Railgun

During clinicals I never had any issues with my gender causing problems. I was able to complete my L&D, postpartum, and pediatrics clinicals without incident. The instructors seemed to make a bigger deal out of my gender than my patients.I've experienced some stuff since but nothing that makes me regret becoming a nurse. You'll find your individual pitfalls and adjust accordingly. My advice : be polite and friendly with your coworkers but be very careful about what you say. As far as patients go most seem to enjoy having a male nurse, especially on my floor where it's a rare occurrence.

I agree with everyone else. It happens but you always have to follow up and verify when you delegate. You also have to ensure that everything you note in the chart is 100% factual.Don't let it eat you up though. Learn and move on.

Nursing didn't really change my personality but it definitely has influenced how I police myself. I was married before I became a nurse so I cannot attest to how it changes your dating life but I will say I am definitely more nuanced when dealing with people. That has less to do with nursing as a profession and more to do with nurses as coworkers.Your mileage may vary but the floor I work on has huge problems with gossip. I've had to learn that everything I say to my coworkers is amplified 10 decibels and picked apart for meaning. In response I have become very soft spoken and guarded. I don't believe this is how every floor everywhere is but I think my gender has a lot to do with how I am perceived by my peers. I am also the only male on the floor for my shift so I stand out a lot.In short nursing has affected my behavior but not my personality. At the end of the shift I hang my feelings up with my stethoscope and neither my professional life or home life have much effect on each other.

Thanks it's reassuring to hear it gets better/doesn't matter. I just don't handle the politics very well.

probably a good idea, my mouth is shut until I'm out of contract. It's been the most depressing two years of my life. I love the work, the patients, and the hospital itself but my cohorts are dragging me down.

I lurk the forums a lot but post very infrequently. Unfortunately this problem has developed and I don't feel like I can trust any of my cohorts/instructors. So I turn to the tubes. I'm getting ready to enter my last semester for my associates degree this fall. Our cohort has stayed mostly the same since we started nursing school. We'll all be working at the same hospital after we graduate (contracted ). Unfortunately this has led to a lot of backstabbing behavior and splitting as the semesters have worn on. It's hard to watch and hear about. I keep mostly to myself but feel that even I have lost good friends as everyone jockeys for the positions they want. Even I'm guilty of trying to get ahead, I sent emails inquiring about possible openings (something I regret mentioning to classmates). I'm not really used to all these secrets, backbiting, and general nastiness. I was raised to be honest and forthright but for the first time in my life I'm feeling like these values are a liability. I don't really blame my classmates, we're all under a lot of stress. I just wish we handled it better as a group. I guess I just want reassurance. I'm planning on continuing my education. Will getting my BSN be this bad? I can't handle much more of this. If it's this bad when I go to get my bachelors I think I may just buy a cabin in the woods and forsake nursing altogether. Not a creepy unabomber cabin though, the worst thing I'll do is keep a garden and carve bears from stumps.

Format wise micro and general biology were very similar. The content was very different and labs were much more detailed. There are a lot of skills to learn such as culturing organisms and how to identify said organism. It's a much more in depth class. There's more to memorize but your mileage may vary based on instructor. Oh, and get used to smelling beef agar. I really enjoyed Human Development. Surprisingly it's helped me in nursing school. Remember Maslow's Hierarchy and Erikson's stages of development and you'll do fine in the class and have a good base for writing psychosocial careplans that please your instructors later on.

I've gone through 3 steths since starting nursing school. My first was the Littman Lightweight II. It was okay and perfectly fine but my love of loud music made it dificult to use. Next was the Classic II SE, a bit better and it had a great balance to it. Finally I was gifted a Littman 3000. It's amazing and has improved my assessments tenfold. I'll never go back to a non-electronic. As a student though the Classic II SE would be fine. Even the lightweight would work if you haven't destroyed your hearing.

I've been married for five years and am just about to wrap up my second semester. So far there have been no problems but that may be because I don't really associate with most of my classmates outside of class/study group.

I second the private school route. Focus on getting RN plastered next to your name and not where you get it. No matter where you get your degree you'll be taking the same NCLEX.

Human development was cake. It's a fluff course in my experience. Micro was a lot of fun for me and didn't require much studying. A lot of my cohorts complained about it but scraped by with B's. As long as you put some time into reading and studying you'll be fine.