wldcard

@ESME: Thanks for all that info... that is a very constructive and helpful response. @OP: I work in EMS too and encounter the obese, morbidly obese, and super morbidly obese all the time out in the field. (And don't flame; a year and a half ago I was in the super morbidly obese category; now I'm just morbidly obese :)) ESME's post covered what I was going to bring up on cuff sizes; there are large (or extra large) and thigh cuffs. I regularly use the large adult and have on a number of occasions used the thigh cuff on people's arms. Use what is the right size. Palpate for the brachial BEFORE you start your BP and make sure your scope is over that point. It is amazing how much artery and vein location can differ from the norm and from person to person. I have found asucultation points at almost the elbow for some people. As mentioned by others, a good scope helps too.

LOL nice

Im thinking about adding Esquire to the end of my name.

"The average man walks around with a toddler in his pants." Can anyone tell me where thats from?

@tinamarie, I would check into the chem thing. I can almost garuntee they will tell you the same thing they told me. Don't worry about the A&P grades; I got a B in both and they took me. I dont remember my exact TEAS scores at this point but I was well over the min that they required (somewhere in the 93-98th percentiles for all areas except one I think). Dont let the TEAS freak you out; its cake. Get the official review book and brush up on the basics. I havent heard too much about the accelerated program itself but I have had a few friends who graduated from the generic program and they loved it. I havent heard anything about orientation as of yet. I can tell you that the anticipation is starting to kill me though lol.

It took them about 5 weeks after my results came in for them to send my acceptance letter. I think the delay was that I was in the very first batch of applicants and there were a lot of us sitting for the exam PLUS it was getting towards the end of the semester so they might have been busy with other things as well. I ended up having to take all those classes because I had never taken child pysch, never took intro to soc, somehow I finished my BS without taking more than one transferrable humanities class (which is sad but make me LOL because I am taking MUSIC APPRECIATION), and the chem ticked me off because I had taken CHEM 123 and 124 at MCC years ago. I was within the 10 years BUT since it was not the same exact class material as Chem for Health Sciences they will not accept it. So my higher level chem doesnt seem to cut the mustard for some stupid reason. Other than that specific gripe I expected the rest. I had only decided to go for nursing about a year ago. I was a little too late to register for anything in the summer so I started with A&P I at MCC last fall. (If I had know about chem I would have taken that as well). I applied while I was still taking AP II and Micro this spring. Like someone else already said, as long as everything is done before you start in January there is no issue. But if you are taking classes up till that point like me, make sure you dont slack off and you meet the requirements to pass those classes. That being said, I'm not too concerned. I mean... music appreciation? REALLY? LOL

Applied and accepted! I actually have a few prereqs to get out of the way in September because I got a little screwed, lol. (Chem for health sciences, intro to sociology, child psych, and a humanities) But I start the nursing classes in January. I am taking my NURM 100 challenge exam next week too. I cant wait until January when I can quit my current miserable job and go to school full time.

That last line made me LOL. Thank you.

I know a number of people who had to repeat a class or two. The commonality between all of them..... they slacked off and got lazy halfway through the class. Just keep yourself disciplined and on track; you will be fine. Dont procrastinate because the continuos stream of work will bury you and then itll be that much more difficult to catch up. But thats really it. Oh, and as previous posters have commented, you could expect to lose a 4.0 gpa pretty easy. But remember, your final grades dont really matter as long as you achieve the passing scores of your program and you do the same on the NCLEX. C=COMPLETE=RN Dont let ANYONE try to tell you differently. Its not worth the added stress, believe me.

I have been a CPR instructor for years and I HATE the fact that you can take your initial this way. Its great for recerts, but the first time around you should be required to sit through an actual class so you have a chance to become confident. I will say that the last recert I did in this way was done by a great group that did take the time with people if they were shaky on something. We were able to complete as fast or slow as we wanted for the most part as long as they were satisfied we had the skills down. CPR is really a very easy thing if you can get the whole process down. There are a lot of little things to remember at first but it all becomes second nature and automatic the more you do it. I am speaking from 13 years of EMS experience and countless codes in the streets. If all of yours are in the hospital it will be far more controlled and less chaotic than what I deal with on a regular basis. In the hospital you will have a whole team backing you. Dont sweat it too much. Just concertrate on doing the best you can.

I agree totally. But I get around that obese thing with my witty charm and sense of humor. If that fails I can always bug the crap out of them until they hire me so I leave them alone. If you find yourself saying "PFFFT.... that wouldnt work," think again. A good rule of thumb for interviews is to dazzle them with your brilliance, entertain them with your sense of humor, or baffle them with your BS... all valid tactics. A combination of all three works quite well I have found.

Or a kindergarden teacher.

Actually I would have to agree that it does not play a CONCIOUS part in decision making. However, most of the studies give credence to the theory that there is a definate subconcious link between looks and hiring practices. This seems to only be a generality though and usually on in cases where the two contenders for a position are neck and neck on all other attributes. It sucks but it does still work. Oh and they find that a male screener is far more likely to hire an attractive female candidate then an equally qualified male candidate. The same can be said in reverse. Again, generalities at best but there is a correlation.

I would have totally applied... and my headshot would have been Brad Pitt or Peter Griffin.

And it was serious?

While I am in NJ and cannot offer any advice on your question, I just wanted to say this..... good for you for having the courage to ask a question like this in an open public forum. Too many people would be far too timid about their faith to ask this question and with a very straight forward explanation as to why when asked.

Like what I'm doing right now!

If I read your post correctly you are from Australia (Oz)? Sorry if I am wrong with that by the way. :) But, community colleges here definitely do not spoon feed you anything. It's usually the universities that do that funny enough. And with all the classes I have taken it seems to come back to the professor that you get. You will get good ones and bad ones wherever you go. However, the ones that work at community colleges tend to NOT be full time academians and instead have day jobs. They pick up a class or two per semester to teach because they love teaching. I was telling a friend of mine who is in a PA program at the university about my A&P professors. For A&P I my professor's day job was as a neurophysiologist; he was the guy in the OR making sure the surgeons didn't screw up the brain surgery. My A&P II professor worked as a thoracic surgeon in a level 1 trauma center (that's the highest rating for for a trauma hospital in my state). Both classes were all day saturday classes (we only met one day a week but it was from 9am until 3:30pm with lecture from 9-12 and lab from 1230-3:30) and both of these professors would work full work weeks (a lot of times working the overnight the night before and showing up in their OR scrubs) then commute an hour or more to teach us. These guys were all about us being motivated learners. They told us flat out on the first day that they expect us to keep up with the required reading, get ahead in it as much as possible, do any and all extra assignments made available, and study every day. They were very clear that they expected us to know most of the material from what we did outside of class. These professors viewed what they did for us in class as a review and reinforcement of what we learned on our own and they were there to answer questions and fill in the blanks when we could not figure it out independently. Talk about high expectations. But I will tell you that I think I learned more in those two classes than I had in any of my previous ones. And I have taken some pretty technical courses in my day.

I can say I have noticed the same thing over the last decade of taking classes and its DEFINITELY because I matured quite a bit in that time.

I would disagree with the term MOST being used. I could agree that in SOME cases, county college classes are easier. However, I know in my state the classes can and usually are harder. Especially when you are speaking of 100 and 200 level mathmatics, science, and english courses. A previous poster mentioned that humanties are more or less equal across the board in terms of difficulty and that I would have to agree with.

LOL, nice!

I agree completely with everything you said. People equate a degree with intelligence and education. The reality is, holding a degree has nothing to do with intelligence. I know plenty of folks with bachelors, masters, and PhDs who are complete and utter morons. Literally. However, they had the ability to study something and regurgitate it out on an exam and write papers to the satisfaction of their professors. And ignorant people will ALWAYS be ignorant until we take the time to educate them. It has taken me 10 YEARS to complete my bachelor's degree. I putzed around community college for 5 years trying to figure out what I wanted to do before I settled on computers. Finally finished an AAS in that and transferred to a great four year school (Drexel University) where I completed my BS in information security in a little over 2 years online. And I STILL get people who go "Oh.... you finished your degree online...." and they give me that condescending/patronizing half smile and nod you mentioned. To hell with them! When I see that crap out of someone I immediately outline for them how hard I had to work for my degree. And let me tell you, the work load of taking three online classes a quarter from Drexel in a highly technical field was killer. I would have at least 40-50 hours of assignments, papers, reading, discussion board postings, and exams PER WEEK. And that was at a minimum. AND that was on top of working full time and a myriad of other responsibilities. I still get the same attitude when I tell people that I went to a county college. And then I tell those people that if it is so easy, why is it that every smuck from the four year school looking to take a summer class for quick and easy credits (I have actually heard this from people sitting in lab classes with me) ends up failing out or barely passing? It's because community colleges (at least in my area) are actually HARDER than the same classes taken at the four year schools. And why is this? Because the professors at our community college have looked at the statistics and found that a large percentage of their students will not go on to a four year university. So they take the stance of "Well if this might be the last schooling you receive, we are going to make it count!". You are absolutely right that a person should be proud of the education that they have earned. And I will emphasize the part THAT THEY EARNED. The person who went to ANY school and skated by doing the bare minimum necisary to obtain their degree and engaged their brain only enough to keep from falling out of their seat during class is a disgrace. The funny thing is, is that it is usually these people who just happened to do it at a higher degree level than someone else are looking down their noses at everyone else. The folks who legitimately worked for their degree, no matter what level, are the ones who truely appreciate how much commitment and effort it takes to educate yourself and do not look down at others for doing so because they may not have gone as far as they did. Oh, and one last thing that is just a pet peeve of mine: people that cannot form a coherent sentence in speech or writing have no business talking about other people's education or lack thereof. Not saying that is an issue with any of the posts here, but it makes me laugh when one person is calling another person stupid and they couldn't be bothered with capitalization or punctuation AND they spelled it stoopid.

HEHE.... have someone flash me. Giggity! Sorry too early in the morning and I have one last final tonight. I'm a bit punchy. :)

I am male and will be starting clinicals in January. I also know many nurses.... a good number (if not half of all the nurses I know) of which are male as well. Funny thing is... not one of us (male or female) is homosexual. I hear about and have seen that stigma applied before but never experienced it myself other than some light joking from current coworkers. Anyone else get the Nurse Focker comment? LOL.

My personal opinion would be to stick it out for another 6 months to get the job on the peds floor. If you can, hedge your bets and ALSO take that per diem job on the psych floor as it sounds like a great possibility for experience but maybe not so much for a full time position. I am in a job I despise right now, but I just have to stick it out until January when I will be quitting to start my accelerated program. I am a career changer and work full time in corporate IT right now. I completely understand your frustration with your current job but if there is a light at the end of that tunnel that could lead to a great position I would stick it out.