metricalpound

I understand that you may be afraid; however, you work in psych - it's dangerous and it's expected to be dangerous. I'm always a little afraid of going to work but I know most of the patients that I work with are awesome or, at the very least, have the potential to awesome. I work in an open unit where patients can throw stuff at us, flip our computers over, jump over the barrier of the nurses station and get to us, etc. How often does any of this happen? Not very often. We deal with trouble patients by calling a psychiatric code - we have two type of codes, one in which is a psychiatric emergency and one where a patient is escalating and is not accepting redirection and/or not accepting PO meds. When a code is called a group, mostly composed of men, first try to deescalate the patient along with staff. If that doesn't work, the psychiatrist puts in for an IM. We rarely use restraints - about once every 3 months. Another question that you have to ask yourself is how often have you gotten assaulted by a patient…

The one question that I got asked that really threw me was, "This is a really acute floor and every nurse here has gotten their fair share of assaults done to them, what would you do if a patient punched you in the face?" I gave the best answer that I knew of - isolate the patient, keep other patients away from him or her, call security and follow hospital protocol. I got the job! I would ask them what their nurse to patient ratio is; how each nursing shift is different from the other (evenings are usually harder than the other two shifts with nights being the easiest); and how they handle psych. codes. Good luck!

It's completely doable if you commit yourself to it. Here's CSI's Nursing website - College of Staten Island - Department of Nursing When they choose who they want in the 110 class, they look at GPA of prereqs, overall GPA and NLN predictor - http://www.csi.cuny.edu/nursing/NRselect.pdf

I live in a state where it's hard to find work even with a BSN - NY. I also live in a city that is one of the most competitive markets in the US for nursing - NYC. Yet, here I am, with an Associates and about to start to work as a psych. nurse in a major hospital in Brooklyn. Yes, I'm also working on a Bachelors. But maybe the issue with you is not that you only have an ASN, but that you have horrible communication skills. Why would you come on a nursing board and flame a category of nurses just because they have their Bachelors? No one here, from what I read, believes that education is greater than experience.

Hi - I recently graduated from the ASN program and I am also going there for my Bachelors. What do you want to know? It's a tough program but I am very satisfied with my education.

I got offered a verbal hire on the 9th at KCH right after my interview. The ADON that hired me told me that the process of getting hired can take up to a few months because of the bureaucracy that is involved. The only thing that I have done so far is the pharmacology exam that I needed to do to get hired. But when I called HR at KCH, they informed me that they would call me when they get all my paperwork together and then I would do my fingerprints, medical, etc.; and when I'm cleared, I would be in the next orientation class.

Hi all! I'm a new nurse graduate and since stepping foot on a psych. unit, I knew that I loved psychiatric nursing. Fortunately, I was able to gain employment to pursue my dream of being a psychiatric nurse. The position that I accepted is a night position. So my question is how is a night time position in psych. different than a day time position? What can I expect?

First thing - relax and take a breath - it's not the end of the world, no? People fail tests, I failed a few of them. The first tests in Nursing tend to be rough because you're introduced to NCLEX type questions. As you've said, you've done some questions in preparation for this particular test but I must warn you that some books are better than others - i.e., some books give you easier questions while other books are more difficult. Maybe you should look into a more difficult book - I like this book Amazon.com: Lippincott's Q&A Review for NCLEX-RN® (Lippincott's Review for Nclex-Rn) (9781608311255): Diane M. Billings: Books If you are doing fundamental-type material (how to take blood pressure, general assessment, positions, etc.) books like fundamental success tends to have more difficult material. I tend to stay away from questions in NCLEX study guides because they tend to be way easier questions than what I get on tests. Also if your school is subscribed to a test bank like ATI - I suggest doing those as well. I hope everything works out for you; and don't give up, you can do this, you just need to understand how the questions work. =D

I think many people get stressed with the classes and then question whether if going through the stress of school is worth being a nurse. But after they pass the class that was stressing them out - it's all sunshine again. And there are a few that really hate it and really do regret it - you can tell by the way that they are in clinical. They don't care. The best thing for you to do is go through this program, see if you like it or not. If you do - then great! If you don't - you're still in your early twenties. Some people have to try a few things before they find the one thing that they like. I should know - I'm that type of person.

Quite honestly, I don't think it's in your place to tell her. If she is willing to take courses multiple times, pay for that course multiple times, work through the frustration of learning something in a language that is not their mother tongue and on top of that work through it with a learning disability - god bless her, she must really want to be a nurse and it's not your responsibility to tell her otherwise.

Planning to pay off loans while saving for a new car =D

Hey - it sounds like you are really stressed and you should do things that reduce how stressed you feel. Yes - other people may seem to have more stressors in their life like kids, two jobs or whatever but everyone reacts to stress differently and just because they don't feel stressed doesn't mean that your stress isn't valid. I would suggest thinking about exactly what about the next semester that makes you feel like this? Because of how difficult it may be? What can you do to deal with the difficulties? How can you take any unnecessary stresses out of your life that may be adding to your life that may also make nursing harder? Nursing school is hard but remember that anything that is worth it is hard to attain and you will work for your degree in Nursing. =D

My class started with about 120 people and we graduate in June. We have about 70 or so people now. The school I'm in had a 100% pass rate but after the last class that graduated it went down to somewhere in the 90's so they're making it even harder. Some of the people that don't make it didn't fail however. Some of them were pregnant and didn't want to go to school at the same time, some of them dropped because they either they were failing or something else came up.

Not to sound cliche but there may be a silver lining to your cloud. I understand that you wanted to get the prereq's out of the way and it must be frustrating that you are going to have to wait another semester to start on some of them. But, if you are accepted into the accelerated BS program, you will probably graduate at the same time that you would as with the ASN in Nursing (most accelerated BSN programs are about 18 months, while most ASN programs are two years after prereqs) Also you will graduate with a BSN in Nursing which is most esteemed than an ASN. Also, another plus, is that there is usually less competition in getting into an Accelerated BSN program than an ASN program. I'm a second degree student and I'm going for an ASN and I have one more semester left of it. I could of have went with accelerated BSN option but schools in my area that offer it are out of my price range. The people at my school are very clear about what you need to graduate but they were vague in how to get into the program. Most of the information that I got, I had to look up online and had to constantly remind myself of when things were due. It was frustrating but it was very much worth it when I was accepted - I love Nursing. =D Anyways, good luck and try to think positively. =)

It's very stressful but it's fun as well. I'm about to graduate in May and I've been through so much with the people I've been with, from the stresses of tests to sharing stories of the horrors of bed baths. I've had more fun and learnt the most in clinicals than any other portion of the class. Sometimes it can be pretty depressing but if you have a good clinical instructor and the rest of the people in your clinical group are fun, then the clinical will be fun. How can poking people with needles not be fun? =D Most of the stresses come from classes unless you have a craptastic clinical instructor that stresses you out for no reason at all. In regards to female consensus on male nursing students - I've never seen or heard of an issue. In regards to the sexy thing - I know some people in my nursing classes hooked up but if I was you, I would try to steer clear of such things because it gets in the way of your learning in the long run.

This is just wrong - you are not a patient and your instructor is not your nurse. I would file a complaint against the instructor, if the assignment is only given by that instructor; or a school complaint against that particular Nursing Department. Your instructors have no right to know about your sexuality, your elimination patterns, or whatever else. You are there to learn, not to indulge your medical history to them.

Ok the heart is a two-sided pump - think of it as where the blood is going. If you have right-sided heart failure then the blood is going to back up in your right atrium, to yr superior vena cava and where else? Where is that blood going? What will the manifestations be? If you have left-sided heart failure, then the blood is going to back up in your left atrium, to your pulmonary trunk, and where else? Where is that blood going? What will the manifestations be?

I know you probably already took your test but even if you didn't that was so long ago - I remember there being a few questions on Maslow's heirarchy. For the second test - almost the whole test was on physical assessment and fluid and electrolyte balance...I think. There are no grading curves but they will throw a question out and give people points if a lot of people get the question wrong. Usually it's about one or two questions per test. I think the third test we got no points at all =/

Actually - I'm doing my psych. clinical now and I feel the complete opposite of you. I love it. I love the danger, the stories, the patients and the people who work with them. I'm convinced that if I don't go psych., I'm going to be in the ED...but I want to go psych. so badly. Either way, like the poster above said, different strokes for different folks.

But why is it the teaching?

Yeah - these questions are tough but some of them you just have to sort of reason out what may be wrong or what may be right and then take a leap of faith with the answer. So let me try my hand at this question: I see "nurse initiated intervention," I'm thinking an intervention that doesn't need another member of the team working with the patient. Of course, I could be wrong with this interpretation, but I think I'm on the right path. I look at the first answer - I can't safely administer IV gentamicin without a doctor's order. So I'm not choosing this option. I look at the second answer - I can't schedule administration because the MD's write the frequency of when the patient take his or her medication. So I'm not choosing this option. The third and the fourth answer both look really good to me. But I have a small problem with the fourth answer - "after discharge." He or she should be taught before discharge to administer their medication. So I'm going with the third option - observing for side effects of the medication. Did I get it right or wrong? Now if I got it wrong, I'd like to know why I got it wrong and then I'd consider how I can improve the next time I get a question similar to this. *The trick is to sort of reason things out - even if you get a question wrong, if you start to reason things out, you'll see that you will get better at answering these type of questions. Also do as many questions as possible in NCLEX books.* Either way - good luck and I hope you do better on your next test. =D

Hi, Kevin! Just out of curiosity - is there a reason why your username is Joe Mulligan? Anyways - I'll give you advice one of my first nursing instructors gave me: "Don't think about an advanced degree in Nursing - worry about being a nurse first and then, after some nursing, think about an advanced degree." At the time - I sorta got it. Almost half of my class, who were just starting their first day of nursing class, were talking about being a NP and it was sorta weird to me that they were in their first nursing class and they already wanted to just drive by the basics and get to the most advanced part. That idea became more concrete to me this semester when I was doing my psych. clinical. Before this, I was sure I wanted to be some sort of nurse that was on floor with patients that had medical problems; but after stepping on a psych. unit, I'm fairly sure that I want to work in psych. If my mind can change so quickly in school - why couldn't it change after school? The point is that you never know what your passion is going to be in Nursing when you are this early in your career - which is just learning to nurse. Even after graduating and after working for a few years, you may not find one thing that you love about a particular field of Nursing - you hear this a lot. My psych. instructor was on med/surg floor for 9 years before she went to psych. and once she got there, she knew she loved it - and a story like hers is not the abnormal but seems to be the norm from my experiences with nurses. So my advice is don't worry about an advanced degree just yet - get your RN, try a field out, if you like it, then think about an advanced degree in that particular field. If you think working with babies sounds fun, after you graduate, get a job at a NICU; if you find that at the NICU, babies are not as fun as you think and you may like to be a CRNA, get a job working as a circulating nurse and see if you like the OR setting. And so on and so forth. Anyways, good luck and I hope that you do well in school.

I'm graduating in May and I want to take the NCLEX by the end of June so I'm going to start studying probably right after New Years.

Awww - sounds like you had a horrible experience. =( Don't fret - I had a really bad first communication experience too but it was with a real patient. =/ Communicating gets easier as you practice it and become more confident in your skills as a student nurse. Even by the end of this semester, you'll see a drastic change in how you communicate with the patients that you work with. My first semester, I started out as the weakest communicator but ended up getting compliments on my communication skills by the end of the rotation. Just keep in mind that you are learning and keep speaking to patients. I think what helped me the most with communication is that I spent a lot more time with the patients than what was expected of me. And speak to them as if they were a human being, not some sort of "thing" that needs to get done.

My resolution is to stop saying, "crazy" for things that I find "out there" or out of the ordinary. I'm in psych. this semester and I don't want a patient to be explaining to me something and I accidentally slip out, "Wow - that's crazy." It's not that I mean "wow - that's mentally ill." It's just that I want to be the best nurse as possible and I don't want a person to not trust me because of some sort of slang that slipped out of my mouth. =(