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My first clinical experience was in a rehabilitation and nursing home, and it was amazing. I was more than a little nervous and apprehensive about it, as I've never had any kind of experience in the field before, but I loved it. The skills we learned during our fundamentals, like hand washing, changing bedding, and giving a bed bath, were some of the tasks we did there. I was also lucky enough to have my instructor allow me to give an insulin injection to a patient. There was, however, a significant amount of down time, in which we looked at our patient's chart in order to complete the care plan. We got to observe the wound care nurse, physical therapist, and other nurses provide care as well. The things I learned in fundamentals as well as my health assessment really helped me with my patient, as we also had to perform a head to toe assessment on our patient. I'm looking forward to my next clinical site, which will be a hospital.

I just finished, and the end couldn't come fast enough. It was the busiest semester I've ever had. Like you all mentioned, making sure to write everything down on a calendar helps a lot. My planner was my life. I also recommend a study group, which also greatly helped me. Even if it's just one person, it helps having someone to talk things out with. If you don't fully understand something, there's a good chance someone else does, and vice versa. My class really relied on each other for motivation and studying. There is so much reading, you really need to schedule time for it and keep up. That's the biggest thing I can say. If your professor emphasizes something, as ours did, highlight it, star it, throw a post-it down, anything to make sure you know that particular piece of information. Honestly, you're going to spend all of your time, and I mean all of it, studying and doing assignments. That's just the reality. It's going to be super stressful, but if you stay focused it'll be fine. Once I stopped worrying and thinking about all I had to do in the coming weeks and just focused on getting through the assignments and readings for the day, it felt less overwhelming. If you get confused, lost, or are unsure, ask for help. See the professor after class or during office hours. Ask a classmate to explain it. Don't wait until you fall behind because it'll be impossible to catch up. In the end, though, trust me when I say it feels GREAT finishing your finals on the last day, knowing you made it through it all. It's all worth it. Best of luck!

I had an appointment with my student advisor to talk about my program plan, which is basically the general overview of what classes I'm going to take each semester from now until graduation. I have, what students further along in the program call, "The Trifecta". It includes Fundamentals, Pathophysiology, and Health Assessment all at once, in the same semester. One student said he ended up failing Fundamentals and had to retake it because it was so much. The general consensus was that you have a ton of reading and have to have an incredible amount of focus on each, one ends up not getting as much attention. I have to say, it has me a bit terrified. I'm not a slacker by any means and my time management skills are decent, but it's supposed to be horribly hard. With that being said, I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with these courses and how they managed to study, complete assignments, keep your sanity, etc. Any advice and strategies that worked for you would be greatly, and I mean greatly, appreciated. I'm not scheduled to take these three until September, so I'm hoping to use the time until then to master study skills, find out what works for me, improve my note-taking, and just keep myself from having a nervous breakdown.

No! I will not tell Santa you want appreciation and a lighter patient load this Christmas. Write a letter like everyone else.

I remember when I got my first cell phone. I was a sophomorein high school and my brother and I had finally convinced my parents that wedesperately needed them for any number of emergencies that might occur (andnever did). It was a little Nokia thing with a small screen that I thought wasso great. I was able to call and text my friends as well as take the occasionalpicture. That's it. Even back then, I wasn't constantly on it, nor were thosearound me. Oh how things have changed. The phones have gotten largerand more advanced, as is our culture. Bigger and better, please. We don't justwant a phone anymore, but internet access and countless apps, all easilyaccessible by way of a touchscreen. Bluetooth capability to make it hands free,even better. We have become so obsessed with them, that if they disappeared fora day, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. We would literally be lostand in such a bad mood it would make scrooge look like a ball of sunshine. Ithas gotten a bit ridiculous, in my opinion, but I have never had a huge issuewith cell phones....until recently. I cannot believe how dominant cell phones have become in ourlives. I'm noticing more and more that those around me can't seem to doanything without them. I've gone out with friends and had to watch themconstantly check their phone, replying to texts, facebook comments, tweets,etc, and was shocked. When I'm with someone, I'm not on my phone. It's justrude and makes the other person feel like they're boring you. After all, if youasked to go grab a cup of coffee and chat with someone, I would think youshould be talking to them, not texting everyone and their mother. Of course,this is just my opinion. The past few days, as I've been in my classes, Inoticed people on their phones. Not paying attention to the professor, notdoing any work, but texting. Granted, it's none of my business what they chooseto do with their time and whether or not they pay attention, but I can't helpit. I realize it annoys me. I mean it really annoys me, to thepoint where I want to grab their phones and tell them they can't get them backuntil the end of class. You know, like the teachers used to do. It doesn'tmatter what's going on around them, they need to be on their phone. Checking it,updating their status and whatever else they can think of. I guess it's one ofmy pet peeves. I've had friends ask why I don't text them or why I go for dayswithout my phone. It's simply because I don't need to. If I don't havesomething of significance to say, I'm not going to text or call someone. Sure,it's nice to text someone every day, but I can't do it. There's only so manytimes I can ask someone what's up and how they're doing and get the answer,"Nothing much, I'm good". I don't need someone knowing what I'm eating, whenI'm eating it, and where I got it from, nor do I need to know those thingsabout someone else. It's just unnecessary. I don't need to be in constantcontact with everyone I know every day. It doesn't mean I don't like you, itdoesn't mean I'm not interested in your life, it doesn't mean I don't careabout you. My phone just isn't glued to my hand. Sometimes I feel like I'm the one with the problem. I'm theweirdo. It's not that I don't like technology and its advancements, I do. Ijust don't need to use them all day every day. Sure, once in a while I'll feellike texting or calling a friend, but not often. I don't need to update by thesecond. If nothing is going on, no emergencies are occurring, and I havenothing of value to say, I'm not engaging in conversation. Just because we havethe ability to be in contact with someone instantly and virtually 24/7 doesn'tmean we need to. It doesn't make me a bad person, it doesn't make me coldhearted or distant, and it doesn't make me antisocial. I just think cell phoneusage and dependency has gotten out of control. Maybe it's been that way for awhile, but it's only just started to bother me. I know it shouldn't, but Iguess pet peeves are like that.

I am a very sensitive and emotional person, and yes, a crier. I used to be embarrassed about it growing up, but now I accept it as who I am. I honestly think it will make me a better nurse. I mean, I don't plan on bursting into tears throughout my shift over every little thing, but I'm not the "stiff upper lip" type, either. That being said, I hope when my time comes, and I'm starting at a hospital, totally wet behind the ears and scared to death, I have someone like you as my preceptor. I want someone on my side, helping me succeed to the best of my ability, pushing me to do and be better, because I don't want to be a good nurse. I want to be a great nurse. I want to know what I'm doing wrong and how I can improve. Your article was excellently written and I enjoyed reading it very much.

I'm taking my Anatomy and Physiology class and literally just asked my professor the cause/point of noisy stomach growling last week. I never knew it had an actual name, borborygmi, if you're wondering. It's apparently completely normal, but that doesn't matter much when you're sitting in dead silence and your stomach suddenly decides to talk to everyone in the room. Awkward!

"No, no, no, this is Plymouth Hospital. You want Plymouth Rock".

At my school, our clinical coordinator explained that the way we are placed was through a computer system. Our addresses are used and that is one way they try and place us. It also depends on where they have contracts and the opening/availability in the specific area (pediatrics, psych, etc) because we share hospitals with other schools. Some of our sites will be up to 2 hours away. They wont work around our schedule, if we have another job or whatnot, because as previous posters have said, you have a set clinical site and time to be there and there isn't any wiggle room. We were told, however, that they will work with us if we have transportation issues or babysitting issues for those with children, which I thought was very nice. If we tell them ahead of time, they'll work with us to try and come up with a solution. In that sense, I really love my school because the professors and faculty really seem to care and want to help you succeed. I would definitely look into possibly carpooling. Another perk going that route: those first day jitters might not be as bad if you have a few classmates to go with, rather than getting there by yourself.

I think I would rather see that than a thong. Oddly enough, I've seen quite a few who choose that option. My eyes have never felt more violated.

Congratulations! I also came across this site months ago when I was scouring the internet looking for information on anything nursing related. When I heard about the Hesi entrance exam, this is where I came and reading other's experiences and advice really helped ease my anxiety. I passed my first go round as well and am happy to be heading into my 3rd week of nursing school. I wish you all the best! :)

So many people have accomplished seemingly impossible goals by sheer determination. The will to succeed can be a strong determining factor, and for some the most important. It sounds as though everything you have achieved thus far has been because you wanted it badly enough and worked hard. You study and ask for help when you need it, and that's half the battle. I don't believe you'll fail because you wont let yourself fail. You are truly inspiring, and I wish you the best of luck.

It started about a year ago when I realized nursing was my calling, and has gotten progressively worse. At first it was more of a relief that I had finally found my place. Now that I knew where I was going, I could go ahead and start gettin' there. Then I was accepted into my nursing school and it just snowballed from there. I went to orientation, set up a financial aid plan, made it through my first week of prerequisites, and I'm still going strong! I look forward to going to school every day, and in fact, wish I had longer classes (cue everyone looking at me like I've done lost my mind). I'm one good bounce away from duct taping myself to my seats. I can hardly contain my joy, and it shows. I'm pretty sure all of my professors think I'm slightly psychotic because every time they glance at me, I'm staring at them with this grin from God on my face. Seriously, I'd be more than a little freaked out and uncomfortable if I had to teach a class with a steadfast starer smiling at me. I can only imagine (and cringe) at what they're thinking. I'm working on controlling myself going into our second week, but no progress has been made as of yet. So my curiosity has gotten the best of me. Has anyone else been so excited about nursing school and their future profession that people are starting to think you're downright weird?

Congratulations!!! I wish you all the best.

I am the first in my family, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, to go to college. My dream is to become the best nurse I can be so as to provide the best care possible. That's all the motivation I need.