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.

First semester was harder than I gave it credit for- I did well on the first two tests (94% on each), got cocky, and my last 3 grades were significantly lower. I still ended up with a B in the course, but I know I can do better than that, I just don't know how to study. Any study tips? I am starting a study group because I know that discussing the material helps, but do you guys have any tips for studying on my own? I get so frustrated because I never had to study before so I felt like I'd been "thrown to the lions," but not by anyone but myself. Also, my back started to hurt from lugging around my textbooks, binders, and my laptop in my backpack. Any recommendations for a rolling briefcase that's not TOO expensive but can hold multiple 1900+ page books? Last semester I only had my one fundamentals class plus clinical (8 credit hours total) and next semester I have med/surg and OB. Thank you all for the advice I've seen on here, I may not post often, but I look through the threads and see a lot of great ideas thrown around.

My school has a policy that you can get unsubsidized loans up to a certain amount for a second degree program. I had to take out a private loan to cover other expenses, but the federal loans I did qualify for covered most of my tuition.

I use my textbooks all the time. I agree with what has been said previously: nursing school is completely different than my prereqs were. I was a straight A student with very little studying in all of my prereqs, got cocky after doing really well on the first two tests of my RN program with minimal studying, then failed this last test. I'll still pass the class with a B but it's definitely not as easy as any other classes I've ever taken. Plus, you might want the books after school is over as references. I'd also suggest to ask the professors if the prior edition of the book would be useful. The "required book" for my fundamentals class was the 10th edition but many students had the 9th and it worked out for them just fine, just some changes in page numbers.

I have a Littman Classic SE II and it's fantastic-cost me about $80 on medisave.com. A lot of my classmates have the Littman Lightweight and some love it, some hate it but pretty much everyone that has the same as me loves it. I do recommend getting some sort of name plate for it or having it engraved so that if it does get "accidentally" picked up by someone else, you can prove it's yours. For shoes, a lot of my classmates swear by their Danskos. I special ordered a pair in a wide width and they didn't work for me so if you have a wider foot, I'd recommend the Timberland line, they're really comfortable and clean easily. Compression socks are a great recommendation, too.

Hi!! I'm finishing up first semester right now! It's hard, not impossible, but you really have to work hard. If you like the hospital, go for Richmond. It's the only clinical not in a Long Term Care facility and it's where I went, I really liked it. Don't hesitate to contact me if you need any advice on anything, I'll gladly help you out! My biggest piece of advice is to brush up on your math skills for the dosage calculation test at orientation. You do get 3 tries to pass it. The dosage calc book they have you buy is helpful, but the most helpful thing for me was the dosage calc help they posted on blackboard before the semester began. Congratulations on getting in! Another thing: With Chem, if you can get *****, DO IT. He's fantastic!

Thank you for all of the great advice and information everyone. I think my fear just came from the reaction of Infection Control to my having been in the room, I was worried I had done something wrong I guess. I always practice good hand hygiene and wash with soap and water if I come into contact with any body fluids, hand sanitizer if not, and wear gloves. The bleach was probably overkill but it made me feel better, so I guess it served only that purpose. I really appreciate the help and this is a great resource to have!

I have no clue on any of the things you asked lol. All I know is that every morning when we are getting assigned our patients, the patients with contact precautions are taken off of our list, idk if it's a liability thing or what, but that's how it works. I have no idea how they know she's the biggest spreader, either-I thought it was kind of weird when they said it but thought they knew better than me. Thanks for the information, I'll definitely be doing my reading on it and sharing with my classmates.

Thanks! I assumed they were livid because I'm a first semester student and at this particular hospital we're not allowed to do anything on patients with contact precautions, droplet precautions, etc. in our first semester. I planned to follow up with my clinical instructor on Monday just to make sure I did everything the way I was supposed to, so I'll ask her about it. Thanks for the great information, too. I wouldn't have even thought about it being in the environment for some reason just because of the constant conversation about it being a nosocomial infection.

Thank you! It definitely does help. :)

In my clinical on Wednesday, I was inadvertently exposed to MRSA and VRE. The patient's chart said nothing about contact precautions, there was nothing on the door, and the nurse said nothing about it (and apparently KNEW nothing about it) so I was assigned to that patient because it was a "cool" case otherwise (deaf/mute with a PEG tube and it was my day to pass meds). After I'd been in and done my full physical assessment, Infection Control came upstairs LIVID that not only was there no contact precautions warning, but that a student was taking care of that patient. Apparently, this patient has been the biggest spreader of MRSA/VRE in the hospital, so I don't know why in the world "nobody knew." Obviously, without knowing she had it, I only used gloves on her. I used my own stethoscope, didn't gown up, and used the BP machine. Everything was wiped down with alcohol before I found out and bleach afterward and I changed from my scrubs to my street clothes before I left, putting my scrubs and shoes in a garbage bag to go straight to the wash when I got home, but I'm so nervous that I'm going to get sick. Any advice on what I should do? My teacher didn't seem too concerned other than being LIVID that this had occurred, but I want to make sure that I've done all I can to make sure that I don't get sick and/or contribute to the spread throughout the hospital. Luckily, I only had this one patient since it's first semester.