Feistn

I think nursing school, unfortunately, attracts a certain "type." These types are control freaks who literally are not happy unless they're complaining about something. Unfortunately, these types leave nursing school and become nurses who, guess what? They're control freaks and they complain about everything. That other hospital is SOOOOOOOO much better than this hospital, and they should be lucky I work here? If it's so much greater there, go work there. I hate nights soooo much, I'm tired of it, I should quit. Then do it. We had an info session for the next semester and you wanna know what happened? Someone "complained" about the info session to someone other than the professor giving the info session, going over her head, when she EXPRESSLY ASKED that if students have a problem with her teaching style, information given, ect, they come to her. Add to the top of that students who are barely passing and it's everyone else's fault, and you've got some serious whiney pants people. I avoid these people like the plague.

Put the shoe on the other foot. How upset would YOU be if your nursing instructor dropped "hints" about their faith or values system that didn't match yours? I'm a student in MN, and there was a brief, thankfully benign incident where an instructor told a gay student how disappointed she was that the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage didn't pass. Luckily, she recovered well, and the student in question is not a boat rocker and is generally pretty mellow. That could have gotten ugly real fast. I do have instructors who mention going to church, ect, or things they went to do that are faith-based in conversation, and that is totally fine. What is NOT fine is seeking students out to suggest how they should cope with the stresses of nursing school. Trust me when I tell you that the students who want that kind of input will seek you out. On our campus, the professors that are "allies" have a sticker on their doors. It's never brought up, never solicited, never offered. We all know what it means. And I have one instructor who had an Obama pin in a place in her office that I don't think anyone else would have thought to look. And even then I would be super careful. Nursing students are super sweet until something doesn't go their way, and then they're hell-demons. It's all fun and games until someone gets kicked out because of bad clinical performance or not being able to cut it academically. Trust me when I tell you they will make a federal case out of you "sharing" your faith. More likely than not they won't get anywhere, but do you even want to go there?

Get out. You need to say no to your parents, and nursing school is too darned hard if you don't even want to be doing it. You need to tell them that you're not continuing, you're moving out, and you're pursuing x career path. They'll either freak or they'll leave it alone. You have to live for you, not them. I would find someone to help guide you as you leave. Yes, leaving home is scary, but you'll figure it out. It's really just a matter of paying your bills on time. You'll hit some rough patches; don't look at them as failures, look at them as lessons.

I said treat, but only if treating means having a "come to Jesus" talk with her. That you are willing to help her in study group, but by the time it's the night before the exam, it's too late. That you gave her lots of opportunities to study with you, and she sure could have showed up to class, but didn't. Basically, she can get help on your study days. The night before the exam, you're not going to answer calls from her. Either she wants to pass or she doesn't. Only she can decide if she'd rather party or graduate.

I find I need to have some constraints on my schedule. There is such a thing as "too much studying." sometimes you just have to sit down with the attitude of "I'm only gonna do what I can do, and that's it." If you're busy all day, and you know you ONLY have an hour to study, you're gonna get it done. If I have all day to do something? Chances are way too good that I've wasted most of the day watching TV, being on FB, or whatever, and then it's 5 PM and I haven't done squat.

You might be surprised. Think about this for a minute. Panicking is not going to help you. Panicking while you study? You might as well just go watch TV or something for all the good it's gonna do you. You have to have a positive attitude. The good news? You only need two percentage points to pass, and the final is worth 40% of your grade. It REALLY doesn't take too much to raise your grade by 2 percentage points.

The ones you like. Seriously, they will tell you what to learn and how to learn it. If you try and read your textbooks early, you'll just be chasing your tail. The things you should brush up on are med terminology, CNA skills because they won't teach this and will assume you will be comfortable doing all of them, and med dosages, because there will be a test that you have to pass with 100% or risk losing your spot in the program. Beyond that, just enjoy your summer. You could start looking at NCLEX books mainly for the test strategies. But like I said... read the stuff you like, because you won't have much time for fun reading when school is in session!

Do not buy one single solitary thing until they tell you to. You're going to be laying out 1K in books, supplies, ect easily. They'll probably tell you at this meeting. There isn't really a good way to get ahead. Keep practicing your medical dosages, brush up on CNA skills, and relax. You don't know how the content will be presented, and you don't know which parts your professors will emphasize. I thought I'd try and get some reading done before both semesters, before the assignments were posted. I ended up having to reread it when I got the course objectives anyway.

Maybe also make a call to HR and see how fast you accrue vacation days. I'm working a part time job at a hospital, and I'm basically burning up all of my vacation to do clinicals this spring. It's not ideal, but it will get you the job, and depending on your rotation, you might still end up with nice long weeks/weekends to take vacations in the summer if you want to.

Have you gone for the teachers for help about how to study for their exams? They don't respond well to 'but it's not fair' but they do respond well to 'how can I do better?' Also, lots of good people don't make it through nursing school. It doesn't make you a failure. It just means you're not a nurse. There are many routes to happiness, and they don't all pass through the NCLEX.

I use them and love them. I bought old copies of the books just in case, but honestly, I've very rarely used them. With the ebooks, you can get them online or on a tablet. I have the three heaviest weight and heaviest used books on an iPad, and it's searchable, and it's even sometimes nice seeing the material presented on a smaller page. I don't know how tech savvy you are, but my grades from my first semester were fine, and my bookbag was my purse, and I was the envy of many in the class.

I'm saying a on the restraints. I work in a psych unit, and you DO NOT apply restraints without a nurse's say so. Generally a nurse is standing right there when it gets to the point where restraints are needed.

I've heard that there are many, many BSN programs out there, and they take into account your entire academic performance, not just nursing school. The goals is to have 80% of all RNs be BSN qualified by 2020, which is not that far off. A C will get you your degree. As far as the hospital is concerned, you could try and get a job now as a PCA or whatever, or absolute worst case scenario, you work LTC/TCU or homecare to gain experience. My nursing school instructor said that no one has EVER asked her what her grades were. If you passed nursing school with C's you passed nursing school, especially considering that C was what other college students know as a B.

I do note cards too (online so I can use the app on my phone), but I've discovered that listening to lectures is EXTREMELY helpful to me. Even when I don't think I'm listening or retaining much, it helps me. The best score I had this semester was when I was doing this. Drawing pictures, even if they're dumb, also helps me.

I asked an experienced psych nurse about this. He said that when you really think about it, everyone who comes into the hospital is having some kind of mental health crisis, whether it's depression, anxiety, paranoia, hostility or whatever. In order for you to deal with this person, and before you can even get to the point where your "skills" are going to make a darned bit of good, you're going to need to get through this barrier. Patients don't remember how awesome your mad IV skillz were as much as they remember how you made them feel.