immunetogravity

In regards to the whole "don't tell me your whole life upon meeting", I find that this is also very much a geographical thing (with exceptions, of course). I grew up in the Southwest, where everyone was mostly polite and courteous but kept to themselves. I moved to the Midwest several years ago, and my family and I were completely befuddled by how a complete stranger in a grocery store would stop to tell you about their nasty divorce and hemorrhoid flare-up. This happened over and over and I simply couldn't believe the "rudeness." After awhile I learned that this was the norm for many people, they were raised that way and didn't know any different. I used to feel uncomfortable in these situations, but now I just smile and nod while a headache forms from gritting my teeth and my brain slowly exploding. I think manners have a different meaning to everyone. I'm glad I'm a nurse now because I actually NEED to know about their bowel movement patterns

I finished school last semester, and I have to say, while getting hands-on experience was the most important to me, there are instructors that will give you papers among papers among TONS of papers that you are required to complete DURING clinical. Some of these can take up to hours to do. This was the case in my final semester, much to the frustration of me and my classmates. Charge nurses would complain that we were just sitting around buried in our binders, and we literally had no choice in the matter. I would try to stay glued to my precepting nurse as long as I could and just work on my assignments when he/she sat down to chart, but there would be times where there was only a couple hours of the day left, and I would have to tell my nurse, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to skip this med pass because I need to work on my care plan." If I had a cool nurse that I was comfortable with I'd add "would you mind grabbing me if there's an IV start/foley/dressing change/miscellanous skill I can do?" I don't mean to make excuses, I know hiding students exist in large quantities and I've seen a lot of them. But sometimes if a student is in the conference room buried in careplans, papers, and charts, it's because their grade will take a ding if they're not. Never hurts to ask.

Illinois (Chicagoland area) Graduated ADN mid-May Sat for NCLEX July 2 Interviewed for a tele hospital position mid-July Accepted job offer yesterday! Start early September! No previous healthcare experience or inside contacts. I'm very lucky, the starts absolutely aligned for me.

This. Reading this article made me a bit sad to think that students have to go through this experience. I just graduated from an ADN program and am taking NCLEX in two weeks. My program has a very high NCLEX pass rate and has a good reputation in the area. And yes, of course I feel like the typical scared new grad, but I do feel very, very prepared. My school was very much of the philosophy of critical thinking, and the mantra was also "think like a nurse." Of course, this made the program difficult as all hell, but I've got to say, there is nothing like the feeling of everything "coming together" and making sense. That's what critical thinking gets you. Nursing school is absolutely not doable if you're just memorizing information and having it just floating around in your head. Once you understand it and are able to think critically about it, you will STILL have the information memorized and it will stick, simply because it just makes sense to you. My school was fortunately generous with lecture time and clinical time. Each course had two 3-hour lectures per week (OP stated that some schools only have a 2 and a half hour lecture per week, does this seem sporifice to anyone?), and one clinical a week (two a week final semester). On top of that, students practically live in the nursing lab practicing skills for mandatory skills validations. First semester, a few students and I were complaining that we wanted more clinical time and we felt like we weren't getting our hands dirty enough. Our instructor sat us down and told us flat out that "thinking like a nurse" was far more important than getting hands-on clinical time. She said that upon going into the work force, we'd master our skills within months so there was no need to fret now. I thought she was a little crazy at the time, but soon I learned that the rest of the staff had the same philosophy. So yes, I still don't feel like I got as much hands-on time as I would have liked, largely in-part to uncooperative preceptors. But wow, two years ago I never thought I would be able to safely and effectively go through the nursing process after assessing the pt and interpreting labs without a second thought. All in all, while I do agree that it is the school's responsibility to provide a quality education, I feel that much more falls on the student. I'm a school-lover, so nursing school felt very doable to me. Not all students are like that (but they can still become very competent nurses). Studying for nursing courses is a COMPLETELY different animal than your typical gen-eds. But nursing classes are no different from any other course in that self-learning is part of the process, and just absolutely crucial. I studied constantly, and sometimes I studied outside of my course textbook and course notes. It didn't bother me. A student needs to know that going in. I noticed that many students in my cohort struggled so much because they expected to be spoon-fed everything, and that simply just doesn't work. I could be wrong, maybe my school was crappy. But either way, I worked my tail off and made the most of my time and what I had, and I got to leave nursing school with the feeling that it was a generally positive experience.

Hello everyone, I am a third semester nursing student with a CNA certification. I got the certification the semester before I started the nursing program. It's been almost a year and a half and I have yet to land a CNA job. I've lost count of all the positions that I've applied for; I am always turned down because of my lack of experience. My only job experience is 6 years worth of customer service related postions (serving, retail) which is included on my resume. The frustrating thing is that I get weekly experience of direct patient care during my nursing school clinicals. I feel extremely confident that I can perform the duties of a CNA well, mainly because of the experience that I get. It is on my resume that I am a nursing school student. My question is: should I include an overview of my clinical experience on my resume? Does anyone have any other tips of things I can include on my application and resume that could catch an employer's eye? I would very much like to gain more experience of working with patients before I graduate and become a nurse. Any input is greatly appreciated.