auralae

I have never had anyone ask, and I graduated from the ASN program a few years ago. I am about to wrap up my MSN, recently took a promotion, and they could not have cared less about my grades. They didn't ask to see anything. As long as you graduate and pass the NCLEX you are fine.

I would play it by ear. But in all honesty, a commute is no excuse for being late. I live 30 minutes away from my designated hospital & I leave an hour before I am scheduled to be there. This takes care of any traffic issues or if I need to stop to get gas, etc. I would highly suggest buying yourself a planner and begin using it ASAP. Personally, the only way that I can stay on top of everything is to write down all of my due dates and class / clinical times at the beginning of the semester. All of your requirements and your instructors expectations will increase the further you go. Part of this entire process is learning to be responsible for yourself and respectful to your instructors and peers by being prepared. You are going to school to be one of the most respected and trusted professionals out there, so it's time to start acting like one! Good luck!

I have had several favorites- I am in my final semester. My absolute favorite was the oncology unit. Some others were the ER, the elective surgery unit, and the orthopedic unit.

Our school custom built a packet for our first semester. About one month before that semester started, the same exact packet was offered on amazon. All it took was a call to the bookstore to verify the ISBN's. They weren't thrilled about giving them out, but did so nonetheless. The packet on amazon saved me over $250, and everything was new, so the codes worked.

Isolation rooms. You have to leave it hanging outside- you usually won't have time to go put it away somewhere else!

I'm in Missouri and our Dept of Health offers money in exchange for work at either any hospital in the state or any clinic in a county of need. I'd look at your state's dept of health website for something similar.

One of our instructors gave us a practice set of questions during first semester. I pull it out a week before we have to go back for a "skills fair" & math exam to study. It has always helped me pass each time.

I agree with many of the others! Check first that the edition isn't going to change before you begin. I have successfully bought from amazon, abebooks, and Chegg. I have never had an issue with the access code not working except for through a rental. I personally use the access code to take the online or disk practice tests. Chegg allows you to rent, if it's not a book that you'll need for the entire two years of the program. I bought the ones that I was going to need to re-use, and rented the rest. If you're not sure if you'll be re-using anything from semester to semester, just shoot the course instructor an email. They will usually be happy to tell you. I have also bought older editions on ocassion from graduating students- the teachers usually have a page conversion chart because they don't always buy the newest edition either. My teacher gladly let us make copies of the chart (even though I'm sure she wasn't supposed to)- as long as we did just one for ourselves and didn't share it with everyone. Just something else to think about! Good luck!

I think the issue all boils down to professionalism. Grades have nothing to do with how one is able to conduct his or herself. Our school made a point of telling us upfront at orientation that being unprofessional in any way would not be tolerated- and this included how we were seen outside of school and how we portrayed ourselves in general (as in any of our online profiles). Maybe the tech was hard to deal with. So what. As a nurse, you will have to deal with people like that more days than not. YOU will be the one who is expected to be professional about it. Take this as a good lesson on learning to be mature & learn to keep your opinions about others to yourself.

My current clinical experience sounds nearly identical to how your clinicals were. We are in 3rd semester- we have class all day once a week, and then that afternoon we drive to the hospital to get our patient information. The night before clinical, we fill out a "clinical prep" document, complete a medication prep, and then three times during the semester we complete a full-blown FPAT form & CPG along with the SBAR & regular charting that we do weekly. We are only allowed to give meds after checking off with our instructor, and then we are only allowed to give PO's alone without her (or our team leader's) presence. Our instructor will not clear us to even give a PO med if we are not prepared, or if she does not feel that we are competent to do so. Our instructor is on the floor *at all times*. As far as med passes, since we are currently on a pediatric floor, we have to research safe doses for our patients to verify what has been prescribed. I feel that our group does a fantastic job of being prepared & providing patient care- but with that being said, I can't imagine not having our instructor on the floor. That just seems horribly unprofessional to me.

Don't give up. New class, new question and new test format all add up for a huge change and a difficult task! I don't know how you studied, but what I have personally found the best results with is by utilizing the textbook's chapter questions, the book's disk practice questions, and the book's manufacturer's website review quizzes as well. I also have an NCLEX-RN Saunders comprehensive review book. I use it as well to review whatever we have covered in class, as the format of the questions are more likely to be styled like our classroom tests. I am 34 years old and in 3rd semester. I was like you in high school, I always blew it off, and I never developed any study skills until I started nursing school. So if I can do it, I am confident that you can too. Maybe you are studying too much... It is so easy to burn yourself out, and in the same process, not really gain much as far as understanding in the process. Keep working hard, you can do it! Nursing school is full of successes and failures, and in all honestly this probably won't be the only test you fail. And that's okay. Just keep doing your best.

My school is similar, during the first semester of the program we lost 40% of our group. I haven't looked into how many we lost after second semester.

Some of our books are reused throughout the 4 semesters, some aren't. I have bought and rented from Chegg, Amazon, Abebooks, and a discount bookstore in town. I made the mistake of buying from the school's bookstore once during my gen eds- I'll never do it again! Even the "nursing packets" (books and special online access codes) required by certain classes were cheaper on Amazon. I just called the bookstore and got the ISBN's. The bookstore wasn't thrilled about sharing that information, but it saved me several hundred dollars!

I was the same way. As a child, I was so shy that I would sometimes cry if I got embarrassed. I went through first semester watching my clinical partner talk away with patients, classmates, etc. It finally hit me about halfway through that if I was going to be a great nurse, I was going to have to be a great communicator, and that standing back and watching would do nothing for me in the long run! So long story short, you won't get over this until you put yourself out there enough. Eventually it won't be uncomfortable. Promise.

Our nursing program requires us to have one, along with several other vaccines that we have to keep up-to-date. I'm surprised that it's not a requirement if you are in a nursing program.