rottielover

Hey everyone. I was so excited when I found this thread because it's exactly what I'm going through. I start AUG 1 at my first nursing job in the ICU. I pushed and pushed my entire last year of school to make my name known in the ICU, and it worked out for me. As far as contacting the director went, I began by going up and "formally" introducing myself. I wanted to make sure that she associated my name with my face (because she had heard recommendations from both instructors and from other ICU staff). Make sure they know who you are. And don't quit. I can't even count how many people told me that you need 2 years of medical or surgical floor experience to work in the ICU, or that they didn't hire new grads. (Granted, this is all before I have started, and I hope that my experience is not a horrible one, but one that pushes me every day in the right direction). Having support from the current nurses is/will be huge, as well, and if you've been performing well and building a relationship with them during your clinical experience, it won't be as if you are a complete "newbie" walking out onto the floor. They've seen you working, and know what you're capable of. That being said, my current task is looking for the best references for my continued learning. I know that I want to eventually take the CCRN exam when I get enough crit care hours, so I'm thinking of ordering one of the CCRN review books. Does anybody else have any suggestions for magazines? Such as AACN's Critical Care Nurse Magazine? Or others?

I am also taking my NCLEX soon, and feel the same way... life gets in the way. I am also feeling like "if I haven't learned it in the last 2 years, there's no way that cramming is going to really help me". YIKES!!! Congratulations to you and your achievements! PS, what is a "good pop up"?

Your head to toe camo that you wear EVERY single day does NOT disguise you when you also show up late to class EVERY single day!

Like someone else said, get a nursing careplan book before u start school. I was at a big disadvantage because I wasn't fimiliar with the terms used,like nursing diagnosis interventions evaluations and outcomes. Also, invest in a good comprehensive review book for the tests u will have and flag things as u cover them in class. A good one I just bought is the prentice hall comprehensive review for the nclex rn. Also, if your not already, get very familiar with APA format!! It will be tough, but it will be soooo interesting and rewarding!!

If u want to do something for the substance abuse issue, how about complications related to the babys prenatal exposure to drugs? Depending on what drugs the pt was on- failure to thrive?

i know this won't help you now, but the NCLEX review book that is published by HESI is fantastic. there aren't a TON of questions in it, but it has study material that is great for many subjects (and teaches you without just reading through questions) . Plus, because it's made by HESI, some of the HESI HINTS and questions were EXACTLY the same on my test 2 weeks ago. ( I got a 99%!) its definitely a worth-while purchase!

this is great, thanks! saves some page flipping!