clucito01

Here is my university's attendance and test make-up policy directly from my Mental Health syllabus from this past semester: "After 3 classroom absences (consecutive or not), a concern form will be generated and the student will need to meet with the classroom instructor to discuss an action plan. After the 4th absence, the student will be required to appear before the admission and progression committee to discuss course progression and possible consequences. Excessive absences and/or failure to appear before the instructor or the admission and progression committee may result in grade adjustments, recommended withdrawal from the course, or failure. If you are absent two consecutive class sessions immediately prior to a clinical rotation, you must meet with course faculty for permission to go to clinical. If you are not prepared for clinical, you will receive an Unsatisfactory Clinical Day. Students are expected to sit for all examinations in this course on the date they are scheduled. Make-up exams will receive an automatic 5% reduction in the respective exam's final score. The make-up exam will be scheduled at the instructor's convenience within 5 business days, and may be in a different format than the one originally given. Any student arriving late for an examination will need to complete the exam in the time remaining. Additionally, any student arriving after any other students have left the examination room will need to schedule a make up exam with the mandatory 5% point deduction for first late exam; 10% deduction for subsequent late exams. For example: You take your exam late and score 85%; I will then deduct 5% for taking the exam late and the score will be recorded as 80%. When averaging exams scores for the purpose of determining if you have achieved the 75% requirement, the exam scores used to calculate this average will include the deduction for late exam." They also made a revision to our nursing student handbook stating that if we miss more than 3 days for a single course we will automatically receive a 3% deduction in our overall grade for the course.

I just received my clinical assignment for tomorrow and part of our clinical packet (medications and pathophysiology) has to be completed when we arrive the morning of clinicals and one of the meds listed for my patient is shown as: D5 0.045 NS + 20KCL...I've never seen D5 0.045 before. I've only seen D5 0.45...could this have just been an error on my clinical instructor's part when she was entering the information into the Excel spreadsheet? My med book doesn't list a thing about it and I'm not finding much online about it either. The only reason I'm on here asking instead of calling my clinical instructor is because my cell phone is being repaired and won't be ready for pickup for over an hour! Oh and can anyone recommend a good drug guide and diagnotic/lab reference book? I have Davis' 2011 drug guide and Lippincott's 2012 drug guide and to be honest I'm not too impressed by either! And my school had us get Mosby's Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference (10th edition) with our med-surg book and that one is even worse! Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions! :)

So I start back to nursing school on January 16 and I couldn't be more excited! (our break started December 15) Mainly I'm excited to start Adult Health and Mental Health clinicals and overall to just learn more about what it takes to be a nurse! But for some reason I am continuously seeing fellow classmates post on Facebook how much they don't want to go back or how they aren't looking forward to our winter break being over. I don't understand this! Am I crazy??? I LOVE being a nursing student! This is what I have looked forward to the most since I decided to start my path to becoming a RN! I am excited to learn! I do look forward to breaks - just the beginning - to catch up on sleep and to spend some much needed quality time with my family but after a week or two I get so antsy and excited that the days seem to crawl by! Especially after my textbooks for the upcoming semester get delivered! :w00t: These are also the same people that will complain about everything to do with the program...how it's run, how the professors lecture, how the tests are worded/graded, how quickly our grades are posted, the fact that we don't get released from lectures early (pretty sure that since it says the class runs until 3 the professor has every right to lecture until then! How else do you expect to pass the test???) In my opinion it HAS to be exhausting to live your daily life continuously looking for the negative! I know I get exhausted just listening to it! I personally choose to live my daily life trying my hardest to always look at the positive...or at least try to find a sliver of positive in each situation. Every encounter we have in our lives can either be brushed aside or we can choose to embrace it and make it a learning situation! I just don't know if this is what defines someone from being the nurse that wants to continuously learn to improve their level of knowledge not only for their sake but also for the sake and safety of their patients and the nurse who just seems to be there for the paycheck?

Well there were quite a few girls who started the program in August and continued to live their social lives as if they didn't have a care in the world...these girls also flunked out at the end of the semester! I offer no sympathy to someone who comes in for a final, sits down next to me and says "I haven't studied at all because I was out partying last night!" and then gets upset because she didn't meet the required test average for that course - which was always the course that she struggled with..... Anyways, congrats on your (hopeful) acceptance! I love being a nursing student no matter how hard it is! My recommendation is for you to first complete any requirements they give you along with your acceptance letter! 99% of the time when they say if it is not completed and turned in by the stated date you will not start with everyone else, they mean it! Also, I would recommend you beef up on your Physiology! That is a major life-saver and boost when it comes to Pathophysiology! Good luck! :)

Hidden costs are outrageous! But I guess with school you have to pay in deep before you can start getting "real grown up" paychecks as I call them! At my school starting from the moment I first applied to the program I had to pay for: Entrance test (TEAS), application fee, immunizations, background check, physical, personal health insurance, $200 deposit to hold your spot in the program, scrubs with patch and a lab coat with a patch (the patches are only sold by 1 uniform company in the small town where my university is located and the owner will not just sell the patches individually anymore without a uniform purchase, so for 1 set of scrubs a lab coat and 1 patch for each was $98! o_O), white shoes for clinicals, books (least I've paid so far is $515 and that's only for 2 classes), Microsoft Office for my laptop, laptop bag since we have to have our's with us each day during lecture, they provided us with a "starter bag" with all of our supplies for our fundamentals lab and it also came with a pen light and stethoscope (the stethoscope was so cheap that it broke as soon as I pulled it out of the package! So I just sucked it up and bought myself a Littman), they charge us lab fees, clinical fees, liability insurance fees, printing fees, syllabus fees (????) and that's all I can remember for now! It's expensive to be a nursing student! Between driving to lecture (my school is exactly 32.5 miles from my apartment so I drive 65 miles a day round trip), gas, lunch money (usually by the time I'm done with homework or studying or preparing for clinicals the next day - or all 3 - I am too tired to even think about packing a lunch), coffee/caffeine $$ to get me through the day and everything else I'm beyond broke! But all I have to tell myself is that May 2013 will be here before I realize and I won't have to borrow money from my parents anymore! I will finally get to start paying them back and be fully 100% self sufficient! Wahoo!!

Well, it's that time of year again! Time for school to start back up & the new herd of nursing students to be ushered in! I was one of those students last year & was so excited to start my first day of nursing school that I could barely sleep the night before! And then reality set in at the end of my first semester. I didn't meet our program's required test average of 73% for Pathophysiology & found out that not only would I have to wait until the fall 2011 semester to retake the course, I couldn't take any clinical courses either. But I did get to take Pharmacology & Research in Nursing in the spring! I dealt with it & got over it & pushed on through to finish my first year of nursing school! I was even more excited for the summer because I didn't have to take any summer classes! Woo-hoo! This is the first summer I've had off since I started back to college & I've loved it! But it seems that slowly as more time passes that I have off from school, the less I want to go back! I would never dream of dropping out mainly because I've come too far to just give up, but also because I want to provide a better future for my kids (that I'll someday have) then what I was given! I don't know if it is just because I have just truly had a great summer & am not ready to get back into the grind of school or if my fire that has fueled my dedication has completely burned out! One thing that I do know for sure is that I am so completely nervous to have to retake Pathophysiology I can barely think of anything else! I think it is because I will be in the class with all of the new incoming Juniors while all of my friends are just down the hall in the Senior classroom! Nobody likes to be the kid who 'got held back a year in school' & I don't even want to think of becoming the 'girl who flunked out of nursing school'!!! I don't know if I'm feeling this way because I don't want to be judged & I really don't want to have to explain to people why I am considered to be a 'Sunior' (senior/junior) this year! I'm sure that as the weeks go by & the semester starts getting crazy busy again that I will look back to this & think of how silly I was to even feel this way but for now I can't plan that far ahead into the future! So if anyone could send a few prayers/well wishes/good vibes my way come August 25 I would greatly appreciate it! Because I've got a lot riding on this & a lot of great people rooting for me!

Thank you for being there for me when I found out I was getting held back a year! You were probably the only reason I stayed somewhat - and it's still questionable to this day - mentally sane! Thank you for letting me randomly cry at all hours of the day & night because I felt like my world was collapsing in around me! Thank you for not lecturing me while I was venting to you because you seemed to be the only person around who knew that was what I needed! Thank you to EVERYONE who very much surprised me & offered me support & words of encouragement! You girls were my rock & the reason I am coming back to kick that class in the rear this semester! I never knew half of you even cared about me that much & I hope that I can call each & every single one of you friends for the rest of my life! Thank you to the people who stood by me & knocked me back into reality when I - for some odd reason - started acting like the other 'mean girls' in class! Thank you to my one Professor who instead of turning me away from her office when I hysterically burst out into tears pulled me into her office, sat me down, gave me a box of tissues, let me cry it out and offered me words of support & strength! Thank you to the girls who I thought were my real friends but turned their backs on me & ignored me when I needed a friend the most! Oh so now you find out you didn't meet the test average for a class & want to call me crying because you "needed someone to talk to who knows what you're going through"? I'll go ahead & listen but only because I want you to look back at how big of an *** you were to me & how be a real friend to someone! But don't ever expect me to call you my friend again! And thank you to my family & my amazing boyfriend! You have all offered me so much help, support, & love! Without each & every one of you I wouldn't be here today pushing forward!

My school is royal blue for the top & pants with our patch on the right sleeve. We look like giant blueberries! :) But I totally agree with you about the admiration part! I'd see the nursing students walking through campus & couldn't wait to be in that spot! And the first day last year that I got to wear my scrubs on campus I was so proud! Making it into nursing school is a huge accomplishment & to someday be able to call myself a RN will be even more an honor!

Begging family members for help! Seriously though save save SAVE!!! It's hard enough to do school full time & work 10 - 15 hours a week doing respite care!

You do what you want! Don't let anyone sway you into it! You may regret it in the end! BUT, with that said I know that here in the KC area a lot of hospitals are strictly hiring BSN grads. Mainly because they want the nurses that have the extra education. And because the hospitals are trying for magnet status. Also the only real difference between a BSN & ADN grad are the theory classes.

I would love to be in your shoes of ONLY having 37K in student loans! As of right now (3 years in to my BSN program) I have 57K trailing me. I still have 2 years to go! So i'm looking at right around 80K in debt when I graduate! So when you start to get depressed think about how it could be worse! And how there are people out there in situations MUCH worse than yours.

I need help and advice! My nursing class was recently told by our program director the day that she had a meeting with hospital big wigs in our metro area that she asked them what the job outlook will be for this year's graduating class, our class, and the class that is coming in. What she told us didn't surprise me at all but the aftermath has been frustrating to say the very least. She informed us that if we had any intention of working in a hospital in the metro area after graduation then we needed to get a job as a CNA or student nurse tech in a hospital asap. So I went home that night and started applying and applying and applying for any and all nurse tech jobs at all hospitals in our area. To this day (she told us this back in April) I have probably put in almost 100 applications. My best friend, who is also in the program with me, started applying the same night I did, got a call less than a week later from a local hospital asking her to come in for an interview and then less than another week after that she got the call saying they wanted to offer her the job. I applied for the same job and heard nothing. I am so incredibly happy for her! But, yes I have also told her this, I am a little envious of her in the fact that this hospital is so close to my apartment and is a great facility to work for! She lives 45 minutes away and seems to complain about everything there. She even says that she wouldn't send her worst enemy there to die! I told her "Be grateful you have a job IN a hospital!!" after hearing that! I've gotten 1 phone call, yes you read that right ONE phone call for an interview at a hospital that I've always said I wanted to work at after I become a licensed nurse. I was so excited! And even more excited because it was on the ICU step-down unit! Right up my alley! I prepared my resume, skills checklist, letter of recommendation from my health assessment lab instructor who was also my clinical instructor first semester in the program, and spent hours picking out an outfit that I felt was professional. I arrived for my interview 15 minutes early, was fully prepared for any and all questions, I even did research on this hospital about awards they had received, their ranking as one of the best hospitals for many specialties in the region, and knew the date they were awarded magnet status! I was even more excited when after my interview with the HR specialist was complete that she asked me if I could stay and interview with the nurse manager! I was ecstatic but didn't do my normal happy dance that I like to do when I get exciting news! I went upstairs had a fabulous interview with the nurse manager, she even told me that she thought I did wonderful in answering all of her questions, and then she asked me if I could stay to do a group interview with a few of her nurses! Even more exciting news! So I stayed, answered any and all questions they had, received a full tour of the floor and went home with high hopes. To this day I still have not received a rejection letter, email or anything saying sorry but we have chosen someone else. That has really deflated my spirits! I'm a licensed CNA in both Kansas and Missouri, I've successfully completed all of my fundamentals skills tests for the nursing program, have a amazing letter of recommendation that raves about my attentiveness to patients, patience with those who test our limits, my quick head to toe assessment skills and about the time that I can successfully complete it in. My resume has been reviewed and edited by my fiancee, who is the king at those types of things but yet I can't get anything but an email saying well Thanks but no thanks! What else can I do? I know I have to just keep trying because there IS something out there for me but where it is right now I just don't know. I'm getting ready to take the Kansas medication aide test since I finished Pharmacology in May and I'm wondering could this help me? I thought that being a licensed CNA in 2 states was great! Guess not. Any and all words of advice would be appreciated!

My first semester I was in Therapeutic Interventions (Fundamentals), Health Assessment, Pathophysiology, Intro to Nursing, and Missions in Healthcare. Along with those 5 classes I had lab for Health Assessment 2 days a week, and Therapeutic Interventions lab 1 day a week and then clinical's for that course every other Friday. I thought I was going to die by then end of the semester but I wouldn't change any of it for the experience and knowing that I'm in a kick-ass and amazing program! And soon I will be able to add RN, BSN behind my last name!! :thankya:

First off if you are truly happy with being a CNA then more power to you! Those nurses should NEVER have insulted you for your choice! Sad to say many nurses only get experience as a CNA during their fundamentals class and through part of their clinical rotations! I think that they should realize without CNA's they would have much more to juggle! I have been a CNA for 9 years now and am in my junior year of a BSN program and feel so grateful that I had a chance to experience so much in the nursing field as "just" a CNA! Don't let these nurses get under your skin! Without CNA's being the eyes and ears of patients everywhere who knows where the nursing field would be at!

You look around the classroom before spring break and think "Man, we all look like zombies!" And when you come back from spring break everyone has their hair cut & colored, eyebrows waxed, and everyone looks like they've gotten more than 3 hours of sleep!