FutureRN9

Congratulations! I wish you the best :)

Sounds good. Make sure to post back and let me know if you get in )

St. Mary's has always been known to be a good program. I would definitely try applying there. You may also consider Collins Career Center. They have an LPN program and it seems to be easier to get into LPN school first and then do the LPN to RN bridge.

I definitely understand your frustration. One thing I can say about OU is that they don't care about your family problems or money issues. They could care less if you have to travel several hours to a clinical, you better be there on time. Did you speak with ---- or maybe ------? ------ is really helpful and knows her stuff, but the director will "override" the policies to further her agenda. Marshall's Point Pleasant campus accepts more people and is a more laid back environment than the Huntington campus. Mapquest says it is only about an hour away from Minford, of course you know how long it is from your house. Do what you feel is necessary, but I want you to be aware of the issues. Your best bet would be to talk to other current students in the program. Very few will talk, especially if there is no guarantee of anonymity. I cannot think of a second year in the program that would recommend Southern to anyone. Those who speak out against the program or speak up for themselves are very quickly shown the door. I hope that your experience is better than mine has been thus far. I wish you only the best. Good luck!

I re-read that you mentioned your ACT's. You have to take the ACT's for OU-Southern, too. At least I had to give them a copy of my scores and I had over 4 years of college classes since I took the ACT. I know that waiting a year does not see like it is a good idea, but it may be the best thing for you. Keep in mind that the clinical placements for OU-Southern are KDMC (Ashland), OLBH (Ashalnd), SOMC (Portsmouth) and SMMC (Huntington). It is very unlikely that you will get to go to SOMC the majority of the time. I would look into Marshall University - they have a BSN program and a campus in Point Pleasant, WV.

If you post some problems or at least a type of calculation you are having difficulty with I would be more than happy to help if I can. :)

Also, I don't think that this is your ONLY option. I would strongly suggest you look on the Ohio Board of Nursing website and research other programs before you limit yourself to Ohio University-Southern.

You could attend the OU-Chillicothe campus. I have heard some better comments on this program, but the general complaints come from all OU campuses. The classes at OU are hard. The content is very challenging (but that isn't the problem) and the instructors are reluctant to help. The instructors talk about the students behind their back and are very childish in their actions. I am in the last quarter, graduating in June. I wish I had never gone to OU-Southern. The instructors make your life miserable. They could care less if you succeed or not. If you won't give them their good pass rate they make it a point to get you out of there. I've seen it done to my friends.

Does anyone know anything about KVCTC? Anything would be appreciated. Thanks :)

First, the program is NOT easy to get into. They accept almost 100 people, so it is easier than it has been in the past, but they still turn many people away. There are four components to the application: your grades, your interview, your essay and your HESI admission exam. Your interview is probably the MOST important indicator of acceptance into the program. They do have a goal of "weeding out" those they don't think can cut it. In the end their only goal is to have good pass rates and they only need 10 people to pass the NCLEX to have a 100% pass rate. I know this because an instructor told me, although most won't admit it. It is recommended that you only work 20 hours a week. I know several people had to quit their jobs to stay in the program, I had to cut down my work schedule to one day a week. There were a few people that were able to continue to work, but they had extreme flexibility in their hours. You will have an outstanding amount of studying and busy work to complete. They do not like to term it as busy work, but there is no other way to describe it. They no longer can give points for anything other than tests, but you will have care plans, case studies, workbooks and other carious assignments to complete for NO credit. I'll admit, some of it helps but mostly it is just buys work and takes time away from studying. Starting third quarter you will have two clinicals a week. This will only allow you 3 out of the 7 days of the week to study/work/spend time with family. They routinely have Saturday clinicals and it has been said that starting next quarter they will be starting Sunday clinicals as well. I would NOT recommend taking any other class with your nursing classes. It is okay to take a one hour class or something you know will be easy if you need to be full time. Especially since those are the classes that you have to take. I would say that with those classes AND your nursing classes you would be unable to work at all. With that, nursing classes take up the majority of the day. Usually 9-3 two days a week, and sometimes there is a third day for lab. It is very hard to fit other classes into this schedule. You will find that most classes offered at Southern (including Proctorville) will overlap with the nursing classes. I personally would reconsider enrolling in the Fall unless you are willing to take one or both pre-req's this summer. I don't know where you live, but I'm assuming you live somewhere between Huntington, WV and Portsmouth, OH. There are several other schools within the area, I would seriously consider looking into other school because I would not recommend this program. I wish I would have never started this program and I would have attended somewhere else. I'm not trying to discourage you from nursing, but I would discourage you from this program.

I would not recommend Decadron PO. I speak from experience. It is absolutely the MOST NASTY medicine I have ever tasted. The nurse that gave it to me told me that they use the same formula for both IM and PO routes. I don't know if I can even describe the taste for you. Also, the taste remained in my mouth for several hours. I would take a shot anyday over PO Decadron again.

If your school does not provide residential housing it is within the guidelines to use financial aid for housing. Keep your head up and keep looking. Call your local Department of Health and Human Resources (some states use different names for the agency) or other agencies in the community, they should be able to help you some.

I started looking into a few things for you and I found that Kent State University offers an ADN program at several of their campuses. While only the Kent campus offers student housing, the Tuscarawas campus offers some off-campus housing resources. You can look into it more here .. http://www.tusc.kent.edu/student-life/housing.cfm I wouldn't rule out attending a community college or a regional campus of a college just because of the living situation. There are usually apartments/houses available to rent around the school. Contact the school to see if they have resources (like I mentioned above) or if they could direct you to someone whom could provide you with those resources. If all else fails .. google it. Regional campuses sometimes offer the best of both worlds - you get the well known school name on your diploma, but you get the small-private school experiences in the classroom. I go to a regional campus of Ohio University and I feel that I am getting a more personalized education because of the smaller class sizes. If you are wanting to stay in Ohio, reference the Ohio Board of Nursing website for a list of schools/programs within the state. http://www.nursing.ohio.gov/PDFS/education/RNprogramlistJan2011.pdf And if you get nothing else out of my post, please take this to heart. DO NOT give up on your dreams!!! You CAN and WILL achieve anything you set your mind to. I don't know you, but I believe that if you WANT this then you can achieve it. Nursing school is tough, anyone who says it's not is lying to you. BUT nursing school is also very rewarding. I have met some amazing people - classmates, nurses, instructors and patients. Sometimes that is enough to teach you much more than a textbook ever could. Someone very special to me once told me, "Failure is not an option, failure is only found in ourselves when we are looking for someone else's purpose." What he meant by this is that you will only fail if you are not following your heart. These are your dreams, so go get them (: I wish you the best of luck. If I can help you in any way, even just listen to you vent then please let me know.

Where do you live?

This link is for the institutional version. If you are only using it for yourself then you won't need this. This is for schools to purchase for their students.

I agree with this 100%. I'm not a male nurse, but there are several male nurses in my program. They get whatever they want. In clinicals .. they just have to look at the nurses on the unit and smile - they don't have to do a single thing. :) Doesn't work so well for girls ..

I used my cell phone ALL the time in clinicals. We were required to buy Skyscape and expected to have it available if we needed to research something during clinicals. I NEVER used my phone in front of a patient (and I'm thinking that nurse shouldn't have used her phone in front of you either). I don't think it's cheating at all. There is not a nurse in this world that knows EVERYTHING there is to know .. I think a nurse that has resources on hand to answer the questions she doesn't know the answers to is a smart nurse :) Side Note: Skyscape is around $89 for a year subscription and I'm not a big fan of the software. Skyscape is not set up that great and there is a lot of information that is not in the different resources. I really like epocrates and medscape - they are FREE!! Also, if you have a phone that gets on the internet you can always use your web browser to search whatever you need - obviously NOT wikipedia. Go into the medical section of your app store and look at all of the different choices you have. I have an iPhone so I'm not very familiar with any of the Droid applications, but I hear that they are pretty comparable to what is offered for the iPhone.

The student that I spoke with lives in Huntington, WV and is 7 hours (without traffic) away from DC. I also know another student that is at least a year away from graduation and her instructors have said, "We'll figure something out". That doesn't sound very promising to me.

The only condition that equals congestive heart failure is congestive heart failure (in fact, there is a theory of thought that is using the term heart failure and differentiating between left and right instead of the term congestive heart failure). The defining characteristics of SOB on exertion and edema do not necessarily equate to heart failure. For instance, the possibility that the edema and the SOB are not related or possibly in no relation to the heart. Consider checking lab values (Creatinine, BUN, B/C ratio, GFR, Albumin, ABG's .. just to name a few. Specific labs are going to depend on your patient). It very well could be that they are in renal failure (or having some other type of renal disease) and their albumin is low, in turn causing third-spacing. Renal failure could also explain the SOB .. think pulmonary congestion (edema). Also, as stated above diuretics can be used to treat several different conditions. Most medications have several conditions that they are used to treat and it is more important to know about the medication (S/E, A/E, Therapeutic Management, Contraindications, etc) than to assume you know why the patient is taking that medication. As a nurse it is very important to understand that your patient will present with his/her own set of signs and symptoms. Nursing school gives you the basic knowledge to help you assess these signs and symptoms, but you must treat each patient as their own case. This is my opinion: I feel that you do not only a disservice to your patient but also to yourself by making assumptions like this. I say this because I want you to progress, not at all be offensive .. I would not want you to be my nurse because I feel like you would see one thing and might miss other important assessments. I am in NO way implying you don't have the capability to be a wonderful nurse, but I would hope you are able to broaden your focus of assessment and evaluation.

ladies plus in milton, wv has new and used scrubs for cheap!!!! (only 5-10 minutes past the huntington mall) new scrubs $10 used scrubs $7.50 **they also consign women and children's clothing. they seriously have the cutest scrubs and the prices are great!!! check them out ... hours: tuesday-friday 10-5 saturday 10-4 sunday & monday closed p.s. i'm not advertising for them ... i just think this is a great deal for nurses and nursing students!! you can't beat these prices!!

I was told by a current student that no class will be able to graduate from any of their LPN-BSN cohort programs due to their accreditation being pulled. They have been on probation for a long time. Honestly, I have heard nothing but horrible things about the school.

i have learned most of my knowledge from just doing it. my clinical instructors started from the very first clinical and now that i have just finished my last clinical i'm much better - definitely not the best though. for a general note i like to keep it basic and simple: 1)note their loc - a&ox4 or confused and disoriented, etc 2)note their respiratory status - respirations e/u, no s/sx of distress, etc) 3)what was their skin color, temperature and integrity? 4)what did you do for them? - talked to them, vitals, therapeutic communication, education, etc. 5)requests - states no needs or wants .. 6)safety - siderails up x2, bed locked and in low position, call light within reach, bedside table within reach, encouraged to use call light for assistance. 7)continuation of care - will continue to monitor, will return for hourly rounds, etc. for an assessment: i like to remember to work from the head down. 1)brain = loc. 2)eyes - perrla? 3)ears - you may not do a diagnostic hearing test, but note if they have any difficulty hearing you when you speak 4)nose - if it is pertinent to the patient's dx 5)mouth - look at the color, condition, odor, teeth, throat and gums 6)neck - rom, lymph node assessment, pain, bruit 7)breasts (women) - you may not always assess the breast, but if you do then include your findings 8)abdomen - bowel sounds x4, tenderness, distended, hard/soft .. 9)genitals - again, you may not always assess the genitals, but if you do document your findings 10)musculoskeletal - rom, pain, contractures 11)skin - integrity, color, diaphoresis .. 12)waste - if pertinent to the dx, include urine or stool assessment 13)pain - very important!! easy way to assess and chart pain is by using the acronym pqrst. (i'll put something about that at the bottom) **every institution is going differ on their charting requirements; some will have you enter an assessment separately and you can just reference it by saying, "head to toe assessment completed, see assessment tab". it is much better to over-document than to under-document. the worst thing that is going to happen is that a doctor is going to get upset because you're too wordy :) but at least you'll have a good record to reflect on what went on with that patient during your shift! okay, now on to pain!!!! #1 - always remember that pain is subjective. your patient is the one in pain, not you, so you can't tell them how if feels. #2 - it is not an unknown fact that there are people that will come to the hospital only to seek medication. so what do you do?? you give it to them!! if the doctor prescribes it, then you have to give it. it is unethical to withhold ordered pain medication because you feel the patient is only seeking medication. instead, use the opportunity to educate the patient on drug rehabilitation and drug addiction. it's also important to remember that withdrawing from medications can be life threatening and very dangerous - so it should be done in a monitored and safe environment. #3 - assessing pain .. like i said, use pqrst p - provokes: what causes it, makes it worse? also, what makes it better? q - quality: describe it to me. dull, aching, sharp, stabbing ... r - radiates: does it start somewhere and then go somewhere else? s - severity: rate it on a scale between 0-10, 10 being the worst pain you've ever had. (some people say 1-10, i prefer 0-10 because then you are allowing the patient to say they are having zero pain) t - time: when did it start, is it worse at certain times during the day, is it better during certain time of the day? **sometimes there is also an o before the p and this stands for onset, but this can be covered within the time assessment. another option is using a soap note. this includes breaking your note down into 4 sections: subjective, objective, assessment and plan. 1)subjective - what does the patient report or say? 2)objective - what are your findings? 3)assessment - quick generalized summary of the patient. 4)plan - what is the plan for that patient. dr's plan and your plan. here is an example - this isn't the greatest example, but i found it on the internet. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/soap_note] s:no chest pain or shortness of breath. "feeling better today." patient reports flatus. o:afebrile, p 84, r 16, bp 130/82. no acute distress. neck no jvd, lungs clear cor rrr abd bowel sounds present, mild rlq tenderness, less than yesterday. wounds look clean. ext without edemaa:patient is a 37 year old man on post-operative day 2 for laproscopic appendectomy, recently passed flatus.p:recovering well. advance diet. continue to monitor labs. prepare for discharge home tomorrow morning. sorry this have been such a long note. i hope it helps someone, even one person would be wonderful .. isn't that what nursing is all about?? :)

I use a messenger bag from LLBean. I don't remember exactly how much it cost, but I am thinking somewhere around $65. It holds a ton of stuff. I have fit both volumes of my MedSurg textbook, my Maternity textbook, 2 five star binders, an agenda, drug book and two separate pencil bags - that is just in the main compartment. The greatest thing about LLBean is their return policy. You can return or exchange their products at any time. YES, even if you decide you just want something new. You go on the website and pick something new you want. They will send you the new product in a box with a return label and you stick you product in that box and ship it back to them. You can also print a shipping label off the website if you are only interested in a refund. I would recommend LLBean bookbags to anyone 100% of the time. TIP: Ask your teachers if you are actually going to need your books in class. It has been my experience that most instructors don't actually use the book in class; they use powerpoints, handouts and videos and reference the text. I graduate in June and my back would be a little less sore if someone would have told me that 2 years ago. :) Good luck with school. It's tough, but so rewarding!!