anonymousstudent

I owe absolutely nothing for the ADN I just completed. Not one cent. Get a job. Save. Go slowly if you have too.

I'm concerned and I have a right to be! I'm at a good CC with a good reputation. But there are so many crappy ADN programs out there turning out students who've had horrible clinical experience and just aren't ready that now every hospital system in my area has stopped hiring ADN's because they don't want to deal with new nurses trained by the nurse mill schools who just can't hack it. Is my school part of that problem? Not with the wide variety of clinical experiences we get in the hospitals and a first time NCLEX pass rate in the 90%+. Does it matter? Nope. The hospitals here made a blanket policy so they don't even have to deal with students coming out of these crappy schools. So yes, it affects me.

I have the opposite problem, and I'm also at a state run facility with no faith/religion. Ours read as some nebulous statement about "I pledge myself to All Higher Beings." Well the bottom line is that I do not pledge myself to ALL HIGHER BEINGS. I pledge myself to the One, the true God, maker of all things. There are other higher beings out there, and I'm not going to get into it but there is not a chance I'd do anything even close to pledging myself to them. So I just said it the my way. That's what holds meaning for me, that's what directs me, that's where I have accountability in my life.

It's a matter of being organized. Make a sheet yourself - everything you'll cover in report. Go by system or by topic or whatever makes sense to YOU. Make an SBAR box on there somewhere. Write down important stuff. You are not a computer, you can't remember everything. What you don't get in report open up the charting and pull it off of there to complete your cheat sheet.

That was an obnoxious comment. His filter is broken. Or he thinks he's above a filter. MANY people have this opinion, not just your doctor. This is such a sensitive area for people that they immediately default into a defensive posture when it comes up. You have identified it in your reasoning for losing weight - how can you talk to a patient about weight if you are not yourself healthy? The acknowledgement that hypocrisy is present many times in this issue is valid. While the comment was obnoxious, the reasoning wasn't. We have a great opportunity to frankly talk to people about weight and the consequences it carries. But this issue especially cannot be presented as "do as I say, not as I do" issue. The same goes for many health related activities. The question is what is a nurse? Is it good enough to just know your stuff? Is it good enough to know that obesity will cause numerous and significant health problems? As a patient, do I care that you know being overweight is bad? You can tell me that all you want, but if I see that you yourself are overweight, it can't be that bad. Right? This is an interesting topic.

You will be nurse for a few decades - a parent for your entire life. There is absolutely nothing that comes before your family and children. You can drop out and re-enter, or start over if you need to. Many of my classmates have had children throughout the program, at various stages (including me!) Not one of us has dropped out or had any problems. It's not easy, but it's not something to stress about either. Take it as it comes, and make your decisions as time goes on. No use stressing about it when you don't know what will happen. GL dear.

The kind of math you need for nursing is super super basic. Just make sure your answer makes sense, and that your conversions are correct. Know how to go from grams to mg, etc. And know that the DOSE is the amount of medication (mg) NOT the volume (mL).

You really need to step back at this and take another look at art therapy. What you are describing basically leaves you doing activities using art. That's fine, if that will be enough for you. But if you really want to use art as the medium to drive therapeutic change, your hands will be tied. You can't practice AT if you're not an Art Therapist. From reading what you wrote, it looks like you think being a nurse will get you to your goal in a better way. From my view, it will hinder your goals and leave you doing activity based programs with no real value.

I have never had this skill in clinical either. I think that having somebody who's a little worried about it is a better situation. Speaking as a patient, caths hurt like hell and I've never come out of the hospital without a UTI from it. So I'd rather my nurse be on high alert, paying super close attention to what kind of pathogens they are shoving into my bladder, and being aware that those suckers HURT.

There's an ignore button!? Where!?

I've noticed it too. And you are right, some posters are just plain rude. It makes you wonder how these people plan on being nurses and communicating with patients who have far less knowledge and much less ability to understand their medical problems and teaching. Of course, this is an open forum, which means we basically post anonymously. So there are trolls here, and the usual garbage that comes with a free for all give your opinion site.

I have driven other students who live around me to clinicals every term except for the first. Ask around and see who lives near you, and then talk to the person who does scheduling about placing you at the same site. Or talk to the scheduler and request places that are closer so you can get there via public transport on time.

I used to do interviewing for the department I was managing. I'd say it's unlikely they wasted their time interviewing you if you didn't meet the requirements to actually do the job. Remember that they are looking at an entirely different set of needs than you are aware of. They know the people on their team, and they know specific qualities and traits they are looking for. You might not be a good match, and that's OK. You will be somewhere. Don't take it personally. I know it's hard, but you just have to accept that it's probably got nothing to do with your qualifications and move on. OR, the person they ended up hiring was the cousin of so and so, or the best friend of that person's mom's son...you know that crap is happening too.

My guess is she's asking you for the bp/pulse reads about 15 minutes before you plan to administer a med like dig that has lower hold limits. Depending on why the patient came into the hospital, you could look back to their admission vitals for some idea of a baseline, especially if they were coming in pre-op. Otherwise, you could pull up all of the reads over their stay (assuming you have that ability via computerized charting) and take a look for trends up or down. You can't really get a true baseline in this kind of situation. You could also look back and see if any data is in the chart from a PCP - that would probably be the closest you'd get to a true baseline.

Here, peds is a pretty hands off rotation. Most kids get IV meds, and most Children's Hospitals won't allow students to give IV meds. I was basically a glorified PCA that term who did assessments. Much of the peds stuff is very similar to adults. If you've had med/surg, it will map over well. As far as dosages for kids, always look at the amount (mg) per weight (kg) per day. Look at the total dose the kid can have for an entire day. Then look at what was prescribed per day, and figure out if you're in the safe dose range.

It might be helpful if you're in lecture and want to type in notes. I'd NEVER take it to clinical, it would walk away.

List the type of degree, and how much you have/will pay. I'm not counting books, uniforms, supplies, ATI/HESI, or any other random fees. I'm in an ADN program at a CC. I already have a degree, so much of my stuff came over with me. For my pre-nursing courses (mostly sciences), I paid about $4,000 For my nursing courses, I paid about $4,500

I paid $100 each term - thankfully they only started making us do it the last few terms. But if I had done it through the entire program it would have been $700 total. And I don't think it's worth it either. I get a heck of a lot more out of the practice NCLEX books than I do ATI. They publish their own books for each topic area, which are not any better than my text book that I already paid for.

YES. Don't pay that. Ridiculous is right!

Davis's Med/Surg Success books are great, the rationales are detailed and have helped me a lot.

Pageburst is HORRID on my iPod. It may run better on an iPad, I don't know.

I'm HUGE and I can easily access my apex above my bra line. It's OK to shove some of that tissue out of the way to get to where you need. Is the problem your stethoscope?

I have never encountered a medication that could only be given through a central line, nor been taught about any in pharm. That leads me to believe it's not common, and it's not something I (or you) need to know as nursing students or entry level nurses. Not that it's not OK to wonder, but we sure have a heck of a lot of info to learn without piling more on. I'm sure they exist. My guess is these are meds you'd only encounter in specialized practice, in a critical care setting, or chemotherapy agents, as an example. It would be better to use a central line if you had the access for some things though...

Congratulations! :)

I saw this posted at my clinical site...