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It depends on the program. Folks who did it through hospital generally tended to be more CNA/PCT, sometimes with shifts of RN shadowing or extra classes thrown in. The pay was better than I made as a PCT in a hospital. My school offered a paid student nurse intern too at several hospitals - it was a short time paid summer gig but I basically had a preceptor and a patient load that gradually increased, I did everything an RN did except my preceptor did most of the talking to MDs and had to pull meds out of the pyxis for me. It pretty much paid minimum wage but was fantastic experience and they were good about keeping me to the same couple of preceptors who were all phenomenal.

Congrats! I started as a new grad in L&D myself, and love it so far. :) Here are some of the resources I love: AWHONN is the professional organization - it is expensive to join, but they offer a monthly payment plan and send 2 journals in the mail. I think I pay $17/month, and enjoy reading the journals so have found it worth it. (We do get some journal articles from them from our educator, but just a couple every few months.) NICHD definitions for fetal heart tones. I keep a copy of this in my binder and think it's an awesome resource https://www.nccwebsite.org/resources/docs/final_ncc_monograph_web-4-29-10.pdf A few free fetal tracing quizzes: EFM Tracing Game Medical student made this online lecture about cervical assessment, personally I found the pictures very helpful in visualizing when I was still figuring out vag exams. click on "lecture" towards the bottom, and you can click around to what you want to see/hear: Intrapartum Cervical Assessment Clinical Skills Lab They will arrange for you to have classes in NRP, fetal heart monitoring, etc so no need to worry about that on your own. I would recommend googling around for a free NRP study guide 7th edition (just because the book is very long so the study guide has condensed info for referring back to) or flow sheet. I do have a couple of links but they are for the old edition (6th) and most hospitals are starting to work in 7th edition in practice now, so don't want to link something that might have obsolete info. I got the book "Fast Facts for the L&D Nurse: Labor and Delivery Orientation in a Nutshell" before I started but found it to be too basic. Personally if you are looking for books, I would instead recommend: Mosby's Pocket Guide to Fetal Heart Monitoring Intrapartum Management Modules (kinda spendy but a good overview of lots of topics) Your educator may have books you can borrow too! There are certain things I like to have for my own library though. Good luck!!

It depends on what interests you. I would recommend a new grad program if at all possible. What units available to new grads in a hospital can depend on need. For example, my hospital's last new grad class most new hires went into ICU, ED, L&D, NICU, with maybe 1 or 2 total to med-surg, but when I was hired, it was a ton of med-surg and ICU stepdown hires, with a few L&D, NICU, post-partum - no ICU or ED. I would recommend having a good idea of the new grad residencies/programs in your area, and what their application deadlines are. Some take applications surprisingly early - many of my classmates moving to other areas had jobs secured in new grad programs before we graduated. And never wait until the last minute to apply. Sometimes applications will close early if the response has been strong. I was a new grad into L&D, which had a nice long orientation in a very structured program with an experienced preceptor. I've been on my own for a little while now, I'm still learning as I go, but even on my worst nights, I absolutely love my job, the people I work with, and don't think I would have been this happy doing anything else. (* Not every orientation in every hospital/specialty/unit is nice and long. Definitely something to ask about during interviews!)

I was a PCT on a med-surg unit during nursing school and went straight into L&D as a new grad. I had a wonderful orientation that lasted 18 weeks, almost entirely with the same preceptor who was very experienced with orienting. In the area I live in, getting jobs as a new grad in women's health can be rare, and some will only hire into post-partum to start. Fortunately my hospital's pretty new grad friendly in that area. This year, my hospital hired 2 postpartum, 5 L&D, and 6 NICU new grads this year between the 2 new grad residency start dates. I haven't really seen a common background in L&D hires for experienced nurses with no L&D experience, though most have spent some time in an acute care setting. Some areas may have volunteer opportunities as birth companions, volunteer doula programs (though would involve you having to take your own training course to be eligible to be a doula, but there may be scholarships available), etc, if labor and delivery interests you and you want to try getting some experience. There are no guarantees, but if you are doing something you love, hopefully there is no drawback. I met a nurse when my friend was having her baby who wasn't able to get into L&D as a new grad, so went into med-surg and became a doula and volunteered for a non-profit organization, and then was able to get into L&D after she had a little nursing experience.

You probably will not hear anything until you pay Pearson. We had a couple of classmates not realize they had to pay both, and did not hear anything or receive an ATT until they contacted them, were told they still needed to pay for Pearson, and did so.

I only did Uworld studying for NCLEX. The rationales are so great, aren't they? If there was a topic I seemed to be missing a lot, I would stop and get out my Saunder's book and really review that before I kept going. I was told when I took NCLEX that I would walk out feeling like I failed and feel like total crap. Much to my surprise I felt amazing. I finished in 75 questions, and I felt like I aced that test. But I also took to heart other advice nurses gave me - stay close to the testing center if it's a bit of a drive so you don't stress about making it in time. Don't study ANYTHING the day before, just let your brain relax. That's very hard to do! Do your best to get a good night's sleep the night before. I went out to dinner the night before, stayed in a hotel down the street, had a loved one drive me so I wouldn't worry about being a nervous wreck behind the wheel. I still showed up nervous as heck and feeling like I should have studied more, should have waited longer to take it, etc, so it's not like I walked in feeling cool and cocky. But I felt like my brain was rested and ready somewhere underneath all the jitters. I think the psychological component of testing is just as big as the studying one. If you get a few questions in a row that throw you for a loop and you feel the panic starting to rise, it wouldn't be a bad time to just stop and take a break (either in or out of the room), collect your thoughts and keep going. There were only a couple in my decently sized class who I know didn't pass, and I know for one of those that nerves was a huge component - she got a few in a row that she didn't know and then the panic set in, and it went downhill from there. You WILL get questions that you probably have no idea what the answer is, you might even see a question that you have never been taught about or read about - consider it like all the other times nursing school challenged your nerves, keep it together and keep going.

One of the great things about nursing is if an environment doesn't work for you, there are many other settings where people need nurses. I had a friend who started as a new grad in an inpatient setting and realized very, very quickly that it didn't work for her. She quit and got another job instead, as a school nurse. It didn't pay her as much, but she didn't mind. She loved the shorter shifts, the weekends/holidays off, and summer work being optional. She said she regretted not doing an internship during school because then she might have realized before she took a job that the full time hospital 12 hour shift thing wasn't a good fit for her. I did an internship in school and loved it btw, I would recommend it. Many facilities of different kinds offer summer internships for nursing students. I would say it doesn't necessarily give you a perfect view of the stress involved since you don't have the same level of responsibility, but you can get a feel for the hours/setting and see how other nurses cope and what they go through. Working as a nursing assistant (which I also did and recommend) is also a great way to feel out an environment. Both were great experiences, my internship was fortunate to really let me get used to having the flow of being a nurse though.

I took mine a little earlier than most folks I knew, so it might slow down when it gets busier. But it took 9 days to get my letter in the mail after passing, and then once I sent back my check (via certified mail - just something a nurse I worked with said she did), it took 1 week to post license online.

I think they sent out something to check it out before they finalized the site. It was alright, it didn't seem worth paying for though. But maybe there's more to it than there was at the time. I'm not crazy about monthly subscriptions in general. It seems more handy to get an illustrated NCLEX review book or those flashcards so it's possible to keep referring back instead of losing access after the subscription is over or constantly shelling out $$. (My one exception to subscriptions is I paid for 1 month of uworld after I graduated, it's not cheap for 1 month but it's all I used to study for NCLEX and loved it.)

As a note, largely because of everything I heard, I was convinced the year I transferred I would end up being a spring admission because I was still taking prereqs during the application and hadn't started A&P II which I'd be taking in the summer before the fall semester I wanted to get in. I was admitted for the fall directly. (I did have a 4.0, I don't know if that was the factor.) Many of the friends who started with me were originally slated to start in the spring, that waiting list moved quite a bit. (Same for a friend who just started this past fall, she was originally admitted for the spring.) Of course, there are no guarantees. But I was debating that if I couldn't start til the spring, I might consider going elsewhere since it was already a 5 semester program so that would mean an extra year to graduate. But everything worked out fine. So we can talk about how this and that make you more competitive and you may not get this if you haven't done XYZ, but it doesn't always go the way you think it will.

Congrats! :)

Obviously every place is different, but when I interviewed, most of the questions for L&D interview were things that either came up or you almost expected to come up during other interviews, such as talk about your greatest strengths, talk about your biggest weakness, or what would your coworkers say about you, talk about a time you went above and beyond for a patient/customer, talk about your best and worst jobs, where do you see yourself in 5 years, etc. Google job interview questions and start thinking of a few anecdotes from jobs or clinicals you might want to share if asked about a related question. OB-related, I was asked what specialty/specialties most interested me (triage, high-risk pregnancies, etc), reminded that not every moment in L&D is happy and asked how I anticipate handling bereavement, how would you handle patients who have specific ideas for birth but things have changed to make their plan unsafe, etc. I think a lot of important things about interviewing just relate to interviews overall - be early, dress well, have a few questions prepared to ask at the end of the interview, good eye contact, it's ok to say "I need to think about this for a minute" before answering, don't say negative things about previous employers, don't ask about salary. I don't think I've ever been asked for one, but I always have copies of resume on nice paper handy in a folder I bring. Your nerves will probably be at an all-time high so IMO it's good to take notes, just don't stare at your notes instead of the interviewer(s) through the interview. Be prepared that there might be other people at the interview or immediate subsequent interviews if you do well with the first one, so your nerves don't get the best of you. Employers don't always forewarn about panel interviews and/or that there are multiple interviews in one day. Have a really good, thoughtful response ready for the inevitable "Why do you want to work here?" question. Good luck!! :)

It worked fine for me and most of my other friends, but a few weeks ago, it didn't work for anyone for a week or so. I think one of those people said their results never did end up showing up there, even later. So they just had to wait and pay for the quick results. So yeah, sometimes it doesn't work and definitely doesn't mean anything re: pass/fail or you personally. Pearson's quick results are still kinda nice because they have your name on them if you want to show it to prospective employers til you show up on the IDF website.

For NCLEX, I thought uworld was awesome. I heard good things in my last semester of nursing school. I subscribed for 1 month, even though I took my NCLEX 2 weeks after I signed up and only used half my subscription, I still don't regret it. I was pretty broke, and the money for the subscription was a Christmas gift from my family. The rationales are amazing. Charts, pictures, detailed explanations. Look on google images for 'uworld rationales' and you will get a vague idea. Some questions I had during interviews as a new grad... You should also google things like interview questions or behavioral interview questions and get some good ideas. Why do you want to work here? Talk about a time you went above and beyond for a customer or patient. Tell me about a time something you learned clicked in the clinical setting. Critical thinking scenarios involving patient situations, such as "who would you see first and why" with a list of patient statuses. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What were your best and worst work environments and why? Tell me about a time you had an issue with another coworker and how you handled it. What would your coworkers say about you? What is your biggest weakness? What do you anticipate being your biggest struggle as a new grad? What have you done if one of your coworkers was being unsafe? Give me an example of a time you had a difficult patient/family member/customer. Also have some questions ready when you walk in. I brought paper and took notes (in a folder with things like extra resume copies, copies of certs like CPR, ACLS if you have it, and when I had it, NCLEX pass results). Don't get so wrapped up in it that you aren't connecting with your audience, but with nerves I knew I wasn't going to remember every name on a panel interview, or answers to certain questions. Personally it never hindered a job offer, and helped me remember important information later. I'm a new grad myself in my first job, so the rest I'm still figuring out. Best of luck!!

NIU does not use any sort of entrance exam, admission is solely based on GPA. You have to demonstrate competency in reading, I think I just transferred my ACT though. Though because of that and public school tuition, they do seem to get a pretty competitive applicants. I ended up not applying to UIC because I would have had to apply later than other programs, but I don't remember them using an entrance exam either. TEAS really isn't bad though if you are a comfortable test taker. The science was kinda hard, but they also look at how well you did against other candidates. From what other folks have told me, it's much more manageable than, say, PAX-RN. Ultimately I wouldn't keep TEAS or any other entrance exam from at least trying, if there is a school you want that factors it in. You're going to have to take HESIs or ATIs or whatever that are going to be huge and stressful doing school, going to have to survive NCLEX, might as well give it a go!

I am a recent grad so some things may have changed since then, but personally we had a ton of transfers in our cohort. One of my friends had a bachelor's with a GPA that wasn't as competitive, so the advisor suggested she enroll in NIU first and take NURS 302 then apply, because it's the one NURS class you can take outside the program and the GPA requirement is/was more forgiving for current NIU students. So she did that and I think took a couple of classes for a minor and then applied and was accepted. But I highly recommend talking to an advisor before doing anything like that if GPA is a concern. PS If you get accepted for the spring semester, you can also take NURS 302 in the fall and get it out of the way so it's one less class to juggle, if you don't mind paying the annoying fees. Also a small chunk of people accepted for the spring end up getting offered earlier fall spots if things open up. The instructors are nice overall, I had a great experience. Nothing is perfect, of course, but they do seem to address most problems.

Awesome! Good luck!! Hope you are enjoying your first week. :)

First track is definitely intimidating and there's a lot of juggling! Lots of little assignments in other classes to keep track of around the 2 biggies. You seem really conscientious, and I'm sure you'll do great! For patho, I found having another book breaking down concepts was helpful. The instructors recommend basically a shorter Patho textbook by Story, which is decent. One of my friends used that book a ton and said it got her through patho. I liked having Lipincott's Patho Made Incredibly Easy. (The library or interlibrary loans sometimes have good books you can borrow for free if you don't mind not writing in them. ) I looked up youtube videos a lot, Michael Linares and Khan Academy were probably two I found the most helpful. I went to the patho review sessions when I could, we had good reviews that semester. And fortunately you have a good patho instructor! It's probably a little bit of trial and error to discover what works best for you to understand what's going on, so you aren't trying to memorize tons of symptoms for each different disorder.

Good luck! Hmmm... so advice... Fundamentals is more challenging than I think some people expect. There is a lot of material, the test questions can get a little tricky. Don't get freaked out, just take it seriously from day 1. :) And really question (politely of course) a posted grade if it seems off. That really goes for any class but in my experience, I've known more folks who've had big grade errors in that class than others (as recently as last semester). I only recorded and played lectures before one exam (basically just played them in the background while I did other things like typed up the study guide for the exam) but found that I picked up several questions that quite a few missed on the test. And patho of course can be tough. It's just really important to understand what's going on so you aren't just trying to memorize a bajillion signs and symptoms. Videos on youtube can help a lot too (like Michael Linares). It seems like in the beginning there's a lot of "or you'll fail." I mean it happens, but it's not as bad as the dire warnings seem to be. Just take things seriously, which I'm sure most people will anyway, but don't let the stress dominate. Skills check offs can be a little unnerving and they made it sound so doom and gloom if we didn't get it right the first time, but didn't know anyone who had to redo a check off who didn't ultimately get it. You don't have to worry about this until you register for your fall classes but... The first semester you don't have to worry about clinical sites, but after that, you get flexibility to choose whatever you want (depending on what's available when you register). I encourage you to think about where you might want to work and really try to experience as many hospitals as possible if your transportation allows it. Some of my friends chose hospitals that were the easiest to get to, and went to them repeatedly, but really didn't want to work there when school was over. It's not the end of the world and I know graduation feels like forever away right now, but those little things can help when you're a new grad and job hunting. The school sets up review sessions with students further along in the track. It really is hit or miss depending on who they get to do it. But give them a try, and definitely make the time to go if you are lucky enough to get someone who's awesome at it. They also have peer tutors - take advantage of them EARLY if you feel you might need them. Whoa that's way longer than I thought it would be! You'll do great! Just PM if you have any questions! :)

It depends on the topic and instructor. I would say personally anyway, patho and med/surg were books I used and ended up referring to from time to time afterwards. The rest, kind of depend on how the instructor teaches the class. Contacting the instructor and asking about old editions is a great idea - most of ours were really understanding about that. Also some texts were available in the library or through interlibrary loans. I think in one case, I needed a $250 book for an 8 week class that barely used it, so my friend who torrents got me a pdf of the book. I also rented a couple of the cheaper books through Kindle.

How exciting! Are you starting in the fall?

Most textbooks would offer unlimited access. I did rent an ebook through Amazon for my CNA class though, which was far more affordable (at the time anyway - some ebook rental prices have really gone through the roof). Things are pretty clear if they are a limited time only, like I think sometimes Evolve sells online resources that are finite. Personally, from my experiences (that CNA book rental and initially I got a couple of nursing books in physical and digital format to try both out), I am not a fan. Being able to search very specifically for certain text was handy but I find I do better with the physical book if it's something I might need to put in more work to get the most out of, like med surg. The disadvantage to etexts is that they sometimes take forever to load, search, move around especially if it's a big book. I know I've been in a study group and we're all reaching for our stuff to find the answer, but by the time the book is loaded and on the appropriate page, someone else has already found the answer. (This is less of an issue if you are looking them up on a computer instead of a tablet or e-reader.) Sometimes image licensing is lacking for digital copies so some books might have grayed out/missing images, so might want to make sure no reviews talk about that. Cut and paste can be nice though you may retain better if you are forced to write/type it out yourself. I kinda thought if I had the digital copy, I would do things like read in bed til I fell asleep in a dark room. Yeah, I did that like once. (Though I do sometimes like to listen to lecture recordings as I fall asleep, which leads to weird dreams about classmates who ask a lot of questions.)

Congrats! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

They were pretty hard on students in our first semester, but it loosened up after that. One strike = fail, and those reasons included being late, being there early but not being where you were supposed to be at start time, forgetting one requirement for uniform (watch, stethoscope, etc). They weren't the only offenders, but they were the ones that got caught. Others were lost that first semester from grades, and grades has been the primary reason since then. Though a couple of people later were almost failed over being late for an exam. Some instructors are going to be more reasonable than others, and sometimes someone can just get on an instructor's bad side without feeling like they did much. Maybe that student reminds them of someone they didn't like, maybe they got off on the wrong foot. Instructors should check biases at the door, but they're human, they make mistakes. Best you can do is be as prepared and professional as possible to minimize incidents. I know in my intro psych class we talked about the power of first impressions and I believe in that. If you run into problems, seek out help early instead of waiting before it's possibly too late. And beyond that? Nursing students have enough to worry about without stressing over things that might never happen.

Recently being worked on, but still a way's off: https://www.ncsbn.org/96.htm Illinois General Assembly - Bill Status for SB1789