Counselort

I haven't taken it, but Kansas City Community Collee KCKCC.edu offers an online pharmacology course: "general pharmacology" . I think it's BIOL0116, and it's offered during the summer. For out of state tuition it is 3 cr hours for about $500.00. If you take it, let us know what you think.

I did both A&P in 8 week sections. Plan to spend more time than you think you will. Get the books and software ahead if you can and "play" with the learning or "lab" parts. Good luck.

Helping you learn is what you pay tuition and teachers for -- so long as you are doing your part (going to class, reading, taking notes, etc). Most are very willing to help if they know you are sincerely trying. If they won't respond talk to your academic adviser or whoever is above the instructor in the school hierarchy. See if you can schedule a time to visit with him/her and explain. Ask classmates if they'd like to start a study group. Visit the learning enhancement center if your college has one. It's a hard subject for almost everyone. Good luck.

With EduKan A&P I & II and Micro you do have to take at least one proctored exam, but you can arrange it with most universities or even public libraries (free). If you know where you'll be when, it's still do-able.

Is there a written list by hospital or program about what the expectations are for skills by semester or hospital? There are always people about others, though you risk being called a trouble-maker if you rock too hard. Would a polite meeting with the instructor and DON to ask about these issues help at all? Maybe everyone just needs to be on the same page. Are other students having problems with her? If nothing else, you should have the opportunity to evaluate the instructor. Doing so in specific, non-attaching words will be most helpful.

It's my understanding the HESI is customized for each school and each situation. I'm not sure if that's true of the one you are taking but could make it hard to get a clear answer on what to study. My one piece of advice would be to try hard to exclude the "patient said" stuff and try to mine out whether it a "find the right answer" "find the wrong answer" or a T, T, F,T answer. It's usually hidden in amongst all the blather about clients. Good luck.

i finished 2 pre-reqs the summer I applied and got in. I agree with Nate that they are looking for diversity; not just in race, but in experiences, backgrounds -- anything that would make you different than a "traditional student" whatever that is. One classmate had been homeless for two years; I was a teen mom; others had been in the armed forces. It was really varied, be genuine; show your passion. Quick response to concern about taking the GRE. ALL of the must-have courses are graded exclusively by multiple choice. So, all of your grade will come from either 3 or 4 exams of 75-100 points. If you are a good test-taker that can really work. If you've been in an advanced MS or Ph.D. program emphasizing research-type critical thought; or are an "essay types" like me who think we need more than four answers; they can trip you up. I agree the professors are good and friendly; especially the Peds woman. She made me want to shift to Peds and I don't even like kids! However, I think the clinical directors vary, mine was good as well, but we all heard stories of not-so-good ones. Lastly, if you've been out of school for awhile, it might be better to try for a traditional BSN, then apply to their NP program. This program is the proverbial drinking from the firehose of information. Hey Nate, how is Maine??

I am in a highly-rated national BSN program, and in my first semester have been dismayed at how much of the coursework and assessment is simply to prepare us for the NCLEX. The notion that the NCLEX "measures" is a fiction. It contains nothing related to client care but memorization of easily found facts and the ability to test (as indicated by the multiplicity of companies willing to help you pass it). The questions themselves are scarcely disguised as what they are: T/F or multiple choice; not usually the kind of critical thinking all the programs purport to teach and emphasize. Those experiences must come from well-supervised experience, which is much more expensive to provide. Critical thinking and client care seem to have fallen by the wayside to make room for the Almighty Test. I am seriously thinking of changing fields. If this is what training "caring professionals" is about, I may as well be working in engineering or computer science where human variables don't complicate things or often provide more than four possible answers.

Consider teaching Nursing, you can get student loan repayment for it now.

Im in a similar situation; where did she attend school, and would she recommend it vs the traditional RN to NP plan?

Do you know what program she attended? I'm in a similar situation?

Unless you plan to go part-time, don't plan to work; when they say accelerated, they mean it. They usually post a housing group for newcomers who are accepted. No graduate housing available, you're on your own. good luck.

Samwestonpotter: There are four of us in the NP program living in Jeannie Apartments on Sharondale. It's 15 min drive to campus, small, older, clean, QUIET, very safe neighborhood. $650/mo for 2 BR 1 BA. Mrs. Wood, landlady lives next door. If she has an opening I'd definitely recommend giving her a call. Good luck!

Starting first floor work in a few weeks, and am guessing these might help ease into being on my feet so much. However, I've heard: 1. knee-highs popular but cut off blood supply 2. thigh highs fall down 3. full hose are too hot. Anything new on the market - especially for curvy girls? Thanks, a new student....

I work in a mental health setting, and have seen agencies sacrifice nurses and counselors (with or without insurance) during lawsuits. Agency lawyers settle out of court, leaving the nurses and counselors with unanswered questions for their licensure boards as to whether they are guilty or not. I've always carried liability insurance separate from that of the organization I work with, if nothing else than to have the funds to cover a lawyer to protect my personal interests and my license (and livelihood) "just in case".

I found Iguana XL cargo pants fit pretty well, but SHEESH expensive! Their tops have same problem, too tight across butt and thighs. I've taken to slitting the side slits up an extra inch or too (not hard even if you don't sew much). That helps ease a bit, and still doesn't show midriff. I wish FLAX brand or some other clothing company that fits "real" women would start making uniforms. T

I recently read an article about a church that hired a parish nurse to go out and visit those they knew were ill.

Curvy okay so far: expensive Iguana cargo pants, Med III tops ($$$). I found a Hegel? top at Goodwill, adn I think if I just slit the sides up a little further they'll fit. We'll see. Found that the reasonably priced Medline Lab coat with back belt actually fit hips. It's a (little) bit in the shoulders, and 2 inches too long; but I'll take it, it's actually a curved fit. I haven't tried Koi (smalltown) but plan to when I get to Nashville. Thanks all.

If you have access to the Vandy Housing group you can find me under Discussions talking about the black scrubs, mine is the first post. T

I'm really looking forward to it. I've been an MS Psychologist/therapist for fifteen years in all kinds of settings and worked with some incredibly dedicated and professional NP's. They are my models for the future. I'm not sure how to take this conversation private, but maybe we'll just catch up someplace... T

I won't be in your class, but am entering pre-spec for PMHNP and would love to hear your experiences as you go through. Congrats!!!

Not yet a nurse, but have donea lot of research. This is pretty last minute, but you might try putting the questions into Survey Monkey and sending them out to your local nurses association, faculty, or hospital nurses and ask them to pass it on. If folks know it's only going to take 5 minutes or so they're more likely to respond, and you'll have it all in a form you can analyze. Survey Monkey is free (or was last time I used it).

There is a Nutrition class available at IDL Online College Courses for Credit | University of Georgia. Out of state is a little more expensive, but not ridiculous. Actually they have quite a few courses. Also, I was the one who took Microbiology online. There were two different profs who did the final differently. For one you had to find a lab and go in and show proficiency on the procedures we'd studied. The other did not require those, but had some very hard questions posed along with each lab that required outside resources to answer. Like an earlier poster said, these do not show as "online" courses on transcripts. The hard part is getting all the darn transcripts transferred for the application process, it takes time, and a little more money. Best of luck.

You might look at EduKan.com. It's part of the Kansas University Program designed to help train rural health professionals; and is rigorous and fairly inexpensive. No extra out-of-state tuition. I think around $600 a course, and they use the same book for both A&P courses, which I really appreciated. I took A&P I and Microbiology in Fall, now in A&PII. They do not offer Nutrition, and I don't know about Statistics, as I had two semesters in grad school. Like you, I already had a degree (MS) but could not get into my local university's classes due to overcrowding related to budget cuts. I've been accepted into an MSW Top 20 ranked (in person, not online) program and they have said nothing derogatory about my transferring these in. It might be different if you didn't already have a degree with evidence of capacity to learn. Obviously I would have preferred to take them in "real life" settings, but I have still learned an amazing amount, including some dissection. The Virtual Microbiology lab is a little fake-y but still provides a sense of how the process works and requires the same procedures onscreen as a regular lab (my cousin is a lab tech and was surprised at how well it represented the general concepts). Hope this helps, and best of luck.

I don't know if this helps or hurts, but I'm moving into the PA field after fifteen years in mental health as a social worker/counselor. Ready for a change and some different responsibilities. Plus I'm in a rural area with few/no psychiatrists. Many of the same concerns apply to counseling/social work - limited time, necessity to chart, extensive liability, watch your back or "CYA". Even in private practice these all apply,PLUS you get the joys of dealing with insurance companies Like many of you, I wasn't taught any of this in school. When my day came to supervise, I tried my best to share these realities with the students -- as well as the positives; the one family that is thankful, the child who does succeed when returned to their parents, and the one guy who actually quit drinking after two years of your off and on treatment. You have to look for those small rewards because the money (even worse than nurses, believe it or not) isn't why we go into helping fields.