ruaalien2

I over-think all my questions. I'm at the end of my first semester and I'm first starting to be able to stop over thinking them now. I can see why you came up with some of your answers for sure. Just remember not to over think. I take a colored pen and highlight the most important words in the question it helps.

My school also requires a drug test. I know other schools that require a background test....

I'm so glad my boyfriend is so understanding and supportive. It makes it so much easier to get stuff done. And when he's home and being distracting (and he really doesn't mean to)? I just go to Starbucks. I make time to see my sister weekly for dinner or baking/cooking sessions as well. My best friend is in school herself so we try to get together when our time allows but we speak all the time. Beyond that? Facebook and text messages!

That doesn't look as bad as ours. I'm finishing our first one now, it's a mock care plan and it's 25 pages. I'm dreading having to do a real one.

Same here!

We had to write a complete care plan on four major diagnosis We had to write out every single medication, understand fully, any side effects, possible interactions with other meds as well as medical condition. We had to fill out a complete assessment from head to toe and that included psychosocial and spiritual as well as social We had to know every single lab level, what the parameters were and be able to explain why these were potentially not within normal limits. We have to write out a textbook diagnosis (linking a major diagnosis to our textbook and what the textbook says about it). Takes btwn 20-30 pages. We have to pass 3 with a grade of over 75. My first one is due next week on a mock pt, I'm almost done with it.

I'm pretty sure we all do and we all take the same test

For our first DAY of nursing classes we had 7 chapters assigned. 50 pages a week sounds super easy right now. I'm trying to do as much as the reading as I can but I'm studying for our first test (Monday) based off of power points, lecture notes, our exam blueprint (how many questions per topic) and then if I need the book.

Kumer, I'm taking it at night. There is a lot of reading but I'm actually ok. I love Prof. Kumer!

How was everyone's first week?

Exactly how I feel 100%

my lj after the first 2 days... death & dying: . i had a blast in this class...which part of me feels is wrong but she's that good of a teacher. and it was a 9am class on top of it! she's one of two professors that i'll take anytime during the day, even that early in the morning. the class topic is going to be rough, but i like how it's a good mix of students and ages...we have a senior citizen in the class who already has her masters, etc and is just taking classes (she has 120 credits already at my school...a community college!) down to some students that are younger then me, so it's nice. i was even okay mentioning marilyn & z for a bit, which is hard for me so that says a lot. we are reading tuesdays with morrie. i've seen the movie but never got around to reading the book. i just brought it in ebook format. i also need to look to double check the other book we are reading (i don't remember the name off hand) if i can get in an e-book format. we have a field trip we need to take to a funeral home or cemetary, if not both and get all the information on prices, what to do if you need to bury a loved one, etc. i really don't know if i can handle it, but i want to go out to where my family is buried. we will have 3 papers, including that one that are 3 pages each, then we have the midterm, final and we need to create and do some sort of ritual remembering a big event (ex: 9/11). i'm hoping for that group wise i can get in with the senior citizen, j, who is also jewish and we can convince our grou pt odo the holocuast, but we will see. i'm looking forward to this class next week! i know it's gonna get tougher, but that's okay. nursing fundementals: the one that most of you want to hear about. the class is three clinical groups together, all the night students. it's 2-3 professors, depending if you have your clinical professor as your lab professor or not. lecture is prof k. i said after orentation that i liked her a lot, and after our first lecture, i'm sure that i do. she has a great sense of humor, teaches what needs to be taught while still making it fun. do i think we learned a lot yesterday? it was the first day of class, but yeah. it's going to be intresting to see how the class goes. it's going to get suepr tough i'm sure but i'm glad that i got the first day over with. prof. s is the lab professor and she's great also. great sense of humor, she brings in snacks to help keep us awake (sadly they weren't working yesterday!). she said straight off the first day is the most boring cus there are a ton of videos to watch...and she wasn't joking. i don't think anyone really paid attention to the last 3-4 videos. we got out late cus of them. *sigh* when we went back to the lab, we went over handwashing and putting on/removing ppe gear correctly. nothing i didn't already know how to do, but it was good to go over it. today i get to meet my clinical professor, professor b. but after yesterday i'm really looking forwad to it. the one thing that scares me is with 30 students, there are at least 7 that are repeating the class. yikes! 2 of them are in my clinical group. normally tuesday is clincial but the first two weeks it's on campus. my clinical site, a nursing home, is right next door to school anyway. and they provide free parking, yay! prof s, our lab professor, were joined by the other two clincal professors. mine is prof b. she seems really....honestly...i'm really not sure. she was the quiet one out of the three. she seems nice but i'm just not totally sure of that yet. it was a bunch of lecture, a video and then a 45 min dinner break. then more lecture and we got to go into the lab for the last hour and a half to learn how to take blood pressure and to listen to heart sounds. i feel bad, one of the guys in my clinical group got sent home cus he bp was super high. there was a lot covered in lecture. i need to print out the powerpoints but i want to do it from school because there is a lot. that will have to wait till next monday night, i like printing it out when no one is there so they will stay in order. then i need to re-write all my notes from last night and go ahead and start making index cards. i've always had problems finding a pulse, and last night was no exception. i'm really going to have to improve on that asap. i have a feeling i'm going to be spending a lot of time learning how to take blood pressure. i don't always hear it. jenn said she'd help me out, and dave said that he is going to find out if t or g have an extra blood pressure cuff...otherwise i'll just buy one. i do know that i did get it close to what the lab girl got on faina so maybe i'm not as bad as i thought? we have to do a full physical assesment on each other. i'm so happy that faina and i are together in clinical, we are using each other. i think it makes it a bit easier that we are comfortable with each other! i'm so nervous about it. i'm hoping we have the chance to meet up before it's due next tuesday. probably do it tuesday afternoon before class. i really wonder how i'm supposed to learn and remember all this stuff. i know i will and i know it's just a lot of studying and reading, and that index cards will help. i just have to remind myself to breathe and do it one day at a time and i can get through it. i know i can. and having an amazing support system really does help! ----------- i found out for sure last night there are 13 people repeating. if not more, i may have miscounted. that's how they split us up into groups for taking turns taking blood pressure and listening to heart sounds. 4 or 5 of them are in my clinical group. yikes! this makes me super nervous.

We have a 2 hour skill lab & a 2 hour mandatory skills practice in addition to our clinical

RN program, we start the 3rd week :)