C.J.

kknud, hey I've been accepted to Odessa's campus for this fall too! Shoot me an email at [email protected]!

HealthyFuture congratulations!!! I can definitely relate to you. When I got the call asking for an interview as a surgical aide I was intensely excited!! I just wore a nice button up shirt and khakis (I'm a guy). Just take a deep breath. The clinical managers/administrators remember what it's like to be a student, PCA, or PCT. They will ask you some questions to see if you have what it takes to be a good PCA. You may or may not get an offer on the spot. Never the less, it would be a good idea to write a thank you letter to your interviewer. Just make sure to relax and act confident, and express your desire to learn! You will do fine!

I'm not a CNA, but I'm a surgical aide and work mainly in pre-operative care/post-operative care and love my job! I just found out I got accepted to a BSN program and am excited to incorporate what I've learned. I will say this; it is HARD. It is no joke one of my main duties is transporting patients from the surgery floor to the pre-op unit and I have been afraid my feet were bleeding from walking. The nurses are low in staff sometimes and some (but not many!) tend to be grouchy. Some surgeons are bossy and yell, some anesthesiologists like to have everything done their way or the highway, but in the end, as long as I have done everything necessary and in my will to help the patient and the patient is happy, then I am happy! I love helping with a pre-op procedure, and if it ends up being discomforting for the patient, it is nice to know that I am there for them to advocate and share their feelings while the nurse/anesthesiologist performs the procedure. I feel as though it has! I have learned to transport patients, prepare IVs, learn about hospital standards/protocol, communicate effectively with both patients and professionals, learn about medications, and the various factors that can all influence patient care outcomes...the priority for nurses to make positive!

You sure will be ahead of many! I have been an EMT since I was 18, and have recently been an anesthesia tech and surgical aide right before being accepted to my BSN program which starts in a few months. I have helped with sterile procedures, ambulated patients, prepare IVs, and all other kinds of nursing-related activities! I do however wish I had the opportunity to become a CNA (I lived in the middle of nowhere, and EMTs were needed!) because even though I can administer o2 before the preop nurse can even detect a lowered SpO2 and know more about fractures, surgery, and airways than many, I am having to catch up on learning the basic nursing procedures (which are equally important, trust me!!) and it's kind of embarrassing. If you have ANY clinical experience communicating with, working with, or assisting nurses and other professionals, you will be ahead! It is different for everyone, but just remember to treat your patients when you are a nursing student with the same manner as if you were an assistant.

Has anybody heard any followups on orientation dates or if there is one big orientation or anything? If anybody's going to Odessa shoot me an email at [email protected]!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE A&P!!!!!! Micro....not quite so much. Still liked it but it felt like a lot more work. I loved pathophysiology too! Sad to see it go, but I'm happy to apply it .

@Hopeful_st I am actually going to the TTUHSC Odessa Campus! I know I've only heard of one other person who is going there....

Like I said I haven't been to nursing school yet, but I am expecting it to be extremely hard and time consuming! Thank you very much! However, I don't see physicians superior to nurses, and I work with both parties all day in the OR as an anesthesia tech. I've even seen a nurse give a physician orders. In the OR, if the CNOR circulator sees that a surgeon isn't performing adequately, he/she has the right to suspend him/her from the OR. Is med school harder? Probably, but I don't know that personally. Like a previous post said earlier, it is all subjective.

GingerRoot I get asked that a lot. I'm about to start nursing school and have a 3.94 GPA, and I never once thought A&P or micro were hard. However I don't want to become a physician because medicine and nursing are 2 totally separate different disciplines. Nursing encompasses caring for the patient as a whole, rather than curing the disease. Personal preference to focus on the patient is why I don't want to be a doctor

Congratulations to everyone who got in! Has anyone received follow up emails or formal notifications of acceptance yet?

Hey haboukar thank goodness I saw your post! I was beginning to think the exact same thing! I am going to the TTUHSC Odessa Campus too!! I got my email on Sunday! So glad to find somebody else in Odessa! Shoot me an email at [email protected] or find me on facebook!

LittleMissRedRaider and sml0432 I have been to the main Texas Tech University Health Science Center in Lubbock and can say it is AMAZING! It isn't with the actual university, instead it is on a campus nearby. It is pretty much connected with University Medical Center. The campus is divided between he academic building, the library, and the actual hospital. All of the campuses for nursing have similar campus structures I believe, with Abilene being right next to Hendrick Medical Center (they are building their own new building!) and Odessa being next to Medical Center Hospital (That's my campus!!). They are similar to Lubbock, but on just a much smaller scale. Don't know about El Paso though. LittleMissRedRaider I'm just ready to get some more instructions and get the show on the road, ya know?!

Yeah I keep looking at my email in disbelief too!!! It is just so crazy to think that in August I will be a nursing student! I cannot believe it's finally came! Has anybody received any further instructions yet in follow-up emails?

I GOT MY EMAIL TODAY TOO!!!! I was driving when I got the email and saw "Texas Tech" and immediately pulled over. I was sooooo excited to see that I got in! Congratulations to everybody!

LittleMissRedRaider, I wasn't too fond of my teacher and it didn't help that it was ONLINE lol. I'm still taking gov right now, and of course the nursing classes, and that is it. Oh wow ok! I'm excited about it now! That totally makes sense. I feel like I'm expecting a newborn baby or something....it can arrive any minute haha! hdoty, that's great! I applied to the Odessa campus so I would like to take an elective :). I almost applied to Abilene (my family is from a town near there) but decided I'd rather be in Odessa because I have a part-time job with the hospital in Midland. I wonder if any other schools in Texas have began accepting yet?