luv2bake

Hello guys, I hope you are doing well and almost ready for school. Only one more week to go! Sorry I took so long to get back to you guys. I have a family member who is very sick with cancer who I am taking care of and most of my time has been spent taking care of her. So, I finally got some time to respond to your requests about what to expect for your first year of nursing school. So here goes... -Working: Do not work unless you absolutely have to. It is not advised by the nursing department and I agree with this completely. I understand that some of you will have to work because you can't afford not to. I have friends in the program that are in this situation. From what I have heard, it is quite a challenge. However, if you do need to work and want to know how to balance school and work, you will probably need to talk to someone that has to work and attend school. I work once in awhile for a nursing registry as a CNA when I can fit it into my schedule. I am blessed that my husband is able to work and support us, while I attend school so I don't have to work. I did take out a loan however to help with the expenses. -Studying: Some of you will have to study for exams more than others. I realized this my first semester. I am one of those that has to study more. That is ok. I enjoy all that I am learning. It is fascinating to me and I want to be a good nurse so I don't mind putting in the hard work. You will learn what works best for you as time goes by. My first semester I studied every single day. I was scared to fail so I felt the need to study most of the time with the exception of breaks, eating, sleeping, and going to church. By my second semester, I was able to give myself more time to myself and spend a little more time with family. Over studying is not healthy either and by doing so you will burn out eventually. For myself it was about finding a balance between nursing school and my personal life. I had to find a balance between school, sleep, eating, exercising, free time, family time, and my time with God. It was tough to find a balance and in the process I also found a couple extra pounds , but I now feel definitely like my life has that balance. As far as exact hours, I always tried to go with the suggestion of for every hour of class lecture, you need to study 3 hours. So for example, you guys will have approximately 6 hours of lecture each week, so that equals 18 hours of studying outside of class per week. I always tried to do that at least and most of the time I did extra. Do not try to read every single page of the assigned readings. They assign you a lot and for most students, it is not possible to read all that they assign. Pay attention in class. Take good notes. Ask LOTS of questions. Be involved in the lecture. If possible, record the lectures to refer back to at home and in case you miss something. When you are studying read through the readings and focus on the material that was covered in class. Do the NCLEX review questions at the end of each chapter assigned. Also, your power points are a good study tool. Flash cards and re-writing my notes in my own words helped me with studying for exams. You will be getting ATI review books for each of the ATI tests you will be taking. I have found the ATI books to be helpful. Do not try to start studying for exams the day before the exam. Try to review the material for lectures as soon as possible after the lecture and allow time to study each day rather than trying to cram everything at the last minute as there is a lot of info to retain. Try to start studying for exams a few days before the exam. -Exams:You will have exams every 2-3 weeks. They are multiple choice. Like I said in my other post, nursing school exams are not like any other exams you have taken in other classes. They involve critical thinking and it may take you time to learn how to answer the questions appropriately. It is a good idea to purchase an NCLEX review book now as it will be a great study tool to assist you with learning how to take the exams, as well as material you will be covering. I highly recommend Saunder's. Start practicing NCLEX questions now so that you can get used to the style of questions. As time progresses, try to continue to practice NCLEX questions throughout school. As many as you can, as often as you can. If you have a learning disability or even test taking anxiety, you can look into taking your tests at the DSPS where they allow you to have a little extra time to take your exams. Skills Lab and Skills Evaluations:You will learn nursing skills at school before you go into the hospital that you will be tested on and more as you progress in the program. Pay attention when your clinical instructor is teaching you and take good notes. Before your skills evaluations, take advantage of the time they give you to practice your skills in the lab. Also, you can even practice at home with your family members or even on a teddy bear. Yes, I actually did this when my husband wasn't around. Repeat the steps to your skills out loud and practice as if you are doing it with a patient. You can even practice just by explaining to your classmates the steps without the materials. Quiz each other. When you go to take your skills eval, give yourself plenty of time so you are not rushed and create more anxiety for yourself. If being around others who are talking about an exam before the exam makes you nervous, do not show up early and hang out as this will only create more anxiety for you. Show up on time for your eval and if you have time to review and wish to, go off to a corner alone or with another classmate who you know won't make you more nervous. There is going to be a lot of anxious people on all of your tests days. You have to know if you are comfortable being around that environment and if you are not don't put yourself there. Surround yourself with positive thinkers and optimistic people. Anxiety and pessimism can be contagious. Clinical: Clinical is fun and exciting! Come prepared. Dress according to the dress code. Don't get sent home for a silly reason like not wearing the right shoes. Allow yourself at least 6 hours of sleep. Try to get more, but any less and you may not be safe to work with patients. Eat something for breakfast and bring a snack you can stick in your pocket if you get hungry every couple of hours because sometimes its hard to take a break. Make sure you stay hydrated as well. Lack of sleep and dehydration=nursing student passing out in clinical. I know. It happened to me as a CNA. You are going to get what you put into your clinical experience. Take advantage of every learning opportunity. Ask the nurses lots of question. Be friendly to them and always be willing to help out on the unit. By doing so when you ask them to show you certain procedures or if they know of another nurse that will be doing something you haven't seen, they will be more willing to take the time to call you so you can watch and participate. Care Plans: You will have care plans to complete on your patients prior to clinical. This requires going to the hospital the day before clinical, picking out a patient, and doing research on that patient. They are VERY time consuming. They can take an average of 4 hours give or take to complete. This is how you will get to know your patients and be prepared to work with them once you meet them. Start early and allow yourself enough time to work on them so that you are staying up till 2am trying to complete your care plan. Make sure they are complete as your clinical instructor will send you home if they are not. They can be nerve wracking in the beginning because they take so long to complete, but you will learn to get quicker at completing them as time goes by. Shoes: I have some Cherokee slip on shoes that I love. I purchased them at Scrub Mart. Well, I believe I covered all of your questions. Let me know if you have any more. Nursing school will be a big adjustment, but you can do it. Remember to take time for yourself whatever that may mean for you. Whether its watching a movie, taking a walk, or spending time with family. It will be important in order to get you through the stressful times. Also, try to get exercise and make good food choices to keep yourself healthy. I guess that is about it for now. Lastly, I just have to say, enjoy the process. The time will go by faster then you know. Before you know it you may be the one writing on allnurses a year from now giving your advice to the next class! :)

Cool. Yeah, maybe I will see you there. I will probably attend a few workshops. :)

Rayni22, The questions are just weird and there is nothing and I mean nothing you can do to prepare for that exam. Trust me on this one. You will have PLENTY of other exams to worry about. Don't do this to yourself before school even starts. I understand exactly where you are coming from in feeling the need to excel at everything as most of us nursing students do, but do not even waste any more time from here until Jump Start worrying about this. I replied to the post quickly yesterday because I knew some of you were probably already worrying and my feelings were right. Please, let it go and spend the rest of your time on preparing yourself in other ways such as shopping for school supplies, schedules, getting rest, and visit w/ friends and family you won't be able to see all the time once school starts. You already took the TEAS exam and that is not what this is. If you still wish to worry, I won't say I told you so. Also, another tip of advice. Nursing exams are not like any other exams you have taken in your prerequisites. They are about critical thinking and not memorization. You will have to learn to take these tests. It will come to you in time. Stressing about an exam after it is over is a waste of time and in nursing school, you will have no time to waste. You will need to learn to do the best you can on your exams and then to let it go. Otherwise, you will find yourself going crazy. Now stop worrying about this and go to the beach or something please.

Thank you Leslie. I will keep you guys updated.

No problem Emerald Star. It is my pleasure. :) I just want to help you guys because I was in your shoes just one year ago! I had a ton of questions myself.

Thank you ALL sooooo much for your replies. Your advice, shared experiences, and concerns are greatly appreciated. I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to reply to my post as I know that it takes time out of your day. This is a difficult situation to be going through but with each bit of knowledge and guidance we receive, we will be able to get through it. I am very touched by such compassionate responses and it makes me even more proud that I am going into nursing. I pray that God blesses each and every one of you in your lives. You guys are amazing. Thank you again.

Hey guys! Don't even worry about the critical thinking exam. It is just an assessment exam to see where you are at starting nursing school. I was concerned as well but found out I had nothing to worry about. It doesn't affect anyone being able to start. It is part of the ati testing program which you will learn more about soon. ATIs are the exams you will take throughout nursing school to help you prepare for the nclex. So please, don't lose sleep over it! Just do the best you can and enjoy the rest of Jump Start. :) I found Jump Start to be very beneficial. Just keep the questions coming. I am still planning to post some tips on everything that helped me my first year. Hopefully I will be able to tomorrow. Ok, just let me know if you guys have more questions!

Thank you Tyvin. After reading your reply, I think I will offer to call her nurse tomorrow and find out more information. It was helpful to hear about your experiences and advice. Thank you for your concerns as well. Thank you also text42cares.

I don't know if she is confirmed for a terminal end soon and I'm not sure what that means. I assume her time to go home soon as you also stated. I haven't spoken with her nurse yet. Today I have just been thinking of all options as we just learned of the news. She is still able to walk around on her own. I was thinking getting her a room of her own would give her a little privacy. However, it is an additional expense we would have to work out and she is getting weak. She is currently sleeping in living room on a futon. The futon is really comfortable. It is hard to see her suffer physically, but the thing I am more concerned for is her pyschosocial needs. She has a lot of anger. It can be hard to deal with sometimes. I want to understand more how to help her with this part of the process. I'd like to see her go home peacefully. In your experience, have you found it possible to help your patients with this part? I can't help thinking of Integrity vs. Despair. I just want to understand all she is going through and help her cope with it.

Yes, hospice is involved at her home and she has a team. Her hospice nurse said she can transfer everything to where we live and get a new team to work with. She is planing to call her hospice nurse tomorrow to let her know we agreed to have her live with us.

We all are human and we all make mistakes at times. The important part about making a mistake is learning from it. I worked as a CNA on an extremely busy DOU unit for two years as my first CNA job. I too made mistakes like yourself. I also got down on myself and questioned my nursing abilities. The fact that you are so concerned is good. It means you care and want to do better. When I did make mistakes as a CNA, I talked with my husband, family or a friend about what happened. Once I did, I usually felt better. I saw things in a different perspective and they made me realize it wasn't the end of the world after all. Sometimes that's all you need is someone to tell you it's ok. After I learned from my mistakes, I thought about how I could prevent making those mistakes again. It all came down to slowing down and double, triple, and sometimes quadruple checking my work. Don't beat yourself up. Learn from it and move on. :)

Hello all and thank you to all who share their wonderful stories, After spending much time reading and learning from others stories, I will now post my own now because I'm in need of advice. I am about to start my 2nd year in my 2 year RN program in a couple of weeks. I have only been married a year. I started my RN program last fall. Last year during my first semester, my husband was laid off at the end of the year. Shortly after, we found out on Christmas that his mother has stage 4 Ampullary cancer. It had spread in her body. Surgery was not an option. Chemo would only be to stabilize the cancer. She was given 3-6 months, tops a year. She began chemo in February. Since then, she is now on the third type of treatment because the others weren't very effective. Meanwhile, my husband took a job an hour and a half away because there were no jobs for him where we live. He would stay with his mom near his job and come home on the weekend. In May my husband was diagnosed with a rare skin disease called Pemphigus Vulgaris which is a skin disease where your skin thinks a certain protein is foreign to it and attacks itself. He is doing much better but now on a ton of medication. My mother-n-law is now having difficulties where she lives and has asked to come live with us. I just found this news out yesterday. I am concerned for several reasons. She is not doing well and I see her slowly declining. It is heart breaking. We live in a one bedroom apartment and now we are looking into a 2 bedroom. I am about to start my third semester of nursing school soon. My husband only comes home on the weekend and I will be the one looking after his mother during the week. What should I expect caring for someone in the 4th stage of cancer? Do they need someone to be looking after them all the time? What signs or symptoms should I look for that show her cancer is progressing? She has already slowed down tremendously. She is always tired, has nausea and vomiting sometimes, fevers here and there, her appetite has decreased quite a bit, and she sleeps all day. How can you have any idea of how long these symptoms will last? What other symptoms may show her worsening? She doesn't want to do things that can help her like take tylenol or do her breathing treatment. What can I do at home to make her most comfortable? Do you think it will be possible to look after someone in her condition while going to nursing school? How will it be when things start to get really bad? I know it is going to be extremely rough, however, I just want to know more less what to expect so I can prepare myself. The chemo doesn't seem to be working and we are already in the 8 month since she was diagnosed. Needless to say, it has been a rough first year of marriage. ANY and ALL advice with how to deal with my situation would be extremely helpful. I want to be successful in nursing school, but this is family which comes first. Thank you.

Hello Lexus02 & new first year RN students, As far as books, American psychological association book-I did not use. They have you get it to help you write your APA papers. It didn't help me. I just went to the English center at school. Guidelines for Individualizing Care Across the Lifespan-this is your care plan book and yes, I used it quite a bit. Jarvis-yes, I used this book a lot as well. It is great for learning assessments. Kee laboratory and diagnostic- which addition are they suggesting? I didn't find mine helpful. Lewis-great book. You will definately need it. Its huge so don't be scared when you see it. Potter & Perry- great book as well. You will need it definately. Both video series are good resources Kee Pharmacology-helped a lot with pharm Intravenous Medications- never purchased it so I don't know Drug Books- I have a Mosby drug guide and I am happy with it That is the info I have on books for now. I will write more later on what I can share about the program. I am very tired now. I just wanted to let you know about the books asap because I am sure some of you are trying to figure out which to buy. Hopefully this helps. I think I spent over $600. At least the program itself is not too expensive. Okdoky, too be continued.

I am not near my books right now but I can tell you from what I remember. I definately used Fundamentals, Pharmacology, Care Plan book, and Lewis. Dosage calculations, Lab book, or APA were not helpful to me at all. Which others are they requiring or suggesting?

Your decision is very comendable. You did the right thing. Be proud of yourself for standing up for what you believe in. I know you will find a better place to work. Its good you are getting out before you turn bitter due to poor working conditions. Too many people end up hating their job because of circumstances like this but yet they do nothing about it but walk around with a nasty attitude and a dirty look on their face for years. Good luck with the job search and I thank you as well for putting patients first! We do need more nurses like yourself!