DCoffill

I am a NH Rehab nurse with a year of experience, I will be moving to the northampton area in a few months and would love if someone could help me with some places a nurse may apply. Im not picky, any RN job would be great. Any other info about the area would be great too, like is it considered western MA or central, southern?? Thanks ahead of time. Danielle

How are you MCC class of 14 kids holding up as the summer progresses? :)

:) Ok I'm going to skip out on proper grammatical form and just start posting things as I think of them hope that's ok Hahaha! Everyone will hit the Elliot hospital at least once as that's where the pedi/OB rotation is. The nurses on the floors...Most nurses are very pleasant and eager to teach, however some are not. The best you can do is be pleasant and show up prepared to work, know your patient and have a goal for the day. When you are prepared even the toughest nurses seem to soften a bit. People tell horror stories because they stick out the most in memory but do not always represent the whole picture. If that makes sense. I too an quite the optimist and general can find the bright side of most situations :) The excitement will hit you, along with dread. LOL. Your first day will make you want to run for the hills, but you won't. You will take each day one at a time and because you choose to be here, you will make it work the best it can for you. The days are short but the weeks fly by. This program is hard but the knowledge you gain makes it so very much worth it. It will absolutely test your limits, but it prepares you to act on your feet. Your current study methods may not work for this type of testing, so you will need to be adaptable. As much as people hate to hear it, you will most likely not get the same grades as you do in other classes. Keep shooting me questions and I will gladly answer :) I am also ALWAYS in the library at school and would be more than happy to meet with any of you and show you the ropes so to speak lol!

First of all, congratulations! Welcome! I am graduating from MCC in May. I have absoulutly loved my time here. It is not easy at all and at times things seem very unorganized however, I would not have picked any where else. I feel very prepared to take my boards and to go to work as a nurse. I learned alot and my hands on experience was more than I could have ever asked for. The majority of our clinical sites are in Manchester, such as CMC and Elliot. We do have an occasional group at southern NH west campus on nashua, St. Joes in Nashua and Parkland in Derry. The director is really great at making the best decisions on where to place you if you let her know where you will be traveling from. In the past, the first semester consists of two days of lecture (M and TH) and 8 weeks of two day a week clinical, a lab lot and a prelab slot) You will have to go to school 4 or 5 days a week. As the semesters move on you lecture time decreases and you no longer have weekly prelab or lab, but you bump up to the full 16 weeks of two day a week clinical. The time commitment for all the classes are heavy, however I am a mother of two and I occasionaly took an extra class along with nursing and passed them all fine. It takes a lot of time and effort and if this is what you want, you will get it done. Id be happy to answer any questions you come up with, I really cant say enough great things. Just ask :) Danielle Coffill

im second semester ADN. We start tuesday. My first 8 week rotation is a lock down mental health unit and my second 8 weeks is on a cardiac med surg floor. Exciting!

Hey im a current Manchester student, I say apply to us also. Great Bay seems to be very very competitive. There are a few people who got turned down from great bay and got into manchester but seem to be doing ok with the travel. Most of us come to school 4 days a week. However the school is good at taking into consideration where your coming from and will avoid sending you very far for clinical. Im not 100% sure why they said they offer early acceptance...they wont review the apps till the deadline. If you hussle you can get your things in by the 1st no problem! I have a friend applying with very simular NLN grades. Good Luck!

My son is 4 and watches that sid the science kid show. There is an episode where his grandmother whos a nurse comes in and talks and gives the kids flu shots. I watch that episode and explain to him that I am going to school to be like sids grandmother...he likes that idea :) It really helping that he understands a very simplistic version of why Im away and what I will be able to do when i finish. I suggest watching the episode with your littles. you can rent it at red bo and its on netflix. It doesnt make up for lost time but when hes feeling needy for me we rewatch the episode and he remembers why my school is so important. Good luck!

We have a few students in my full time nursing program who are currently also taking A&P and some even working. Youre just going to have to be very organized and on top of things, Good Luck!

Lesson learned...I told anyone who asked what my grade was. I got an A and i was proud but at the same time I still made 2 silly mistakes that could have been avoided. It really ticked some people off. Some people even said "oh she only did well because she didnt start clinical yet" which really upset me. I did good because I put a lot of time in studying and i missed time with my husband and children to do so, it upset me for someone to dismiss that. So after our 2nd test on Monday I will be telling NO ONE my grade. There was one girl who refused to tell and boy was she smart!

Made a 94% on our first ever nursing exam!

I feel your pain, we just got our first grades back. Just remember your're not alone, we all got into these nursing programs, most of us were like top 10% of applicants. We all have high GPAs and are not use to getting anything lower then high 90s. I think after a few tests we will all be humble about the 80s again :) These tests are tricky. What was your test taking strategy? I read the question, underlined the key words and crossed out answers that were obviously wrong. If i knew the answer with no doubt in my mind i circled the answer and put a check mark on the question. If i were stuck between 2 possible answers and wasnt ready to guess i put a question mark on the question number. So in the end I didnt not re-look at any of the ones with checks. I reread the question marked ones and realized on a few i had over looked something and now could answer. I think this really worked because sometimes you can add alot of what ifs to these questions if you reread them too many times. Good luck!!

I want OB, and hopefully some day be a midwife. I want to work with them mums more then the babies. I just think its a time when women really need support and some one advocating for them.

.5ml/kg/h for children 1ml/kg/h for adults 1200-15ml/24h

i just got an a on my first test. i was getting a lot of advice from seniors, they said there was no way to get as, no way to do all the reading ect. while i asked them what their ns gpa was. they were all just getting by with the lowest possible score to pass. i talked to the one girl who has an a and she said she reads everything and takes note while doing so. i took her advice and read every page assigned and i typed a chapter outline as i went along. i then brought my outline to class to take my notes on and highlighted points the teachers stressed on, that night i would pull up the file and add any new notes the teachers touched on starred the things the teachers focused on. it's a lot of work but i feel it's a necessary evil to get those high as. i also suggest getting prentice halls review and rationales for fundamentals and davis fundamentals success. both books are incredibly help full and loaded with fundamentals nclex question that you can't find in the big nclex books. good luck!

Our first test is on 32 chapters and Im terrified!! I am also a full time mom of two, so I know how ya feel! I have been making outlines and it is VERY time consuming but it has really helped. I also make photocopies of important pictures or charts in the text books and put them right in my binder. I have made spread sheet as well for things like what size needles to use for what type of injections.I do NCLEX questions about the material wherever I can find them. I also go on flashcardexchange.com where you can make your own flashcard or look at someone elses. I havent taken my test yet so i dont know if any of this helps but its some ideas atleast! Good luck!