Yingtsay

Hi, I'm an RN working at RAH ER. It'll be two years in October for me, and I also started in rural ER. Make sure you do ENPEP modules, that will help you get into urban ER.

If you're willing to commute, consider rural hospital as well, there's fewer applicants there which may help you land position there. Background: AB Aug 2017 grad, started in rural ER now working in trauma centre ER

Your preceptorship can affect your first job placement -to a certain extent. As a relatively new RN (graduated August 2017), I can share my prespective. Background, I did my final preceptorship in a rural community hospital medicine unit, I did not get a position at the unit after preceptorship. I got a position a few months later at a temporary part-time position at a rural hospital ER, towards the end of the temp, I applied and got multiple offers for work in urban community hospital ER and trauma centre ER. Having work/ clinical experience in the relevant department help for sure. At the same time -a colleague of mine worked as an undergrad nurse got a casual position at a community hospital ER and a full-time position three months later. If you didn't get the preceptorship you hoped, build your credentials -get ACLS, TNCC etc. I didn't have ER experience, but my ACLS & PALS, as well as self-learned CTAS, helped secure my first position. Just because you didn't land in ICU from the get go doesn't mean you won't get in; sometimes you have to take a detour to get there. If you end up in medicine unit, perfect your time management and attention to detail (such as vitals trends, fluid in/out which are big for ICU)

I work in a rural emergency department so this may not apply very well to all other cases. As ER RN my duties includes: *patient registration (if the unit clerk is unavailable), triage, collecting patient information *the ADPIE of nursing *provide a summary report to the ER physician, anticipate and prepare relevant diagnostic equipment *Identify the patient's level of knowledge,obtain and prepare useful information for patient teaching (handouts), and prepare relevant discharge paperwork for the patient. From my own personal experience, the level of anticipatory preparation is depends on your individual relationship with the physician. There are some physicians that will ask what orders you would like when you give summary report while others want to hold it off until they personally see the patient. Another thing about ER from my experience is knowing your standing orders. For example, if there's any abnormal ECG via 5 leads telemetry, 12 lead ECG is automatically ordered or obtained by myself. If there's ST elevation in II,III,V1 with 12 lead, I will automatically get V4R, if there's any ST depression in V1-V3, I will automatically ask for 15 lead.

I did the accelerated program (After degree) here's my input. I don't think its a lot tougher than regular stream. The biggest problem is that they tried their best to squeeze everything in two years which leads to this wild roller coaster that you just got to "hang in there". There's a lot of people I know that couldn't stand the wild ride. And truth be told, I went out of sequence as I had health problems which forced me to take the longer route. YMMV, if I was to raise two kids while doing school, I don't can do it.

How was the exam difficulty compared to those asked by NCLEX mastery and Saunder? How well were you doing novel NCLEX mastery/ saunder questions going in for exam?

I guess they haven't change the admission process. If you folks have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll be starting my final practicum next week (graduating from this program in August) Best of luck!

Things to help you consider: 1) What's your academic achievements? In High school, if you're not an 'A' student at minimum, it's tough to aim for medical school. MD school is very competitive, many have set their goals right out of high school and work everything towards that goal. If you're not prepared for that, MD may not be a viable option 2) Have you done job shadowing? If not talk to your local hospital to find out how. This is your best bet to decide where your passion is. You are the expert to yourself, having the opportunity to see it first hand will be better than any reviews 3) If you are planning to do MD school, avoid using nursing as your undergraduate. It's a lot harder to get perfect grade and it does not prepare you for MCAT. Nursing and MD are very different fields. 4) NP in Canada is very different than US. In Canada, NP do exists. However, they're not as common as the states which means it a lot harder to find a job as NP compared to MD in Canada. I've heard some NPs regretting going to NP school instead of MD due to the job prospect. This challenges is result of how Doctors and NPs are funded in Canada, unless that change it'll be difficult for NP field to explode like the states.

I'm currently finishing up my BScN After degree in U of A so take this with a grain of salt: - when you enrolled in the program: September 2014 (I had to take a year off due to medical reasons) - workload (heaviness and difficulty): Depending on the individual, if you have your learning approach down you can work 12-20 hours a week and still have decent grades. I would say fast track programs are a bit tougher than regular stream but not impossible. - learning style (independent/ group work, teaching style, structure, quality and guidance, etc): UofA is the home of CBL aka Collaborative-Based Learning aka you teach each others with your instructor facilitate student teaching. As far as I know the school is moving away from it (I'm in the last cohort) - placement reviews ( distance and experience): My program has a 'rural' focus so bussing wasn't an option from the beginning. The placement overall were great. My psych placement was the farest at 100km away but it was renowned as one of the best in North America. My community health was less to be desired due to some questionable placement choices but overall it was good. - did you feel ready when you entered the profession: N/A, I'm doing preceptorship starting in June - anything insightful: I feel the majority of fast-track programs are under a state of organized-chaos in ideal circumstances. Be ready to adapt and change

Geez, I guess I'm lucky to be able to choose the type of shoes. I just went with running shoes like New Balance

Rumour has it they changed BScN AD admission process. It used to be first-come-first-serve to those who meet the competitive average cut-off and fill the remaining spots with those that don't meet competitive average from the closest GPA down (You can call the Nursing faculty to find out the competitive GPA, it varies year to year. The year I applied was 3.5). If your GPA is closer to the minimum, consider also apply to the Camrose site. It's a small cohort (12-20 per year) where GPA requirement are usually not as high. I'm actually going to be graduating in August from this program so my information may not be 100% accurate as they are in the process of rolling out change

The new UofA's collaborative program are lecture based like MacEwan instead of CBL (MacEwan had CBL aswell in the past). UofA and MacEwan aren't that much different anymore. The nursing education board (NEPAB) ensures education meets the standard. It's true MacEwan will make better bedside nurses than UofA while the latter are better academically. AHS & Covenant Health recruiters found the difference disappear after a year within the workforce.

Partially true. The new collaborative program are moving towards the lecture based learning similiar to MacEwan. Class of 2016, 2017 aftrer degree cohort still used CBL. The best way to describe CBL is self-directed learning; you need to teach yourself. If you don't know ask your instructor. Beware of catch 22 (You don't know what you do not know). I'm currently an after degree student that was accepted in the 2014 cohort. In terms of GPA this was what I was told: you need 3.0 GPA to be considered, if you possess 3.5 or higher you will received acceptance if you have the prerequisite and there's space available. The registrar will fill the remaining seats after the deadline is past from the highest GPA down. GPA is calculated by the most recents terms (minimum 24 credits) This is isn't that difficult to achieve if you put effort in. I got in with a 3.19 cumulative GPA (2.68 on last 60 credits). FYI: my first year AD was 3.53