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I knew a couple of people going in to the program so I had a little bit of an advantage. What I did was watch other people in the beginning. The girls that talked about partying and drinking all weekend I avoided, while the girls who also stayed away from the drama, I made friends with them. I got lucky though, all the girls in my clinical group turned out to be really cool so I hang out with a couple of them in class.

I'm a traditional student going to a university (and living in the dorms) and it is pretty expensive. I pay about $7,000 (not including books, uniforms, or other supplies) for tuition, meal plan, and living expense on campus. Before college I saved up a little over $10,000 from working my high school job so I wouldn't have to work as much during college. I do take out loans (about $15,000 so far and another $3,500 that I owe my parents -- I'm in my junior year). I haven't been working during the semester just because I want to focus on school and I'm involved in a lot of on-campus activities. I've been working during summer break and during winter break (which is a month long!) to try pay for everything. Money is tight, but I'm incredibly thankful to my parents who have been helping me out when they can. They pay my meal plan (which is roughly $1,400 a semester -- kinda ridiculous) and they gave me a $3,500 loan this semester because my loans got cut in half (my dad's business did slightly better last year so they had more income and the FASFA assumes they are paying my tuition). My biggest wish is that the FASFA would not take the parent's income so much into account because most parents don't pay for their kid's tuition.

I'm only in my first semester of classes so I don't spend too much extra time in open lab because the things we are doing is just foundation stuff (CNA). But I was in there before my foundation skill check and I talked to a few girls I know in the semester ahead of me and they say they spend an extra 4 hours at least in open lab to make sure they know exactly what to do for check-off. Honestly, I respect that. It shows how much they truly care about nursing.

First actual day of clinical! At least the first day we were allowed to do patient care. And it was AWESOME. Got up at 5 am (the not so awesome part but its whatever) while my poor roommate was getting to bed after reading all night for class (shes a history major and has late classes). Today we just did CNA cares, but it was a lot of fun meeting the residents! I can't wait for next weeks already!

I'm in my first semester as well and all I can say is get enough sleep, take some time for yourself (I know, impossible!), and try to keep up. It's a wild ride but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Mac and cheese and hot sauce...I'm gonna have to try that!

I got my letter on Friday the 13th (of Jan. 2012). It was my last chance to apply for the program that I not only worked my butt off for but also it was my last chance to stay at the university I wanted (I would have had to go to the tech school across the street to get my associates and then come back to the university to get my bachelors, wayy more work and time). When I got the letter my hands were shaking SO hard. I sprinted up my drive way and ripped it open the second I got in the door. I started sobbing when I saw the congratulations. So much stress and worrying was finally over. I called my mom at work and she must have thought I was crazy I was crying so much! Getting in was the biggest relief ever and I am so excited to be in my first semester!

Thanks so much for the responses! I love to hear all about your totally unregular days!

Thank you so much for posting this! I'm in my first official semester of nursing school and it has been absolutely crazy and stressful. (more so than doing prereqs which was bad enough) I really needed to read this to remind me that this is why I want to go into nursing. This is why all this crazy stress will be worth it.

I'm trying to get a feel of what I'm going to be doing in the future. Could someone tell me what a regular day looks like for just a regular floor nurse? It doesn't really matter what specialty it is, I'm just curious! Sorry if this is in the wrong section!

The past couple weeks have been CRAZY. Pretty much running on caffeine but I am loving it! I haven't started clinicals yet (not until October) but I do go to orientation of the facility tomorrow! Last Friday my class got an official tour of the skills lab at my school and it is so awesome. It's amazing what they can do with mannequins! We walked into this small room and laying on the bed was a mannequin that not only greeted us, but he was also breathing and apparently he can cry and sweat too! Too cool. Next week things will get a little more busy. I have a couple papers due, a community teaching-learning project, and foundation skills check-off. I wouldn't change a moment of it! I am so thankful to be in this program. Hope everyone is doing well in their programs!

Thanks so much for the explanations -- sometimes it helps a lot to hear things worded differently! One more question, is the therapeutic range the same as the therapeutic index?

Can anyone explain what a therapeutic range is? Also the difference between antagonist and agonist. My professor and our textbook don't do a good job of describing both so I'm a little bit confused.

You aren't alone! I'm really shy too, especially with people in authority (aka, professors). I try to go out of my comfort zone in class and especially in clinicals. It can be really hard, but I've made so many friends that way outside of my nursing classes. Its got to be the same way for in them!

That sounds like a really cool plan, but I prefer hard copies. The computer is my biggest distraction and if all my reading was on it, I'd get nothing done

I hear you about scary professors! I started on Tuesday and just had one class that day from 2-5. Wednesday is clinical day and it was cancelled yesterday because we just started. Just for that one class on Tuesday I have 3 professors and the main one was kind of intimidating. One was super sweet though and the third says she loves to call on random people during lectures. That scares the heck out of me because I'm usually pretty quite in class. I have a feeling I'm not going to like that class as much though, its just an intro to the profession and seems kind of boring. The one class I'm most looking forward to I have this afternoon, pharmacology. I can't wait to learn all that! I'm also excited for clinicals but we don't start them for another couple of weeks.

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. I'm going to be a junior but it's my first official semester of nursing school. I'm a semester behind because I didn't get into the program the first time around so I have 2 and a half years to go. So excited this semester is finally here!

I just started today so I don't know how much this will help but I'm not sure if I'm going to be making a lot of good friends with my classmates. Most of the girls in my class already have their friends in the class and I only know a few people. Plus when I was talking to some of them, all they talked about was drinking and what party they were going to this weekend and how they are going to get a fake ID. I'm 20 and drinking and heavy partying isn't really my thing. I mean I don't judge people for doing it, its just something I'm not interested in. I'll probably have one or two friends in the class to make it through the next two and a half years but I don't know how many more.

I just started nursing school and I fully expect to do the "dirty work" that the CNAs have to do not only throughout school but also after. Yeah its not pleasant but if nurses can't be bothered to do that, they should switch careers. If I was the CNA at that hospital, I would be quite upset to have to work under people that think they are too good for the most basic nursing tasks. Plus most CNAs have to juggle a lot of patients and don't have to time to clean everyone up right when they need to. Its common courtesy to give them a hand, not just to help out a fellow coworker, but also to provide better/quicker care for the patient. If you're a nurse who doesn't want to get your hands dirty, find a new profession.

I am so glad I found this thread! I start my first official semester of nursing school tomorrow and I am soooo excited/nervous. I will be graduating at the tail end of 2014 in December. Right now I am pretty much prepared for the semester. Got all my uniforms set, all but 1 of my 20 books, and I've looked over the syllabus's of my three nursing classes! Good luck to all of us as we start/continue on in our journey to becoming future nurses!!

I didn't have to do fingerprinting, but I did have to do a background check. If the dean says not to worry about it, don't let it stress you out! Hope they come back soon though!

Good luck!! I'm like you, really really really excited to start nursing classes September 4th! I've been working towards that day for the past 2 years and I cannot wait!

I shopped around for my textbooks literally since I got the list back in May. From everywhere I looked, Amazon almost always had the better price by $20 to $30. Buying from the school bookstore would have cost me about $900 but I've spent about $600. Best part about Amazon though is their sell your books section. Sent my microbiology textbook that my bookstore offered me $60 for (forced to pay $200 originally) and Amazon gave me a $114 gift card for it and I didn't pay a dime to ship it. Love Amazon!

My program was really hard to get into. I go to a university and the program takes about 40 people per semester. Normally students apply at the end of freshman year which is when I applied first. Unfortunately I didn't get in then because of my GPA (apparently the cut-off that semester was really high!). My school looks first (and mostly) at GPA. They go down the line (4.0, 3.9, etc.) and then also take into consideration the application essay. I was able to reapply last December and worked my butt off fall semester to bring up my GPA (most stressful time of my life!) and got in! Spring semester there were about 200 applicants and then in fall probably something like 150. I think what helped me the most was that when I applied they increased the number of spots from 40 to 48 because they temporarily got rid of the accelerated BSN program. While I'm a little bummed to be a semester behind, I am so happy to be in this program! It's one of the best in my state and the professors I've already met have been fantastic! I'm so excited to start classes this fall!

Praying for you and your mother! Most people would have given up at this point after all those struggles, but you have gone after what you want and I believe that you can make it all the way through school! Good luck to you in the future