sofiesgrammy

Much of nursing is "therapeutic communication" transltation: psychology. Much of nursing is lifespan considerations in care of the patient. Translation: developmental psychology. I was a psych major, and while there was one class titles "Abnormal Psychology", psychiatric disorders were also discussed in almost every other class. I took a class called "Juvenile Delinquency", "Clinical Psychology" and another called "Deviant Behavior". All of the developmental psych classes dealt with psychiatric disorders of children, mental retardation and autism. I took classes in physiological psychology, which dealt with neurotransmitters and their effects (hmmm, sounds like depression and schizophrenia to me). You say you are in your mid 20's, but you sound like a 13 year-old who knows everything....

I would hire Sue or Jill. they both sounds great! Sue may retire in 15 years, but I doubt that any nurse is going to work in the same department for even that long. It happens, but it isn't the norm. Most nurses are going to move on to another role within 5 years regardless of age. Sue was a financial planner. She knows darn well that she is taking a pay cut, and she doesn't mind. She wants to be a nurse. She wants to take care of people and she is WILLING to take a PAY CUT to do it. That's MOTIVATION! Jill may also be a great nurse. She shows compassion by working as a CNA. How do we know she won't get married and quit, or have a baby and call in sick every time the kid gets a runny nose? I would not say that Sue is entitled to more consideration that Jill, but she is certainly entitled to equal consideration.

How did you do on Kaplan and ATI predictors? Are you doing well on the predictors, and doing poorly on the NCLEX due to anxiety, or are you struggling with Kaplan and ATI as well?

IF you can do the BSN, go for it! The job market is getting really tough for ADNs, but BSN grads are getting hired right away.

You won't get far in advanced med-surg if your background in A&P is lacking. Bite the bullet and study, study, study!

Experience as a CNA helps. If you can work as a CNA part-time, that will help. I would advise you to let your employer know that you are interested in going to nursing school and see what assistance may be available. They may offer some tuition assistance. Nurse colleagues may be willing to teach you a great deal about the medications and treatments the patients are receiving, the patients' diagnoses and their care plans. This real-world exposure may help you assimilate the nursing knowledge and critical thinking skills you will need to become an RN. The job market for new RN grads from an ADN program is tightening. Having your foot in the door as a CNA can make a HUGE difference at hiring time! Best of luck to you!

Hi, I just graduated from a SACS and NLNAC-accredited ASN program, passed the NCLEX, have license in hand. I was a very successful health care manager with an MBA. I have applied for numerous jobs, only to be rejected repeatedly. My nursing school program director says that I should understate my experience and education (remove the MBA from the resume and downplay my past jobs), because he believes that hiring managers are afraid that I'll come in and threaten their jobs. Others have told me that my education and experience set me apart from the typical new grad, and that I should demonstrate how my patient satisfaction, quality improvement and Joint Commission experience make me a better novice nurse. I am not looking for a management position. I chose nursing at this point in my life because I wish to provide direct patient care. It is an emotional and spiritual decision. I don't want the manager's job. I just want to be the best nurse I can be. Any advice anyone can share will be much appreciated. Thanks, Jackie

Check out a website called Simple free learning tools for students and teachers | Quizlet. It has free flashcards that other folks have created. You can enter the name of your textbook and it will pull up any flashcards created by others that you can use. It has a free app for your smartphone, so you can study anywhere. You can make your own flash cards and share them as well. You may want to form a study group with some of your classmates, and have each person make a set of flash cards and a study guide on a different section of the material. Then you can share and learn from each other efficiently. Put in the extra effort and do all you can to get an A. The better you do in A&P, the easier nursing school will be. If you think A&P is hard, you ain't seen nothin yet! Best of luck to you!

There's a great online, free math learning resource called Kahn academy. I stunk at math, and with the help of this website, I scored a 99% in math on my nursing school entrance exam. If I can do it, you can do it! I think the site is kahnacademy.org. As a nurse in daily practice, you will need to be very comfortable with multiplication and division and complex fractions. You will need to be comfortable converting metric to English, farenheit to celsius, etc. Know the metric system well, especially grams, milligrams and micrograms. You don't need algebra, geometry, trig or calculus for nursing, but there will be algebra and geometry questions on the nursing school entrance exam! As for science, start with biology and work your way up to anatomy and physiology. Chemistry is the foundation for everything, but many nursing programs don't require it. It is possible to get through with no chem, and many nurses never have to take a chem class. I had several semesters of chem, and I am glad for it. It helps my understanding of how drugs work, and it helps a lot in understanding critical care nursing, where you are dealing with acid base balance and things like that. If you can handle the chem, it's worth taking. You will need to be proficient in algebra to make it through chem. You might see if you can volunteer at a nursing home or with Hospice in your community. Our local Hospice accepts volunteers as young as 14. Best of luck to you!

Just want to add that there are exceptions to what I said above, but in general, these tips are a good way to approach NCLEX style questions. Don't feel bad, I think most people do poorly on the first few fundies exams. I was an A student, but I had to get used to nursing school and change my expectations. Nursing school is the new normal. I get Bs sometimes now, no matter how much I study, and I do feel that some of it is due to the volume of content we are responsible for, but some is also the darn format of the darn questions. This is something you cannot change, so find your serenity as best you can! Maryann Hogan's Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-RN is a great resource. THe book is good, but it also comes with an online access code, where you can take lots of practice exams.It helps you focus on your weak spots by recommending study material based on the questions you miss. It was less than $50 on Amazon. Hang in there!

Some people get used to them more quickly than others. Here are some tips: 1. Safety 1st! When you read the question, is there an option dealing with patient safety? If so, that's probably the answer. 2. ABC's! Does the question ask anything to do with Airway, Breathing or Circulation? If so, that's probably the answer, in that order. 3. Maslow's hierarchy of Needs. Learn Maslow, you will encounter it continually through school. No matter what you think is the priority, or most important, always order the responses as Maslow would. Physiologic needs first, psychosocial needs later. 4. ADPIE! The nursing process: Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. IF the question is asking you what to do first - the answer is always ASSESS! Pick the option that has to do with finding out what's going on before doing anything else. 5. If there's a respiratory problem, raise the head of the bed and give 2L O2 via nasal cannula. 6. If there's a question about positioning a patient, think about if vomiting and aspiration could happen. If so, lay them on their side. Hope this helps. Practice, practice practice! Good Luck!

Community College is the best place to get oyur pre-reqs. It's quality at a great price. Check with the RN programs in the area to be sure you are taking the right courses. Not all Anatomy and Physiology classes are equal, for example. In FL, the A&P class LPNs take is not good enough to serve as a pre-req for an RN program. In FL, some of the community college RN programs are so competitive, it's very difficult to get in. The one in my area has a GPA cutoff of 3.8! The website says minimum of 3.0, but when there are more qualified applicants than available slots, only those with the highest GPA are accepted. If you talk with academic advising, they will tell you what GPA you realistically need to get in. You might want to look into some of the ACCREDITED private programs. They cost more, however, if it means you don't have to wait years to get in, it is worth it. Time is money. If a nurse makes $60k a year, and the private school costs $30k, but you get in 2 years earlier, and start making $60k 2 years earlier, that private school tuition has paid for itself! Best of luck!

Not to discourage you, but you need to be aware of the demands a nursing program will put on you and your family. I'm an RN student in my final semester. I hold a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in other fields. Nursing will be a second career for me. Nursing school was academically more difficult, in terms of work load, than my master's degree was. I think most folks are not prepared for the sheer volume of required study! Be prepared to study 30 hours per week, in addition to attending class and clinicals (another 20 hours per week) if you want to do well. If you can manage a 50 hour per week commitment and still care for your baby and provide for yourself financially, without having to work, go for it! My school requires significant pre-reqs as well as a 3.0 to enter. That said, 25% of my class flunked out by the end of the first semester. Most of the folks who failed were single parents, trying to work and go to Nursing School at he same time. If you decide to go for it, please get as much financial aid as possible to cover living expenses so you don't have to work. Another option is to go for an LPN program first. The workload is significantly less. You can work as an LPN for a while, and then go back and do an LPN-RN bridge program. Best of luck!