ctersi01

Well, one way to look at it: With your NP you can teach or see patients. With your MSN in education, you can't see patients as an NP. I think if you really want to do both, get your DNP as an NP. You will be very marketable as an educator or an NP. Use the time you're in school to get really good nursing skills; you'll need those as an NP or as an educator.

Absolutely correct! Saunders is great to brush up on content, while Kaplan will help you with dismantling the question so you can eliminate answers. I would recommend both and then the day before your test, try to relax and do something fun. Don't study the day before! Your brain needs time to recharge and it will help alleviate anxiety. Good luck to you and keep us posted!

Whether you pass or fail the NCLEX depends on your questions being above or below the "passing line". If you have 265 questions, the last question determines if you pass the exam. If the last question (whether you get it right or wrong) is above the passing line (i.e. a difficult question) then you've passed. If the last question is below the passing line (again, whether right or wrong), you've failed the exam. The latest stats show that those who pass the exam get approximately 54% of their questions right, with the majority of them being above the passing line.

As someone who teaches NCLEX prep classes, I agree wholeheartedly. Obviously the books alone are not helping you. Go to a live review course and use the books to supplement your studying. A live review course will help you learn to break down the questions. The courses don't review content (they don't re-teach nursing school); they teach you how to understand what is being asked. I highly recommend it.

No, essays are not proctored.

Just to make sure I understand: you're an LPN going for your RN and THEN you plan on going to WGU? I ask because you must already be an RN to complete the BSN at WGU. Once you're an RN, you get 50 CU's (competency units) when you start the BSN at WGU. The prereqs depend entirely on what you have already done in your RN program. Some students need all the basics, like History and English, while others just need Nutrition, BioChem, etc. As far as pacing, again it depends on the student. WGU allows you to complete as many CU's as you can each term (6 months) for one price. I believe now that cost is around $3,000 for each 6 month term. I had never heard of WGU when I went for my MSN, but I wish I had; it would have saved me a lot of time and money. :-(

As the previous poster said, thank you for your service. It is much appreciated! To answer your question, I believe your experience can help or hurt you (I've seen it both ways). It can help you if you draw on your experience to gain an understanding of the topic at hand. However, it can hurt you if you act like a know-it-all and don't bother to pay attention or study. I'm sure you wouldn't do that, but I have taught many students with a medical background who think they know everything and then can't understand why they are failing (I am RN/MSN and currently working at a university). I also agree with the previous poster, if you need pre-reqs, and can take them at a cc, then by all means do that. There's no reason to overpay for your nursing education.

You do get your BSN once the requirements are satisfied for the BSN at the end of the term in which the BSN requirements were satisfied. But, I wouldn't go into the RN-MSN unless you are absolutely sure you want to finish the entire program because there are slightly different requirements between your BSN in the RN-BSN and the BSN portion of the RN-MSN. Does that make sense?

It shouldn't be a problem because what it's important is that the nursing program is accredited (either by the CCNE or the NLNAC). Regional accreditation is for the school as a whole and is important. At one time, WGU was accredited by 4 different regional bodies but dropped to one (the same one that accredits Brigham Young, Idaho state, and Washington State) because no school needs more than one, even if their students are in other states. I lived in Chicago when I got my MSN and I've had no problem getting into programs in Michigan and Florida because my program was accredited by the CCNE.

Check out University of Michigan-Flint. They have an online DNP program in Psychiatric/Mental Health NP.

If you can take a PeriOp 101 class from the AORN you will learn what you need to know. I think investing the time and money in a Surgical Tech. class is a little much. They actually learn a lot and it's not a short program.

Breasts, Plastics, Gyne (Gyne/Onc; Uro/Gyne; General Gyne). I'm currently working at our Women's hospital.

Well, I will be in the minority here. The person who reported the whole thing should have told the student to remove the pic immediately and then, when back at clinical, tell the veteran nurse what had happened (maybe that nurse didn't know the pic would end up on FB)? At any rate, although it was a STUPID mistake from the word "go", I personally, would have handled it differently. We all need to be professionals, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that. It's a shame that now a student can't finish school (and will have that on their record), a veteran nurse was fired (also on their record) all because of a stupid error in judgment. The only time I ever report any of my coworkers, would be if patient safety was compromised or drugs/alcohol were involved. Luckily, I have never had to do that. Again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but that is how I would handle it. I work with too many nurses who spend more time in our manager's office throwing their coworkers under the bus, than they do working.

The same way I, as an RN, do for conscious sedation cases. I get the meds from our pharmacy and administer them to our patients. The doctor ordered the meds and is not there when I administer them. At some point they are there for the surgery. I don't have prescriptive authority; which leads me to believe we are talking about different things. In the US, prescriptive authority means you possess a DEA number and are allowed to prescribe medications that a pharmacy can fill for a patient. Delivering medications in surgery (or on the floor for that matter) doesn't require prescriptive authority, only a doctor's order. Our CRNA's obtain the meds, deliver the meds, and monitor the meds during surgery. When they intubate, however, an attending anesthesiologist is present. I'm not sure if it is an Illinois law, or just our hospital policy. Our CRNA's do not give scripts to patients after the surgery and none of them I spoke with have prescriptive authority.

I guess it's different everywhere. We have 54 OR's spread across 3 pavilions. We would never let a brand new person circulate by themselves after 6 weeks. My first case completely by myself was 4 months.

Just know that it takes a LONG time to get totally comfortable. Most people say at least a year. We train for 6 months before we are left alone. We circulate and scrub.

Not sure I follow you. In the US (at least in Illinois), CRNA's do not need prescriptive authority to anesthetize a patient for surgery. They work under an anesthesiologist. According to the AANA website: "There must be medical participation in the determination to provide anesthesia to patients." http://www.aana.com/Resources.aspx?id=2504 So, their "authority" comes from the physician.

That's true. I guess I should have said that CRNA's in the OR setting have no need to write scripts, at least in large academic hospitals. Rural hospitals may be different.

Our next cohort date for PeriOp 101 is in the Fall sometime. I'm thinking October or November. I'm at Northwestern in Chicago.

You can be anything you want, if you really wish to invest the time and money. Most CRNA's that I know didn't want to work in an office setting seeing patients. Conversely, NP's follow patients like any PCP would. One thing to keep in mind, though, the majority of CRNA programs require ICU experience. There is a reason for this. Usually, but not always, when people enter 2 programs, they complement each other. For example, a women's health NP and a nurse midwife program.

There is no reason for a CRNA to write a script. They give anesthesia during surgeries. They don't follow the patient after the case is over, the surgeon and or PCP does. Any pain management post-surgery would be handled by the docs.

We take new grads (and current RN's without OR experience) twice per year in our PeriOp 101 program through the AORN. That's how I got into the OR. I was already a staff nurse, but had no OR experience. I will say this though: make sure this is something you REALLY want to do. It costs alot of money and about 6 months (minimum) time to train a new OR nurse. We lost 2 from our class right after training because they decided they wanted more patient contact, which is why I personally think that we shouldn't take new grads. Nothing against you, it's just that if you get floor experience first, I'm sure you'd appreciate the OR even more. I know my experience (nursing home, home health, stepdown, ICU, nurse manager) makes me love the OR and appreciate only having one patient at a time (and they're asleep!) LOL At any rate, good luck with your job search. If the OR is what you really want to do-you won't be disappointed!

It truly depends on the facility. If you live in a rural area, a community hospital will more than likely hire an ADN trained nurse in any position. My current facility is a large teaching hospital with Magnet status. They won't hire anyone without a BSN, and they only hire new people into the OR (with no experience) twice per year when they offer the PeriOp 101 program through the AORN. At other times, they require OR experience.

I know many will disagree with me, but I think the OR should only hire experienced nurses. My time doing other nursing prior to the OR was invaluable. Plus, the cost and time to train a nurse in the OR is huge. How many times do new grads come to the OR, go through the training, then realize they want more patient interaction? If they had the opportunity to be a floor nurse first, they would realize what a great gig the OR is and never want to go to the floor. Just my