sutelibunn

No, not if I used it to mean slow, delayed, hindered, or impeded, because that's what the word "retard" means. The definition by which you and other people are getting upset about is the slang definition. You can take any word and make it an insult if you tried hard enough. It's all in the connotation implied by the speaker and the interpretation of the listener. I once saw a person berate a British man for walking up to a friend and asking for a "***". He was asking for a cigarette, because that's the common colloquial term where he comes from, but this other person didn't know that and didn't bother to attempt to decipher the meaning behind his use of the word. All they heard was what they misinterpreted as a "bad word", and that required, in their mind, a good and thorough reprimanding. It was a glorious display of ignorance and foolishness but a good laugh was had once the situation was carefully explained to the myopic person.

I've seen people (myself included) use the terms "gay" and "retard" in the proper context get wrongly chastised by some overly dramatic do-gooder that seems to have forgotten that both words have their own proper, non-detrimental place within the English language. Not saying everyone does this, but some people just seem to enjoy calling people out for the sake of stroking their own conceited ego. Don't make these words red flags, because it may be you that ends up looking like the bigoted fool. Turn your radar down a few notches and thicken that skin up some.

I could be mistaken, but those "other classes" are technically pre-nursing classes, as they're required by the program. I suggest that you finish as many classes as you can prior to starting 101. Students, teachers, and your advisor will most likely tell you the same. The less you have to worry about outside of your clinical class the better.

I've been told by several female nurses that I'm lucky because male nurses tend to get promoted more quickly. Time will tell.

As a bearded male soon to be RN I find this topic near and dear to me. I work in EMS, so I'm often in ER departments, and though I've noticed more than a few male nurses with facial hair, the clean shaven variety outnumber the non. I have seen some pretty "eccentric" beards though. I'm sure it depends on the facility/department, but for the most part sporting facial hair seems to be just fine.

Heh... Internet forum? Not a job application.

I've nothing to add to your questions, as I'm still a student, but as someone interested in possibly going into the psychiatric nursing field I'm curious about what answers you'll get pertaining to how working as a psych nurse would affect changing fields down the road.

You don't really get a choice. None of the basic nursing courses I've registered for listed the instructor until well after the registration date. Just choose the class that best fits your schedule. I've yet to meet a truly bad nursing instructor here, but what I have seen is bad students faulting the teachers for giving them bad grades when they should have been blaming their own haughty attitudes and poor study/classroom habits instead.