chels14

It really depends on your teacher, but I feel like a lot of people waste a lot of time reading the book and not studying the notes. It seems like everyone that I talk to that isn't doing well can't seem to understand why they aren't doing good when they study like five hours a day...reading the book over and over. I like to take really good notes in class and use the book if I need to clarify something I didn't understand. Most teachers give you just about all the information you will need to know for tests in their notes. And doing practice questions help too! Some of my teachers have used a few of the same questions from my book on tests. Using all your resources is definitely a good idea. It's very important to stay organized throughout the semester so you will have everything you need to study for the final. Also, one thing I like to do when taking notes is write in different colors. When a new topic is started, I use a different color. It really helps me to keep everything from running together. I started doing it in high school and it works for me.

If you are new, you are definitely going to be slower at things because you are still learning your routine and they should understand that. When I first started out it was easy for me to get "stuck" in a pt room because you want to make sure you do everything perfectly and don't leave anything out and sometimes the patient can be very chatty and you don't want to cut them off. These are some very thirsty patients if you are having to refill their water pitchers every two hours! When you refill it be sure you have plenty of water in the pitcher and not just a whole bunch of ice that has to melt. Also, know when your nurses typically go into the room to give meds, because this is probably when they are going to be looking for a pitcher of fresh ice water to pour their patient a drink. Also, you might try to make yourself a little more visible when you are hard at work. If you have been in a patient room for thirty minutes giving a bath and taking him/her to the bathroom and changing the bed, etc. the nurses may wonder where you are. Pop out to the desk between patients and ask them if there is anything they need you to do and let them know where you are so they know you aren't just hiding out somewhere. And you know to be more prompt when charting vital signs..I think it is a great idea to print off a paper copy for your nurses so they will have a quick reference to their patients' VS. You sound like you are doing a great job, just remember sometimes the nurses' priorities are a little different than yours or even the patients' at times. It's a balancing act and you will get quicker, just hang in there!

Thank you! Congratulations on graduating, Valedictorian is a huge honor, especially in nursing! Good luck to you in your nursing career!

Haha no problem! That does sound rough! It's a pretty tough program though- we've already lost over twenty students, but I think the clinicals are a lot more spread out because it's longer. Most BSN programs around here only have two years of clinical nursing classes. I believe we will have to do a preceptorship our last semester similar to the twelve hour shifts you mentioned, which I'm excited about!

We have three years of nursing classes so I think our clinicals are a little more spread out than some other programs. This past semester we had our Foundations in Nursing II clinical on a med-surg floor. For Foundations we also had a campus lab one day a week for skills and a day in the classroom for lecture so this one class actually took up three days of the week but we only got one day for actual patient care. That's why I think my job as a CNA will help to prepare me more for the clinical aspect of nursing. My other nursing classes this semester were Health Assessment which had a campus lab and Pharmacology II which has no clinical lab. There were 8 of us in my clinical group (our class was divided into 6 clinical groups).

People with this attitude give us nursing students a bad reputation! I am halfway through a 4-year BSN program and I owe a large amount of my success to my experience as a CNA. I have been working on a med-surg floor for the past year as a nursing assistant. I did not apply to a BSN program to keep from doing "CNA's work" and I hate when people say this!! I feel that my experience will make me a better nurse later on, and it has already helped me tremendously throughout my first year of nursing classes. One six hour day a week of clinicals with an instructor who has 7 other students to look after does not compare to working alongside the wonderful nurses at my facility for the past year. I am able to see the "real-life" version of what they tell us in nursing school and ask experienced nurses questions about the field of nursing. While I don't feel that it is absolutely crucial that nursing students work as an aide during school, I know that I will be much more prepared as a new nurse, and I hope it will give me an "edge" when I apply for my first job as an RN!