weavers

apply to every school in your area and go to whichever one accepts you first. you could do ADN, get the RN, work for 1-2 years then get a masters or DNP in 2-3 years.

I find study groups work really well. I hear someone explain, we ask questions, fill in the missing bits. when i can explain something then I really know it. It fun to come up with questions and its funny when you predict questions on the exam. be a leader and organized study groups, with different people. have 2 or 3 groups. I really like videos. the reading is on COPD, and i can type that into youtube and watch hours of videos. also your school should have videos too. I also type notes, it works for me.

meet with a counselor at your community college. make a plan and map out what classes you need to take and when. also use assist.org to make sure the classes transfer. at community college you take English 1A, its the same class at university, just way cheaper at community college. do the GE classes and the pre reqs for your program. you need a certain level of English, math, ect to graduate from a university.

Spend money on good shoes. I like running shoes. dr scholls inserts help. be sure to run/walk 1-2 miles before buying shoes. wear them in the store for +15mins. if there is any discomfort/hotspots don't get them. for my school it is all white shoes, we use white out on logos, there weren't to man choices for white mens shoes. origination. I use a laptop. I type my lecture notes and email everything to myself and often times to my classmates as well. I keep a theory binder(2-3"). to be honest I don't use it much. i tend to take it to school with me. all of my text books are on my laptop(page burst). Some people keep everyone in 1 or 2 binders and take them to school every day, or keep in car, so incase you want to do homework for that class. color coding is really good, especially if you can do that with highlighting notes. my clip board for clinical I use the one linked below. It is nice to put things inside that won't just fall off. I also use those clear binder pockets and use one for meds. I look up common meds use on the floor and make a spread sheet, class, side effects, nursing considerations, teaching, ect. I have another for diabetes(education for newly dx). one for extra clinical paper work. one for scrap paper, ect. clip board http://www.amazon.com/Saunders-Recycled-Aluminum-9-5-Inches-10007/dp/B000FTPE48 pocket binders http://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Ring-Binder-Pocket-Clear/dp/B0017TKYVS/ref=sr_1_3?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1345951136&sr=1-3

A pricey one on a hook I take to clinical A cheap one in the trunk of my car incase I forget or if another student forgets theres

i bring a laptop to class and type everything. we hand write at 30 words a min. i am sure you can type faster than that. lots of people use voice recorders, but i never have time to listen to them. I have some class mates that use a voice recorder and a highighter. they don't take any notes in class. after the class they will listen to the voice recorder and type what was said. \\\ when I take notes I can high light sections, and use different colors. it helps to have an outline already done, so you can listen more than just type. you make friends quickly if you make study guides for your class or share your typed notes. for pharm, put your drugs onto a spread sheet. class, how it works, side effects, contraindications, nursing teaching. split the work up with your class mates. its really nice to have all of your antibotics on a spread sheet so you can look at the big picture. which does what.

volunteer. at a hosptial, at a local clinic, anywhere you can. work on your resume, now. make money as a care giver and save money so you don't have to work while in school. check out this website. i had a pre med freind that went to peru and delivered a baby, did injections and all kinds of things for 3 weeks. http://www.volunteeringsolutions.com/ found this website a little while ago. it has flash interactive things oncranial nerves, the kidney, ect. http://www.wisc-online.com/ListObjects.aspx nclex 3500: Main Menu - NCLEX-RN 3500 - Institutional Versionever to early to do nclex questions. just do fundamentals of nurisng for now.

I use asics nimbus gel 14 with the dr. scholls inserts and graded compression socks. buy real running shoes, they cost 120-200 dollars, but are so worth it. go to a proper running store and get fitted and find out what type of runner you are, then research shoes for that type of foot. foot type http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-240-319-326-7152-0,00.html graded compression socks reduces chances of DVTs, varicose veins and reduces fatigue. make sure they are graded. that means around the calf they should be ~8mm hg, and at the ankle ~15mm hg. higher the mm hg the better. if you can stand 30 or 40. their are cheap ones at walmart 2 pairs for 8 bucks. or at a uniform store you can buy soft cotton spurn ones for 20 bucks. avoid the cheap rough stuff. often times hikers will wear two pairs of socks. one thin wicking one and one thick cushion pair. always buy shoes after you have walked 2-4miles, or when your feet are most swollen. its always better to buy a bigger size than a smaller size. your feet expand during the day. replace your shoes every 400-600 miles. the cushioning wears out, you will develop hot spots. save your feet, unless you want to have chronic foot pain when your in your 60s.

stool samples. abnormal stool, greasy, snotty and really strong smells. most stuff I can handle, but some smells it makes one want to puke. Today I had green diarrhea today, i was ok with that, but snotty smelly stool. i am cool with baby poop too. I have to convince myself the stool sample is really important. Check out some ortho surgery and open heart on youtube. bone and joint surgery can be hard to watch.

I am in a two year program, i find myself doing a ton of NCLEX questions and online research. This isn't your pre reqs where you can just memorize the definition. you need the apply your knowledge, apply the nursing process. I would ignore your GPA. You will never find be asked, "what was your gpa" in an interview. Patient's will never ask. Just pass and move on. Graduate, become an RN.

what does it take to succed? A good attitude and teamwork. Sometimes you gotta be a leader, sometimes you gotta motivate others and save other people from making mistakes. they will save your butt sooner or later. Another thing is letting things go. It is so hard to do, but sometimes you have a bad clinical day and you got a quiz or exam due in a theory subject. sometimes the hardest thing is to let go of that clinical day and focus on studying. Even when the teacher yells at you or you felt you did a bad job. don't fail yourself. Do what is due for the next day. Take each day one day at a time. Keep in mind your end goal is RN, put up with A-hole teachers and move on.

teamwork and study groups. be a leader, get to know people, get numbers, cook them food, organize study groups. do favors for people. babysit for them, wash there car and call in favors later on when you need help. they will save your butt in clinical at some point. try not to judge people, understand people have bad days or have stress outside school. you cannot be successful in nursing school alone. the workplace is all about teamwork, same with school. team work starts day one. studying pharm, make an excel sheet with the name of the drug in one box, classifications, action, side effects and nursing education. imo its helpful to have it all on one sheet. diseases know, defining of disease, what systems it effects, sort of how it works, treatments, and most important nursing interventions and patient teaching you can do as a nurse. online note cards, maybe share them with a few people in class. note cards take forever to make and by the time you make there is not time to study from them. study guides. break up the work and share answers. tell someone to take question 1-4, you do 5-9, someone else answer 10-14, ect. always share the work load. work on your organization skills. first week we are told wehave a paper due week 8, we are given the rubic and the instructors. do the paper week 1 and 2. get work done early. share information with both higher and lower class man. if you make a study guide pass it down to the people below you. study guides take up so much time. imo share the info and save other peoples time. spend lots of time every week to practice skills. 4 hours or so. maybe its making a bed, or turning a pt, or doing an IM inject or starting an IV. practice!!! Quit your day job is possible. or atleast work less than 20 hous a week, 10 if you can. tell your husband/wife, girl/boyfriend, family members how busy you will be and that you won't have much time for them. get a sitter if you have kids. I use a laptop in class to type notes. my keyboard is slient and the laptop weights only 3 lbs. I bought the digital books. if you have an iphone/touch or droid get skyscape and buy some books for clinical, like a drug book, NANDA, lab dx, ect. NANDAs take a year or more to really understand and master. I think the key is starting the first word of every sentence. like assess, teach, encouraging, collaborate, ect. get a tutor, even if your an A student. get one! for me clinical weren't fun till year 2. so much stress the first year, its really hard. you will stress.

I am a nursing student and a B student. I feel C students have a place in nursing, its not anything in critical care or anything that involves critical thinking. Maybe simpler jobs like blood bank. easy positions need to be filled. I feel like c students really don't know the content. I use to be a C student and I knew nothing. IMO A students are even worst. they only have classroom knowledge and no practical knowledge. they can't explain things. Just memorize, but not able to apply that knowledge. Maybe with higher education they can develop this. B students are the best. They work super hard and get things wrong. Then they go back to find out what they got wrong and why it was wrong. They will always push themselves for an A. I have heard hospitals want B students with a great attitude . I realize attitude and culture make a huge impact with grades. also I am making a ton of generalizations and assumptions. I really really have to push myself to get an A. actually I have to read the book if I want an A...I am second year in a ADN program and I don't ever read the text books. tons of studying and videos and NCLEX practice questions. I really want a 3.0. I have a 2.9. to be honest there are alot of people in my program i would never want to take care of me, they may make good nurses for some departments. I value critical thinking and a high level of understanding.

Great post. I am only a nursing student, but I want to share my experience. I was at the end of my first year of a ADN program I had an observation day on a Burn unit. We were allowed to give care, meds, dressing changes, ect. I had 2 pt. one patient had a rare skin condition, Calciphylaxis from stage 5 kidney failure. She wasn't a burn victim but has this Calciphylaxis was on 20-30% of her body. She was on the burn unit for +6months for care of her wounds and on isolation. It was so bad you could visible see the coccyx and you could of put a tennis ball in her coccyx. This was my first real wound care experience. I was so proud of myself. I did 12NG meds(3checks+5rights+SE and why pt is taking it), FSBG, insulin, heparin, installed a new PCA syringe, IV piggy back, hung a new primary bag, wet to dry dressing change. My dressing change was a oval 6"x12" and 2 inches deep with half inch tunneling. I took the easy dressing change, the other 3 nurses did the rest. That day I gave this patient every moment of nursing school. Every hour study, every lecture class, every exam, every moment practicing skills paid off. I put all of my knowledge into the care I gave that day. I learned so much. I love complex cases. I feel I made such a difference for this pt. On top of everything it was the patient's birthday. I swear they could see my smile behind my face mask. What I am most proud of is the respect and dignity I gave this patient. I was an advocate. I was a team member, A few RNs, MD and myself had an ethical dilemma discuses on the plan of care of this pt. My RN included me, she assessed my knowledge and had me do everything I could do. She is an inspiration on the kind of nurse I want to be. I wrote a letter and handed it to the director of the burn unit. I was so impressed with the kind of care they give. My nurse was beyond amazing. I exceeded my own expectations of myself.

herasheis, I am the same as you. I am an auditory learner. I never read the textbooks, and I am a B+ student. I feelt I could be an A student with if I read. I learn best by lectures, study groups and videos. I am an auditory learning, but I also take alot of notes. A year ago I started taking my laptop to class and typing up my notes. I have bad hand writing and this has been very helpful. I can organize my notes very easily and share notes with classmates. Microsoft Onenote is a fantastic note taking word processor. Our class just did the kolb's learning style inventory I thought it was helpful and you might learn more about yourself and how you learn. http://casa.colorado.edu/~dduncan/teachingseminar/KolbLearningStyleInventoryInfo.pdf I never read my text books. I buy them, but never read. I don't feel guilty at all because I still spend a ton of time studying. I don’t have time to feel any guilt. I mostly use online sources. I do alot of HESI and NCLEX questions. I love NCLEX 3500 I try to do 10 q day. Our school uses HESI which has a ton of progressive case study nclex questions. It’s hard. Often times I type a disease process into youtube and watch a few videos on it. Like Spina bifida, it has the 3D animation and I retain the info very well. I want things laid out simply and know the pathophysiology of the disease process. Main Menu - NCLEX-RN 3500 - Institutional Version for study groups be sure to study with someone that reads the book before the study group. be a leader start study groups. Have 3 different groups that you meet with 3 times a week. People will cancel on you or get sick, so you gotta be a leader and get people together. It helps me at any rate. Your school should have some video recoruses. Mine has a ton of them. Mostly old ones form the 80s and 90s, but often times the info is current. We have some newer videos too. Just be mindful that when you watch videos on youtube or any source that the information may not be correct. Your teachers may want you to learn it a different way Here is site a medical student made. He does some songs like for cholecystitis and pancreatitis. They are kind of similar diseases and can be easy to mix up, but his video really sorted it out for me. http://estudiarconlasustanciap.blogspot.com/

You buy cheap you buy twice. dont' waste your money on those cheap 20 and 40 dollar stethoscopes. if you can try someone elses and see how you like it. My girlfriend bought me a littmann Cardiology III, it is night and day difference. I had my name and her name engraved on it. She got it for me as a present during my second quarter of nursing school. I told her to buy it after graduation. So far I haven't lost it yet. That is my main concern. I had actually forgotten it the other day when we had a health fair. I was taking people's BP manually and used cheap stethoscopes. I hear so much background noise, other people talking, noise from the table, ect. It was awful. I love my littmann. I got mine in navy blue and bought black ear pieces. If it was my money a student I would go for the classic II. save your money, it will probably get lost. you are a student. if you want something fun look at the ultrascope. note they are diaphram only. UltraScope® Stethoscopes » Specificationshttps://ultrascopes.com/store/index.php?cPath=39_68

they drilled an intraosseous catheter into her femur. Its for instant IV access. Its hard at the best of times to get an IV stick on an elderly person. Maybe they injected atropine, it speeds up the heart and then they probably gave her IV fluids.

I am looking more and more at Ohio University for their RN-BSN program. would the units there transfer to masters at another school or online program? I realize Ohio university offer bsn-masters online.

I was looking at Ohio university for there online BSN. I understand they also have an online masters as well. I feel like I would learn better with a brick and mortar school, but that will cost an extra 5 grand, stress fill clinicals, and I doubt I could work as an RN. If I do online I could work as an RN and get school done. It would also be nice to have some income. I understand that some online programs don't require clinicals. I want to look further into this. I want decide on a BSN school in the next month or two so I can complete the pre reqs now.

Do the online BSN degree transfer to other schools? like a masters a brick and motar school or another online program. I am 25 and in an ASN program, and I have one more year to go. I am planning to do a BSN shortly after getting my NCLEX. I need to statistics and chem for a 4 year program. Ideally I would like to avoid taking chem or math. I am not considering a masters, I also want to keep my options open just in case. I wasn't planning on getting a BSN, but I feel in order to be competitive and have job options I would be better off with a BSN.

I agree you need to change your attitude. I quite enjoyed my OB rotation. I saw a lady partsl birth, a C-section, and inserted two foleys catheters. A couple of people refused a male student and my teacher and the charge nurse worked hard to find me opertunities to see something or do something. I found most women didn't mind a male student at all, nor did there husbands. I did find the women didn't want me assessing there breast, watching them breast feed, or me teaching them how to breast feed. All the women were, ok fine look down below, check out my hemroids, staples, episiotomy, ect. but they breast they were more senstive about. I understand breastfeeding is a private thing, its one on one time with the baby. I learned tons in OB. We had an amazing teacher. Our class learned teamwork and critical thinking. It was just awesome!

Its great that you realize this is something you want to work on. I use to be a really shy person. Before Nursing school I put myself into job situations where I had to be a leader, where I had to talk to total strangers. I was a dance teacher for five years and a personal trainner. I am still shy around people. My first quarter of nrusing school we were in a skilled nursing facility. I learned how to talk to a tree. Some pts can't talk, cva, comatose, ect. you gotta learn how to talk. your voice can relax them and make procedures easier. its weird not to say a word while giving someone a bed bath. I would say get a job where customer service is key, a fairly busy place. you gotta practice starting up conversations with anyone. you can make a game of it. Go to a bar, a college cafeteria and try to get 10 rejections. yes 10 rejections. Or try to get a stranger to say a weird word or phrase like squirrel farm. this will teach you how to gear and control conversations. you gotta practice every day. go on a bus and sit next to someone and strike up a conversation, or wait for someone to sit next to you. also try to use appropriate forms of touch with different ages, and cultures. people like talking about themselves. even to strangers. Ask questions. Lots of them. Have questions lined up, think ahead a little. Allow them time to explain things, ask them to elaborate. These things will also help improve your personal relationships. google, "active listening" read up on techniques. learn how to agree with statements, ask questions, rephrase to state you understood what is being said, use there name, use eye contact, use touch, ect. In Nursing school day one I was taught a RN is the patients advocate. you have to speak up. its your job. you gotta learn to get help, use resources, ask for orders, tell MDs they are wrong, ect. Learn to listen, but most of all you HAVE to speak up!!!

my school uses elsevier books. we now use hesi final exams. the great thing about elsevier is that the have a program called pageburst. its the program we use to read the text book on our laptop. in addtion there is a website we log into so we can read our textbooks and make notes. to be honest i don't read. i study, but i don't read. i will use the books for reference and homework. the search portion of pageburst makes things so fast. what i love is my pda books. i have an old itouch and i bought the pda version of my text books. i can use my pda in hospital, so long as it doesn't right. i have my drug book, lab dx, nanda, med surg, medical dictionary, and a few other books. i bought the book bundle for 200 dollars. the only bad thing is that it expires after 2 years. but it has greatly improved my clinical experience. my paperwork is so much better as is my understanding of the disease and disease process. i use my pda for crtical thinking. i feel so smart. the pda program i use is skyscape. imo it is a must, so helpful. best part is not lugging around 20lbs of textbooks to clinical and worrying about them getting stolen.

I was in the same position as you. I am now 25 and half way threw my ASN RN program. Its a 2 year program, but it takes 3 years of pre reqs and then I had to wait 2.5 years just to get into the program. Also I am looking at getting a BSN after i graduate so i can be competitive in the job market. My advice, do a CNA program and get a job. Its typically 6 months and you will learn so much. it will make clinical in the RN program that much easier. you will have confidence in taking vitals, pt care, being in a hospital talking to a nurse, origination, cluster care, and so much more. It will also help on a resume. Do a care giving job also and volunteer at hospitals and try to get as much hands on pt care as possible. learn another language if you have the time, pick something common for the area you want to live in, maybe Spanish or mandarin. Also start taking anatomy and physiology soon. Its very hard, but microbiology is even harder, nursing school is even harder, med surg way harder. if you don't enjoy anatomy and physiology then look for another field. lastly work as much as you can while you do pre reqs. save money now, so you don't have to work while in nursing school. nursing school requires full dedication, and all of your time.