QueenAnnissa

I believe Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Boston Children's run neck & neck between the number 1 & 2 spots each year on the list of the nation's top children's hospitals. CHOP especially is well known & highly rated for it's NICU. Also in PA is Penn State Hershey, where my son spent time in their Level IV NICU 10 years ago.

I think as a male you can help to relate to the dad's in a completely different way than the female nurses do during an overwhelming and stressful event like the birth of a fragile child. We were in the NICU for 69 days with my son. I know my husband felt out of place and almost useless as both a new dad and father of a NICU baby, and being able to talk with the male nurse helped him gain confidence. Additionally, the nurse also was able to talk to him (after my husband opened up the conversation) one on one about his role as father and husband in a way that really helped him emotionally, something that I don't think he would have talked about with a female nurse and most likely would have just kept to himself and let fester. You could bring a much-needed male perspective to this nursing specialty.

I don't know you but I've read many of your posts and responses on here and find you to be a hugely valuable member of this community. Your thoughtful and intelligent replies to a myriad of concerns are always on point. Well wishes to you and prayers for a speedy recovery!

I'm in my 2nd semester of nursing school and last semester clinicals were spent at a LTC facility. This semester is going to be spent on a med-Surg floor. After 4 weeks there (2 days a week from 7am - 1:30pm) I am feeling discouraged and am hoping for some advice on how to turn this around so I can gain as much learning/exposure as possible during this rotation. I am an outgoing, cheerful, active student, a married mother of four, and truly invested in my education. I'm willing to get in there and do anything, as I feel it all helps with learning the many aspects of the large scope of responsibilities and skills of an RN. A team mentality is important to me; I strive to achieve it at home with my family, with my study group at school, and within my previous positions working outside the home. My current dilemma: the RN's in LTC did not interact with us students, were extremely busy with a large patient assignment and were curt and less than patient with any questions. That was fine, as I was new to healthcare I really needed more interactions with the patient care aides as I learned and practiced things such as ADL's and communication with patients. These fundamentals were important and being new skills, I didn't really notice the lack of interactions with the nurses as I was learning the beginning skills more common to aides. Now we are in acute care where more is expected of us from our clinical instructor and school. And frankly, I expect more for myself as well. But the nurses and even aides seem to not want us around. I know this is very subjective, but I feel I'm being polite to even just say it "seems" like they don't want us there. Very few people say hello or look us in the eyes. I've heard terrible remarks when it is assumed we are out of earshot, but we're not. I've seen two nurses looking at us and laughing while we stand around nervously and fidget as we try to figure out what to do. A few nurses are less directly rude but still seem burdened by our presence. It's very, very disheartening. The last two weeks after getting my pt assignment and trying to work alongside the co-RN for my patient has been difficult. Both nurses were unfriendly. I'm not sure how else to say it. Our interactions were the bare minimum. I was assigned one patient, and they each had several more to care for on the days I worked with them. I know they are busy and I truly don't want to slow them down, but I'm not allowed to help with other patients I'm not assigned to. Our school has been going to this hospital for 20+ years with their students for clinicals. We have one clinical instructor for 9 students and I tend to hold back from seeking her out for help because there are younger and even more unsure students who need her more. I feel pretty secure in the skills I have so far and spend extra time in the lab to get practice as often as I can. I'm confused by the atmosphere. It seems like we are not wanted, that the nurses don't want to teach/mentor students, that we are more of a burden and inconvenience. This was brought up in post conference as we all are dealing with this experience. Our clinical instructor is very nice, truly wants to help us and has said if anything happens we should let her know, and she'll go to the clinical manager. I hesitate at this, I feel it will do nothing to improve relations. Besides, it's all very vague stuff, "the nurses aren't nice to us, I see them rolling their eyes at us, they are too busy to help us, we heard nurse A say to nurse B they don't have time for this ****" etc. I know I'm not going to be friends with everybody, I can't choose the people I work with or learn with, and I am sympathetic to the fact there could be other factors going on here. Maybe previous students left a bad impression. I understand this is a small sample of nurses. I don't think all RN's are like this. But the ones on the floor I'm doing my clinical rotation on this semester are and I have to find a way to learn in spite of this. I hope to work through this and change some minds. But my priority is to learn, and I have to find a way to do it in a difficult environment. I feel unprepared in some ways to deal with this. For the most part I have truly never been in such a hostile environment. And it does feel hostile. I'm not trying to exaggerate. My husband said I need to grow a thicker skin. My fellow students waver between being intimidated or feeling ****** off. Our clinical instructor is a ver nice person but is new to our school and this area and I sense she feels intimidated as well by our poor reception on this floor. Any advice/thoughts/words of wisdom?

I am starting my second semester in a week. I had a solid grade in my first semester and really grew close to my clinical group. We all pretty much studied on our own, but I think as we've learned to trust one another we may try studying as a group this term. I am looking forward to continuing my education and have been reviewing over the winter break. 5 weeks flew by! Today I'm going in to get my books for NUR150 and an IV kit and supplies.

Thank you so much for replying and helping me out! Although we began exploring IV calculations at the end of the first semester, it was just a beginning and we'll really dive into it next week in the second semester. I'm glad they gave us material to review prior to going back because that math test rears it's head right away and I want to be ready! Love All Nurses community and all the help available here!

Hello! I'm working on a review for my second semester of nursing school, and I'm stuck on an IV calculation problem. Here it is: "Your client has 1 liter of D5 1/2NSS infusing at 100mL/hr into a #22 gauge adapted angiocath via an IV pump. The IV was started at 0800. What time do you expect it to be infused? Show your calculations." So, I know that 1 liter = 1000mL, and if the IV is started at 0800 to infuse at 100mL/hr, than it will take 10 hours for the liter to infuse, so it should be complete by 1800. I'm confused by the "#22 gauge adapted angiocath via an IV pump" portion of the problem. Is this a distractor, or does it affect flow rate and therefore I need to do a different type of calculation?

I know which post the OP is referring to...that poster had stated they marked the correct answers for practice questions and only read the review and rationales for the correct answers to understand the material and did not read the reviews/rationales for the incorrect answers. I believe it was stated as a way to learn and understand the information as a time-saving strategy.

Yesterday was my first day, a 2 hour lecture. First we were greeted by the program director who spoke for about 15-20 minutes, giving us a program overview, etc. Then it was handed over to the lecture team leader who introduced the faculty and then covered the syllabus and course guide in detail. Our program accepts 60 students, about 40 in the day program and 20 in the evening sessions. For lecture (I'm in the day program) the 40 of us are together, then we are split into smaller groups for labs and also clinical groups, about 10 to a group. This is who I was with today, for a 3 hour lab where we first met with one of the faculty to discuss learning and success strategies and go over some of the particulars of the program. We were able to ask questions and work out some of the course concepts to better understand the expectations and how things will work overall. Then we transitioned to the actual lab and covered the lab syllabus and lab guidelines with the nursing lab team leader. After that we toured the sim lab. (Which is 3 large adjoining rooms, all set up just like a hospital floor with patient beds, all the equipment, nurses stations, with mannequins of all kinds and a couple simulation mannequins! Very cool!) We got familiar with our student inboxes, resource center, the information board for 1st year students, teachers inboxes and the computer lab. We'll work in "campus" clinicals for the first five weeks to learn and gain skills before transitioning to clinicals in a LTC in week 6. Overall it was a great start, I think. Tomorrow we get into the material in lecture, so I'm gonna go hit the books. :-)

I don't think the poster is referring to any type of graded assignments. I believe this entire thread is in reference to class notes, calendars/schedule, and typed lectures from audio recordings as you mentioned, items that would not be handed into instructors.

I'm nervous, but not sure why, tomorrow is simply a 2 hour lecture and it will mostly be covering what to do, the syllabus, orientation, etc. It might just be because I know how hard it's going to be, and I'm concerned if we'll be able to balance four children, our marriage, our home and nursing school. It's a big step and it begins tomorrow! Eeek!

It is hard for anyone else to understand, especially if you are not a former college student, a current college student or in the medical field. One of the things that has bonded me to my fellow classmates is how we are all juggling life, work, family, etc., with school, they "get it". It's a tough position to have a partner who doesn't seem to understand, and it sounds like he's not opening up to it even after all of the evidence you are showing him. I like a previous posters suggestion of involving him in one of your study sessions. If you have created a study guide or flash cards, have him quiz you on the material. Show him your calendar with your school stuff, to-dos, quiz and test dates, class time & lab time, commute time, and the times you have blocked for reading/studying. Add in all of your other life events, appointments, kid stuff, etc. Write in when you go grocery shopping, other errands, etc. Maybe this visual evidence will help him see how difficult life will be during the semester, and how he'll need to support you so you can be successful. Anatomy & Physiology is an intense science course, it can be a deal-breaker for some students. Your grade in this class carries a lot of weight when applying to nursing programs. And once accepted, your instructors will expect you to have retained this information, it is referred to and dealt with repeatedly in nursing. You have to know how the body normally works to treat it when something is going wrong.

I have heard repeatedly by other students going into the nursing program at my school that those without CNA/PCT experience are at a real disadvantage in the program and won't do as well, especially in the first semester. Thoughts?

I use Audible on my iPhone, and I've downloaded the Vango Notes for Prentice Hall Nursing Reviews & Rationales Fundamentals as well as the Med-Surg one. As supplements to nursing textbooks, they are great resources and I like having another way to study on my commute.

Searching back a bit I didn't catch anything in reference to this, so I apologize if this was recently brought up... In general, current and former nursing students, how have patients reacted to receiving care from nursing students?

I'm not sure about handing over something like a concept map created from the required reading, that is a lot to ask of a fellow student. What is that saying, a lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part? As far as your notes from lecture that someone missed, I would definitely share that with a student who missed class. It is generally up to the student to get caught up on material missed due to an absence, and we are supposed to seek out our classmates for this. It is something that probably could easily be emailed, right?

Your ideas sound good. Having easy breakfast ideas and their clothing and school stuff ready the night before will go a long way to making mornings run smoothly. Do they have alarm clocks? And an easy reference checklist maybe? Something that just has morning items on it like rinse off breakfast dishes, morning hygiene (teeth, face & hands, deodorant) and turn off lights, etc? This might not be necessary for the oldest ones, but could be helpful for the 10 year old.

Yeah, the nerves have kicked in! I am glad that I'll know some of the students in the program, as we've gone through some of the pre-req's together. That, I think, helps when I nervously picture walking into the building the first day. (Where do I go? Where do I sit? Who do I partner up with in lab?) But there was a group of us that have been together as a solid study group for the last 18 months and we've separated now, some going to another local program, some going into the respiratory program on the same campus, and one on the wait list. I've gotten really close to a few of those girls, and friendly with the rest, and I'm going to miss our camaraderie and group work ethic. We all really worked well together, and I'm going to miss that as well as the mutual support we gave one another throughout these classes.

I start next Monday, August 19th, and I've been passing the time these last few weeks cleaning and organizing my house, gathering school supplies for myself and the kids, cleaning out closets, etc., making a few freezer meals and stocking up the pantry with dry goods and paper products. I also got the car tuned up, fluids checked, cleaned out and vacuumed, basically anything I can do that will make life a bit easier. Had some date nights with my husband and quality time with the kids, going to the park, movies, just hanging out in the pool, etc. Read some books that have been gathering dust, as I love to read and I know I'm not going to have as much time to read for fun after the program starts. Got together with some friends and had a 'wine' night with my best friend last week. Lots of these to-do's came from advice garnered here on AN, so thanks to all current and former students for your 'life hacks' to help decrease the newbies anxiety and get us geared up for life in nursing school! I pulled together the last of my books and school materials last week, and I've made myself familiar with the textbooks and other content. I've started the readings for the first week of lecture, skimmed through the lab and clinical manuals as well as prepping for the dreaded math test. We take ours about 3 weeks in, and we have a Dosage Calculations CD and workbook that is our textbook. It has a bunch of modules on it and for this first test we need to work through and complete the first 6 modules. Each module is several sections, called sub-modules, and those sections are further broken down. I completed the first of many sub-modules yesterday, which was 'Basic Math Review', sub-module 'Fractions', it was easy but took about an hour or so. Now that I have an idea of how to complete the modules and their length, I'm going to blow through them this week as much as I can to get them out of the way. That way I can concentrate on all of the other stuff we'll be doing! How have other new nursing students been preparing for the upcoming semester?

Fantastic story! I love your philosophy of "Keep it Moving!", what a great mindset!

I agree, I'm glad it's all done and organized and put together for me. I just had to throw it in a binder and read it.

^This! I really do think this is a blueprint for success in each portion of the program. It's not a replacement for the hard work and active learning we'll have to do, but having clear direction, exact specifications for all the work, the dates and material covered and the 2 manuals plus more all in one place laid out and outlined as well as made by our instructors is extraordinarily helpful. It is to the benefit of both student and teacher, in that we all waste less time getting on the same page. There is no excuse for missing anything. It's all in here. Other schools may have another system for all of these components as far as the delivery of the information to the students, but I really do think there is great benefit in this particular method.

This take on it makes a lot more sense. The overall cost is a much better clarification of this part of the program. I would say based on my research and the reviews of this program (from former and current students) and it's reputation in the area (from other students and nurses in local hospitals in my social circle) this cost IS worth it to me.

This is a community college in southeast Pennsylvania.

The syllabus & schedule are a very short part of this 216 page packet, like 5-6 pages. (Front & back of all the pages are printed, by the way.) the rest of the packet is the custom-made lab manual and clinicals manual, created by the nursing instructors at my college. I've never had to pay for a syllabus in any pre-nursing class. Only textbooks or lab manuals.