douxmusique

I know this thread started a year ago, but to help any newer viewers looking for tips: I recently started as a new grad on a mother/baby unit. Remember that culture dictates raising of children. There are so many different ways families take care of mom and infant, learning to navigate that is especially important. PP is all about education, education education. Many patients will have little to no prenatal care, many don't know anything about pregnancy, childbirth or how to care for a newborn. Hispanics will swear to you "no leche" and "no quieres" and say baby needs formula. Some middle eastern/indian patients are used to the nurse doing EVERYTHING for them (to include picking baby up from bassinet to hand to them in bed, though they are capable of doing it themselves). Many women never learned about and don't understand the presence of after pains and we have to teach about that and pain control as well. So much teaching..... I was shocked to actually see the need to teach patients SO MUCH about having a baby. I made my own "report sheet" that I have tweaked several times to include things I always tend to forget to do or ask about (OMG did that baby have her cord clamp? I looked now I forget!). It helps me out tremendously and keeps me organized. It's not necessarily a head to toe assessment sheet, but it has the important things on there- vitals, fundal assessment, baby bracelet number, meds, routine tasks.... Don't be hard on yourself as you learn the job. If you have a question- ask. If you are concerned and uncomfortable in a situation- ask. If you need a moment to breath- say so. Use your preceptor to your advantage but within reason. Be confident in your assessment skills- you know your stuff.

I actually had the same thing happen to me, I didnt realize it would hit me so hard. I wouldnt say I am not "cut out for that kind of nursing" though.... I would say I had an unexpected reaction and will have to work on it. In school I have watch many invasive procedures without any issues, not sure whh the circumcision got to me. I would consider it normal based on the understanding and concern I saw from the nurses I was with that day. Lighten up.

Yes the focused reviews helped. I did the practice assessments and then was able to narrow down what I needed to study based on the assessments.

There is an ati app in the play store as well. Honestly read your book word for word. I had to remediate for fundamentals and every question I got wrong was in the book word for word. I have taken 4 ati tests now and the last 3 I have received level 3s. If you know your book you will do well. Relax and Good luck!

We have our clinicals in hospitals. If thats what on site means. And yes the two programs are completely separate and have their own accreditations. Good luck to you as well :)

Speaking on woodbridge campus program only......Yes the program is very new and not regionally accredited. Those are the two major downsides to the program. However...... the program is ccne accredited and is good and strong and prepares students to be smart competent nurses. The faculty always has student and patient best interests in mind and they are not trying to turn out nurses for the sake of $. They are well rounded, experienced icu/er nurses teaching skills and lectures. Im not sure what you mean by on site clinicals...... I am in the same boat... military spouse needing to finish before service member is relocated. However. .... I am not sold on getting my masters, ever, so I am content with not needing to transfer credits. At this point in the game I just want to get my bsn. I am happy in the program. stratford falls church campus has a 68% pass rate. Woodbridge campus has 100% as of q513 when the first cohort graduated. While the accreditation is provisional under falls church, woodbridge is attaining their own accreditation.

I have the hardest time with alzheimers/dementia/confused patients... I am not sure how to respectfully and effecivelty communicate with them. Those have been my most challenging moments. I wish I would have had more confidence to just deal my first few times but I guess I'm slowly learning that. Speakly slow and clear and loud and smile ks what I have found works best..... Shocking/funny? Followed a tech in to do some foley care and I wasnt warned the patient had scrotal swelling. Any other fun details of the story would give away too much personal info but it was pretty hilarious. I dont really enjoy clinicals. I feel like a constant annotance and completely incompetent. I learn alot and make the best of my situations but some days my nurses are just not very willing to jave a student and it really messes the day up.

There is a poison ivy shot?!

They might be out there but I havent heard of any asn programs being 18 months prereqs to finishm like a pp mentioned many/most have at least a year of prereqs, sometimes three semesters, then an additional four semesterd of nursing core. In many BSN programs the progression is almost the same with a few extra classes and you can still finish in three years if you take your prereqs stacked and through summer. I guess it comes down tothe necessity of working or not. If someone doesnt need to work asap then why not just get into a bsn program and go that route? Personally I had so many additional classes that bsn degrees require it would have been a waste of my previous time and money spent on education to go with an asn which was my original plan way back when. So there are a lot of personal circumstances out there and different program options to fit everyones personal styles. Its not always a matter of working asap or getting done fastest.

It depends on the school. Some schools will tell you they only look at the prereq gpa, others will want to calculate the gpa of every school you have attended.

Yeah thats not what was happening.

This is exactly why I tend to struggle with saying something or not. And hand sanitizer is considered washing hands from what the hospitals have taught me. So even some hand sanitizer!

Youre absolutely right I am definitely going to need stop worrying about not offending people when standing up for stuff like..... immediately.

Suturing. I wasnt sure if it was surgical or medical so I didnt know when/if the way he was laying everything out was contaminating a sterile field or even if it was sterile or not. I havent studied that in class yet so I just didnt know. Plus.... real world vs school...... I just thought I was being a little particular because I use gloves at home to cook food and change bandaids and dont eat anything with my hands. No, not even pizza. But I emailed an instructor and learned I should have said something because what i saw was worth a few sentences. Thankfully the wound healed up just fine no infections everyone is fine. I have come to the conclusion I am just going to say something if I feel I need to. I have to.