NCH, RN

"What was a typical week like when you started clinicals, schedule wise? Is it like having a full time job?" Nursing school itself was like having a full time job, being married and having two kids made it that much harder, more on this at the end. Clinicals during the first three semesters weren't that bad time wise, twice a week for 6 or 8 weeks at 8 hours each day. "How did you study?" I mainly took notes and read the chapters at least once, more if I wasn't comfortable. I did use the For Success books in every class, especially for the practice questions. "How did it compare to what you expected - difficulty wise?" It was about as difficult as I expected, very time consuming. I went from a straight A student to an average of a B student. "What sorts of things did you do during clinicals?" During all but the last semester I felt like a CNA that was always in the way, we were able to administer meds maybe twice during each semester. "Did you get to pick your clinical site?" For the last semester we were able to give a preferred floor, which most of us were actually able to get. "What was the last semester like? Did you get to choose a specialty to focus on?" No specialty but it was the semester that made me happy again that I chose nursing. Clinicals were amazing, my preceptor was wonderful, she taught me a lot, had me do almost every procedure while supervising me and all of the other nurses on the floor would grab us to show me anything new that came up, I loved the last semester. As far as class though, our class instructor was very tough and looking back now, our tests were harder and more stressful than the NCLEX. I came the closest to failing a class during the last semester, for the following reasons. Sorry if TMI here. The biggest impact for me was my family, my wife was very supportive during the first three semesters, and would constantly stress that I should focus on school and graduate. However this fell apart during the last semester and she never spoke up to me about it, well rather she lied about it as I always tried to keep tabs on how we were doing and was told that she was happy, but anyways. Two weeks left in the last semester, I had two tests one week, and three finals the next week, on a Monday morning she left me and moved in with another man, her "friend" she says, I had the kids living with me and would have to leave the house every other night for her to visit them. I managed to barely pass but it was very tough. So overall I am very happy with my nursing school experience, even with my divorce happening, it showed me what I was capable of dealing with and still succeeding.

My favorite guest was the sister of a patient on neutropenic precautions, WBC was 0.2 due to chemotherapy. The sister was educated on the precautions, including the one that all visitors must wear masks and why this is important. I walked into the room to see the sister with her mask on, but pulled down fully exposing her nostrils. I told her that she would need to pull the mask up to cover her nose, she replied "I can't, my glasses keep fogging up" .......

I'll reiterate this as well, I finished with 75 questions, had roughly 5-8 SATA and passed, I did have a ton of priority questions to make up for that though.

This is exactly what I did, during my preceptorship in my last semester I worked extremely hard and pushed myself to show initiative. I got to know every nurse on the floor and would be excited and motivated to jump in and perform tasks, even going as far as letting my preceptor know when another nurse was going to do a task that I was unfamiliar with just so that we could go watch/learn/practice. I made sure to meet the manager, be friendly with the care team techs, environmental services, everyone that I could meet and talk to I did. I then used my preceptor as a reference, and her and the other nurses on the floor gave me such a good reference that I was hired on the spot. But someone else brought up a great point earlier, many hospitals won't even look at you until you pass the NCLEX, I had a classmate that had an application in at one place for almost a month, when she received her license# she updated her application and received a call from them the same day.

Minute Clinic at CVS does Hep B vaccinations, at least their website says they do, but they are expensive, $140 for adults. And just a quick hint, you can get your flu shot at Sams for $14. Just make sure that you have titers drawn before you get any vaccinations, if you need titers checked anyways. And congrats Ronenboo.

I had my physical done at CVS for $80, I couldn't get an appointment at my doctors office in time. They accept insurance, but they didn't take mine. I got my titers done from an online place, and they sent me to get my blood drawn at a local lab, I had to retake my MMR vaccine (my mumps immunity wore off), and had to call the health department for a place for that. So I highly recommend that everyone get their full immunization records or their titers taken ASAP. I was able to get my MMR the week before orientation.

It's a lot of work, but I am enjoying it so far.

Congrats to everyone that was accepted, I'm glad to see that you got in cakers45, and I'm sure tmorris52 got in too since she has the same points that you do. Enjoy your first semester, I'm sure that I'll see you around.

My class went through the same thing, we learned all of the test plates and tubes during our unknown. It's really not that bad, you just perform transfers, streaks and stains, then identify the changes in appearance or mobility in the different plates, you also identify shape and arrangement. Once you have all of the information, you then compare it and match it with a chart.

Minim is an apothecary measure, we only covered it on the off chance that we may see it on some measuring cups, in home care for instance.

I believe that a minim is 0.06 mL, so take it from there. *yes, a minim is 0.06 mL.

What I have learned is, if it's less than 1 mL or mg, then you round to the hundredths decimal place, if it's 1 mL or mg and higher, then you round to the tenths decimal place. The only time that you round to a whole number is when it's gtts.

The op's

Your method confused me, but I came up with the same answers, so it looks good to me.

Wait, aren't we supposed to round to the nearest 10th in this situation? I learned that for a number above 1 mL or mg to round to the nearest 10th, and for numbers less than to round to the 100th. Isn't rounding to the whole number only applicable to gtt's? In either case, by rounding to the 10th decimal place, I came up with 222 mg.