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Hi Kayytaa and ododi, not too long ago I was in the same exact shoes as you! I just want to say that everything you are feeling/experiencing is completely normal. I've been off of orientation and on my own for about 6 months on the ICU and each day gets a little better and a little easier. I remember coming off orientation and scared to death to go into work...the drive to work and walk from the parking lot to the hospital was awful. Never knowing what kind of assignment I would get and how hard it would be, would I be able to handle it, etc. I couldn't sleep, and was nervous all the time. Always ask questions and if something doesn't look or feel right to you, let the doctor know, and ask a seasoned nurse to check it out if you have doubts. Usually your gut feeling is correct. I still get a little nervous sometimes, especially when I hear that we have a trauma coming (heart attack if it's my admission LOL), but the RN's I work with are wonderful and help out extra because they know we are new and nervous. I wondered if it was just me over-reacting, but not too long ago we had another nurse come off of orientation and she said the same thing to me one night about how she feels so nervous every night going into work. But it does get better. Never give up, always ask questions, let nurses and doctors know that you are new, or if you don't understand something. Sometimes they assume you know, but you don't, and once you tell them, they are usually more than willing to teach/show you. I wish my BSN program would have incorporated more critical care clinical skills, etc. into the program too because on orientation it felt like I knew nothing skills wise. ECCO was okay in my opinion, but for me, I am more of a hands learner so some of the ECCO stuff didn't stick until I actually did it on the floor or did skills classes at work. The anxiety stinks, but give it time - I promise you it will get better and before you know it you will start to feel more at ease and confident!!

Agreed - if it is something related to a chronic illness or a low hgb for example and pt needs blood, etc. I feel comfortable letting the pt know. As far as a change in code status, I will discuss it with family if they bring it up first but only to give basic information on the process and then I tell the family I will have the MD discuss it with them. In my opinion, the MD should have that conversation with family (at my hospital the MD has paperwork to fill out with family anyway regarding a change in code status).

Wow, nightengalegoddess, you sound like the mirror image if me! I am very quiet too. I started on the ICU fresh from graduating about a year ago. I love the job and love the team work atmosphere, but It takes me a while to warm up and I feel like it's still taking me time to fit in and feel comfortable. I too am very private and reserved but I'm slowly trying to come out of that shell because my unit is starting to feel more like family than anything. To the OP...you are probably doing great and on your own by now (off orientation) but I felt your pain too! To any new people reading - just hang in there...it will get better, I promise. I felt very overwhelmed on orientation and it got worse going from having one to two patients and then the patients got more critical as I moved further along in orientation. I couldn't remember all the drains, skin issues, drips/fluids, intake and output, etc to save my life. I write everything down now and came up with my own little system that works for me - you will find your own way that works best for you too. It sounds like we all go through the same things as new nurses, and being on an ICU brings more of a challenge. Just ask a million questions, look things up and keep pushing! Everything will start coming together!

We always use the urine cups on my floor. We usually just use one for the whole pt stay. We leave it in the pt bathroom and just grab it when a drain needs to be emptied.

I agree, it really depends on the hospital. I got hired as a nursing assistant during nursing school and knew I wanted to work on the ICU after graduating. About 9-12 months before graduating, I started popping in monthly to remind the ICU manager I was really interested in working there after graduating. It took a few months after I passed boards for an opening to come up, but when it did, she remembered me and I was offered the job. Express your interest early - it can't hurt!!

It is possible! I have a BSN though...got hired in an ICU shortly after graduating. The manager actually told me they prefer to hire new grads! Good luck - it is possible :)

71% pass rate is not good, but I graduated from the Achieve program and passed boards the first time with 75 questions. I took the NCLEX a month after finishing the program too. Try not to focus on the pass rate - it doesn't reflect everyone. I firmly believe the key to success with NCLEX and class exams are practice, practice and more practice questions!!! Do them for each class/exam and you will be fine!

Try not to worry too much and always ask questions! Don't be embarrassed about what you don't know...my preceptors always welcomed questions and I never felt bad saying I never did something before, etc. I started on the ICU 6-7 months ago and I just put my first NG tube in a few weeks ago! I learned so many skills on orientation it made me feel like we did absolutely nothing in clinical during school! There is so much to learn but even off orientation nurses will be there to help you and answer questions. You'll have good days and bad days but just stay positive!! Apparently it will all make sense for us one day! :)

Hi KRiley....this response is a little late, lol but I attended La Salle's achieve program. I graduated last December and it was not a bad program at all. For the most part, the professors are very helpful and willing to help you with whatever you need, if you ask. The classes are not bad, but do require a lot of study/reading time. Clinicals are not too bad, but I guess it depends on your clinical instructor. Make sure you do all of your care plans and homework before clinical. Show up on time, work hard and always ask questions! If we were given weekly "generic" care plans where you just make up a patient and write about their illness, I would always do them in advance just to get it out of the way. I can't really answer to any of the NLN questions because when I applied, it was the first time they were giving the NLN so they used our group of test grades basically as a trial run to see where people were scoring. I don't remember my score but they said I did pretty well on it. There really isn't job placement, but I would highly suggest if you can find a hospital that offers a nursing externship, apply for it! Externships will help get your foot in the door for RN positions down the road when you are done school. If you can talk to a nurse manager (it might be hard when you do weekend clinicals) or at least get their name and contact info while you are doing clinical, get it and contact them, let them know you are doing clinical on their floor and ask for a CNA job or tell them you are interested in RN jobs in the future. Bust your butt in clinical because many clinical instructors work at hospitals and if you are good, they can help you get in (this was partially true in my situation). For uniforms, I think they changed it a little since I finished the program...we wore all navy blue, but now I think they have light blue shirts with navy blue scrub pants. As far as supplies, you don't need much, just a stethoscope. When I started, they had a package you bought from the university bookstore with supplies you use during lab sessions (i.e. catheter kit, trach suction kit, wound care kit, etc.). As far as studying for tests and doing well in class, the biggest help for me was practice questions. Do tons and tons of practice questions. Whatever is available in the textbook, do them! Whatever is available in the study guide that goes along with the textbook, do them! I used the Davis Success series (you can get the books on amazon) as well for each individual subject (med-surg, psych nursing, pediatrics, maternity, etc.) and it was very helpful. Not only will practice questions help prepare you for each quiz/exam, they will help you down the road when you are prepping for NCLEX. You will already have the technique on how to answer questions and you will be more prepared than your classmates that did not do extra questions. When I graduated, the pass rate for NCLEX was not great and I know the school was putting some new measures in to place to bring up the scores. Luckily I passed the first time and a lot of my friends did too. We all took the Kaplan review class that was offered. And I'm convinced that all of those practice questions helped too! The school is doing a lot more to prep for NCLEX now. Good luck to everyone applying and for those of you who were accepted! If you have any questions feel free to ask or PM me.

Hang in there and give it a little time. I know how you feeland sometimes it can be overwhelming when you look around a room atorientation. Once you get into clinical groups and get to know people one onone, it’s not so bad. I found that the younger students are usually the onesthat aren’t friendly and too clique-ish for me so I just go the other way. Asfar as the professors, there are always going to be a few that rub you thewrong way. I remember doing the orientation for our Peds rotation and the instructors treated us like babies and basically tried to scare us to death. Justforget it and move on! Some professors to judge – but so what, as long as you’renot doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. If they treat youchildish, just remember that you’re bigger and better than that. Stand up foryourself, but of course do it in a gracious way. Show them that you’reconfident and not scared to try something or learn something new. Don’t worry about anything! It will get better. Just worryabout yourself and you will do great!

When you log on to the My LaSalle portal there is a link on there to access your e-mail. It looks like they just recently updated the portal a few day ago because I had to make a new password due to the changes. It's normal not to see your classes showing up yet. They actually won't be loaded on Blackboard until the day that your classes start. Hope that helps!!

Congrats to everyone starting the ACHIEVE program this fall! I am going into my last semester this fall (*heart palpatation!*). You only wear the uniform to clinical. As far as the books - never buy from the bookstore! I don't think I purchased one book from there in the two years I've been at La Salle. I mostly bought used from Amazon and Ebay when possible. If I couldn't find it used, I just bought new from Amazon because it was always cheaper than the bookstore. For most of the classes you don't need the CD-ROM - it's really to help prepare you for studying. I think the only class where it was required to buy a book brand new was physical assessment because there was a code you needed to have to get online and view a video series. I highly recommend the Davis Success Series (you can find them in barnes and noble or amazon - they have books for pharm, med-surg, fundamentals, maternity, peds, etc. and they are so helpful. Sometimes professors will even take a few questions right out of those books!). You can definitely get a previous edition of the clinical calculations book. For the fundamentals book, I would try and go with the new edition, as well as the med-surg book (but you won't be needed that until next summer!). Ask the professor on the first day if you can use a previous edition - most of the times they will say yes it should be okay. I have no idea what an I-Clicker is, we never used one LOL. Good luck to everyone! If you have any questions I'd be more than happy to try and answer!

Don't be nervous! That's the best advice I can give. I was so nervous on the first day of clinical and it really doesn't help at all. If you act confident (even if you're not lol) it really makes the patient feel more comfortable. My clinical instructor let us get our feet wet first. One patient, and mostly simple tasks at first (making beds, bathing, etc.) before she made us jump in. That helped. Also if you can do what the other poster said and look up info on the patient, their diagnosis and meds that really helps a lot too. Good luck you will do great!

Sorry you had a bad experience but like the other posters have said, most applicants make out okay. It is frustrating sometimes and you really have to keep up with things but for the most part LaSalle is not bad in my opinion. They have really went above and beyond what they had to for me and that's all I can say. They have been more than fair and flexible and that's one thing I will always appreciate about LaSalle. I do agree they should have a bigger staff for the amount of students/applicants, but it is what it is. The American Data bank stuff sucks and it's a rip off but from what I understand a lot of nursing/med schools use it. Good luck hopefully everything works out for you in the future.

hang in there! it definitely gets better. i have about one year left and it is rough but i keep telling myself it's worth it. don't doubt or second guess yourself. nursing is an excellent career and don't worry about employment yet...things can turn around regarding the job market and you may get a job no problem when you graduate. just remember...it's hard to find jobs everywhere in todays economy. if you study all the time and give 110%, you have nothing to worry about. you'll be fine and you'll get through it. my confidence is so much higher than what it was a year ago, thanks to nursing school. and if you feel like crying...do it! it might be good. i had to take pharm and med surg in the summer (16 weeks of material smashed into 11 weeks for the summer semester)...after the first week i came home and cried for hours to my fiance, lol. but i felt much better and told myself i was gonna do it and ended up with A's in both classes. You can do it!! Good luck!