WalnutCookies

Five years ago, I was almost the same exact situation as you. I didn't graduate from high school; I obtained my GED. My youngest daughter was a month old when I started taking online classes at the local community college. I hated the online classes, so the next semester, I signed up for evening classes so I could attend after my husband came home from work. After three years, all of my prerequisites were completed. I had kept up my grades, and was accepted into the most competitive BSN program in the city. Last Tuesday, I graduated from the university. The next day, my daughter started her first day of kindergarten. It was a lot of hard work and I had a good support system, but it can be done. Best of luck to you.

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement, everyone. Aside from the marbles (haha), I'm pretty much doing all these other things. It's hard to get super familiar with a patient when they're only with me for an hour and coming out of sedation, but I'm trying. I already did talk to my instructor. She's totally aware of what's going on. All of the other student spots were already taken by my classmates. I talked to the nurse manager at the CVICU and she said that she'll see if she can squeeze me in somewhere on her unit next week, but that it my be difficult with the low census right now. I guess I just have to lower my expectations a little and keep pushing for more experiences.

I'm in my last quarter of my BSN program. There are four weeks until graduation. During this rotation, we are supposed to be focusing on prioritization, organization, and time management. My university calls it an immersion;” it's supposed to be like an unpaid externship that the university sponsors. Our instructor has also emphasized more than once that this is our last chance to practice psychomotor skills as students. I'm in a group of less than ten students. There were a couple ICU spots, a few progressive care spots, a cath lab spot, an OR spot, and a PACU spot. I got the PACU spot. Here's my problem; this is the slow season here. Lots of retirees come in the winter, but it's 110° out right now. I don't have hardly any patients to work with. Yesterday, I was there for five hours waiting for a patient to get to my unit. I helped my nurses catch up with restocking and cleaning but then there was just a lot of waiting. I got to pick their brains about prioritization of patients, but didn't put much into practice. There were two patients there, for a little over an hour each. I'm not allowed to do femoral sheath pulls, so I just did assessments, blood draws, ECG lead applications, monitoring, etc. After the last patient left, my nurses were sent home for lack of work. How am I supposed to work on prioritization and delegation in a unit like this? I'm really struggling to see how this is going to prepare me to be a nurse. Sure, I am doing some skills, but this is hardly helping with organization or time management at all; the emphasis of this rotation. I'm going to work just as hard as I did for every other rotation, and I'm really trying not to get discouraged. I do have one advantage; I secured a new grad med/surg position in the sister hospital (on the same campus, but it's a separate facility) before this rotation started. The new grad orientation is 12 weeks. I got incredibly lucky to get that position, and I'm very grateful. However, I can't help but feel a little like I was put in this slow unit because I'm the only one in my class that already has a job waiting for me. I really want to practice my time management and organization skills before I start the orientation/new grad program. Everyone else seems to be having these awesome experiences in the ICU, progressive care, etc. I was hoping to progress as a nurse, not sit in a corner doing homework and restocking drawers. Am I expecting too much from my last clinical rotation? Am I putting too much emphasis on it? I know it's up to me to get as much out of my clinical experiences as I want to, but I'm really struggling with it on this rotation.

Just finished second semester!! Taking a well-deserved break. Our cohort is half-way done already.

So, how is everyone in the summer 2014 cohort doing the first week? I don't know about anybody else, but I feel a little overwhelmed by all the new stuff that they're throwing at us. I sent my husband a text saying, "Been real nice knowing you, I'll see you next fall."

You can have four course in progress. However, if you have five left to do, you can petition to apply while missing that extra course. That's what I did, and they approved my petition, but they wanted me to have that fifth course done in 8 weeks, so I took an accelerated online course.

I just looked on ASU's website about the added fees. Yes, it appears that there will be an extra $1750 in fees, in addition to all the other fees and tuition, every semester. "Program Fees: All students advanced to the TPCNP, whether directly admitted or competitively admitted, are charged $1,750 per semester or term for the four semesters or terms of the clinical program in addition to tuition charges. Fees are subject to change."

A few weeks ago, I attended the "How to Land you First Job in Nursing" presentation at the ASU downtown campus. I took a lot of notes, and there was a lot of good information that I thought I would share. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Networking is very important. Networking, networking, networking (that point was emphasized)! In clinicals, and as a new grad, never be afraid to ask questions. If you don’t know it, admit that you don’t know the answer. Meet in person; put a face to the application. Otherwise, it’s just a piece of paper, and you’re no different than the hundreds of other new-grad applicants. Sell yourself and your accomplishments. Try to get in to meet with HR in person when applying (find out who the hiring manager is, and ask to meet with them by name). Be persistent. Get noticed (in a good way). Over-prepare for your interview. Obtain letters of recommendation from your professors – specific things to highlight, not just a form letter. Recognize that nurse bullying happens. They’re out there, and they will try to make your life miserable. Find a way to deal with it; figure out why he/she is targeting you. Sometimes old ADN nurses are intimidated by new BSN nurses with fresh knowledge, but remember; those old ADN nurses know a lot that you don’t, and they can teach you what you don’t know, so don’t act superior. Even if you can’t get hired on immediately where you want to work, volunteer there. Volunteer positions can often lead to paid positions. Once you get your foot in the door, it’s much easier to transfer to other specialties; you can’t always start out in your dream job. Many new grads start out in med/surg, and after getting some experience, start branching out from there. Get whatever experience you can; LTC, LTC acute care, outpatient surg center, home health. Even try a shot clinic, like Mollen Immunization. Just get some experience. Know your clinical knowledge. Take advantage of your preceptorship (if available) to shine. Attend a job fair. Resumes - If you use an objective statement, make sure it’s genuine. (don’t put something like, “I’m dependable, and people like me!”) An objective statement isn’t necessary on your resume, and can be left out if you don’t have a good one. - You won’t have much nursing experience to put on a resume, so include clinical rotations. - GPA matters, but it’s not everything. Interviews - Use a personalized cover letter – be accurate with the details. Don’t send it to “To whom it may concern,” find out the hiring manager’s name. - Have a good answer to tough general questions like, “why do you want to work here?” - Find the company’s mission/values/goal statements. Be familiar with them. - KNOW YOUR CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE - Try to start interviewing even before you take the NCLEX-RN. Get a head start. Let them know that you haven’t taken the test yet, but let them know when you’ll be taking it. Be careful on this one; if you don’t pass the test on the first try, it can be embarrassing and look bad on you if they were prepared to give you a job. - Send a thank you note (very important). There were representatives from three hospitals present; one each from John C. Lincoln, the Phoenix VA, and Scottsdale Health Care. - Attitude is everything; the hiring manager can tell if you aren’t excited about the position. - Try to secure an externship - What they look for in an applicant; ambitious, go-getter, team player John C. Lincoln has a new grad program. Scottsdale Health Care has a new grad program. - Check out their new grad FAQ website - Look at jobs.SHC.org - Sign up for job agent (there’s a link toward the bottom of the page on jobs.SHC.org)

Yeah, I noticed that. What is it? I thought that the $750 "Tuition UG Nursing" was the tuition differential for nursing. Is there going to be an extra $1750 EVERY semester?

Maybe they'll tell us at the welcome meeting in a few weeks?

Yep, I'm going. I'm fortunate in that I have an on-call (more or less) grandpa that watches the kids, and my husband and I each have our own cars. I need to find a couple of car-pool buddies in the east valley. Look at the parking pass prices! If I can't find a carpool, I may be buying the ASU U-pass, depending on where clinicals are.

Yep, I registered last night. Today, I'm looking for books. Did you sign up for the presentation tomorrow, "How to Land Your First Job in Nursing?" Seems like there could be some useful information in there.

I received an email tonight with the list of classes that we are to sign up for. Looks like a busy summer for some of us!

Does anybody know what the white official CONHI polos are for? Is that what we're supposed to wear to class on non-clinical/non-lab days? I guess I'll find out in a few weeks, I'm just curious.

Now to find some non-see-through white scrub pants. I gave away my last couple of pairs to the Goodwill after CNA class.