Aurora22

I'm taking pharmacology right now (9-week summer session), and I agree with the above poster. Become best friends with your flashcards. Also, learning the adverse side effects is the key because once you know those the nursing implications -- assessment, teaching and evaluation in particular -- are easy to determine via critical thinking. I've been pretty much living and breathing with my flashcards since the first day of class and tomorrow we have our first exam. Our teacher, who admittedly is "very serious" and "does not bend," has already told us the questions will be NCLEX-like. I am as afraid as I am confident. LOL. What a delicate balance!

Jamie, Don't be nervous! It's a group interview and the environment is not very threatening or high-pressure at all. The questions are done in a round-robin style and you're not being viciously grilled or anything like that. The questions progress from work ethic/dedication/ability to commit-type questions to situational questions that kinda figure out whether you can think critically and quickly. You'll do fine, I'm sure. I had my interview last week.

My son is very young, just over a year old, so getting much work done with him around is difficult. Becoming a nurse, however, is important to me because of him, so I incorporate him into my studying to kinda split the time. When I'm going through flashcards he thinks I'm talking to him. Studying anatomy was great because the illustrations in the book were quite vivid, and he was under the impression we were reading a lovely story. I feel like it's important he see that this is important to me but know he is important to me as well. There will definitely be sacrifices, but for me those will more likely be in the way of my own sleep time, or the time I spend with my boyfriend (who I incorporate by asking him to go through flashcards with me while we're doing mundane things like laundry or grocery shopping. He affectionately calls me his very favorite nerd) or "me" time, but I'll get those things back in spades when I get through this, and one day my son will really know what a scapula is.

I was still breastfeeding my son when I started my pre-reqs (micro and anatomy at the same time), which means I was tip-toeing out of class during breaks to pump and eat snacks to keep my calorie-intake up...and there was a very pregnant girl in my micro class as well, so it can be done, it's all about the support network you have in place and your realistic expectations. Like RN2BDFW said, one semester should not make or break your goals, so if 6 weeks feels too young to you then you should wait. I was definitely doing a lot with a little, but my son was 4 months by the time I started, so he wasn't nearly as new and shiny (read:demanding).

My son is only 13 months, so he tends to think I'm talking to him when I'm going through flashcards out loud. His favorite words now are "thank you," "mommy," and "hi," so I'll say something like "cuboidal" and he will say "thank you." I wonder what he'll pick up from my physiology flashcards I'll inevitably be making next semester.