boogalina

I sat for the June CRRN and passed it. I had just completed one year's experience in rehab, and had a year into my MSN at WGU. No problem, based on the scenario you outline in this post, you would meet the CRRN requirements with your year of experience and MSN completed.

Get into a good new grad program. I recommend Float Pool nursing - your specialty will find you! Thought I wanted to be an ICU nurse...but was hired into float pool. Was privileged to gain experience in stepdown critical care, ED, med-surg, inpatient psych and inpatient rehab for about 2.75 years. Was recruited into inpatient rehab at my hospital, and I love it! I get to care for the folks who made it through the ICU, neuro, etc. So let your journey teach you!

My goodness, this is the worst!" (The one about patients with add-on requests.) If you give a mouse a cookie" patients, I call them!

I'm an acute care RN in my hospital's float pool. I go to inpatient psych, inpatient rehab, ED, critical care (stepdown) and med-surg-tele floors. Seems like it's nursing work wherever I go! Beyond that, my fellow ADN grads work in acute care, home health, dialysis and one is even a Mercy Ships volunteer. All this, too, is nursing work. And I used to work as a CNA in a SNF/LTC facility...pretty sure what those nurses did was some of the most badass nursing work I've seen performed - and I've seen some stuff in my almost 5 years in healthcare. It's all real nursing!

Encouraging the patient/client to do as much as they can for themselves is at the heart of nursing, at every level and setting in which care is delivered. Damn, I should write nursing textbooks!

If you are a kinesthetic learner (as I am) you may enjoy Wynn Kapit's amazing A&P coloring book. I still pull mine out from time to time for review. You can get them on Amazon. Hope this helps!

I'm still (after > 5 years on nights) figuring this one out. I would get an activity tracker (I've been using a Fitbit Flex) that gives you info on the duration and quality of sleep, and pair that with a food tracking app (I use LoseIt but some like My Fitness Pal) to find out the whole story on activity vs. intake plus a breakdown of fats/protein/carbs. Then the whole picture will emerge, and individual adjustments can be made. Doing this revealed to me that I was taking in 500-1500 kCal a day more than I burned...so, duh, no wonder I wasn't losing weight!! I have been conscious of portion control, home cooking (no fast food at work or outside of) and better choices for several months, but wasn't seeing results beyond a stop to the weight increases. So my main point is, get some more precise data and it will help you figure out where you need to go from here.

Great article! I received scholarships from two foundations during my associates program (hospital where I work and the community college I attended)...for my BSN and my MSN just from the hospital foundation (so far...waiting to hear about scholarships from WGU). It doesn't take long to apply for these, but it's meant $1600-2250 per year towards tuition. Additionally, your employer may offer perks like tuition discounts and tuition reimbursement! Don't forget those!

My late husband used to write special dates in the dust like my birthday, our anniversary, etc. It was annoying, but cute.

I passed my PCCN examination yesterday on the first attempt, and would like to share what worked for me. I used the following courses and materials for my examination preparation, which I started in late August this year: AACN's PCCN Certification Review Online (about $79 to AACN members when purchased at the same time one registers for the examination) AACN's Self-Assessment Exam for PCCN (online at AACN website) "Practice PCCN Exam Questions, Adult" (ordered online at AACN website) "PCCN Certification Review" (2nd ed) by Brorsen/Rogelet ISBN 978-1-2840-2748-8 "PCCN Q&A" (1st ed) by Fancher ISBN 978-0-9858777-4-3 I also attended a CCRN/PCCN Certification Review live course taught by Nicole Kupchick. It was very good and really made me feel as though I could tackle the wide range of review topics. She is the certification cheerleader (you will even learn cheers at her course). I wanted to take a Cammie Fancher review course but couldn't find one that worked with my schedule this fall. She teaches all over the nation, several courses a year, so it would not be difficult to find one of her courses with a little more lead time. The AACN website lists many of these courses under the "Chapter Events" calendar on their website. I would heartily recommend the online AACN PCCN certification review course - it was just outstanding and really will help me enhance my practice. Even my trucker boyfriend enjoyed Carol Rauen's lectures. . .he said she was a badass and just the sort of nurse he'd hope to have if he was in the hospital! As I prepared for the examination, I really didn't feel too confident of passing, so I just stayed with the mentality that pass or fail, all this review would make me a better nurse. I do think the steadily improving passing percentage on the PCCN examination overall reflects better availability of preparation materials. I would recommend taking a review course (live or online) before tackling the Brorsen book for best results, but everyone is different. I work as a float pool nurse in a Level-2 Trauma center; the units I work in range from stepdown critical care to the ED to med-surg to inpatient psychiatry (but variety is the spice of life, right?). I have been a practicing RN for 2.25 years, graduated with an ADN and completed my BSN last year. (I am providing this information so that newer nurses who meet the certification requirements but don't think they can pursue it until they've been working for several years consider pursuing certification sooner. . .I do think it will make us newer nurses stronger in our practices!)

Patient, upon seeing the big red "RN" at the bottom of my ID badge asked "does that stand for really nuts?" Ah, out of the mouths of the demented....!

While I don't work in our hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit full-time, I get to float there (note: GET to float there, it's a privilege) and I always learn so much! It's really helped my ability to care for all patients. It sometimes happens that people with a psych condition (or two) have an acute illness and need medical hospital care! Amazing, right? So, rather than saying "oh, they're crazy!" I can just go about my job, relating to the person with a psych condition, meeting them where they are, rather than avoiding them. So many people misunderstand caring for people with psych conditions. . .I'm hardly an expert, but at least I know a few good questions to ask, and who to ask them of!

Application times/dates for hospitals vary by area. Your daughter will want to check each hospital's/health system for their information and process. Some hospitals will not allow an application until the license has been issued. I would let her take the lead in this, though. While I'm an older new nurse, I work with several new nurses in your daughter's age group, and can assure you that if she's done this well up to now and has already secured a hospital job, that she's got it together and will make the right decision for her.

I think so. SATA is timeless...it's not so much about content as it is techniques for attacking this type of question.

Good grades and high SAT/ACT scores are helpful, but not predictive of anything other than passing the academic aspects of nursing school. Not that that's easy, mind you. Experience and connections will be key to your success. I do suggest you try to work in a clinical setting to make sure this field is right for you. Perhaps, as you put it, a "sucky hospital job." I worked as a CNA for two years while in nursing school - was the best choice I could have made. Be aware that the "sucky" hospital positions are quite hard to come by, usually have hundreds of applicants (for new grad/internship programs and regular positions alike). Don't expect to just waltz into one, unless you're related to a profit-center surgeon (LOL) or have some other connection. Lastly, be careful when you cast aspersions on nursing programs that don't meet your standards for prestige. Your boss may have been a graduate of one. Just sayin.