kids who decline breakfast which we collect (non-perishable, of course) and donate to a local charity.

We all know that Rights for safe medication administration. These rights are taught to reduce medication errors. Unfortunately, many errors occur due to negligence in utilizing these rights. I give 16 kids daily medications at an elementary school. Each and every kids must tell me their name, then point out their name on the Rx bottle, and describe their pill (ex: one blue pill, or white one half pill) every time, every day. They moan and groan and get tired of it, but they WILL KNOW if they are not given the right medicine because of this repetition, especially if I am not there and someone else not familiar is giving out medicine. It literally takes 5 seconds to do this and will prevent wrong student/medication errors. Teachers and other staff members are permitted to give medication under the condition they have taken an annual medication administration class given by myself or our district nurse.

Nursing school is tough for anyone. Period. I started my pre-req's when my youngest started kindergarten. I did the BSN track and took most of my pre-req's online. When I started the nursing program, it was required full time with no online work, but my kids were older at that point so it worked out well for my family. If you choose to do your pre-req's now and the nursing program later, be careful about the timing. In the program at my university, the biology classes you take "expire" after so many years.... meaning, I would have to retake the biology courses in order to get into the nursing program if more than 6 or 7 years have passed since taking the biology courses. Good luck to you! I'm sure you'll find a way. :)

I am at an elementary school with 1,000 students. I see, on average, approximately 40 students per day. That includes daily meds and procedures. My biggest pet peeve is when there are substitute teachers. They have no problem sending half the class during the first hour of the day. Grrrr!

It is our district policy that school nurses are hired for students ONLY! Per our policy, we cannot see/treat staff. However, if there is an emergency.... obviously I will do what I can to help. I do not mind doing a BP here and there if a staff member is symptomatic. But for the most part, faculty/staff are aware of this policy and generally don't bother me much at all. If this is not a policy for your district, perhaps you can advocate for it to be written in.

State: TN Judging by the responses on here, I may be getting the lowest pay! Sad to say, my salary is approximately $18,000/year. I work 32.5 hrs/week at an elementary school with 1000 students. I am a BSN, RN.

I had to laugh because my school requires ATI also and I remember that video you are referring to. I thought the exact same thing. It was really over-the-top with the amount of washcloths the nurse in the video used. Not real-life nursing IMO.

College algebra may be easier for most, however I agree that stats is a requirement for many nursing programs (it is in my program). So taking Stats would be a wise choice, in my opinion. Good luck to ya!

I respectfully disagree with some of your post. I for one could talk during my contractions. When I called my provider about my contractions, he doubted my need to come to the hospital. But I went anyway. I was 5 cm and gave birth 2 hours later. My point is, be careful when you generalize like this. Everyone is well aware that every situation can be different. I have to say that I am in agreement that this is not a place to give medical advice.

You said it all! I just finished my psych semester and everything you stated was about 85% of what we focused on. My instructors were huge CAM therapy advocates, so the other 15% of the WHOLE semester was spent on CAM therapies. A little bit much, wouldn't you say?

I actually refer back to A&P quite a bit. My advice to you is to re-examine the physiology of the body systems. For example, the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system or the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous systems. Many medications affect these systems so understanding them inside and out will help understand the why's and how's certain medications work within these systems, which in turn teaches you what you need to assess for in your patient. Other than refreshing your knowledge in A&P, I would start reading ahead in your textbooks. Study everyday (even for just a little bit) because repetition is a key to success! Also, I find it helpful to get with a couple classmates before a test and drill each other. It is amazing how much information is forgotten or overlooked when studying by yourself. Having others bring this information up is helpful. Congratulations on your acceptance into the nursing program. You'll do great!

In my experience with nursing school (I've completed 2 semesters thus far), it is very similar to the above posts. We have a ton of paperwork that needs to be completed about our assigned patient. This paperwork includes detailed care plans, medication sheets, etc. It is tedious, however like RN2BDFW stated, it is designed to educate us on the nursing process, disease processes, medications and such. The hands-on part helps to gain nursing skills (vitals, assessments, bed baths, ambulation, med pass, injections). Our program also has an impressive first-time NCLEX pass rate (100% last year!!), so in my opinion, that is something to be said about the workings of this program.

Definately study up on your grammar... there were quite a few questions on grammar/spelling that seemed to trip up a lot of people (even 4.0 students!). There were some science questions that I had no clue about so I scored kinda low in that area. I don't know how old you are, but I'm in my 30's and took the TEAS. I felt that I was the underdog because I have been out of highschool so long and it seemed like many of the areas covered on the test were things I probably learned in highschool but couldn't remember. Good luck!

I am in a BSN program right now and I started when my youngest entered Kindergarten. Kindergarten here is full day, so I registered for classes that were during my kids' school hours. It's working well for me. My husband is retired military, but is still working with the Army as a civilian contractor. He doesn't deploy but still goes TDY a lot. In my opinion, I am glad I waited until my youngest entered Kindergarten because by that age, children are much more independent than an infant/toddler, which is extremely helpful. Don't get me wrong, it's still tough to balance it all but it's definately achievable. It just takes a lot of discipline and organization to be successful. It also helps to have a good support system (friends, other military spouses) that can help out also. Good luck to you!!

I am currently a student in the middle of a BSN program. I have a "friend" who introduced herself to me as being a nurse. I proceeded to ask her if she was an RN, to which she replied, "yep, I'm an RN." After about a year I have recently figured out she is not an RN, but she is an MA. I don't doubt how invaluable MA's can be, however, in this instance I find it incredibly insulting to pose as an RN especially as I'm spending a huge amount of time, money and hard work to become a real RN.