lpnstudent2013

Just got my first nursing job. I'm in orientation this week. Then I get 5 days of shadowing and I'm on my own. It's skilled nursing and I'll have 16-20 patients. I'm nervous but excited. I did my senior clinicals at the rival facility to this one so I am very familiar with the pace and time management. I know it'll take time and practice, but I feel confident I can do it.

Update: My new LPN license showed up the next morning on the website. Yay!!! So relieved!

How long did it take you to find out if you passed your NCLEX? I took mine yesterday (8 am on Oct 17th) and I keep checking the OSBN website but it still just has my CNA license. The test shut off at 85 questions. The questions felt really hard but I looked up some stuff when I got home and found that I had gotten them right. I got mostly SATA questions. I counted about 60 of them out of 85 questions. I have been told that those are considered hard so the more you get the better you are doing. I'm hoping that's the case. I'm not going to do the Pearson pop up trick because 1) I have no money on my card if it does decide to take it and 2) I know two people last week who did it and it took their cards but they had passed. If I haven't heard by Monday I will do the quick results. But the thing is that everyone I know in Oregon was able to look up their name and new license on OSBN website within 24 hours. Anyone from Oregon who had it take longer to post but you still passed? I'm freaking out over here!!!

I'm in Washington State and it's pretty much the same here as everywhere else that I've heard about. The hospitals hire LPN's but they are called techs and are only paid a couple dollars more than CNA's (and the CNA's can do the same job for cheaper). Other opportunities for LPN's are LTC, Rehab, jails, doctors offices, and home health. I work in rehab and 3/4 of the nurses are LPN's, and they work to their full scope of practice. The hard part is not finding an LPN job, it's finding an employer who will give a new grad a chance (if you're a new grad).

Sounds like my program. It is really frustrating. Too many people just want to get through without doing anything to earn it, and then those of us who are dedicated get punished for it. It makes me concerned for the kind of nurses that are being put out in the field. I don't want those students being my nurse someday. Yikes!

Yes. I believe every nursing student needs to work as a CNA. I can't stand that half my nursing class is "above" CNA work. Drives me crazy!!! If you don't want to wipe butts and clean up puke, please do not become a nurse. You don't deserve it!

All gray matching top and bottom scrubs. With the school logo on them. But they are unisex so they fit horribly on females. Half of us went and bought our own scrubs in the same color so we could get a better fit. The instructors probably noticed but they never said anything because the color still matched perfectly. Only thing missing was the logo. We originally had to have all white shoes but they changed it to all white or all black. But nobody follows the shoe rules, they mostly wear brightly colored tennis shoes. I wear my black Danskos. I was just glad there wasn't white scrubs in the uniform. :)

Only 4 more weeks here! Last final for LPN is October 11th. NCLEX here I come. So excited!

Started with 20, 2 dropped in the first quarter because they couldn't keep up, 1 dropped in the 2nd quarter due to being super grossed out in clinicals, no one dropped in 3rd quarter, and now in our final quarter we have only lost one so far due to grades. Yeah, my program is super lenient. I swore up and down that our one teacher kept avoiding giving us our final grade for pediatrics (her excuse was that she couldn't get the system to work, but it had worked for her before) because there were students who had failed and she had fudged their grades so they could pass. Come to find out, I was right. But those students are still in the program. Some have also made severe clinical errors and are still in the program too. Super annoying because half the class I wouldn't want near me as a nurse. I wish I was in a more strict program in some ways.

I chose a private college LPN program because I would've had to do all my pre reqs (1-2 years), wait for acceptance (1year), and then do the program (2 years) at the CC. So instead I went to a one year LPN program and I will graduate this fall and work as a nurse while getting my RN and BSN. I still have to do my pre reqs but now I will be gaining priceless PAID nursing experience while doing it. And once I get my pre reqs done, I can do the CC bridge, going into the second year of their RN program because my LPN license and work history counts as the first year of the program. It worked out better for me! It's not for everyone, but if you want a faster route to becoming a nurse, it's definitely a good option!

My school uses ATI. I love the videos, practice tests, and rationales. The only thing I don't like is the lack of an index and glossary, like others have said. We have taken end of semester exams now for Pediatrics, Maternal Newborn, Mental Health, and Fundamentals. When I first started doing the practice tests I did horrible. But then I went through all their videos about how to approach each question with prioritizing instead of using disease process knowledge, I drastically improved my scores. Now I love ATI and can't believe how much my critical thinking has improved while using their system. It's awesome!

Congratulations! I start my final semester in a month and then I graduate in October. I can't believe how fast the time has gone! It's crazy. And so exciting!

I made my first med error as a nursing student. It was absolutely awful! I felt horrible. The patient was fine, just got twice the dose needed of a vaccine. I had to call the Dr. and call the family and file the incident report. I managed to keep my emotions under control until I did all the necessary paperwork and then I went to the bathroom and bawled my eyes out. I was an emotional wreck for a couple of days. But I went back to clinicals and continued on. The nurses were great about it. So was my instructor. I dreaded telling her,but all she said was, "Oh, welcome to nursing." The nurses at the facility started telling me all their stories of med errors. They reminded me that we are human and we will make mistakes. The important thing is that you learn from the mistake and do better. And yeah, if you were NOT emotional and upset about it, THEN I would worry.