GaGeek

Ditto what they said! I have two kids; 4 and 2.5. And my husband works on the railroad and is out of town a lot and has no schedule to speak of, so I can't rely on him to be around. So, like the guy above me said, if I can do it, YOU can do it! Truth: managing daycare for the kids is my biggest stressor. When clinicals start at 6:30 am (and I live in the suburbs and have to account for driving time), I have to worry about what time I need to drop them off at daycare and if my husband isn't home to help, that would be 5:45 am. If you have family to help, that's awesome! This may not be an issue for you at all. But if not, I recommend calling around and interviewing daycares now. I had the best luck with in-home daycares; something I would never have considered if I hadn't found myself in this situation. If you find yourself in the same predicament, I recommend state certified in-home daycares. Then at least you have a little comfort knowing they are inspected periodically. The next hardest thing for me is having less time with my family. My kids are definitely needier now than they were before I started the program. I try amend that by including them in my study time. I got them their own leapfrog tablets and they can "study" with me. My 4 year old practices reading, or I set them up with crayons and paper and we all hang out. This only works for me because I really use those daycare hours to dedicate to class and studying. And like the others said; my house is trashed. There's books and paper everywhere, dog hair building up, dirty dishes sitting in the sink, laundry has reached a whole new level of "mountain"... The husband picks up a lot of slack and is really great about helping out (I don't cook at all when he's home! I don't clean either. Poor guy). You'll find your groove. You will have to make sacrifices and adjustments. If you aren't ready for that, now might not be the time. For me, I don't want anyone coming to see my house anytime soon and I do just about tear my hair out over daycare hours; but otherwise, I absolutely love class already, what I'm studying is fascinating, labs are hysterically fun, and I'm like a kid in a candy store during clinicals. If nursing is something you are really passionate about, the sacrifices won't seem nearly as bad :-)

I haven't actually started Nursing School yet, so I haven't had a "human" pharmacology course, but I did take Pharmacology in Vet Tech school. It was a lot of memorization. Here's what helped me: Knowing my Physiology and my chemistry. I started focusing on the categories of drugs we were working with. Why did that category exist? What systems does it work on? Why are these drugs included in it? What do they all have in common? Once I had a solid understanding of that, it was a little easier to focus on the differences between the drugs in that category. I can tell you that I never memorized every little detail I read. But knowing my physiology helped me figure out what I hadn't memorized a lot of the time, and that left time to memorize the unique and important properties of each drug. And like others have said, you just have to study harder and smarter. I would recommend a study group. Get together and quiz each other. Then teach each other when someone gets an answer wrong. Pharmacology is hard stuff. It's good that you're talking to your teacher about it. But honestly, she doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Lots of teachers have her style. It may seem unfair when your other teachers are a little easier on you, but she really is the one doing you the biggest favor. It's hard now, but when you're done with it all and working in the field, you'll appreciate how solid your knowledge is in this area.

I know a guy in veterinary school who passed out the first time he ever shadowed at a veterinary clinic and watched a surgery. Look at him now! I also know plenty of people who are afraid of needles or get queasy having their own blood drawn, but have no issue using them/drawing on other people. Your situation sounds a little worse than that, but I'm sure that if this is something you really want, you can find coping tools to get you through it. And I would bet that with a little experience, those things will get easier to handle with time.

You're definitely not crazy. I hope most of your classmates have enough common sense to recognize that she's gone off the deep end! I really cringe to think that she's molding the minds of future health care workers and scientists.

Wow. I would react the same way! Definitely send that link on to the Dean. It's disturbing to think that an educator is passing that information on AND using a website for reference that looks like something I put together in high school in the mid 90's. I mean... not the content, but the layout. lol. Although, here's a link to a Tuskeegee Study done on Syphilis .... she may have been referring to this. I don't know of anything similar happening with HIV or H1N1, though.

I have two... a 2yo and a 3yo. Right now I'm working part time and taking 10 hours. I start my nursing program in January! I am a little bit nervous about time management at home; it's already tough to find time to study, work, take care of the dogs, take care of the kids, the house, the hubby.... I'm a little bit overwhelmed right now and I know school is only going to get more involved! I'm hanging on to the fact that my schedule will actually be more regular after I start school. And that even though I feel overwhelmed right now, I'm doing well in school and my hubby is a wonderful support and picks up a lot of slack at home. I guess I have a lot more going for me than it currently feels like ;-) Anyway, cheers to all the moms and dads making sacrifices and being good examples for the next generation!

First of all, that's really rough. I'm so sorry that you've had to go through that. Also, do you have more than one school you could look at attending? Is the nursing program at the same school your are at now? I ask because of my own experience with re-taking classes. My GPA wasn't phenomenal to begin with. It was like a 2.9 or something. I have three schools in my area that I was interested in attending, so I met with someone from all three schools to talk about my grades and my experience in the field (mine is animal related; some nurses are like "Oh yeah, you can follow me!" and others are completely offended at the idea that veterinary medicine is considered medicine at all). Anyway, I was just trying to get a feel for whether they thought I was competitive enough or not. All three people said they look at only the highest grades in the classes I took. One school did count my overall GPA, but also calculated my pre-requisites based on the highest grades I had achieved, in order to break down how competitive I was. The other school only counted pre-requisite GPA and counted mine based only off the highest grades. And I don't remember what the third did. In the meantime, I've brought my GPA way up. I"ve already been accepted with the lower GPA, and that was based on my experience, my interview, and my recommendations. A low GPA doesn't have to mean it's impossible. It sounds like you have everything else going for you, even more than I did :-) So I don't know if that helps or not, but it might be worth looking into. Don't roll over just because your current adviser told you to move on. Meet with a nursing school adviser! And it might mean spending the time and money to re-take some of those classes that you were disappointed in, again. But you sound like you're really dedicated to this and would be heartbroken if life turned out any other way. I say fight for it! Even it takes a little bit longer. :-) FWIW, I've taken 7. I said 7! Anatomy classes of one sort or another. 2 were electives as college credit in high school. 4 counted toward my first Bachelor's degree. And this last one I had to re-take because it's been 10 years since the first. It's a pain in my @$$, but I want this badly enough that I'm not letting that stop me! Also, my grades ranged from C's to A's. They only counted 1, and they chose one with an A.

I'm in Mo. Kc. I'll be going to William Jewell in January. I went to NWMSU for my first Bach, though!

Take a deep breath. You're doing well to put in so much effort. What's on your note cards? You don't have to answer that specifically. What helped me, especially for the skeletal system, was drawing. You don't have to be an artist. You're the only one who has to see what you've drawn. But the act of drawing a bone and making sure to include the notches and crevices and bumps and holes helps to memorize what you need to know. That takes time, too, though. Anyway, just make sure to take a few minutes to go over what note cards you have before you start making more. You don't have to have it all memorized at once, but taking in it a little at a time will help. Also, not everyone's classes are separate. It depends on the program. But I understand how frustrating that must be, to cover two seemingly unrelated topics between the classes.

Well, if you're reading physiology books for fun, I don't think you're going to have any issue at all with these classes. Also, if you are taking these classes at a community college, none of them will be over 100 level or 200 level courses; that means they're all introductory. I don't mean that they'll be a cakewalk, I just mean that you'll be covering the basics and won't get too in depth with any of them. Twishes already said exactly what I would have about the timing of the classes and purchasing extra materials. On top of that, ask the instructors if they primarily test from the books or from the lectures. Lots of instructors will use both, but you'd be surprised how many will tell you they only test over lecture material. Drawing pictures (even if you aren't an artist) and finding a study partner that you can "teach" are two study techniques that work well for me and might help you too. Good luck!

I drew it! You don't have to be an artist. But taking the time to draw the skull with the sutures and fissures and foramen really helped me to remember what I was looking at. Our library has full skeletons that we can check out for an hour at a time. Does your school have something like that? I also took photos of the skull from different angles so that when I didn't have one in my hands, I could still see the pictures to quiz myself.

Everybody tests differently. It's good that you know what works for you! Right now, I'm one of the first people out. That's with double checking, and I have the second highest grade in one class and the highest in the other. But it's all circumstantial. Historically, I finish in the middle, but towards the first half of the class. But how long I take depends on the style of test... is it essay or scantron or short answer? Essays take me a lot longer to write because I have to take the time to make sure I hit on every single point the instructor is looking for. And then I have to make sure my paragraphs are well written and my spelling is correct. I can fly through a scantron, though. But another thing is that I've taken the classes I'm currently taking, before. My pre-req's are too old, so I have to retake them now. Only, I've been using this information in my jobs for the last 10 years too. But the nursing school wants the classes. So here I am, flying through tests. It's not typical for me, it's just where I'm at right now ;-)

BSN - Bachelor of Science in Nursing :-) I don't think you need to be as worried about the pre-req's as you think you are. Most people find that with age and maturity, a lot of these classes come a little easier. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it is, but even for me at 32, classes are going 10x better than they did 10 years ago, and I have so much more on plate now than I did then (a job, a 2 year old, a 3 year old...). Also, like other people suggested, you could start out slow with just a few classes and see how it goes. Because you never know until you try! One other suggestion I have... meet with someone from each school you are interested in; or if they have regularly scheduled information sessions, attend those. They might go over a lot of information you could find online, but you'll probably learn something you didn't know as well. And you have an opportunity to ask any questions that might sway which direction you choose to go in. Also, are you eligible for the GI Bill? Look into grants for single parents too. You might find that you can get enough financial help that you can attend school full time without having to move. Maybe not, but it's worth looking into!

A few more years and you'll realize that people like this are everywhere. How do YOU feel about YOU? Don't worry so much about someone who's so wrapped up in other peoples business that he behaves that way. And don't stoop to his level by allowing it to stress you out. Easier said than done, I know. His actions will speak for themselves and karma will get him eventually. Whether you call him out on it or stay on the quiet path, just stay true to yourself. Other posters have already mentioned that his behavior is rude and immature, but not bullying. I just wanted to drive the point home. Because the distinction is important.

It's so complicated! And I don't fully understand how it works. I'm sorry you're so close but not quite there. That's too bad.