TnMtnRose

I work in community health primary care. I will be doing the RN to MSN . Your job counts as the clinical hours you need by performing assigned tasks or projects with work related issues. That's how it was explained to me. At the very least your license would need to be active and unencumbered.

One thing I have learned in NS is NEVER give up. Keep your head up and keep going. I'm now 2 months from graduation and it has been a long and trying college career for me. You can do it! Have faith in yourself! Conquer today and when tomorrow comes then you can deal with it.

He's a nursing student. Apparently he has been shoving all the info for his next test into his head. Now its so full he's choking on it.

Do you think you could qualify for Pell grants and scholarships for school? If you could then you could start your prereqs (some even online so no childcare issues). Fill out a FAFSA app and see what you can qualify for with a Pell. Talk to your school's financial aid dept about scholarships too. Plus, if you do need loans to help with school, most student loans don't have to have payments made on them til 6 months after graduation. If you decide to wait...no biggie :) I didn't even get started in school til last summer at age 36. I just finished my 1st semester of nursing at 37 :)

I hope 31 is not too old. I'm 37 and just finished my 1st semester lol

I just finished my first semester and although there are some quirks about test questions at times, we do get to challenge after review and lots of times we win. But other than that our school is amazing and I am excited to be in the program. I fought hard to get there and I'm not leaving unless they kick me out lol But as for the self teaching aspect, I personally think that its common sense to "self teach". Self teaching to me is simply applying critical thinking which is what they are trying to "teach" us in nursing school anyway. Book learning can only get you so far in nursing. At some point you have to learn to rely on your intuition and common sense. You can memorize all the facts and normals in the books but if you can't think and apply those in the clinical setting then you're in trouble. We sometimes had questions with material we never covered (or so we thought) but when you really read into the question and critically thought it out you could come to the right conclusion and you would see some "base" knowledge in the question that you might not have first noticed. Please don't give up, you have come a long way already :) My friend said something our first day of class after lecture that has become my "motto" for nursing school lol "We made it through the first class...we can make it through the last."

Check with a nursing adviser. At my school there were certain "humanities" that were accepted by the nursing program. So to be on the safe side just check to see what an adviser recommends.

At 37 I took the plunge last summer :) I just finished my 1st semester of nursing school. It was scary, overwhelming, time consuming and downright nerve-wracking lol but worth it all.

It wasn't required for our school but the clinical site that I worked did require it. No shot...no clinical. So if your school clinicals at multiple sites, check to see if there is one where it is not required. Unless of course your school itself requires it. At that point you may not have an option

I took I & II last summer. It is intense but very doable and I think , for me anyway, I did better on those tests than in classes in a normal semester. Here is a great website to help you out, it was recommended by my AP instructor. GetBodySmart: Interactive Tutorials and Quizzes On Human Anatomy and Physiology

This may help too. My instructor told me to visualize the "poster child" for each : metabolic acidosis ~ diabetic ketoacidosis, metabolic alkalosis ~ PT with NG tube/suction , respiratory acidosis ~ PT with COPD, respiratory alkalosis ~ PT who is hyperventilating. Putting that "face" with the "numbers" helped me :)

I just finished my 1st semester and we did all the CNA skills in clinical plus we gave PO, PR, IVPB, IVP, IM and SUBQ meds. We also trained to do foleys, wound care, tube insertion & feeding and suctioning but noone actually got to perform those skills in clinical rotation. Next semester we begin venipuncture.

I'm a morning person so I don't mind getting up early. So far we have only had one nurse who wasn't student friendly. All the others have been great. Our instructor is amazing. She is all for us jumping in there and learning new things and grabbing any opportunity we can to learn. We park for free at our facility so that's nice. Our uniforms are our responsibility, white tops with navy pants, any brand as long as they are not ornately decorated. We just have to have our school patch on it. I do hate the drug cards and care plans. The studying is intense and time consuming but our first week our instructors put us to work making an academic calendar with a study schedule. It really helps to keep you organized and prioritized. I make time for my family , even if it means I have to stay up late. Eating together and having a few hours to play together or just watch tv is critical for my peace of mind. I remind myself whenever I feel stressed over the workload and its consequences that I chose to do this. If its too much I can always walk away.I know its stressful as a nursing student but it doesnt last long and I'm trying to enjoy the experience and make the most of the rough spots. I could spend hours yapping about the "bad stuff" but in reality for our group , the good is outweighing the bad. That may change next semester, who knows, but for now we have been blessed with an amazing instructor (several actually lol) so overall I'm happy. I'll check back in next semester to let ya know if my thought process does a complete turn around lol

I'm 37 with a hubby and 4 kids and am currently in the last weeks of my first semester in nursing. Best advice? Buy a rolling back pack (trust me it will save you some pain), highlighters, lots of paper and ink too. Make sure you set aside hours to study even on the days you don't have classes but more importantly TAKE TIME FOR YOUR FAMILY! Even if its just dinner together and an hour or 2 of mindless tv, be together and forget about school for a while. Let your family be involved in helping you study.My kids and hubby enjoy quizzing me on my notes.We get extra time together plus I'm learning (and they are too). Don't be afraid to ask questions and keep a good relationship with your fellow students and instructors, you will be together for a while :) Remember, the first week tons of info will be flying at you at lightening speed. You will be overwhelmed and more than likely will cry and think you can't possibly do all that stuff....but you can :) After that first week you will find your groove. Google NCLEX style questions and practice trying to answer them. Our questions are written in that "format" and trust me, its not a matter of which one is the right answer but which one is the BEST right answer. You won't truly know how to study for a test in nursing til after you take the first one. That's when you can plan out your best study methods.Most of all , enjoy it...time will fly by :)

Our test questions are modeled after NCLEX questions to help us prepare throughout nursing school for the "big N" :) Sometimes we may have several "correct" answers but our instructors want the BEST correct answer...doesn't always work out that well lol