Compassion_x

Today was my last day of a full semester of nursing school... I have a 4 week psych nursing course starting Monday haha. I'm so thankful the semester is over!! Very stressful. I spent about 2 hours laying on my couch today thinking, "I feel really lazy, I need to do something.... there isn't anything to do though! No studying!!!" haha.

In my backpack: two binders with powerpoints and handouts, a folder with assignments, more lecture stuff, a 5 subject notebook for notes, a ton of notecards, lots of pencils and pens, tampons, contact solution, ibuprofen. In my clinical bag: two folders, med book, lab book, stethoscope, bandage scissors, measuring tape, pen light, pens/pencils, clipboard with notebook, contact solution.

Mine is 80 as well. Study hard and you shouldn't have a problem.

It might be a tie between med-surg, OB/peds, and psych. Basically I like everything but nursing management. Lol

Haha, I swear I have the same student in my classes.

Honestly, this won't work. Don't try to plan and map out every detail of every moment of your life. Even in nursing school. It's not necessary. That said, you can plan all you want but will you actually be able to stick to it? For example, after almost 12 hours of clinical are you going to want to work out for an hour almost right after? I feel tired after clinicals almost every time. If you have a big exam coming up are you going to make yourself go to bed at 830 instead of getting more studying in? In addition to not having enough study time included in here. And after working 12 hours on weekends are you going to want to only spend 45 minutes to yourself? And go to bed at 830 every weekend? You need a life too!! Including friends and going out occasionally, shopping, eating, spending time with family, etc. etc. These things indirectly give you better grades by letting you keep your sanity.

I would go to pinning. But I'm sentimental like that haha. If you do call HR about their open house, ask how often they have them.

While I don't think nursing is for everyone, it's entirely possible to just have a bad semester! You don't have to give up. In the end you have to do what you feel is right for you in this. But if it took you 3 hard years to get here, I think you should try another semester. You know what you need to improve on, and that is definitely a start!

Yep. I always feel like they're really asking, "this sounds hard, do I really need to learn it?" Especially when it's the main point of a two hour lecture.

Well, we can say "fluid volume deficiency," instead of dehydration. There are ways around using medical diagnoses. On the other hand, isn't "constipation" an actual nursing diagnosis? I don't think I've ever actually used it so I don't remember. But I had an instructor tell us not to use it. But if it is a nursing diagnosis????? What. We are not allowed to use medical diagnoses in the R/T part. No impaired gas exchange r/t pneumonia sort of stuff. Or in assessment data we can't just put "pneumonia" but what s/sx they're actually showing as we cannot give medical diagnoses. I feel like some of that is actually proving we have medical/nursing knowledge beyond reading a chart, at least in school.

Psych nursing 4 weeks of May/June. Pinning in July. I plan to start getting back into yoga and pilates again! And get some (hopefully a lot) of reading done. Otherwise, spend time with family, enjoy the weather, and relax a bit. In addition to working of course.

There's an older woman in our class who feels the need to say "bless you" after every time someone sneezes in class. It sounds polite and nice, until people have sneezing fits during tests in the winter months. Bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you. It's so distracting!!

Read my last post

Well we all had urged him immediately to go to the ER or doctor. The only reason ice came up from any of us (there were 5 of us not including this man) is because he kept refusing to go. Several of us said we'd check in on him. Anyway, he did end up seeing a doctor last night.

I realize I forgot to mention that I am actually an LPN. He told them I'm a nurse, later (less than 10 minutes later) mentioned I was finishing my RN. I did say not to ice longer than 20 minutes. My boyfriend and I tried to go to his house about 2.5 hours later but he wasn't home. I might stop by later today and see how he's doing. Thanks everyone.

Okay, so I'm not really sure where to post this, but I have a question. Earlier today my boyfriend and I came home and it was a nice day, so we opened all the windows. A few minutes after, we heard yelling from somewhere. It turned out one of our neighbors across the street was moving some large chunks of wood in a smaller, open trailer type thing (real descriptive I know). My boyfriend says they were railroad ties. Anyway, we went outside on the porch to find out where the yelling was, saw some other neighbors running over there and my boyfriend took off before I could get my shoes on. I wasn't sure what was going on at that point so I hadn't rushed over there with him, until he started yelling for me. So I went over there and the guy already had his leg out and was stumbling around in pain. When I got there my boyfriend told me he "hurt his leg pretty bad." My boyfriend told everyone I was a nurse (which I don't really like d/t liability issues and whatnot, and I'm really just paranoid). Anyway, the guy had an indentation in the back of his calf, and a smaller one in the front. It was red, and I'd guess the indentation ridge to ridge was maybe half an inch at most, definitely not as deep, and a bit red as to be expected. We were all telling him to go to the doctor, another neighbor mentioned an ambulance, mentioned checking up on him later as he lives alone. We all told him to quit working for the day and go inside to elevate and ice his leg. My question is, is there anything else I could have or should have done? It made me realize how little we learn in nursing school about these sorts of situations, and emergencies (I'm finishing up my ADN program). I couldn't really think of anything else to do or tell him. Really, there wasn't much else to do in terms of first aid - no cuts or anything, he was able to put weight on his leg (it hurt at first of course but seemed to get better, we stayed for about 10 minutes after his leg was freed). It didn't seem broken or anything. He mentioned the muscle hurting when he walked, specifically. Honestly it really seems like he's going to be fine. We all put an emphasis on going to the doctor if it doesn't feel any better at all within a day or two. I'm really just paranoid about doing something wrong or not doing something I should have in situations like this (or worse situations). Any advice is appreciated!

I had one year of LPN, and then one year of LPN-RN. Therefore, my third semester was the beginning of my LPN-RN program. And yes, it was much harder. Much of that was due to changes in my program, an instructor having surgery earlier on and we had multiple instructors for the class and it was just a mess. But the material itself is harder as it was more RN focused, obviously, than previously.

I study quite a bit. I'm one of the only ones in my class that actually reads most of the chapters we have assigned (at least for med-surg classes). I study throughout the day. I'm out of class and clinical by noon monday through thursday. I read my textbooks for a max of 30 minutes at a time. Usually around the same for going through powerpoints. Papers are my exception to my 30 minute rules. I also never cram. As soon as we start a new unit I'm on reading whatever I can. The night before exams I read though any powerpoints or packets from the instructor. I usually do pretty well.

Nah, I almost never study with anyone else and I do fine. Sometimes when we have down time during clinicals we study together otherwise not usually.

No employer is going to read your evals from clinicals. That said, I wouldn't say anything about your instructor since the semester is so close to being over. If he/she was really awful your whole group should've said something much sooner. Just stick it out. You'll have more clinicals to come soon!

I didn't keep my A&P books because my med-surg books have chapters on anatomy/physiology as well so I have no need. I still have my microbiology one but only because it's a loose leaf book and I can't sell it.

I believe they may have changed the NCLEX recently, that might have something to do with it. Sometimes it takes a bit for schools to catch up.

A classmate of mine has hearing issues. She bought a stethoscope with an amplifier thing on it, so it's a little more expensive than regular Littmann's. I wish I could tell you what brand, etc. it is!! But they are definitely out there.

Well what's done is done. All you can do now is focus and work hard on getting a good grade on your next test. I understand how you're feeling, but don't dwell on it or you'll feel worse!

Are you interested in emergency or critical care in nursing? You could do EMT if you are and find out if you like it. CNA is good at preparing for really any kind of basic nursing. If you can truly afford to do both, go for it. But if not you'll have to pick.