tiredRNstudent

I love these stories. I worked retail for years before I became a student. When the first Harry Potter movie was coming out on DVD we had to ask every customer if they would like to preorder a copy. About the 300th time of saying this I accidentally asked if the customer would like to preorder the Harry Potty movie. I still wonder if they thought I was asking if they'd like a copy of some really weird Media (Hairy Potty). I can also relate to the overhead speaker stories. It seems like every time I would go to page someone I would draw a blank and then fumble while I tried to remember what I needed.

I don't get anywhere near the recommended amount of sleep. Unsurprisingly I also drink a ridiculous amount of caffeine.

We don't get to choose. There are 5 different hospitals between 15 minutes and 60 minutes away from the school where we can be assigned. When we register online, there is a list of all clinicals available but the hospital is not listed. We usually don't find out which hospital until a week or so before the rotation starts.

I agree with this. Do the Prep U questions if you have access to them. I hit them hard before a test, and it's really helped.

Every school is different and usually each semester is different. I currently have clinical 2 days/week, lecture 2 days/week, and sim lab 1 day/week. I'll have class 2 days/week and clinical 2 days/week for 10 weeks over the summer. I've had 4-5 days/week since nursing school started, but some students have only had 3-4 if their sim lab is also on a lecture day.

I think a lot of it depends on your expectations. I had a 3.8 GPA after 2 years of prereqs by listening in class & sometimes looking over notes. I never read. I expected nursing school to be the same, and it was a really big blow when I flunked my first test. I had to learn how to study at 30 years old. I've been in the program 2 years, and I still really struggle with reading the chapters and studying. Like someone else said, it is full of really high high and really low lows. And no one can really understand it until they've experienced it. I am physically and mentally exhausted. I feel like burning my textbooks on a daily basis. My head might explode if I get one more select all that apply or pick the most correct answer on a test. But I know that I am making a difference in pts' lives and that helps even it all out.

I did something wrong in clinical and burst into tears when I was telling my clinical instructor. I also teared up when we were telling my classroom instructor what I had done. I'm not an overly emotional person at all and am still mortified over crying. I think it was exhaustion and stress mixed with being terrified (I made a big mistake). The best thing you can do is try not to be embarrassed (I know it's hard) and take what she was saying to heart. Best of luck to you.

I have 3 dogs all adopted when they were around 3 years old. Two of them started as fosters, but we fell in love. First, good for you for looking for an older shelter dog! They are harder to get adopted because everyone wants a cute little puppy. I'd much rather have an older dog that (usually) comes potty trained. Some people swear by crate training. My dogs are always allowed to roam the house unless there's special circumstances (guests, they're in trouble, etc). Two of them are cuddled up with me right now :)

This is definitely the easiest way to do it for me. Lots of my classmates have been successful making flashcards. I take a piece of computer paper and write the class of medication at the top (ex. cholinergic, beta blocker, antidepressant, adrenergic agonist, etc). Then I write what the medication does, the prototype and other drugs we need to know in the class, side effects, contraindications, if it has a common suffix, and any other nursing implications (don't take with high protein food, hold if bp or respirations are under a certain amount). I also highlight the class of drugs with different colors (cholinergic I did pink and anticholinergics I did blue since those are opposite and the colors are opposite in my head). I then hang the papers on my bedroom wall. I am halfway through the semester and have about 30 papers so far. I know that sounds crazy, but it has really worked for me.

I just found out that we are not allowed to start an IV at any of our clinical sites (I think because of insurance reasons). We do have to know the mechanisms of how to do it, but the only practice we get is in lab next week on a fake arm that bleeds. I think it's a little crazy that we won't be able to start on IV on a real person until we are licensed RNs.