country73

Taking blood pressure is a very basic, but important skill, that you will be doing a thousand times a day. My trick is to find the brachial pulse first, then put your stethoscope right on top of it. It is easier for me to feel for it when the elbow is slightly bent, also try moving around your fingers, because sometimes the pulse can be hiding under a ligament. The ticking motion the needle makes is a good indicator of when the pulse is occurring, but always go by what you hear.

One set should be fine for you, since you are only wearing them one day a week. The biggest thing I would tell you is to wash them every time you come home! Never wear dirty scrubs. It is nasty, I bought two pairs because of that. Since my clinicals are two days a week, I bought two sets, a clean one for each day.

I put mine in the carrying case that came with my blood pressure cuff. It folds in half in order to fit in the bag, but it still works great! I also agree with "learning as I go", I wipe mine down with wipes after every patient. Germs!!! haha

You should do fine taking A&P in the fall. I had A&P right out of high school with ENG 111, Chemistry 111, communications, microbiology, and Psy. But I wont lie it is a ton of work! My best advise to you is don't fall behind. Read the chapter before you go to class and study like crazy

We have very old fashion solid white scrub pants, and white tunic, and white lab coat....let just say they are very translucent...haha

Volunteering is a Great Idea! Hospitals aren't the only place to volunteer, check out some free clinics too, they are always looking for volunteers. Also contact the school, and ask where they do clinicals at. Because it is a good idea to volunteer at a hospital where your clinicals will be held, because that way you could get to know everyone before clinicals.

I have my binders separated by days. So for my tuesdays and thursdays classes I use one binder, and I use another for my other days. Make sure you get tons of dividers!!!

I am taking Drug Dosage and Calculations, Intro To Nursing, and Health assessment. I have two weeks left until I am done for the summer, then I have 20 days of no school until the Fall semester starts! I can't wait until I get that break :yelclap:

Welcome! Let us know when you get your letter. Good Luck!:)

The hardest part for me was understanding how every hormone works in the body...ugh

For my labs and clinicals I had to buy a uniform and white shoes, as well as a stethoscope, scissors, watch, and pen light. The price all depends on what your school requires. My stethoscope was about $120 watch $15 Scissors $7 Penlight $1 Uniform was $70 Shoes were $40 because ours had to be leather

I have taken several online prerequisite classess, and I got accepted into a nursing program. I am even taking a few online nursing classess. I think online is completely acceptable. My school actually liked seeing that we took online classes, because a few nursing classes like Drug dosage and calculations was only offered online.

In my A&P II we did like 7 cats, and a sheep's heart.

Have you tried talking to your teacher? I have had problems with professors before, and most of my problems were able to be fixed by going in and talking to them during office hours, or emailing them. I know what it is like to not get grades back! He would never grade things. I would kindly remind him to grade my test first in a 'joking' manor. Honestly I nagged him, and asked him several times a week to grade my stuff, it worked! It is just important to remember to plaster a smile on your face, and make sure you are still friendly about asking for your grades. Because nothing is worse than a teacher who hates you (no matter how much you may hate him).

You do go into a lot of detail during nursing school. I assume you have not taken A&P because you mentioned bones. I just want to let you know from personal experience my teacher expected us to know every bone and muscle. It seems over whelming, but honestly that was one of the easiest chapters in A&P for me, because its just memorization. I am a visual learner so I really enjoyed Youtube. There are tons of videos going over some of the exact same models, and charts you will be tested on. Here is a link to just one of those videos. Hope this helps, just remember to take it one test at a time, otherwise you will get to overwhelmed. Good Luck! Make sure you study hard :)