BeccaC623

No. When my dad was doing cancer treatments all of the nurses were great and if one of them hadn't mentioned having an ASN I couldn't have told you who had what degree. The biggest difference between a BSN and ASN, as far as I know, is the amount of theory/research/management courses and the gen ed. classes.

Never said they couldn't. I gave that as a way for the OP to look at potential differences. Sometimes the best people academically lack those qualities, it's just how it is.

Don't be afraid to ask for help as soon as you need it. Don't wait until you feel completely overwhelmed. Nursing school isn't easy, but it's not impossible! Do your readings, take good notes, and get to know some of your classmates as soon as you can. I agree that you will make mistakes and you just have to accept them, learn from them, and move on. If you are given open lab time, USE IT. Practice your skills, and use all of the resources you are given. You can do this.

You say that they're cut-throat and perfectionists and do well academically, but how are they with the other side of nursing? The compassion, people skills, listening, intuitiveness?

To my knowledge, at least for here, the job market isn't great in the cities but if you are willing to expand to the outlying hospitals (there's a satellite or community hospital in almost every county), finding a job will be much easier. I think a lot of people graduate with the decision that they won't work in certain specialties or areas (like LTC) so that might skew the results a bit as well. Obviously, these are just my thoughts on it, but a lot of my ADN friends have graduated and found jobs quite quickly but they weren't picky about where/what specialty. These friends are both here in KY and in upstate (Rochester) New York.

I had almost the same scenario. Great grades the first two tests, barely passed the third, and failed the fourth. Needed a 98 for an A, a 65 for a B, and a 40 for a C. Ended up with an 85% overall. Here's to a better second semester! :)

Thank you for all the advice everyone! I'll definitely be taking it all into account for next semester. :)

That's a great idea! I have no intention of selling my books back at all, I figured I'd keep them for reference. Do you know about how much it cost you?

I was just curious about the NCLEX book because of the style of questions used on our tests. I've noticed through our test review (we were lucky this semester, probably won't be next semester) that a lot of the questions I get wrong are the "select all that apply" so I was hoping to be able to practice by topic with an NCLEX book. GrnTea-I'll look at that, thanks! :)

Take the time before your program starts to just relax, read a few good books, and enjoy your time. I'm not saying you won't have ANY time to do it once school starts, but your time will be better spent doing other things. I have found my classmates to be a huge key to my success. One of the things our teachers recommended to us if we had to miss a class was to find two different people and borrow their notes because one person might have caught something the other didn't. I love clinical and lab. Practicing the basic skills in the lab is helpful, but the real life application on a real patient is a completely different thing. I felt goofy doing a physical assessment on a dummy or my classmates but really loved goign through one on a patient. BUT, even though I felt goofy, I took things seriously in lab and really practiced as much as possible. Take the time you are given and put it to the best use you can. If your school offers tutoring, find out when it is. If they offer groups for test anxiety, how to study, or just overall anxiety and you need it, use it. Ask questions often and, in clinical, if you are given the opportunity to see something cool, do it! I got to see several surgeries and dialysis this semester simply by asking my instructor if it was okay to do so when I was approached by the nurse with the opportunity. The one big thing that was told to me about clinical: advocate for your patient. My friend had a patient who had a severe fluid imbalance, nutritional intake below his body's needs, and was NPO with no IV or NG tube for 3 days. Said patient was also severely underweight. She didn't just sit there and accept that that was the way it was, she asked questions about why and managed to get the physician to come up and check on the patient, who was then given an IV and food. There may be a reason that something is being done, and I'm not saying to approach in an accusatory manner, but asking questions in a polite manner may just alert the staff nurses to something that they may not have thought of as being an issue.

Thank you! The people in my study group are fantastic, not necessarily all straight-A students, but they all have a drive to succeed and stay on topic. The couple of times we met up we studied for about an hour straight, took about a half hour break for food and gossip, and got right back into it. I think it worked out nicely to have the "not-as-smart" people in our group since we only met up for the first two tests, which I scored very well on, and I can't help but believe that the necessity to help them understand the material better helped me to understand it better, if that makes sense. I sat in the back-ish of the class this semester, I will definitely be moving closer to the front. Thank you so much for all of the advice, I knew that coming here would give me some great ideas! Do you guys have any NCLEX books you'd recommend? I know some of them go by topic and was just wondering if there were some that you all liked more than others? I'm willing to spend however much it takes to help me learn this information not only well enough to pass my classes and NCLEX, but to be able to apply it and be a good nurse.

ClassyBoxer-thanks for the advice! A lot of teachers won't let us record their lecture but I will definitely ask the ones for next semester. I didn't even think about breaking down the chapters into sections, I was trying to just plug away at reading every single word in the chapter all at once...I guess that's not too good of a use of my time, is it? Miiki SN-Thank you! I am one of those people who can't do e-books for some reason. I have to turn the pages and physically highlight. I wonder why it's that way for some people and not for others? I wish the textbooks came with a free e-book though, like one of my old bio books did, then I could just bring my iPad to class for reference and have the tangible books at home to study from :\

I think I learn best by listening and writing. In high school and my prereqs I could usually get by just by being in class and taking notes. I think part of what screwed me up this semester is that one of our teachers was out for a month so we didn't have lecture on 2 topics and had to self teach. I froze when I heard about that and I had no idea what to do. I read the powerpoints she gave us, read the chapters in the book, made notecards, etc. but just couldn't wrap my head around the material. I know that nursing school isn't about being spoonfed info, I have to learn to teach some of it to myself and to prioritize but I felt like I was drowning without any guidance and a lot of my classmates felt the same way, so we couldn't even help each other figure out what to do. And thanks!

Congratulations! I wish you the best of luck on the NCLEX and with your career! :)

I can empathize with how you are feeling. I am constantly getting asked what my grades were and when I do well I feel guilty because my friend who works her ass off didn't do as well. The kicker for me is when I don't do as well and I'm accused of being a liar so I've started to just say "Oh, I did as well as I thought I would." and just leaving it at that. It sucks, your good grade has NOTHING to do with anyone else's success or failure.