alex1987

Thank you so much for your response! I think I'm more worried about the clinical part of the interview, so I definitely need to review a bunch of stuff :/

Hi there! I've been a nurse for a little over three years but only have 10 months of experience (adult telemetry/IMC). I quit my telemetry job in January 2015 and haven't worked since then due to family reasons. My ideal job is in the NICU but after getting rejected so many times I decided to just randomly apply to several positions at the children's hospital and was happily surprised this morning when I got an interview for the PICU. I have no idea how this interview is gonna go? I definitely feel like I'm not qualified at all. I even feel worse than a new grad cause it's been forever since I graduated and worked. I assume that if they called me out of all the applicants is because they're looking for somebody eager to learn and train? Could you give me any advice or tips? I really want this job.

May I ask you how was the interview? I'm not a new grad but only have 10 months experience (telemetry - and adults!) and I've been out of work for 2 years. Today I got a call for a PICU interview at Texas Children's west campus and I'm super nervous. Any advice?

I applied to Cy-Fair a year ago (Spring 2012) and was wait listed (with a score of 11.47) but accepted a month later :)

I applied to Cy-Fair for Spring 12 with an 11.47 and was an alternate. They eventually acepted me 2 months before the start date. I guess the lower score for acceptance during that session was an 11.5

My program accepts 50 people but they split us for lecture so 25 people go to the morning session and the other 25 to the afternoon session. 10 people in each clinical group mixing people from the morning and afternoon session.

I would take A&P 1, Psychology, and English together... but if you're not working full time and don't have many responsibilities at home, I think you could also try taking Micro as well. It can be doable if you have the right instructors and the right amount of time to study at home.

I took it with English 1, Psychology, a PE class, and a beginner piano class :). It was very doable and I got an A in all of them. For me A&P 2 was more difficult, but also more interesting than A&P 1.

I took my Med Surg 2 final today. I needed at least a 66 to get a B in the class or a 100 to get an A lol.. ended up getting an 87.5 and am very happy about that. Had to take also my Mid Term Hesi and got a 947 / 84% which my teacher says is a really good grade :). Now waiting until Thursday that I have to take my Pharm final... just need an 86 to get an A, I hope I can make it .

A&P II and Micro. I didn't take them together cause I was scared lol, and decided to take A&P with a bunch of other gen ed classes. Then when I took Micro the following semester I noticed I could have taken them together without complications. But it also depends on the instructors, and I don't mean you should choose the easiest ones because that way you probably won't learn that much, but the ones that are passionate about the subject and are willing to teach you properly but still being fair with tests and stuff.

I'll spend my time sleeping and studying for the government class I'll be taking during the minimester. I'm about to finish my 3rd semester of NS and I'm so tired I wish I could spend my Christmas break relaxing, sleeping, and having fun... but my goal is to finish the pre reqs for the RN BSN program before I graduate from the ADN program, so it's better if I take classes during the breaks so I don't have to take them together with nursing courses during the semeter

Well in that case I understand your concern, but I think that even if you get to spend several hours in lab every week, you still feel insecure every time you go to the hospital and try to do those skills on your pt. I'm in my 3rd semester and I still get nervous every time I have to do a skill, so far I only feel confident giving medications, but it definitely gets better each semester. I doubt I will feel prepared and a "real nurse" by the time I graduate, but that's a very common feeling among students. but for the money you guys spend in tuition and books, I definitely think you deserve way more than just 1 hour of lab every other week!

So do you have 10 hours of lab (practice) and just 1 hour to be signed off every other week or do you only get 1 hour every other week to practice and be signed off by your instructor? If it is the second one then I agree... that's nothing and it's not safe cause they're not actually teaching you anything, but if it is the 1st one then I don't see anything wrong with that. My first semester I had 1 hybrid class (intro to nursing) + an online class (ethics). For health assessment we spent like 3 hours in the lab, lecturing for the first hour and the rest of the time practicing with our peers. For skills we got 6 hours of lab, and the instructor "lectured" while teaching the skills. From the 2nd to 5th semester we don't get to spend anytime in the lab, our lectures last for 4 hours just once a week and then we just go to clinicals, and learn our skills there with real patients LOL.

BSN usually takes 2 years to complete... the amount of time you spend in the community college taking your pre-reqs depends on how many credits you can take each semester and how many pre reqs you have to take before being able to apply to the nursing program. For a BSN program you should be able to finish your pre reqs in 2 years, taking classes full time during the regular semesters and taking some extra classes during the summer session and/or minimesters.

Next semester will be my 4th semester of Nursing school (I'm so tired! lol, but so happy I'm getting close to graduation :)) I'll be taking the specialties: Mental health OB Pediatrics Total: 11 credits And I will probably also take a gen ed class (still have to finish the pre reqs for the RN-BSN program ) during the second half of the semester

We take all of our tests in the computer. We get our grades after everyone has taken the test and after the instructor checks the statistics because sometimes some questions might need to be dropped. After all of that we usually review the whole test together in the classroom and if anybody has questions then you meet privately with the instructor to discuss your exam.

I'm not going to lie... I read everything because school is my full time job and I don't have any other responsibilities. But my instructors always say that if you don't have time to read the whole chapter then you should focus on knowing what would put a person at risk of having the disease (i.e smoking), what are the clinical manifestations of the disease, some info about medication, and especially what are the nursing interventions you should implement. In my program you can skip reading the etiology/pathophysiology part and still get an A on a test because they don't make test questions about the disease process but how would you react to it and what is your job as a nurse.

I use these: a'>Nurse's Pocket Guide: Diagnoses,Prioritized Interventions and Rationales: Marilynn Doenges,Mary Moorhouse,Alice Murr: 9780803622340: Amazon.com: Books nd this: All-In-One Care Planning Resource,3e: Pamela L. Swearingen RN: 9780323074209: Amazon.com: Books I love the first one because you just need to figure out (by yourself, the book doesn't talk about diseases) what dx goes with your patient and then the book will tell you what factors you can relate to that dx, what kind of subjective and objective data would evidence the dx, and then gives you lots of interventions and rationales. It helps you to write a perfect dx step by step :). The second one is a regular nursing care plan book. It comes with the most common medical/surgical, OB, peds, and mental health diseases. So lets say if your pt was diagnosed with DVT, then the book briefly explains the condition and gives you the most common nursing dx with some interventions that would apply to that pt. I mostly use this book when I'm kind of lost with a pt with a medical dx that I'm not familiar with and once I figure out what nursing dx I should use then I just go by the first book.

Are you practicing NCLEX style questions before taking your tests? Using books such as the Success series? (med surg succes, fundamental succes, etc - there's one for each course) You need to learn how to think critically and the best way to do it is doing practice questions. When you're studying remember not to memorize stuff but to really understand the material. After that you can start practicing questions, as much as you can. Use every available recourse: Nclex books, study guides that accompany your textbooks, internet resources (you probably got some access code with your textbooks). That's the best way to learn how to think critically because it's going to teach you how to select the correct answer even when all 4/5 answer seem to be right.

Are you using NCLEX books to do practice questions before the test? if you're not then you should be doing that! As everybody already said you need to think about your ABCs, prioritization, and all that stuff when taking the test. But to really learn and get use to do that in the test without feeling so anxious you need to practice! It doesn't matter if you know that airway and breathing are a priority (and almost always the correct answer) because if all the answer seem to be right then the anxiety is going to make you choose the answer that you think is more correct than the other totally ignoring that breathing is always the priority. I use the Success series book to practice for my tests. I like these books because there's one for every subject: med surg success, maternity, pharm success... They divide everything into chapters and you get a fair amount of practice questions in the book and most of them come with a CD with lots of extra questions. Also, if your book comes with an internet resource website (like Evolve) then check it out because you can usually find NCLEX style quizzes that you can use to practice. It may be difficult at the beginning and you may get most of the questions wrong even though you study and understand the material, but keep practicing because it will eventually get better. Always read the rationales for the answers no matter if you got the questions wrong or right. Try to understand why an answer is more correct than the others and why some of them seem to be correct even though they are totally wrong. After much practicing you'll start to think critically without even noticing it!. Good luck :)

I had to do this as well during my first semester for two of my classes: nursing skills and health assessment. For my first practicum in skills I had to do a dressing change and for the second one I had to administer insulin. For health assessment the first one was taking vital signs and the other one doing a complete head to toe assessment. We also got only 3 attempts (pass/fail) and if we failed we were dismissed from the program. I was lucky to pass all of them on my 1st try!

Atelectasis is a good one. For some reason I like Hemoptysis and Dysphagia

For an ADN progam you have to go to community college so it's pretty cheap compared to a 4 year university even if you have to pay as an international student. But you would have to look at the requierements to practice as an RN in Australia since many countries accept only a BSN for entry level.

I'm in the 3rd semester of an ADN program. Is it hard? Yes. Is it stressful? Yes. Is it impossible to do? No. When you start nursing school make sure you're dedicating the right amount of time to reading, studying, and doing your clinical paperwork. It really depends on your personal situation if "you can have a life" outside of nursing school or not. In my case, I'm young, single with no kids and so far I've been able to manage my time properly to have time to go out, watch TV, or do whatever else I want. I might not have the same amount of time to entertain or might not do it as frequent as other people my age do, but my life does not consist of me going to school and then back home with my head in a book 24-hr a day. If you're married and have kids, things may be different for you because probably after class and family time you'll have to spend your free time studying. I don't think taking bio or chem will help you that much in the program. As long as you really understand A&P and microbiology you'll be fine. Remember that exams in nursing school are completely different than any kind of test you've taken in your pre-reqs, so the best thing to do is to buy an NCLEX question book (I like the success series like Med/surg succes, Pharm success) so you can practice a lot of these type of questions before you take your tests. It's not enough if you study/memorize the material because the questions are not about knowledge but about application, and a NCLEX practice book is the only thing that can teach you how to answer those questions. I always use that kind of books before my tests and I get way better grades than people in my class that only read chapters and memorize facts.

An ADN program is not the first 2 years of a BSN. Actually, both programs usually last 2 years taking almost the same courses, the major difference between them (at least in my area) is that the BSN requires you to take a few more theory/leadership courses than the ADN program. Only after you've been acepted in nursing school and completed those 2 years of upper-division courses is when you're eligible to take the NCLEX and become an RN. Both programs require you to complete pre-requisite classes before you can apply to a nursing program and start taking nursing classes. The major difference between both of them is that pre-reqs for an ADN program should take you just one year to complete (if you take 12+ credits each semester and go to school during summer session) while pre-reqs for a BSN program are probably going to take you at least 2 years to complete instead of 1. Pre-reqs are almost always the same (A&P 1 and 2, Micro, English, Psych, Sociology, etc) but a BSN program also requires you to take a lot more of gen ed courses such as governent, history, and they also require extra science courses such as chemistry, nutrition and other courses such as statistics, elective, etc. You need to have all of those in order to be able to graduate from a 4-year university with a Bachelors degree while in the community college (ADN) you only take the pre-reqs needed to start the nursing program and that's all you need to do. If you go the ADN route, graduate, get your RN license and complete all the extra pre-reqs needed for a BSN in your area you can enroll in a bridge RN-BSN program. That kind of programs usually last for 1 year and you can complete it online while you're working as an RN if you want to. During that year you're suppose to complete those extra classes that you were not required to take while finishing the ADN program.