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I passed the RN HESI exit exam on the first try with a 1080! I am so excited. I was nervous, but took my time and had a special study routine. I know what you all are going though. I wish you all the best luck. If you have any questions please email me or PM me. I don't want to clog up the forum with study things some people might not be interested in.

Plus, alot of hospitals are going away with sign on bonuses but they still offer student loan reimbursement. My hospital will take your loans, accrued for the nursing education and divide that amount into 3 years, to a max of 36K at my facility and make that payment for your loans for you. They give it to you in your paycheck on top of your normal pay so you still have to have the discipline to pay that amount to your loan, because it will be more than the minimum, haha. So don't fret my friend, there are a lot of programs out there that will help you settle your education debts, especially in the nursing field.

Western Governors University is a good university, I took some courses there in between my nursing semesters. It had good accreditation and is not very expensive at all and will be recognized by all other schools and companies.

I find it the opposite in my hospital. We take some patients off the floors for ridiculous reasons. For example, a floor nurse gave a medication that made the patient hallucinate with no other problems, besides a hip fracture. He was in ICU for 1 hour, then it took another 6 hours to get him back to his original room up stairs. Guess what time it was? Yup shift change. We can never get patients to go upstairs to tele, ortho or med/surg floors, until about shift change. Its a big problem in our hospital, it is really a headache. Maybe your facility has experienced the same situations and that's their response to combat it; albeit, not the right one.

If a patient is not sedated they could breath over the vent if conscious. Also in conscious or unconscious they can cough which would make the alarm sound. Also if the vent is heated and humidified the vent traps could be full, how does the waveform look? Could the pressure balloon of lost pressure, allowing some of the pressure support to escape? Could need ETT suction or sub-glottal suctioning. Its late thats about all I can critically think through at this moment. Im sure I forgot some others, I would just have to live the experience if you will. haha.

Nurse Practitioners spend time with patients just in a different manner. RN's in a hospital/clinic setting are in essence bed side nursing and following out orders from practitioners and performing their own assessments and ensuring comfort of their patients. As a practitioner you can spend time with your patients trying to critically think through their symptoms, labs, and assessment findings to adequately and properly treat them. Just depends on how you want your career to progress. Personally I like the idea of advancing my education and clinical skills to diagnose and treat patients, more than just following written orders. There is nothing wrong with that, it again just depends on your personal goals in the nursing field. Nurse practitioners typically do not work 12 hour shifts from my knowledge, they work more M-F 7-5 (ish) and may only take an on call weekend once a month or so. If I had the chance I would do the combined degree plan. Alot of people will say gain some experience, which is true, but you can work as an RN once you get your license which I am sure can be before you graduate the combined BS/Master degree. Overall your young and whatever you decide you can still go either way and have a good career. Do what you think would make you happy, thats the most important thing.

Hi, I did some research for you because I thought it was a great question as well. Here is what I found: Liability protections exist for medical personnel who volunteer to provide assistance on aircraft in the event of an emergency. According to the Aviation Medical Assistance Act of 1998,1 "An individual shall not be liable for damages in any action brought in a Federal or State court arising out of the acts or omissions of the individual in providing or attempting to provide assistance in the case of an in-flight medical emergency unless the individual, while rendering such assistance, is guilty of gross negligence or willful misconduct."2 According to the federal statute, a medically qualified individual "includes any person who is licensed, certified, or otherwise qualified to provide medical care in a State, including a physician, nurse, physician assistant, paramedic, and emergency medical technician."3 As for the other question can an RN give a med without a doctors order, it looks like the answer is no, however the airlines have a resource that the Captain of the aircraft can you to get an emergency room MD on the line for the medical professional to talk to, who can then give you the order verbally if required. Airlines utilizes STAT Medevac at the University of Pittsburgh for in-flight physician consultations. "The pilot will place a call to the communication center at STAT Medevac, and in less than 1 minute be online with an emergency physician," Mr. Barr said, adding that out of the fleet of 56 aircraft, there are on average 1.25 calls per day utilizing the service. Hope this helps and answers your question. I was glad you had the opportunity to help and not want to sink into your chair and act invisible.

Critical Care is by informed publishing. Its great for CCU/ICU or emergency room rotations and just overall learning. There so much information and I learn something from it or epocretes everyday. haha No joke. =)

I use the following apps on my iphone too. They are great for quick reference in a jam. MD ezLabs - Free Epocretes - Free Critical Care - 5.99 but I promise worth every penny. These help me to not have to carry my big huge drug book, and our big Lab and diagnostic book.

Ohh yeah, and 1 last piece of advise, I always make sure I carry carmex, burts bees wax, or vicks nasal inhaler when I am in clinicals. I do not fear any body fluid that comes out of my patient, heck I signed up for that, but I find that when I know its going to be a big stinker, these help me get through it. I just use my finger (clean of course) to put a little at the base of my nostrils and BAM, I smell carmex, burts bees wax or vicks nasal spray instead of that wonderful C-Dif, or tube feeding bowel movements, or better yet, lady partsl birth smells during my OB rotation.

You might not need this right off the bat, but as you progress into your clinicals, I would get: 1. A second hand watch that can handle some light abuse, and water for all the hand-washing. Also I would make sure the wristband is plastic or a light weight nylon for easy drying and cleaning. use cavi-wipes to wipe mine down. 2. A good pear of trauma sheers (scissors). I carry them with me all the time at work and at clinicals. People ALWAYS come to me asking to borrow them. I use them all the time for bandage changes, wound care dressings, changing or removing patient id bands, etc. 3. A pair of hemostats. Once again, I carry them with me all the time and people come to me to use them. They are handy to use when you need to loosen IV tubing that someone put on way too tight, or you just need more torque for something too small for your fingers. 4. A good fine point marksalot marker. You can use these to date, time and initial dressing changes, labeling tubing on IVs, tube feeds, or even mark pedal pulses on a patient if they are hard to find, or require doppler. Just some ideas. Other than that I think you got everything else down pat.

Im a senior in nursing school and I know every school of nursing and its faculty are different. The only word of advice I can give you is always always always follow Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. To me her first priority nursing diagnosis should be related to her nutrition and maybe lack there of from her fatigue. This would be in regards to Maslows number 1 foundation of needs, physiological. Second would be a diagnosis related to her depression, which would fall under safety, which is number 2 on the pyramid, and so on. I hope this makes sense. I just feel in my case at school if I follow the hierarchy of needs, I can argue my point if they challenge me on grading, which has only happened once and then after discussing my thinking with the instructor and the hierarchy she agreed and all was well. Hope this helps. Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions.

Man, tough spot. The only thing I can think of is maybe trying to sell it? Or maybe lease it out for market rent to pay the mortgage side while you move into a more affordable apartment until you graduate? Neither sounds like fun, but thats all I can think of doing to get free and clear of it until you could graduate. The only other option I can think if it taking out enough student loans to help cover your mortgage payments until you graduate, that might be tricky too. Your bank might offer free financial adviser assessments from certified advisers, mine does. Check there too, maybe they can see a total financial picture and give you the best advice. Good luck to you.

youngnurse: I have applied for my nursing schools scholarship, TG Charley Wootan Grant program, and a local nurses auxiliary group scholarship and have received them all. Everyone of them required an essay 200-500 words long. Here is an example of one of my essays. I was told I was picked because of my originality and my writing style which seemed sincere and not just written with a traditional answer students think they expect. Its not perfect so critique lightly. haha. PHSSN Nursing scholarship. What it means to be a nurse to me and how will I contribute to the field as a new nursing professional? A murse is defined by the Urban Dictionary as a male nurse, a minority in a woman dominate career. In the movie Meet the Parents, Gaylord Focker portrays a male nurse who chose to be a nurse when society thought it more prestigious to be a doctor. To me, being a murse is more than a job or a career. It is an adventure, a lifelong learning process and most important: it is a calling. It is a want to holistically care for your patients and make a difference in their lives. I knew I wanted to be in the healthcare field since I first worked on an ambulance as an EMT. Touching the lives of others in a positive way is the perfect paycheck for your soul; it provides a spiritual treasure greater than anything you could receive on a traditional level. The future of health care is constantly evolving, and will continue to do so. This means I must as well. That is why I will continue my education and become a Family Nurse Practitioner. In doing so, I can better care for my patients with my advanced knowledge. I have a commitment to this profession and my education. I also implement a fun, positive attitude towards my desire to care holistically for my patients. These factors make me proud to call myself a murse. That is why I reject the social stereotype of men as doctors. Knowing that I am needed in someone’s life and will make a difference in their life brings a smile to my face which empowers me to be the best nurse I can possibly be.

Learn drug classes and their mechanism of action and it will be much easier to understand/see/visualize them in use on tests or in clinical. For example, the way I studied. Ace inhibitors - used to treat hypertension, CHF,. - identifiable suffix -prils ( lisinopril, captopril, etc), they inhibit angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), a component of the blood pressure-regulating renin-angiotensin system. Beta Blockers - identifiable suffix -lol, etc etc Calcium Channel blockers - etc etc Once you learn them this way it will help you on a test. I struggled with this too, but a pharmacy student helped me study this way and it made alot more sense to me at least. Good luck...