spritez

I think that's a little harsh. We all handle stress differently and we all have different strengths; it's unfair just to write off those who struggle as being uncaring and lazy. And though I'm not certain of your age, I'm inclined to believe you may be older because you have children. For students going to nursing school straight out of highschool, we might not be as well equipped to handle the challenges that nursing school brings. Just sayin', don't judge too quickly. My first year of nursing school WAS hard. And you'd be crazy to call me lazy with all the work I put into it. Luckily I ended up on top at the end of the year. Anyway, end of rant! My advice on the subject is to not let it all overwhelm you. I cried my way through my elective at the beginning of the second week cause I couldn't imagine how I could get all the things done that I needed to do. It is possible! You'll get into the hang of it. Try and make the most of clinicals first year, some programs skimp out on how many hours you get first year, so try and get in there and really get a feel for things. If your school has any student support programs for nursing students (academic writing courses, anatomy review sessions, etc.) take advantage of them! Good luck!:redpinkhe:redpinkhe:redpinkhe

Human Anatomy & Physiology, 8th edition. Elaine Marieb.

^ That does suck. 4 A's, 2 B's :) I'm happy with that. Especially cause one of the B's was A&P.

The kardex is kind of a patient cheat sheet. It lists all the important information to get a quick summary of your patient's needs. From my experience in clinicals, it has your client's basic biographical information, sensory deficit & disability info, diagnoses, daily meds, mobility/immobility, allergies, etc.

Every school is going to be different, especially with how many clinical hours you're doing. Plus it varies largely by the year of the program. But if you want an idea of how my first year of BScN went... Semester 1: 7 classes/wk Nursing Theory - 3 hrs - Lecture Assessment - 1 hr + 2 hrs lab Nursing Practice - 1 hr + 2 hrs lab - This is learning clinical skills (bedmaking, washing, feeding, etc.) Anatomy & Physiology - 3 hrs.. LONG hours. Nutrition - 3 hrs class General Psych - 3 hrs Elective - 3 hrs Plus many people opted to attend a 2 hr A&P review every week. If you keep up with your readings, there's a chapter each week for every one of those classes. Depending on the class and how fast you read that can be 30 min - 1.5 of readings for each class, each week. I was assigned 800 pages of readings my first week and almost lost it! 2nd Semester: Nursing Theory, Asessment and A&P continued like first semester. Once we went into clinicals, we didn't have Practice class anymore, and had 5 hrs clinicals a week (which is nothing!) Developmental Psych - 3 hrs Professional Values/Ethics - 3 hrs In terms of assignments... some weeks you have nothing to do, some weeks you'll be juggling 3-4 major due dates in 5 days. You'll be told this a million times, but time management is essential. What are clinicals like? For our first year we did gerontology, so we worked in nursing homes and geriatric hospitals. It was pretty basic, we shadowed nurses and performed basic skills - bed baths, feeding, changing incontinence briefs, changing beds. But we got a feel for what nurses do. What are classes/lectures like? Probably depends a lot on your school, the size of your program, and your personal strengths & tastes. Some are long and hard to sit through (anatomy!) and some can be really fun when you're practicing on your friends and getting your hands dirty (assessment & practice.) Good luck! Hope that provided some rough idea of what it's like!

There are many non-native speakers in my 4 year BScN program, but most of them are fairly fluent in English. They did struggle sometimes with grammar in papers, but otherwise there was no issue. I think it might be challenging to take any university program unless you're prepared to write 4-5 page papers in your second language.

...then what makes you think this would be an issue? Sounds like it's just a blood pressure thing.

Definitely feeling you on this! I finished 1.5 weeks ago, but I was completely burnt out by all the term papers due, and then headed straight into exams. It's not fun. I found one thing that can help is to go out for lunch or dinner with a friend while you take a study break. It's a good way to fit in a social refresher, and you would (or atleast, should!) be taking the time to eat anyway.

Practice, practice, practice! It's tough to juggle all your courses, but you'll make it easier on yourself when it comes to Head-To-Toe testing if you take the time to make sure you understand the assessment skills taught every week. Good luck! Assessment is fun! You get to practice on each other!

They let you do that?? We are strictly prohibited from wearing our scrubs or nursing shoes on our way to our clinical placement. You can pick up all sorts of microbes and bring them into the facility. Seems to make sense to me.

Thanks for all the replies! I'm a bit confused, what is 'c = RN' supposed to imply?

What do you consider a good or decent GPA in nursing school? How much do GPAs matter in the long run? What kind of GPA do you need (or how much do GPAs matter) to get into a master's program? Thanks!

I found general psych to be a walk in the park, but I know others struggled more with it. Depends on your strengths; I've been interested in psych for a long time so I had a basis for the class before starting. A&P is notorious in my program for being difficult. They had to open up multiple summer classes to accommodate those who failed this year. But keep in mind we were juggling a challenging full course load at the time. Doing it over the summer is a good idea, you'll have time to concentrate on it. Do the readings as you go along. It is a lot of memorization, and don't be fooled into thinking you can get a general overview of the concepts and be okay for the tests, because (at least for us) the questions are very specific and detailed. Your best bet is to review everything you learn each week so you don't have to cram at the end.

I was basically in the same position as you for one of my classes (I was in first year BScN.) We needed a 63% to pass the course, and I needed a 59% on the final to achieve that or I failed my entire first year. Someone called in a bomb threat on our exam (so irritating!) and we had the chance to rewrite the exam. I really didn't want to rewrite because I was burnt out after 6 exams (and it was scheduled the day after our A&P final), but I was freaking out at the possibility of losing the whole year. After all that anxiety, I got an 82%! We've all been there. These rules about marks are crazy.

Test banks?! Alright, that is just unethical and academically dishonest. I don't think that was the case with these students whispering to each other. We get a lot of information at my school which trickles down from second year students as for hints to what we should concentrate on for a test, I imagine it was something like that. We also get study guides from second year students (who have been designated by the program to help first year students) which answer course objectives, offer diagrams, stuff like that. I attend a different 2nd year group and receive different (and often more detailed) handouts than most of the kids in my class, and I send those out to students in our section. It's stuff like that, I don't see why people don't share.