luv_o_so_much

Help with taking med surg tests. First, I am positive someone (if not many) have asked, but I don't see the posts and need some SERIOUS help. I wasn't sure where to post it either so please bump this to the best place! I need help with taking my Med Surg tests. Here is the process for our learning the first semester of Med Surg: Read the book, read the power points (usually 3-6 of them), go to class (lecture is 3 hours), class starts with a student group presentation slightly related to the reading, we are then handed a paper with a case study (scenario) and list of questions (4-6) to answer, we work on it a few minutes then class is done. No dialogue, no follow up, no question-answer session, no lecture. Then our tests are NCLEX questions. I am a 4.0 student - yes even in my nursing courses - and I am FAILING. I earned a 68% on our first test. I have asked the professor for help several times (4 to be exact over the last 8 weeks). I asked her how to improve my studying, how to improve my test taking, how to improve my understanding. I have summarized that I need more interaction and dialogue. It is why I chose my school over other private schools. I wanted the traditional in the classroom structure. Now.... I have been in school for over a decade. This is not my only degree. I have also worked in healthcare for almost two decades. I believe that the knowledge I have that even allowed me to get a 68% comes from a combination of work experience, previous school experience, and my patho professor. I feel I have done everything I can to ask my professor to help. The other students feel the same but are unwilling to say anything. Most are getting mid 80's% on their tests and said they don't want to "**** off the professors". So I am asking for ANY help. I don't know if its just me and I don't have the skills to answer these questions, or what is going on. I know a lot of facts. I know application. I do feel I am not confident because I can't verify if my knowledge is on target, but do not know what steps to correct that since my professor says "I know more than I think I know"...... O.o what? PS... off the record. The one time someone besides me asked a question in class her response was "Just let it go... just let it be what it is". She was asked about placing hot verses cold on an infiltrated IV. She has told me that she appreciates me because I am the only one engaged in the class and I ask thoughtful and appropriate critical thinking questions.... but that doesn't help me pass the test. Thank you so very much! I hope you all can give me some insight!

Each school looks at it diff.... my school for example looks at the last 60 units for those with certain criteria (ex 2nd degree, and transfers) and overall GPA (total ever attempted) by those that are not transfers. That is given one value for the point system. A different value is given for pre-reqs. Lastly they look at overall GPA to ensure you meet min requirements. My very first semester in in college I obtained a 1.69 (had a car accident the night before finals). It HAUNTED me FOREVER. I had to take extra classes to bring up my GPA. I did get in by completing other criteria (volunteering, working in the field, etc)... but I did get a 4.0 in all pre-reqs and scored high on my TEAS. So you can do it... it just depends on the school. (I am in a BSN program that admits 40 students per year).

[COLOR=#003366]Jessatkinson86 great idea!!!

I just went to the store to check out options. The galaxy has a neat note function but it was way to busy for me. The said "its running slow because all the tablets and laptops are running on the same wifi" .... yhea that did it for me! What does he think is going to happen at school or in a different public wifi network???? The iPad and iPad mini moved fast in comparission and were very user friendly. I did not like the surface. The galaxy also "comes with office suite for students" but I'm sure (just like with the note app) there is a download to create a document or view all documents on the iPad mini. I also liked the demensions of the mini compared to the smalller galaxy ... more screen and a little less bulk. Post any apps you guys use! Im going to google the one's already mentioned. Thank you so very much for your input! I don't think I could part with my laptop for writing papers and such at home.

Hi everyone! I'm sure this has been asked (over and over) but I could not find a current thread. My laptop is about to go to die and I was thinking I should get a tablet since we will be using Nursing Constellation Plus for clinicals. Any advice? Anyone have an iPad, Surface, Samsung etc that they can give input about what they like or don't like? My android is too small for me to read the information so that is not the best option for me. Thank you in advance! :)

Another hint is to use ratemyprofessor.com to check out the profs. It has saved me from nightmare semesters.

I was going to suggest the same thing. If there is not a community college in your area perhaps you can look for a different cc and check to see if that cc offeres the course online. Good luck!

I found this post late but thought I'd post anyway.... Personally my favorite shoe for working 12hr shifts are the nurse mates dove. I have a wide foot so I get the 8.5 wide. If that is not available I order the 9 in the regular width. I have a heavy step and these are great. I do feel like they wear out fast and find I must replace them every 6 -9 months if I am working an average of 3-5 shifts a week. (Working my three 12hr shifts plus my volunteer hours, clinicals, and any extra shift I can squeeze in.) Many nurses I work with swear by Danskos which are way out of my price range. Get a pair of compression socks!

When I first started off my very first semester a million zillion years ago I went to USD and had a car accident the night before finals. I was a passenger in the car. I ended up with a 1.69 GPA I went back for another year and barely got my GPA to a 2.0. Fast forward 10 years.... went back to USD got my GPA to a 2.3 I didn't want to be in school anymore. I felt like I was wasting my time and money. I had previously worked in healthcare and decided I wasn't happy with my 125k/yr job that had me chained to a desk and electronic devices. I had previously worked in healthcare and decided I would go back to something similar... fast forward again... I fell back in love with healthcare and wanted to go back for nursing.... who knew EVERYONE had decided the same. 10 yrs before hospitals were PAYING people to go to school.... at this point the cruel struggle and race was one for everyone. My GPA was not even at the MIN for applying to community colleges so I went to National figuring it was my best bet. I made sure I got straight A's in my sciences! Even with that I STILL wasn't at a cumm of 2.75 ... freaking frack.... So I went to my closest community college and took transfer units for transfer to a state school. My plan was to get a Bach then do a 2nd degree program. To my surprise I had gotten A's in everything which brought up my cum GPA to a 2.97!! The BSN programs in my area just look at the last 60 which I had 3.7! I was juzt accepted into the :nurse:Cal State San Marcos Gen program! SO .... you can raise your GPA. I took community college online courses.... some 2 at a time to bring it up. Or you can just finish your current program and do an ABSN 2nd degree program. It is possible and there is hope! I know you wanted to hear if you should start over.... but if your sciences are good why would you? Those evil grades of mine (btw) were originally from 1994..... YUP almost 20 years ago !!!! So no they don't go away BUT your sciences have a shelf life at most schools. Good luck! You can do this ! Just do anything you can for points!

First I should say that I did not get into Palomar but I did get into Cal State San Marcos Generic BSN but I will share what I experienced. I work at Grossmont Hospital and many staff have attended Gross CC for their ADN and say its a great program. When I applied to Palomar they were still taking half of their students from a waitlist and the other half from apps ... so only 18 new students. Grossmont has TWO app dates - one for spring and one for fall so I believe Grossmont admits more students per year. I never took classes at Grossmont but I have heard nothing but good things about the community college. I did take some general ed at Palomar and LOVED it there. Look at the list or impaction criteria and do everything on the list that you can. Trust me it all helps. Apply to both places. Apply if you have all your pre reqs done and even if you don't get in keep working on those points and reapply. Good luck!

HAHAHAHAHA yesterday we had a poor soul finger paint and fling his poopoo all over the room. Not his fault completely he had psych and developmental issues. Not gonna lie! Glad it wasn't my patient! Sorry I forgot to hit the quote but this was in response to the war paint post

I will start nursing school this fall and work in an ICU as a tech. Varias medications, tube feeds, diet types, and diseases cause different types of body fluids to come out in different consistencies at different rates. So the TRUE answer is no one can give you more than their own experience .... BUT I will say this... In my unit every single time there is a "code brown", a patient without a foley that missed the urinal (male or female) or were not able to notify staff, copius secretions from the mouth or lungs, etc ... our staff has the nursing student be first hand in the game to prepare them. Some of the nurses I work with have said its to "weed" them out, others have said its so they can build that skill. BELIEVE me it is a SKILL to have to change an entire bed when you have a critical patient that can't be moved or lie them down flat. I will add that I have worked in many units (Tele, ICU, and ER) and by far the worst smells are cdiff and ER patients that have defecated, urinated, and puked on themselves. It happens. Its part of the process. Despite all that, if I am cleaning up someone with runny poopoo I ALWAYS wear a shield mask and most of the time a gown. I have seen way too many get sharted on (hope thats ok to say). Good luck! Maybe you will not have to deal with much. If you do it will be in clinicals and every acuity has its own type of body fluid demons :) PS I used caps to highlight not to sound mean or mad.

Sorry I know I already posted so much but I wanted to also mention my boss (I work in a local ICU) told me not to bother with Kaplan. That most managers have plenty of applicants that have attended one of the other approved schools. In the past they took new grads from there but not anymore. As far as waitlists.... I believe the majority of schools do not have waitlists (at least the ones I applied to). They all use a point system that you must reapply to each year. You don't need to be a current resident to get in but some point systems look at where you took the previous majority of units and assign a point value opportunity. Good luck!

The 2nd degree programs I know of are Cal State San Marcos ABSN, National Univ. BSN, and community colleges that give points for already having a degree. University of San Diego has an ELMSN and Azuza Pacific (I'm not sure if that is ELMSN or ABSN). My friend is trying to get into Azuza (spelling??) because she has some online courses but to my knowledge for the A&P classes they require labs. Every school has a different set of pre-reqs with SDSU, CSUSM, and the community colleges being the closest. National requires that you take a few of their specific classes to apply (such as their upper divison biomedical stats class that does not transfer or count towards other schools requirements in the area, and the other schools lower division stats do not count for NU). I can go on and on because I had to learn the hard way. I was going to go the "fast route" with NU so I took all of their pre-reqs. It was COSTLY. I did not like the environment. I had a few great professors and met many great people but I had one prof that could NOT teach. The class was so expensive and since their courses are so quick and only happen maybe once a year I had no other option with NU. I did get an A but the cost was not worth it. I ended up going to a community college to take another stats class and a real chemisty class for pre-reqs for the local community colleges and state schools. The bottom line is this: Look at all of the pre-reqs whereever you want to go then look at the points system. Do whatever is on there plus get as many A's as you can. National I believe will not evaluate your courses unless you pay the $60 app fee. CSUSM Extended learning I believe will. Check out Azuza P. If you will need to take in person science classes NU has them 1-2 times a year and although costly, CSUSM, SDSU, and Palomar Community College all accepted them for my app. Many of the community colleges have the classes but you may need to crash them all. CSUSM Extended Learning may have them available, and although they may cost more than a first degree or community college, it is less than National. I attended a Nat Univ. "nursing forum" and asked for a break down of costs. It is about $40k not including the pre-reqs verses CSUSM ABSN which a friend told me was around $30k. (I am starting the first degree Generic BSN at CSUSM in the fall and it will be approx $24k). Community colleges are WAY less. My coworker paid approx. $3k at Southwestern Community College in Chula Vista. I hope this info is helpful. I hope you don't have to take any classes over. Good luck!!!!!

I don't have info on those programs because I am further south, but my advice is to get the list of requiements and complete them. The schools in my area accept based on points not a waitlist. I did everything on the points list including working in a hospital and volunteering at a hospital. I studied my bottom off to get A's in all of my sciences too. It took me 3 years to get through all the classes etc (some of it was part time) and I was just accepted into a competitive BSN program for the fall. There are not any short cuts but you can find a school that fits your needs. I wasted a lot of time trying to fullfill requirements for several different schools. Just do some research :) Good Luck!