Bunsen

I did an absn program with a 2.9 gpa going in. Finished with a 3.5. My nursing school took into account that my undergrad is a very good, difficult school, as well as the fact that I volunteered. I did take a couple of prerequisites at a community college, which boosted my prereq GPA a little bit too.

I learned that you can be awake and asymptomatic with a blood pressure of 300. TPN tubing can bubble out, forcing you to replace the entire length of tubing that isn't stocked on the floor for some reason. Having to take 8 am classes for work as a night shifter is cruel. I may be okay being on my own off orientation in a month. Maybe. I wear a size 5.75 and ring resizing takes a whole week.

Cardiac PCU. 1:3-4 nights and days. 3 if they have titration.

I learned that there is a lot more charting that needs to be done than what we learned in school. There is so much. Cardiac cath patients stay awake during the procedure. They also have to stay flat for at least an hour afterwards. One of the ICD's we use is $74,000. ICD's screw into the myocardium and can cause cardiac tamponade. You can have Protonix on a drip. Naked patients running down the hallway is apparently a relatively common occurrence. Sometimes it's easier to start an IV without a tourniquet.

Lots of unit-specific policies this week. You have to keep replacing potassium and magnesium even if it's within normal range but not quite at the benchmark. Potassium powder does not taste good. Apparently I developed a sense of "something isn't right" along the way. That's oddly reassuring. People actually do sing "Staying Alive" during chest compressions. How to use a translator phone. Google translate can work too for less important things, but it's better at translating into another language than translating back to English!

A tote bag, free ice cream, car chargers (this one was weird), free massages... AND I've only been here a week - picked a good time to start!

First week as a new grad at this hospital, so lots of basic stuff. Two nurses can declare a dead pt, but the doctor still has to sign the certificate. PIV's can be left in indefinitely if they don't become red and painful, as per a Cochrane study a couple years ago. Calling Rapid Response is different than calling a code and mistaking one for the other will make lots more people and equipment come to the room. It feels really weird not having to add a cosigner when I log into Epic. Starting during Nurse's Week is going to spoil me. What do you mean we don't get free ice cream every day?

I learned that the hospital doesn't expect you to know /anything/ when starting as a new grad. Ironically, except blood administration, which I never did as a student. Test tomorrow! I could have done without the half-hour video on how to ambulate pts though...

Congrats on passing! I also did an accelerated program - 13 months non-stop. I just used Uworld and did 150 questions/day for a couple weeks, although my classmates used Kaplan and it apparently worked since nobody has failed yet. Almost everyone in the class has had theirs cut off at 75. Hopefully college teaches each person how best to prepare for tests and everyone can study in the way that works best for them!

I got my first pair of compression socks about halfway through school. Magically, my hip pain disappeared! Sockwell has a ton of cute options that I can actually choose from now that I'm not decked out in all-white seethrough scrubs.

I learned that it takes about 3 days to get a license number from the NCBON after taking the NCLEX. Also, that I should save all of my receipts for scrubs and shoes for tax writeoffs in 2016.

Maybe I don't understand correctly, haha. This is different from select all that apply questions?

All of these things (except fill in the blank?) are already on the NCLEX.

Just finished my BSN in March. Work for 2-3 years in the stepdown unit, not sure if I would want to move to a different floor eventually or not. Apply for a 3 year DNP program and work PRN on the side while that's going on. Then hopefully practitioner in a clinic!

Seasoned or experienced sounds 100x more natural.

I learned that taking 5 tests in 3 days can be as physically taxing as 4 shifts in a row. However, I'm now done with nursing school and getting over my cold! One test left that I get to study for for the next 6 weeks. I also learned that my future nurse manager is very accommodating and doesn't seem to mind me starting 2 weeks later than we initially talked about. I'm still concerned that it'll come back to me at some point, but I'm trying not to look a gift horse in a mouth.

I got a message from a Teach for America recruiter who stated she found me by my Sigma Theta Tau mention on my profile. She asked if I would like to set up an appointment to talk about employment opportunities at my campus. Does anyone have experience with TFA? I'm not even sure what a nurse would do through the organization besides maybe health education classes. I made an appointment out of curiosity. Patient teaching is one of my favorite aspects of nursing, but I've heard a lot of negative things from teachers about their jobs and the politics around education and TFA.

Maybe I haven't gotten to this part in school, but what does having a DVT or PE have to do with having a baby before 25? Past classmates have been pregnant and had children during our 13 month program, but they surreptitiously always have them during breaks and have had uncomplicated pregnancies. Are you prepared to deal with potential problems during and after birth - eg. nausea, vomiting, hypotension, lacerations, etc? Or having to take a break from school? It's good that you have your mom's support if anything happens to the baby after birth, but what about during pregnancy? If you are prepared to deal with the worst case scenario, go for it. I wish you luck. It's been done before, but it definitely complicates things on top of an already challenging program.

The khakis and black shoes are for some clinicals outside of the hospital - mental health and community use them a lot. You can use any documentation for the flu shot but TAKE A PICTURE OF IT FIRST. For real. Financial aid is all over the place. Some of us got calls last year from an advisor but it just showed up for most people.

You can wear whatever you want within reason in class. Bring extra jackets, the heat in the building goes out frequently.

No, you have an instructor from the school on-site for every clinical. The one exception is preceptorship at the end of the program where you can sort of pick your own unit if you know someone willing to precept you. Scholarships: We were the last group to get the big scholarship, and as far as I know few people got anything outside of that. A few of us got "underprivileged" scholarships of $6000 because our Fafsas reflected that we were really poor, haha. Buy whatever drug book. I like Davis Drug Guide. Totally white sneakers/clogs. The midrange stethoscopes are definitely easier to hear from and most of us have Littmann or MDF, but get whatever as long as it has a bell and diaphragm. A lot of us will be willing to sell/give your our scrubs, uniforms, books, etc. The group before us made a Google doc and shared it with us in January, so probably y'all should expect something like that. The older editions of all of the textbooks (except Adult) are totally useable and probably preferable for every class.

Some of my classmates want to warn y'all to not expect dealing with the school to get any easier...at any point. It's apparently a tradition that the ABSN students are second-class to traditional students. We have maybe 5 people who commute from Greensboro by the way. Be warned that you'll have to get up about 4 am on some days for clinical if you decide to come from Greensboro.

Depends on your definition of "affordable." I love Southern Village, and it's on a busline. Never had problems with noise and it's very much young professional instead of student. Other popular ones on buslines are Laurel Ridge, University Commons, and Bershire West.

FYI I asked the assistant director since I was in his office today if they had chosen the next group. He said, "Yes, we have forwarded recommendations." Good luck, guys.

The comment about Financial Aid is concerning how...blase they are about telling you what's going on. We've had to fight with them about getting financial aid for pretty much the entire program. They'll get it to you if you're persistent enough though.