elle21

I just posted ideas on a similar post, but as a mom of three myself I think the best thing to do is get away from the house when it's time to study. It will be quieter, you will focus better, have less distractions, and not fall asleep. Make a study schedule and study everyday. So, if your family eats dinner at 6pm, have your husband clean up and get the kids ready for bed while you head up to the local coffee shop to study for a couple of hours. If I tried that at home it would be madness! The kids would be asking for things (like they are right now), you'd be distracted by the tv, and then you'd fall asleep.

Plan your study time. If you study at night then I would find a nice coffee shop so you don't get distracted by family, tv or exhaustion. If you study during the day, go to the library. I find I am so much more focused away from my house. Study everyday so it doesn't ever consume an entire day and you will move that info to long-term memory. Make sure you review previous notes/powerpoints from the week before, not just the new lecture. I always found that I would forget the first week's lecture the day before the test. Buy a planner with lots of room to write. My phone just didn't work well enough. I found it easier to spot clean my house everyday. Buy some lysol wipes and wipe down the bathrooms. It takes five minutes. I also do one load of laundry a day. It's not as daunting when you don't have as much to put away. My husband took over the cooking. I still did the meal planning for the week over the weekend and would have the recipe ready for him. He would also do the dishes. I'd go behind him at night to clean off counters, the table and sweep because he would always forget. Before bed, the entire family would run around the house and pick up anything that needed to be put away-toys, shoes, etc. I would feel good knowing my house was straightened with a clean kitchen and bathrooms when I went to bed at night.

Whoa! Slow down, Ms. Patty. It's not meant to be mean. Remember tone doesn't always come through on a post. This is her first child and she's calling the baby "it". She just found out and didn't expect be pregnant. All of those things combined = this isn't real yet. It's not surprising to think a baby won't slow you down right now. Of course, it can be done for some people, but it's not the norm and it will not be easy. It's hard right now when you have your heart set on school, but school isn't going anywhere. It's best to make an educated decision and really think about how a newborn will impact nursing school. A week off just isn't realistic. She asked for opinions and while it would be nice to say,"you'll do fine!", it's just not the case. I've had three kids and know how tough newborns can be. Even with a support system to watch the baby, she will still have to study and function on almost no sleep. If she continues, most likely she will drop out or be extremely stressed out.

As a new grad I would never consider a charge nurse position! It's no surprise you're getting the new grads with huge egos. I want to start as a staff nurse with a great preceptor. I would feel like I'm being set up for failure as a charge nurse in an long-term care facility. How many patients would I be responsible for? I also know nothing about core measures. I do know what they are because I grabbed an extra core measures sheet from the hospital, but we were told to worry about that after nursing school when we got a job. It's not nursing school material. I'm graduating in a few weeks and while I think it's ridiculous some of the positions I see want experience because they aren't that complicated, this is one position that should require experience.

EKG skills. I review it, it makes sense, and then a few weeks later I completely forget it. Short QT, Proloned PR, U Wave-Argh!!! What does it mean?!

Almost all the right answers in therapeutic communication starts with, "Tell me more about...". Study the drug classes. There are a ton of SE. Know the complicatons that can occur with MAOIs and certain drugs, lithium levels and signs of lithium toxicity, and hypertensive crisis signs & interventions. Saunders NCLEX review book does a great review of psych meds. It would only take a couple of hours and you can get the gist of everything you need to know.

You don't have to be a sahm, but only taking a week off is unrealistic. You will also be exhausted from staying up with the baby since newborns eat at least every three hours.

I am so thankful to be done with clinicals FOREVER!!! My complaint is that it seems like every single job wants at least a year of experience. No wonder retention rates for new nurses are so terrible! New grads are taking whatever they can get so they can apply for the job they really want in a year. If more facilities would just hire new grads, maybe they wouldn't move around so much.

The thera range is 1.5-2.5x times the control. In this case, 30 is the control. So, therapeutic range is 45-75. 65 is in that range, so leaving it alone is the correct answer.

Considering you are referring to the baby as "it", I'm gathering you don't understand the gravity of the situation or what it's like to be a mom. I would sit out a year.

I had a clinical instructor like that my first year. She tried to harass me one time and I set her straight. We never had an issue after that. Sometimes you have to stand up to people so they will respect you. Just make sure you are professional, but give her the look and the tone that says you are not going to take any BS.

You tell us how smart you are and how you work your ass off, but you can't show up to clinical or class on time EVER if you do show up at all. At least once in class you have to give a sob story of how hard your life is, which is why I'm guessing you haven't been kicked out yet. If you're so smart and work so hard, why do you barely pass every semester? Why isn't the hospital you work in even interviewing you for a GN position? You may have had people fooled the first year, but 70% of our class is sick of your sob stories, bragging, and nastiness you spew about everyone else as soon as their back is turned. You act like you know everything because you work one day a week in a hospital as a tech. You are not a doctor and not even a nurse yet, but you would probably perform surgery if given the chance. Stop it or you are going to kill someone! Oh, and please stop crying every class and clinical day because no one cares anymore.

I completely understand how you feel. I went into nursing knowing it would be extremely difficult to get a job in a hospital (thanks to this website). But, I did it anyway, lol. I realized it doesn't matter where your first job is. I will find a job somewhere and you will, too. It may be a few years before either one of us is in the place where we want to be, but we're just starting out. I've had nurses in the hospital tell me not to ever go into a long-term care facility because I'll never be able to get an acute care position in a hospital. Well, I could go to an acute care clinic and then to a hospital if that's what I want to do. I will probably end up in a physician's office geting paid less than I used to pay my employees in my previous field. That's okay because it's not forever. Broaden your scope of where you are applying. I'm sure you're thinking that you've applied everywhere, but you haven't. You also haven't been in the right place at the right time. I am taking the summer off because I can't afford daycare for three kids on a nurse's salary, but when I start my job hunt this fall I will make sure the people making the hiring decisions actually see me. I will not count on getting hired by just sending my resume out online. I'm also counting on my nursing school friends that do have jobs for networking. That's how a lot of last year's new grads got hired. As much as some of your classmates irritate the crap out of you, make sure you stay in touch and professional because you just never know!

I felt like I didn't get the "college experience" when I went to community college a while back and I know I would feel the same way in a nursing program now if I were younger. You do have a lot of older nursing students. As one of them, I think it's because nursing is hard and not just the theory class. I have a lot of respect for our younger students because it's not easy to get personal with people your grandparent's age. Also, as an older student with kids I'm feeling the same way emotionally. I'm not out for a college experience, but I do feel like my stay at home mom friends are doing all these fun things and I'm stuck studying. I completely understand how it can be overwhelming and feel like you have no life. I think we all feel that way. It's just for such a short time though. You only have one more year. By that time you can move on from the college life to the young adult life, which is A LOT more fun anyway. Hang in there and don't drop out. This time next year you would be so mad at yourself to think you could be graduating.