Isabellah

I agree that you must learn from your mistake and move on. If you continue to focus on the negative, it will make your nursing school experience dreadful and cause you to become burned out real quick. And washing hands is critical. Nosocomial infections are increasing in hospitals. Remember washing our hands prevents the spread of organisms especially to ill patients. I wish you the best in your endeavors.

I am in my fourth and final semester in a 2 year ADN program. There is many times that I feel inadequate about my knowledge base and skills. I have learned to keep a journal. This is how I do it; each day I write five things I did well and five things I need to work on. I have been doing this since the beginning and it is a real confidence builder seeing all that I have learned; some days I can write more than five things I did well and less than 5 I need to work on. It may be hard at first but writing that you got out of bed, dressed, and arrived at school on time is one thing that you did well. I wish you the best of luck. Remember: whether you think you can or you think you can't; you are right.

I agree nursing school is a love/hate relationship. It is hard but not terrible as most new nursing students are lead to believe. The only terrible thing I have encountered is the cattiness of my fellow nursing students. I agree go to every second hand store or used bookstore in your area. I have found editions of our textbooks (yes, they was a year or two old) for way cheap. I have also found NCLEX books at yard sales for twenty-five cents. Cost can be cut but you have to look for cheaper alternatives. I wish you the best on your journey. A journey begins with one small step.

I need to vent or burst. I am in my final leg of nursing school and had an exam today. It was badly written and intentionally confusing. A lot of the test questions was not even over the material that it was supposed to be. Everyone and that includes 42 nursing student feel like they utterly bombed the exam. By bomb I mean they failed to the point that we will need to all drop out because the exam was 30% of our grade. I have never failed a nursing exam to date. I studied for this exam more than any other exam. I am so upset that I don't know what to do. This nursing instructor has been known to make exams were there is hardly any one that passes. She gives us information that is considered wrong in all the nursing and NCLEX books. I am about to give up even though I have only one more semester. Thanks for letting me vent.

I can't say enough positive things about this series. I have recommended the Made Incredibly Easy series to many of my fellow nursing students. They also love them. I am lucky that a lot of them is available in my college library. These books are what make learning hard concepts bearable. If you can't get them in your library, find a way cause you will not regret it.

Thanks for the wonderful advice. One of my instructors suggested that I listen to a MP3 player for I will not hear the other nursing students cramming and discussing information before the test.

I was wondering how everyone copes with severe anxiety when taking exams. I have an extreme case were my mind becomes completely blank. I can quote every thing about a disease process and the nursing diagnosis, interventions, lab test considerations that go with it. Then the when the test is handed to me, I become a brainless idiot.

I am not into the group thing. I have a really busy life and don't have time for groups and I do just fine. Most of the groups I have come across have way too much drama going on for me. I use Memory Notebook of Nurses and the Davis Success series. Also I use the companion CDs that come with my nursing book. I am a very serious studier and unfortunately come off as a know it all. I tried a study group but found out that the talked about me behind my back about how I thought I was so much smarter than them. No, I have never thought that. I just read and study constantly cause it is such a financial strain for me to go to school. I can't afford to fail. Sorry for the vent but this is something that might help. Take the Vark quiz and see what type of learner you are.

Thank you so much.

I don't believe it is respectful to use your phone in clinical or class. I however have my netbook in class but I keep my powerpoints downloaded on them with the notes I have taken in class. I also can get my textbooks from pageburst online. This prevents me from packing a lot of heavy books, folders, and notebooks. But if you are in class, you need to pay attention to your instructor. You pay a lot of money and sacrifice a lot to go to nursing school. I have had to deal with people texting and chatting on the phone all the time. The bad thing is that these students then turn around and ask the instructor what she said or ask her to repeat things. It is so annoying and takes up precious class time.

I agree with the post that was talking about s/s of infection. Your goal should say something like patient will have normal vital signs, surgical site will stay dry and intact between 8-2 on 6/23/11 or whatever date and time your shift is. Then your interventions would have to show how you will accomplish this goal. You would need to assess the vital signs and establish a baseline. Then see if there is an increase in respirations, bp, pulse, or temperature. You would need to monitor the patients blood work to see if they have an increase in white blood cell counts which would indicate an infection. You need to assess the surgical site for REEDA. There is a lot of interventions for infection. Without knowing the type of surgery this is the best that I can give you.

An IV of 500 mL is to infuse at 120 mL/hr using a 20 gtt/mL calibrated set. ( pg 281 math for meds 10th edition) Sorry for the confusion. 60 minutes is not part of the problem. It says 20gtt/mL or 20gtt per mL. So we have to find the mL to be infused. That is why we divide 500 by 120. That will give you the mL that will be infused 4.17. Then you times 4.17 by 20gtt to get the answer of 83.

Emmel is right. You have a total of 500mL to be infused at 120mL/hr or in 60 minutes. Divide 500 by 120 which equals 4.17.Then times that by 20 and you get 83. That is how we learned to do it.

Our school uses them and they look nice in the beginning and then start to lose their luster. They are very durable yet uncomfortable. I feel this is due to the rough fabric and the fact that there is no give to the pants. On top of this is the major dent they put in our wallet. Books alone is a financial killer.

I began Med-Surg in January and am struggling big time. I have never failed a test until recently and am very discouraged. I study 2-3 hours a night. I am looking for any advice on how to study for exams. I read the chapters and I admit not as good as I should. I use ATI, Saunders review, and the powerpoints from class. Any help would be greatly appreciated.