Folkeye

I'm in APII right now and every time I think it can't get worse.... LOL. I find the whole class gets me high strung. Its super hard since you have such a limited amount of time to cover X amount of material you can't slow down. I'm having a time of it just taking one night class along working full time. Have to sneak in homework and studying at work when I can since there's just not enough time to do it at home without falling behind. The bones were hard since it wasn't just the bone, it's the bone and it's landmarks and about 2.5 weeks to do it all (plus a boat load of other things you had to learn on top of it). I didn't do great on that one. I don't miss that or the muscles. Ouch. I get more stress on that brand new thing that she goes over the day before a test and then asks many lab questions on said new thing. More visual and sub categories to memorize in 24 hours, on top of new homework and time for study. Fun. Right now, anything that ends up going into chemical information hurts my brain. For me it's not lack of understanding, it's just trying to retain it. Our teacher doesn't want the overview on what's going on that shows her we get it, she get's very, very, very, very nitpicky and looks for exact numbers and products. My mother, a very long time nurse says it's nice to know how it works, but in life one will never ask you about it like an AP teacher does. They're a special lot. Hang in there though, take a walk, deep breaths, watch a favorite show or listen to a favorite song. You'll get through it! :) PS, if you have a study partner, use them!!! I sadly do not have that option. Nobody has a schedule that works with mine. I even make a PSA out loud to the class on studying. since asking individuals wasn't working No luck.

And here I am embarrassed to be taking one night class and have it kill me. Taking APII and just working full time. It kills my free time.

They working night type jobs? I have no idea what kind of schedule you get in school. Where I am right now has no CNA options, they took that away a number of years ago. Otherwise that might have been an option to consider.

It's one of those wonders to me, to think I can apply to a nursing school in under a year. One of those exciting scary things that I look forward to. Yet at the same time, it's causing my brain to do flips. I'm not knowing exactly yet how to handle this coming challenge. I will have to quit work and rely on family support for a while at least (I'm 35 years old, I'm not fully comfortable with this). I won't be able to consider part time right away either until I get my foot in the door and see how things go. Did anybody else have to cope this way? Rely on family instead of yourself to get in? How did you deal with it? Did you work during your schooling? Did you do financial aid? The older a fart I become the more worried I get. Anticipating the possibilities of failure to get into school. What then? No job.... but hunting down another one with another application period close ...SIGH. Al lot to take in.

Yeah, very true. As of this moment, I do not have close ties to any teacher (hence keeping ears open now) and I don't work anywhere near healthcare. I do know that my boss is somebody I couldn't ask. He works across the US from me and pretty much has no clue on my work habits. Only cares if I'm at my desk or not. Though I do have one co-worker here who I work closely with and is not an outside friend that is good to keep in mind. Unless he retires the next year or so.

Hmmmm, I know I saw it more than once. Just can't remember where! But it came as part of an application. Wanted 3 individuals to do the letters. I do agree on the professional level though. Else we'd all get our friends/family on board and well that might just be the teeniest bit biased.

Yeah, it's something I have to consider. Basically the way I look at it is to not limit myself to pressing on. Thankfully I have no family obligations tying me down. The only thing I really need to consider if I do pick up and go is a place that has an avian vet. I have two pet birds and I couldn't imagine something happening where I couldn't get the needed help. By the time I get there, I might have both, one or none. They're happy and healthy now thankfully It's an important factor to me since I can't imagine not having a companion bird. Brings me peace and keeps me company. Very nice study partners AND distraction partners, LOL. SO yeah, the animal needs come along with my own. There's always potential of going to a particular island in AK to apply, but that bird thing.... Time will tell, but I know I need to go if I need to go. Would I rather stay around home and friends for schooling, yeah absolutely. We'll see.

So a co-worker is fair game? That's good to know :)

Still got a year to worry about this kind of stuff, but hey, why not start now! When looking at applications for nursing programs, many want that letter of recommendation from a few people. I'm guessing you can't or shouldn't have a family member do one for you. How did you go about this step. Did you go to a teacher, a family friend, a co-worker? Trying to keep a heads up now with teachers and if I should keep any of them in mind for the future. Just one of those steps that I'm not too certain about.

It helps to have a fun soundtrack to remind you of this too. Songs'll differ for everyone of course. One that always makes me smile and is actually an awesome song to remind one to keep going is from the movie 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Failure isn't the end. The lyrics are fun and oh so true, especially for us students

Just started back up in school and have gotten through two semesters (Math and Chemistry). Need another full semester and a half to go for the very basic-can-apply-to-a-school pre-reqs. But I'm guessing a full two years to cover most other schools needs for application.

Easy to compare to others, I do it all the time. Habit I need to break since the one I need to worry about in this sense is me and to do the best I can do. But, remember, for each person that's ahead of you in progress, there's still a boatload behind you. Each step is only forward!

I was thinking I'd enjoy a summer off, but since I went back to school.... I want it over faster! Can't do daytime summer school but I'll be taking my first online course. So a few weeks break from my last class, with the online starting in a week and a half...that was a good enough break. I want to trek forward. The more under the belt, the closer to the goal.

The waiting, no matter the class is the hardest part! Still got a year and a half to trudge through. I wish I could speed things along via summer school courses, but working full time doesn't allow daytime school and they have no evening options. But they do have online Psych for summer so I'm in on that. My first online course ever! It'll be quick AND it'll count. Huzzah! But yes, the waiting and counting days, when I SHOULD just be enjoying the ride to my potential future. It's hard when one is so ready to do something different with life and it's not instant! I simply want it NOW, is that too hard to ask

My mom went to Harbor for her nursing. If all goes well, it'll be the first school I can apply to (being local and all) :)

I just love reading these cartoons and imagining what'll happen the day I'm in this boat. Thankfully I'm a total bird brain, and love going out and bird watching. As long as I can get myself outside it's little to no expense. Well....considering all the expensive things have been taken care of over the years (binoculars and a camerea ). AND it's something that can be done local. Cheap AND close to home! Yay!

I've shadowed twice, mainly because the hospital I did it at is pretty laid back about it. Also very small! I followed my mom and another nurse (depending who was doing what) as a way to let me see what actually happens in their ER on a weekend, which ends up being more like a clinic. To see if my interest in the field would hold. It did I stayed on my feet through watching some blood draws, IVs and some stitches. So yay! I stand a chance. If it did become mandatory as part of a program in the future, I thankfully have a place I could in theory do it...though so far from where I live.

Another class I'm scared of.... though it will probably be the last science pre-req I take since you have to have physiology first. I have two more semesters to build my confidence with my first ever 'real' (non-art) anatomy/physiology classes in the meantime. Though seeing so many positive posts on how interesting it actually is is very encouraging.

I was terrified of Math AND Chemistry. Considering I'm 34 and hadn't been in any form of school in about 12 years... needless to say getting back in the swing of things didn't allow me to choose where to start since I didn't have priority registration after that long of an absence. I started with the the Int Algebra, and actually shocked the pants off myself and got an A. It was doing the homework and having a most awesome rocket scientist (literally) as a friend who LOVES math and was a great tutor, and I decided to pay for one every two weeks to also help. Between the two of them it went very well and they made my brain hurt less. Things work out in the end and glad this happened BEFORE chemistry, which I wanted to come back in as my first class choice.... I got my Chemistry completed a few weeks ago and was pretty scared of it when I started. Never had chemistry before, just generic high school sciences classes way back when, so I had no clue what to expect. Did I have to memorize EVERYTHING? Would that periodic table come back to haunt my dreams? Thankfully the answer is no, it did not. Though I did dream of chemistry too often when I did homework before bed. Busy dreams! My teacher had a more practical approach. He knows 'in the real world' most people would just pull out their phone and look up any of the info they wanted so he took a different approach. He had handouts we were allowed to use, things that showed us strong and weak acids, the species of different element charges, and full use of the periodic table. He wasn't worried about us having the basic info in front of us, it was being able to know how to use it that was important. We did have to memorize some of the basic elements by name, and spell them correctly of course but not to an insane extent. As for the math, it's not difficult, very basic, and had a lot of it for a while. The problem I had was getting the numbers in the proper place. Doing the conversion factors... such as going from minutes to hours, easy. Throw in a few more steps and ways to get from step A to step E, sometimes I had trouble with. It was more about just learning how to convert things and get them in the right place to solve the problem through simple division and multiplication. Learn how A relates to B relates to C...and all is good. If you get bored and want to see what my class covered, check this out: chemistry 4 If you scroll down to the first set of links for Chapters 1-16 you'll see the Power Point handouts that were used during the lecture and the homework questions he got from the book. Might give you a good idea what to expect :) He was very organized, the labs weren't super difficult... but not always that interesting. It got much more interesting when the organic part was covered. I did have my ups and downs in the class, but did study, did get help from a friend and worked with a classmate at the library so that helped a lot. Also, the internet is your friend to help find various explanations that might make understanding clearer. I got A's and B's on the tests/quizzes and pulled through with an A (thanks to some extra credit I think!)

Bummer it's not focused on the nursing relevant parts. That'd make more sense to me.

I'm curious as to why the TEAS test is the final make or break if you can get accepted into most nursing programs. You go through years of pre-reqs, you have grades to show how well you did, did I mention you spent A LOT of time and hours devoted to those classes..... all to find out one super broad spectrum test tells you if you if you can nurse or not. Why does that test get to dictate if you can get into a program or not? I understand the need for competition, but one test that even the brightest of peeps can crash on? Doesn't make much sense proving ones level of intelligence or nurse qualification. I'm doing pre-reqs right now and I know it'll be a while before I'm done...but that thing looms on my mind big time. Gets me angry that all my hard work right now can go kaput. Not that good at broad knowledge. Always a chance what they want, I've never been exposed to in class.

Just looking at the first page under what to know in Chemisty... I'm just finishing my chem class and a good chunk of what you mentioned was not covered in class. Crud, this'll be fun one day.

Since I had no clue what I wanted to be when I grew up.... I'm 34 and taking pre-reqs. I hate to think of the age of accomplishment. But the older us farts get, the more we appreciate the experience and hard work it takes to reach the goal.

Well, that all depends on where you end up. Are you the first line of dealing with patients when they come in the door, or are you by a surgeons side while the patient is blissfully unaware of you? I do think you need some communication and people skills (empathy helps!) but don't need to be a huge 'people person'. I do believe you need to be compassionate and remember that your patients are all individuals. If you have 10 complaints of stomach pain from 10 different people.... you need to be people person enough to not treat them like 'Oh, no. Not another one....' (tune brain out here). You need people savvy skills to keep it professional, even when you've heard the same thing way too many times in one shift. If they want to be chatty, know how to mask your frustration with somebody who you might consider to be wasting your time. Hopefully wanting to work with people and help them with their ailments was part of motivation for nursing, not just a paycheck. I'm not a nurse, I'm hoping after my pre-reqs that I'll still want to pursue nursing. I've shadowed my mom where she works and I've mentioned this to her before. I know it's a long day, I know it gets same ol' same ol' sometimes. But remember, patients are people too (well, most the time! :) ) So yeah, that type of people skill.

As the daughter of a long term nurse (thanks, mom, you rock!!!!) I say YIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! When she gets her paychecks. I know some of that gets funneled my way when when I need help. Yeah I'm all growed up with a not so great paying job and schooling of my own to aim at nursing myself, but I'm so grateful for what she does and helps me out. Again, YIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Though if I got her paycheck, I'd too would stare at it for a long time, totally amazed.