WorkingTowardsBSN

I was just thinking about this today... One year ago today my acceptance letter arrived. Today I had a group presentation for mental health, and I have a pharm exam and a health assessment final tomorrow, with other finals next week. And then I'll have completed year 1 of my 3 year BSN program. It's so funny looking back because I know exactly how you felt. I also know exactly how amazing you're going to feel when that acceptance letter arrives! Keeping my fingers crossed for all of you!

A drop of peppermint oil in each nostril has helped me. I put it on a qtip and swipe.

water bottle, lunch bag, great crock pot recipe book, good planner, LOTS of highlighters, post-it flags, good shoes, good desk or work space, good condensed study guide sheets (I like this and this). And be social! My best study guides have been the friends I've made.

That is going to depend entirely on your school and program. For us, you would have the option for a leave, but it means you're out a year (so if you step out during fall, you can pick up the following fall and you're now a year behind). Personally, I would NEVER choose to have a kid during school. Having a baby while taking your pre-reqs is hard enough, but during nursing school? Its 4x worse. My winter semester started (just for pre-reqs) when my youngest was 8 days old. You don't ever get that time back with your baby, and it goes by SO fast. Is it doable? Yes. But if you have a choice, make a choice. School first, or kids first, but I would never advocate for doing them together.

I'm so over the sexist crap. "Aprons for women." On the whole, I don't complain about my school's uniform because it's all black with red trim. That is, it's black with red trim for women. If you're a guy you can just pick out a top. But we're required to have that red trim because we're women. So our options are already limited unless you have the time, skills, or $$$ to have trim sewn on. Kinda hard to talk about everyone being treated equally when you start day 1 with differentiating between sexes. *rant over*

I turned 28 in June and am about to start my 2nd semester of my BSN program. In fact, there are a lot of other students my age in my program, as well as many older than us. No real advice because I haven't seen this as a disadvantage of any kind. You've got life (and school - I hear you on the 10 years of college!) experience to help prepare you for entering the program. I'll tell you what I tell anyone starting a nursing program: it's an entirely different kind of experience, no matter how much college experience you've had! Like you, I've been in college for 10 years before starting my program and this really is unlike anything I've done to this point. Don't beat yourself up if you struggle with it at first. Make friends and study with them. That was hard for me, but it really does help. Don't be afraid to talk to your professors, whether you're struggling or excelling. They're there for a reason. Good luck!

I'm going to pray that it snows so I can play in it with my kids! Will be getting ready for Christmas (wrapping, cooking, cleaning, decluttering, donating, etc!) and then also celebrating my baby girl's 2nd birthday. Mostly just looking forward to NOT studying, NOT reading (textbooks, at least!) and just enjoying my family! :-) Break cannot come soon enough!!!

Do you hate this because of the hospital you're in? Have you felt like this during your other clinical experiences? Maybe it's just the floor/specialty you're working in? I'm sorry I don't have any real advice for you. I'm hoping that your frustration is due to feeling overwhelmed combined with not liking the facility/floor you're working on (or maybe the staff you're working with?). IMO, I wouldn't walk away from it. There are so many other options available to you with your degree.

But that's just it - you aren't the only person working with your patient. You don't have to like it, but it's vital.

First of all, HUGE props to you for making it happen as a single parent. It's hard enough to do having my husband to help me, I can't imagine how you're doing it on your own! That's AMAZING! Next, I hear you about finishing the pre-reqs! It took me a long, long time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, but I'm so glad it's finally here! Keep your chin up - you'll be in a program before you know it!

I just started my BSN program this fall. We are fortunate to be able to live off of my husband's salary, so I quit my job when I started the program. My kids are almost 4 and almost 2. My rule is that my books do not come out until the kids are in bed (or once in a while I get them playing a game or watching a video and I'll read while they're doing that). I do homework during nap time and once they go to bed. It was really important to me to give them my full attention, and to not let my relationship with them (or my husband) suffer because I'm in school. So far we're all managing really well. I won't tell you it's easy, because it's not. But there is an end in sight (April/May 2015 to be exact), and I do have summers off, so we're all just dealing with it a semester (or week or even day) at a time.

I think it's great that you're trying to help your students get as much experience as possible! I start my clinicals this week and I know I would appreciate that. Have you asked your students if there is anything specifically they would like to observe/practice? That might vary greatly just from student to student. I know I hope to observe and assist with as much as possible, routine or not.

The paperwork is how you protect yourself and your patient. Like you, I'm not really a fan of all the documentation, but it helps me to view it as a way to continue to care for the patient (make sure the most UTD and accurate info is there for the next shift/doc/etc). I can't think of a scenario where you're not going to have to chart. It's part of the game. But there's always an aspect like this of anything you do, ya know? Any career is going to have an aspect that doesn't appeal to you. It's just a matter of how much you enjoy the other parts and if that's enough to make up for how much you despise the charting.

Are you meeting with your professors? Are you talking to anyone in the year ahead of you who can tell you how they studied? Are you meeting with tutors? Are you spending extra time practicing your skills? Are you spending enough time studying your texts? Are you making flash cards? Are you recording your lectures and reviewing them at home or in the library? Are you involved in a study group? Are you reaching out to an academic advisor for study tips/advice? If you answered no to any one of these questions, I would reassess how you're studying. Don't assume that this isn't meant to be your path if it's what you're passionate about. Nursing school is difficult, an accelerated program even more so. Utilize the resources available to you. But don't wait for the end of the semester to figure out that things aren't working for you. You may just need to shift how you're reinforcing the information. You can do it!!! Just find what works for you. You seem very dedicated, so I absolutely believe you can find a way to not only pass, but do even better.

2015 here, too! I started last month for my BSN program.

It's sad that aiming for the lowest possible threshold is deemed acceptable. I definitely wouldn't want someone with that mindset taking care of me or mine.

Ok, this totally irritates me. C=RN is NOT an acceptable goal!!! Nursing school is not like what we did in our pre-reqs. It requires not only understanding that content but understanding how to actually use that information. We were wired to focus on grades to get into nursing school, but now that 4.0 is NOT our goal. Now we need to focus on the content and application of the content. Yes, if you have mastered the content & can successfully apply it then good grades should follow. But rather than focus on your grade and your GPA, you need to prioritize. Your patient isn't going to care whether you had a 4.0, but they ARE going to care that you know what the heck you're doing.

Someone else recommended this book to me - said that she also struggled greatly with pharm and this book truly was the difference between her passing and not passing! Here's the link on Amazon: Nursing Pharmacology Made Incredibly Easy! (Incredibly Easy! Series): Springhouse: 9780781792899: Amazon.com: Books

Check into jobs that offer weekend/evening/overnight hours. Or work lots of overtime and stop working once you start your program.

If I got a 79% on my exams, I failed the exam. Passing is an 80% for everything in our program. So if she's failing, it's not neccessarily a 25% or something she can't recover from, know what I mean? That said - are you having trouble with the content, or applying it? Those are very different problems. I'd schedule an appointment with your professor during their office hours and ask them to review your exams with you and see what suggestions they have.

I can relate! We're just getting started with all of this, but I've already started looking at it this way: It's humbling me. I will always remember how uncomfortable I'm feeling now when I'm working with my patients. I will remember to do everything I can to make them as comfortable as possible, even in the situations where that really isn't possible. I'm also trying to remember that this is allowing my fellow students (who will some day be my coworkers and peers) to hopefully learn compassion about working with an overweight patient. If you continue to truly feel uncomfortable, speak with your professor and see what options and advice she may have available for you. My lab partner is someone who is also overweight, and that helps me feel more comfortable, too.

I didn't see anyone say that we should be babied, let off easy, or let mistakes go uncorrected. What I did see were people commenting about the advantages to being in a program where you are supported by your peers and instructors as opposed to being pitted against each other. There's a huge difference between a solid education and boot camp. The point was that you can still be trained to be an amazing, confident nurse without being belittled or ridiculed by those educating you.

We have to have better than 80% on everything (course grade, exams, etc) in order to pass. Our department chair put it to us this way: "this isn't done to give you anxiety or add any more stress. Ultimately, it comes down to the quality of nurses we are building here. I wouldn't want a C nurse taking care of my family, and I don't think you would, either." When she put it that way, I can totally understand why they've implemented the scale.

For our BSN program, the first year is all pre-reqs. Sophomore year you start your nursing courses, including clinicals.

Mine are labelled by exam number (1-5 - midterm and final are cumulative).