Stdy2BaNurse

Hi - my school doesn't do a pinning ceremony either. We will be "pinned" at graduation as we walk across the stage - after we hand the director our pin that we all purchased with our own non-existent money. Okay - anyway, as for the picture. When we had our picture, the director brought 2 of the pins and she had us wear them for our individual picture. They say RN and you can see it in my picture. That was her suggestion.... Just a thought :)

Eltrip Wondering if you could help me out, please. Do you know if Erlanger will be having any nurse recruitment fairs or career fairs in the next few months? Any that they've advertised?? What about the name of a nurse recruiter to put on my cover letter? I'm going to give them a call after while when my little one goes to sleep. If you would rather email this to me, feel free - [email protected]. I don't have PMs on Allnurses anymore or I would tell you to use that.... Thanks for any info you can provide :)

Those are fantastic reasons for wanting to work there! Thank you for providing me with the information. Working in a teaching hospital would be the best - I am doing clinicals in a hospital that says there teaching - but the teaching is few and far between. Nurses are rude and the docs - well, you find a gem now and then that explains what he's doing or why. Even had one ask me if I had questions the other day! So, I hope that there will be a place for me at Erlanger next Spring. Can I pick your brain a little more? What would you do in my shoes - go ahead and sit for the boards here in IN and then go to TN with an IN license looking for a job - knowing I will have to take the TN boards? Or would you contact a future employer as a GN and wait and take the boards in TN? I was looking at the TN BON last night and it was saying the 'exam packets' are given through the nursing schools and then scored by Pearson. Here we have to go to the north side of Indianapolis - on their schedule - and sit for an exam. Guess I'm just not real clear on how it works there and which direction I should move in. I know your time is valuable, thanks so much for all the info you've already passed along. I'm in no hurry - still got a semester to go. Let me know at your convenience!!

Would it be possible for either of you to elaborate on Erlanger? I've searched their site and it looks like a great place to work. I was just curious :) Traci

Okay, pardon my ignorance, but I'm from mid-Indiana and we only this past year have had to deal with time changes. So what is the geographical cut-off and how do you change. I'm not sure I've worded this the right way....let me know if you don't understand. Sorry!! Thank you!!!

Hi everyone - I'm a homegrown Hoosier and I'm getting ready to pick up my roots and move to Tennessee. My sis and some other family live in the Sequatchie Valley. I was there this past weekend for her wedding and my husband and I decided that the change we've been looking for is there. I will graduate in May and have done a little research on the hospitals: Memorial, Erlanger and Parkridge. Any pros/cons to either one? It will be a haul everyday; but no different than driving to Indianapolis from where I live now. I have no preferences at this point in what area I work in - I've loved all the rotations. Any other wonderful tidbits of info on the lovely Chattanooga area would be great :) Thanks a bunch.... T

Hi! Has anyone volunteered in Haiti or currently live there? I am working on a culture project for my OB/Peds rotation and I was hoping to glean some information from a source that has actually been there. Our church sponsors a mission over there and I am trying to get in touch with them, but I thought I would check with all the great nurses here at this site :) Thanks!!

I was beginning to think it was a "sign" (lol) because I had not received any responses Truly looking forward to visiting at the end of next month. Thank you - again - for the info. T

Hey all! I posted a while back about considering relocating to SC after graduation (326 days!!). Well, my husband is on the fence about the subject so we've decided to take Labor Day Weekend as a field trip to come visit the area. I am leaning towards Spartanburg/Greenville area so if anyone can pass along some points of interest I would appreciate it. He is a carpenter by trade and is interested in hunting/fishing. We will have our kids (11, 9 and 7 mohs) so anything of interest for them would be great, too. For whatever reason my heart is set on this, now I just have to convince him. I figure I would hopefully let the atmosphere and the people help me with that. I sure hope, anyway. Thanks to any and all - looking forward to seeing your great cities soon, Traci

You have me second guessing where we want to move This area sounds wonderful and we have plenty of time to come to a decision. My sister lives just north of Chattanooga, TN and we thought when we go visit her this summer, we might drive on over and check out some of the cities and what they have to offer. Thank you for such a detailed description and all the helpful hints!!! Traci

Thank you :) This helps a lot! I have done some more research as the day progressed and I'm finding that I am falling in love with Columbia and haven't even been there yet. The Lexington area looks very nice - Lexington Medical Center seems very appealing, too. Thanks again for taking the time to respond!! T

Does anyone have suggestions on looking into cities of SC for relocating? I have found a couple web-sites, but they want you to narrow your search by zip code.....well, that's the problem. I don't know :) We are looking into the Columbia (& surrounding area). If anyone has any suggestions on cities to live I would really appreciate it! My family is looking for a change (we live in IN) and feel drawn to this area. My husband & I have 3 kids (10, 8 and 3 mohs). So school info would be great, too. Again, I know I can get a lot of this stuff from the internet, but I am trying to narrow down locations, so any comments, tips or suggestions are welcome! Traci (RN2Bin'08)

A HUGE thank you to everyone! As always, you can count on everyone here to encourage, teach and if nothing else commiserate with your pain I will definitely be checking out the links - I did see the one Daytonite posted in another thread for gyn-exam and that one has quite a few examples, too. So I think between the links, the book, my notes and yes - every warm body between now and Tuesday, hopefully it won't be too bad. wdwpixie - you are so right, I need to keep reminding myself of that...I have friends in the 2nd year that were in pre-reqs with me. I keep saying...I know these people - if they can do it, so can I. Thanks again to everyone - good luck and have a blessed day!!

We have been introduced to physical assessment over 2 - 1 1/2 hour lectures. This is all the information we get (besides textbook obviously) and we are expected to be able to do a complete head-to-toe physical assessment by next Tuesday. I have a couple of issues.....#1, I have never had a doc - much less a nurse - do an assessment on me like the kind we are expected to learn in a week. #2 - even the instructors have said "this isn't enough time....if you were going to the local university you would be taking this as a course over the whole semester...but since you're not we have to cram it into a week!" #3 - when we check-off we will not know until right before what body system to be responsible for and we cannot take our 'cheat sheet' in on the check-off. This is mostly a vent - but at the same time, is this normal? Are other students being expected to do this in-depth of an assessment? Are there any nurses out there that actually do these in-depth assessments? There must be for them to be requiring us to learn so much (in a short time)....but as I said before, never even had a doc assess me like this. Thanks for letting me air my frustrations :)

In addition to what everyone else has said, let me tell you that I just had my CPR class less than 2 weeks ago. I am slightly over-weight and 5 months pregnant! In our class we didn't have to get on the floor at all - no one did. We were allowed to do the practice and the test at table level. I know not every true-life situation will be like this, but wanted to let you know how my class was handled :) Good luck! It's not that bad - though I agree with the sore shoulders/arms the next morning!

Finally a question I can address :) I am a recently accepted nursing student at the Ivy Tech Bloomington Campus - and the Columbus campus. See, Columbus made their decisions prior to Bloomington and so I accepted to save my spot. Then when Bloomington made their decisions I relinquished my spot at Columbus. 2 things I will share - #1) I'm assuming you know the low-down on points/TEAS/etc. I had a 89 on my TEAS. Basically when the points were tallied, all I was missing was the 11 from my TEAS score. I had a 4.0 and ALL of my pre-reqs completed. #2) Don't know if you are interested in Bloomington, but fortunately for incoming students (sucks to be me - but you know) they are changing requirements and are also going to start accepting students for a Spring cohort now. I would go to their web-site (www.ivytech.edu/bloomington) and on the left side of the page in red letters it says NEW NURSING PROGRAM INFO. Click on that for the new stats. Such as they are allowing students 3 times to take the TEAS now (I only had 2 chances); they have lowered the limits on the TEAS scores - ie. English went from 73% to 70% (something like that); their is a new curriculum beginning with the spring students; you don't need as many courses completed to get in - like ANP 101, 102 and Psych 101 and maybe Eng 111 - compared to me having to have all those and take (3) 201 level classes and Mat 111, that would be a breeze. The informational meetings are scheduled for this week and I believe into the end of July but the app deadline for Spring is 09/01. Hope this info helps - good luck in your endeavors :) By the way, when making my decision between campuses, Bloomington is much more organized. Our new campus is only a few years old and the nursing lab is state-of-the-art. We are hooked right into the Bloomington hospital system. Columbus had the benefit of more facilities to do clinicals but ranged from Greenwood to Seymour. Driving from Martinsville would have already been a small fortune in gas and then add driving to Seymour for clinicals....it just didn't work for me. T

Hi :) You say you have books so this may not help you but this summer I am taking a (non-required) dosage calculations class. Now that I'm almost done with it I think it should be required. It presents so many different ways of figuring that there is something there for everyone. The ISBN # is 13 978-0-07-301895-9; Math & Doasage Calculations for Medical Careers; Kathryn A. Booth and James E. Whaley. There is also so many opportunities for practice that the repetition is what has caused it to stick for me. That's all I can offer you - except good luck in the fall. I am also starting ASN in the fall.

name: traci school: ivy tech community college - bloomington, in program: asn what area of interest at this time: geriatrics and medical mission trips biggest fear: before i found out i was pregnant it was fear of failing; now i worry about how i am going to have a newborn in my 2nd semester of clinicals what you'd like us to know about you: mom of jessica (10) and ethan (8). 34 and will be married 15 years in august. i love god, my family and my church family and thank them all for their encouragement thus far on this journey! btw - i will be in class with melissa (previous poster) and i also give god all the praise for the last 2 years, getting me into nursing school, and carrying me through the next 2!! t

I haven't heard that - but that doesn't mean anything I took the TEAS twice this past spring. The first time I got an 84 and the second time an 89; however, I studied my butt off from both the old and new study guides and still came across items on the test that were not represented in the guides. I think it depends on 1) how long you have been out of school; 2) what your strengths/weaknesses are in subjects; and 3) how much effort you put into studying. I have 3 other friends that took the test around the same time I did. 2 out of 3 got very similar scores - 87/89 and 88/88; however, the 3rd friend didn't do as well. She didn't pass the English portion either time she took it - so she flat out failed it for 2 more years I hope this has been of some help to you. Let's just say I'm glad it's over and I've been accepted to the ASN program @ Bloomington! T

Hi there :) Hopefully you will be in class with me this fall! I have a friend that was on the wait list last summer and went to orientation, etc., and found out later that night that a spot had opened up - actually 2-3 people had either decided no or didn't show for orientation and that moved her up the list. So, yes it can absolutely be done!! As for being accepted elsewhere - I was accepted at Columbus, too; however, living in Martinsville and expecting my 3rd child, I am going to select Bloomington for sure. I will see you in JULY!! And, yes - I will pray for you! I know wannabeanurse2 will, too!! By the way, if you want to pm me I would love to know your name and see if we have had other classes together :) Traci

DATE RECIEVED: May 30, 2006 PROGRAM: Associate of Science Degree Nursing SCHOOL: Ivy Tech - Bloomington STATE: Indiana WHEN: August 21,2006 This is my campus of 1st choice and am so relieved to have received this letter! With a new baby coming, it will be so much easier to commute a shorter distance! Good luck to anyone still waiting the elusive letter!! Traci

Congratulations NICU - it is an awesome feeling, isn't it :) I would dance with you - but right now, my 'all day' sickness prevents any such merriment I wish you all the best in your program. Remember to stay in touch - even though we are at different campuses, I'm sure we can count on each other for support!! - Traci

Yes - officially there are 27 more days; however, the lady in charge said they might mail them next week. That would be so awesome! BUT - did you hear my LATEST NEWS??? There is a line in a country song that says "if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans..." Well, I'm pregnant! My oldest is 10 and youngest is 8 and I'm starting ns in August. As I said in an earlier post, Lord you are MY STRENGTH and I am going to need A DOUBLE PORTION :) Traci

When oh WHEN will they send the Bloomington Ivy Tech Letters out!!! We were told May 26th and now they say the first week of May (which is great) but just send them already!! ARGH! Oh the pain of learning patience T

boy if you didn't get in, i think the whole board would have been down there picketing with pitch forks and torches! AMEN!!