simplyblissful

Don't lose hope! Find a system that works for you and stick to it. Have you tried study groups? Practice questions? Don't overwhelm yourself trying to read every single page of your readings. Focus on the main concepts that your instructor stresses you guys on. Once you understand the concepts, you could develop your own questions that you think would be on the exam. Think of possibilities and scenarios that they would ask you about in correlation with the concepts in your chapter. The tough part is that the questions, at least on my exams, have more than one right answer. The key is to choose the BEST one. Really think through the questions and eliminate one by one. Think rationally, think like a nurse!! Its still a challenge for me. I've been doing pretty well on my exams but I failed my last one. Was it discouraging? Yes. But I don't have time to dwell on it. Don't know if any of that made sense but I hope it helped you in some way. Don't give up!!! There's also room for improvement, just use all resources available to you. Practice, practice, practice! Good luck

I need HELP! I know being a nursing student means that there will be a large volume of assigned readings. How do you guys tackle this? Do you skim quickly, take notes or skip sections altogether? I find it difficult to stay engaged. I've tried taking notes while reading but it's too time consuming and I never end up getting through the whole reading. How do you guys do it? Any advice or tips would be great.

My first day of clinical starts next week and I'm excited and feeling overwhelmed at the same time. I'd love to hear about your experiences and things you wish you would've known before you started. What was the the most difficult situation you encountered? Is there anything you would've done differently? Any funny/interesting stories you'd like to share? Did you love it, hate it? Thanks you guys!

Sometimes its tough to read the content without looking at a reference photo. If you do that, you're able to visualize all the words and really remember them. This helped me A LOT! Once you're familiar with for example, the kidneys and its different layers and parts, its easier to learn the functions and its purpose. Take good notes in class and definitely pay close attention to what the professor emphasizes. If its touch to listen and grasp everything in lectures, see if you're allowed to record it, that way you can refer back to it anytime you want. As long as you stay organized, keep up with readings and really utilize all the resources that you have, it'll be an easy ride! Also, if you're having trouble learning the bones, it helps to study with the artificial bones that I'm sure you guys have available to you in lab. Find out when you have access to them, or if you can check them out and take them home with you. Study groups help as well because you can test each other and find out what areas you need to work on. Good luck!!! You can do it!!

Thanks all for the awesome replies! I ended up getting the littmann classic II SE for about $55! So far so good, can't wait to really start using it! :)

I took the course during the summer and worked part time 3-4 days a week. So about 20-25 hours a week. It was tough but I was able to get a bit of studying done during my breaks (notecard reviews, listening to recorded lectures etc) but not sure if that would be realistic for you. If you're great with time management than it won't be a problem! Good luck! :)

74 is pretty good. In addition to that, your GPA is competitive so I don't see a reason for you to retake it. Do keep in mind that some nursing programs go by the "point system" so for example, if you got a higher TEAS score you'd get more points which would increase your chances of getting in. So it just depends ultimately on the programs that you wanna get into.

I'm going into my first semester of nursing school in January. I need to purchase a stethoscope and a blood pressure kit. Any ideas on where to buy these items for a good price? Obviously I wouldn't need the highest quality but I do want one that works well and will last me all 4 semesters. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

Oh yes... Because nursing school will be our full time job for the next two years! It'll be well worth it. Chaffey is in Rancho Cucamonga. Have you heard of it? And do you live near pasadena? Did you already get your CPR, BG check, and all that boring stuff done yet? I'm scrambling to get it all done by the end of dec!!! Ahh!!

Thanks. I called the county health department before any other place and they told me they don't do the titers at any of their locations. I spent around $280 on just the titers today (excluding the other vaccinations and TB screening). Excuse me while I pull all my hair out! Just kidding.

I checked the CVS website and they do list the prices online, thank you so much. It's also a bit cheaper than the clinic I called yesterday. Not sure if they do titers though, I'll have to look into that.

We need to be enrolled for the current semester in order to be able to take advantage of the health services at the college. My school requires titers for MMR, Varicella, and Hep B and depending on results, we may or may not need to get vaccinated. Do you know generally how much titers alone should cost? Then from there I could go to the low cost options for the actual vaccines. My nursing program did not request proof of insurance. I'm getting so nervous because I need to have all this done by the end of Dec. and I've been calling different clinics + doing some research online but no luck. Thanks so much for your reply.

Congrats. I'll be starting in January. :)