Ashlee067

We don't use that feature so I think you'd be ok just getting the book. The online resources we use are from evolve/elsevier and go with the Potter & Perry foundations book, but they are optional.

Oh that stinks they haven't let y'all know what fundamentals book you'll be using yet! I imagine it would be the same because our edition just came out, unless they were to switch publishers...

Escape, We were able to pick where we wanted to do our volunteer hours but it had to be approved by your clinical instructor. Most instructors didn't want you volunteering at the Race for the Cure or something like that, but wanted you to be getting some kind of experience that was relevant to nursing. We log our hours through sweatmonkey.com and there were several places that were already on there to choose from. If you wanted to choose an organization that wasn't part of sweat monkey you just had to ask them to join the site. I think a lot of the people in my class ended up doing them at Vitas, a hospice inpatient unit (where I did mine), or a clinic in Dallas called Metrocrest. I initially wanted to do mine at a hospital and get my foot in the door, but I found that a lot of the hospitals I looked at required a lot of your time and couldn't guarantee you'd be following a nurse. I really liked Vitas because the nurses there really need your help so they basically let you do most of what you can do in clinicals. (A few of my friends have since found really good volunteer jobs at hospitals though, you just have to take to the volunteer coordinator and see if they will be willing to work with you and give you an assignment when you can get relevant experience.) As far as getting started on studying, I would suggest you start reading for fundamentals! There are like 15 chapters required for the first test (which was our third week of school) and we were all wishing we had gotten the syllabus/lecture schedule months before we actually did to start all that reading. If y'all haven't gotten your lecture schedule from AC yet I can tell you what chapters we needed for the first few weeks. I think a few people also took the time to go over pharm and patho, which might be helpful (especially patho). I also started doing NCLEX questions over the summer, even though I didn't know most of the answers you learn from the rationales. I didn't buy the book package because my best friend was already in nursing school at UTA so I had quite a few of the books already. I'll tell you what I used though... The fundamentals book of course The med surg book- we only needed to read one section out of it for lecture but I found it really helpful for doing patho statements for clinical Mosby's diagnostic tests book- for clinical you have to determine why your patient's lab values may be off, and this was much faster/easier than googling everything The strategies book we used during preclinical but honestly you might be smart to split it with a friend and make copies of the few handouts we actually need to turn in. The care planning book we did use but I've been told there are much better care planning books out there. I rented mine so I plan on returning it and trying another one for next semester. I bought quite a few different NCLEX books/apps which I think helped me prepare for the tests more than just reading the chapters of the fundamentals book. You do need a drug book but it doesn't have to be the one that comes in the package. The mosby's video skills I stopped watching a few weeks in. They are helpful in that you go to lab sorta knowing what you're going to be learning, but I wouldn't recommend using them to study for checkoff because the instructors will show you how to perform the skills for checkoff and sometimes it's different than the videos. Definitely get them though, there's a quiz in skills lab towards the end based solely on the video and at that point in the class we had all stopped watching them and were surprised by this quiz haha. I didn't use the drug calculations book, the patho book, Mosby's dictionary, or the mental health book at all (but you definitely need it for second semester). I looked in the pharm book once. I also didn't have the physical examination and health assessment book but I won't say don't buy it because it could have been helpful? (If that makes sense?) We didn't have the Winningham critical thinking cases on our list but it sounds helpful, the hardest part of the first semester I think is learning how to "critically think" through the test questions. That was ridiculously long sorry!

Congratulations to all of you who were accepted for spring! I am finishing my first semester next week and I wanted to offer to answer any questions y'all might have that haven't already been answered! I spent the whole summer getting so nervous and excited and wondering what it would be like and the current students helped a lot by letting us know what to expect.

Briterz, This summer is my first semester at Brookhaven but I took a couple of classes at NCTC last semester and I had the same problem with financial aid. I was expected to pay on my own and my financial aid didn't go through until halfway through the semester when I had already finished paying on the payment plan. I don't remember where I heard it (maybe one of the posts on here?) but I am expecting Brookhaven to be the same way in the fall so I am just going to make sure I have saved enough during the summer to pay for my fall classes. I went to UTA previously and this was not my experience at all, we usually had our classes paid for and our refund checks a week before classes even started. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case with community colleges. I know the professor teaching dosage right now won't be back in the fall so I assume that's why they aren't offering any sections. Not sure about other places to take it.

Question for someone already in the program (or graduated :) ). The clinicals are listed in the schedule from 7am-7pm, are those the actual hours we are there or do they just put that? I have friends in other programs and it's usually 6am-1 or 2pm or 7am-3pm for them.

Congratulations!! :)

I wouldn't get the titer for tetorifice or diptheria, it will be cheaper just to get the TDAP shot and you need a new one every ten years anyways. I told the nurse in the clinic where I got my titers done that it had only been 6 or 7 years and she said it was fine to go ahead and get it again.

I bought one pair of scrubs already! Hope they will be acceptable ones, they match the hunter of the Cherokee ones perfect at least so if that's the only thing I should be good. I went to Scrubs Etc in Grapevine and they had A LOT to choose from and a pretty good selection of different brands that had hunter ones. I also went to the scrub store in Grapvine Mills and they didn't have very much. Mine are Koi brand and they are really cute and comfortable and the fabric is so soft (especially when comparing them to the Cherokee ones) but I guess they were pretty pricey in comparison also.

Are you in pairs during your first semester clinical? My best friend is in UTA's program and she always was paired up with another student (the same one all semester I think) during her junior I clinicals. I think they each had separate patients, but they would go with each other to their patients' rooms and help each other.

Thanks! Is it in class all of those days? I'm confused where it says this class meets (two different dates) underneath.

So I had a fleeting thought that maybe I should get dosage calc (and/or end of life issues) out of the way this summer since one less class in the fall might help my availability as far as work goes so I could try to keep my current job. (Those are the only two support classes I don't have, since all my classes are from UTA and they don't have a separate class for either, they are just worked into nursing courses.) turns out I thought of this a day too late since registration opened yesterday and they are all full already! Is it going to be this impossible to get into dosage calc in the fall or will students that are in the program have their own section/be registering earlier than all those trying to get into these classes to raise their points?

I am a little late but thank you so so much sweetpea for answering my question so thoroughly! You're amazing. :) Based on that picture of books I'm guessing the package comes with more than just the first semester's worth? But it doesn't look like all that we will need for the whole program?

I'm hoping to get a job as a PCT after the first semester, not sure what to do about the fall as I work as a nanny now and I don't know whether the hours will work together even part time. Trying to save as much money as possible this summer! Sweetpea- what were all the things you needed before the semester started (stethoscope, watch, etc.)? I'd like to get started purchasing everything so I can spread it out over the next few months instead of all at once after orientation and right before school starts!

Thank you!! Congrats to you too! And fortylove! Ahhh I'm so happy!