corsair

I have to say that as a student, I work as a CNA and volunteer for every dirty job and experience I can get my hands on. We are being taught to pass the NCLEX and write papers in APA format. We do have a 12 hour clinical once a week but are limited in what we are allowed to perform (med related especially) because of the litigious society that we live in. I watch some of my classmates and wonder what the h@%% they will do when reality finds them on a med-surg floor with 10 patients and they have never passed a bedpan or changed a diaper. On another note, I was working a home health case recently and gathering up the breakfast dishes when I felt a prick. The very experienced RN had done a blood glucose check on my patient and left the used lancet insert on the counter and it must have rolled under a plate. We scrubbed it good and filled out the incident form to fax in. I did not realize that I was supposed to cry, call my mom and put ice on it...................

Pardon my vent but as someone who suffers from ADHD I find this to be very narrow minded and I hope that I never have a nurse with such a judgmental attitude caring for me. A prescription means that there was a valid medical diagnosis of a condition, for which Adderall was prescribed. Many people with ADHD are brilliant, intelligent and highly creative but may be disorganized, have difficulty staying on task or simply staying still in a chair for a 3 hour lecture. As to your comment that anyone who finds nursing school easy should go to medical school instead; even IF someone wanted to go to medical school, admission is limited and even very bright students are turned away because of such petty things as lack of funds, who they know, the wrong extra-curricular activities etc. I personally do not feel that MD's have some superior intelligence, if they did, nurses would be underlings instead of professionals. On a personal note, I find my ADN program to be easy thus far, I also work 36 hours a week as a CNA at the same time. I had less than a second grade education when I began my college career (crazy religious nut parents who decided to "homeschool") but determination and hard work have paid off and my GPA thus far is 3.84. Because I am not struggling with basic concepts right now, I can focus my attention to learning everything I can about critical care and trauma which are my passion. The only reason I find it easy are the learning skills which I taught myself and I don't use them to skate by with the minimum knowledge required but instead I try to learn the materiel in greater depth. To say that because not everyone struggles in nursing school it will undermine the respect that the nursing profession garners is like saying that naturally talented athletes make pro sports gain less respect; it is absurd. Rant Over!!!!!!

I hate the way our nursing exams are written. The faculty does not spell or grammar check them and the wording is poor. My ATI predictor tests are usually "Level 3" indicating a passing level on the NCLEX and I do well with the questions from our textbook publisher and the Saunders NCLEX book/CD but when I take a nursing process exam I do well to make a B (I don't suffer from test anxiety either). I feel that the instructors should draw their questions from professionally written sources such as ATI or do what they do for powerpoint slides- copy and paste from the textbook publishers website. I have several times picked the second best answer and been marked wrong because the correct one was misspelled and I thought it was a trick. If enough student argue about a given question the reply is "We will look at it" then they give everybody credit for it. The ambiguity is the real problem though, we were once given this question; A nurse is obtaining a sexual health history for a 20 year old client which of the following should she do? A. inform the client that they must be HIV tested (obviously not) B. ask if the client performs testicular exams (Hmmm, does the client have testicles? Or s/he does them on a friend?) C. ask for date of LMP (maybe, unless they have testicles) D. ask the age of all sexual partners (unless there was some reason to suspect this person is abusing someone, uh no) It turns out the question should have read "a 20 year old FEMALE client" which would have made it stupidly easy given the choices. They wound up giving the entire class credit for it but still didn't spell check the next test

Just picturing when I chart and give report...... The computer will not stop alarming and "203's last vitals were BP 120/78, Resp 16, 02 99%, Temp 98.4, Oh and his HR was 0" will probably get a few double takes . Seriously this is good news for many cardiac patients, they just need a ID braclet so someone doesn't grab the AED

Sorry I haven't been on here in a few months. I do know a guy with a 3.8 GPA that got in, and the only the GPA of the rerequisite and general education courses matters, if a course is not required for the nursing degree then it does not figure into your admission decision. GPA is really the most important, Teas scores only count if you tie with another person for the same seat, then the highest teas score gets in so if you are borderline try to do as well as you can. We started in Venice with 32 people and I think Bradenton takes about 48ish students for a total of around 80 (don't quote me on that, I am only sure about Venice). Also don't belive most of the rumors you hear, before I got in I heard that only 4.0 GPAs were accepted and there were only like 6 or 8 in my class. I also heard that it was horribly difficult (it's not :) Good Luck

I have to say that I enjoy nursing school. I am (like several other posters) a total night owl and my DH works 4-midnight, needless to say it makes for some serious sleep deprivation. The first semester I was a complete zombie, worked 32 hours a week, slept 3 hours a night and the house was a disaster. I don't have any kids but I have become more organized and I am hoping that this semester will be less stressful. I found a great thing for keeping up with the house (google "flylady") I don't go for all the psycobabble on her website but if you follow the steps and or follow her emails you will be suprised at the improvement (if you are a disaster like me anyway lol). I think the most important thing in NS is to try to see the big picture and not just memorize facts, look for the why and how of things. Also get a good NCLEX review book (I like Saunder's) and start studying for the big test now, it really reinforces things. Many times the teacher will tell you to skip a section, but it will be on the NCLEX and you may as well learn it now (also it can help other things make sense later).

I personally love my Droid X, I have a pdf copy of my med-surgical book and the screen is just large enough to read while I am doing nothing else. I am currently looking for a good flash card app though....

Thank you sooo much, I used 7zip to open it and had no problems. I love having the ebook so I can just take my laptop

I found an international edition from the UK for $58, but I am curious where you downloaded the 11th? I would like to have an copy to put in my computer if it is free Thanks in advance

Thanks, I will be asking the professor. I have never had any problem using old or international versions before, but I guess nursing books are an unknown for me :)

Hi, I am wondering if anyone had compared BRUNNER & SUDDARTH'S Textbook of Medical Surgical Nursing Editions 11 and 12. I am supposed to buy the 12th edition package for $180 and I can get the 11th edition for around $50. I know usually the page numbers are usually different but I was wondering if anyone had seen any different information between the two. I also was wondering about Focus on Pharmacology by Amy Karch, editions 4 and 5 (specifically have the drugs changed that much, I know that an obstetrics chapter was added to the 5th edition, but someone already gave me the 4th edition so I would like to use it). Thanks

Hi, I personally had a 4.0 GPA for the program because I was allowed to use statistics (got an A) instead of College algebra (got a C) and Intro to world religions (A) instead of Humanities © and so on. The program will not disclose the cut off GPA but I did talk to an alternate who had a 3.8 so it was high. That said, the spring cut off is lower because almost all of the higher GPA's were taken in the Fall. Don't think that your GPA is set in stone either, even if it means taking similar (easy) Gen ed classes to bump it up. Also try to get the best TEAS scores you can, when the GPA is in the 3.4-3.9 range the chances of tying for a seat are good and the TEAS is used to determine who gets in. Also Edison state college has a nursing program that does not rely pre req GPA but HESI scores instead (I think that you have to have two classes done). Good luck to everyone, any more questions just let me know :)

Congratulations!!!!! I was accepted as well, it kind of stinks that I could not get them to give me the physical form to be filled out by my Dr. when I went for a work physical 3 weeks ago, but now I have to have it done in 13 days.... Go figure :) Hope the rest of the program is better run, I can't access the book list either and it was supposed to be up July 1st.... Darn I sound like I am complaining, when I am actually ecstatic lol

I purposely took the hardest A&P instructor at my school because I wanted to have a strong foundation for my nursing classes. I heard many negative things about her (you had to attend class, if your phone rang, she would ask you to leave class and she required essay answers for physiology exams!!!:chair:) I wound up taking her for both semesters and loved it, there were few distractions, she was thorough and very easy to understand. I finished both classes, then worked as a student assistant/tutor under her for the next several semesters as well. While I was doing that I had the opportunity to interact with some of the easy professor's students and you could tell the difference (one girl could not identify the femur when I was helping her the day before the bone practical exam, but proudly celebrated her "easy" A in the class later.) I also watched students try to argue with my professor about exam grades, tardy notes, cell phones and one guy yelled at her because she took points off for an incomplete written answer. She was always calm and simply told them to check the class policy slip that they signed, point out where she was wrong and she would change it :uhoh21: There were still rude inconsiderate students in her class but for the most part they chose to move elsewhere and shut up.

I have done all my pre-reqs there and have been pleased so far. I am hoping for an acceptance letter on July 1st for the Venice campus AS program...... @ ashcoyle, which campus are you going to, if I may ask???