HisKids37

We don't have CNAs or LVNs in our NICU. Good luck!

Awesome! Congratulations! I'm assuming you'll have an orientation program; if so, you really don't need to do anything to prepare. Skimming your Merenstein will be nice because it'll give you an idea about some of the more common disease processes, b...

NICU is a specialty field, and your preceptor knows that you know basically nothing about it. Your preceptor will hopefully have been chosen as someone who likes to introduce new people to all they need to know to be successful. The most important th...

I personally think that the NICU is a very gentle place to work. My friends who work on other floors are so physically exhausted at the end of their shift, while I have plenty of time to sit down and hold babies or chart or whatever.

Is this the book you're talking about? Certification and Core Review for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing, 4e (Watson, Certification and Core Review for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing): 9781437726336: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

I graduated with my ADN and started immediately in a NICU. I'm sure it varies by area, but where I live, hospitals prefer to hire new grads directly into the department they really want.

At my hospital, an occupational therapist is our developmental care specialist.

Right now I have about 4 hours in class and 17 hours in clinicals, plus all kinds of extra stuff - meetings, time spent in skills lab (no required hours right now) etc.

I had to do the same thing. I was able to print something from the FAFSA website that had all of my IRS information on it, and my financial aid department accepted it.

Try visiting an academic advisor at your school. At mine, there were ways to increase my GPA based on two things: one, replacing old grades with newer, better ones (I hadn't realized that I had to file a request for the old grades to be replaced), an...

You might want to call the nursing program at your school and ask their advice on this. Mine highly recommends that you don't work at all during the program, but many work part-time, and there might be a couple working full-time. I really can't imagi...

She's manipulating you, and that is very hard to deal with. You will need to make your own grown-up decisions and let her own her reactions to them.

You will probably need your own laptop if your husband is using the family one most of the time. My laptop is the family computer also, but they all know that Mom has priority, because I do spend substantial time on it writing papers, doing research,...

I'm very sensitive too, but you really do learn to temper your emotions. First semester, I would agonize over how was this patient or that one doing. I wondered how nurses every emotionally survived, wondering and wondering how their patients were. W...

I'm in semester 3 of 4, due to graduate in December 2015. I love my program, though I will admit that I am excited to have a break this summer.

Next semester, my med surg class will be heavy on EKGs/tele. I was going to see about taking an EKG class over summer to make next semester, but a quick Google search didn't show me much. Has anyone done something like this?

Honestly, I really rely on my husband as a big part of my sanity, so our marriage has made school easier for me. He completely supports my education, even thought it means that he is highly taxes physically and emotionally, taking over most of the ho...

I have only had one disorganized instructor so far, and it was a frustrating semester. I just organized myself the best I could and tried to be self-taught.

My patient in PICU didn't have parents around, which was sad to me. The other parents I've been around in peds and postpartum were wonderful. They know there is still an RN involved, and they see that my instructor is with me for anything invasive, m...

I have done well on my ATI proctored exams, and I think the thing that helps me most is the practice exams. As I take them, I read every single rationale (so for every question, I read all of the rationales, for the right and wrong answers). This hel...

Time with my kids. I actively miss them when I'm away, and wish I could be with them all the time like I used to, but I'm so grateful to be where I am that it balances it out. Also knowing I will be able to provide my family with a secure future make...

I'm in California also and most new grads are working for a couple of months before they have their license, provisionally.

My favorite thing to do was to go on youtube and look up nursing student videos. I got so many great ideas there. Of course you'll come up with your own study methods, but here are some things that help me: - Organize your binders. Make sure you know...

Binder, steth, watch, name badge, penlight, mints, lunch money, tylenol/advil, black pen, whiteboard pen, pencil. I put it all in a little box so that I don't forget anything important.

You are doing the right things. Get organized - for school and for your home life. Get your binders ready, your supplies, whatever you need. And at home, if you don't already have a system for laundry, menu planning etc., get one going. But I think y...