brit.pz

Thank you to all that have replied. I met with my previous unit manager today who offered me a position back on PCU. I submitted my resignation this afternoon to the detox facility. The straw that broke the camels back occurred during my last shift. I walked into work and was told I was going to be the only nurse working that evening with 16 detoxing patients and new admissions coming in. It was an absolute nightmare. Patient's were incredibly irritable and at one point became aggressive toward the techs. There is no security to call if a patient becomes violent. Overall it was just not a good fit for me. It certainly takes a special kind of nurse to do detox and I am not it!

I am feeling so lost, frustrated and unsure of what to do in this situation. I am a relatively new nurse - I will reach my one year in August. For the first 8 months after graduating nursing school I worked for a Progressive Care Unit. It was busy and crazy but we had a (mostly) supportive group of nurses to bounce questions off. I eventually left once we had gotten a new manager who insisted any PCU nurse was to float to ICU when staffing was needed. They were sending us new nurses to ICU without any ICU orientation or training. We were not even ACLS certified. We brought our complaints up but nothing was ever done. I eventually left and went to work in home health for a small agency. Things in home health started out great - loved the pace, loved being able to spend time with patients for education, but unfortunately because the agency was so small they struggled with census. It ended up being a $1,000/month pay cut and I simply could not afford it. I resigned after three months and eventually went with the first job that offered me a position - a small mental health/detox facility. I had no experience with either but I desperately needed the money so I took what I could get at the time. During my interview the job sounded wonderful. I was told I would have reasonable nurse to patient ratios - 1:8 for detox and 1:4 per psych. When I told the nurses' orientating me they laughed in my face. The building is split up into two halls and one nurse is required to take one and the other is required to take the other. Just this morning one nurse had 2 patients and the other had 19. Completely unfair and management does not care about it. The nursing staff are so unhappy with their jobs; they spend the entire shifts complaining. There is so much cattiness between day and night shift staff - always trying to find something the other did wrong. Basically the environment just stinks. I've already been told by other staff that I , "won't last long." Understandably they have an issue with retaining staff. Overall, the bulk of the job appears to be easy. Most of the doctor's have their own protocol of orders so calling and getting orders is fast and easy. After 11pm the patient's are in bed for the night. Most of the admissions come in between 7pm-11pm but even then it is maybe 4 at most at night. They are all walkie-talkies. It's just a lot of busy work and paperwork - they still are using paper charting. I just find myself bored most nights after my charting is done. I miss the hands-on skills of nursing like starting IVs, wound care, etc... Before accepting this job offer I had been in contact with my previous manager back on the Progressive Care Unit, who said she would be willing to re-hire me if a job opportunity became available. There are two open positions right now. I am highly considering applying. The location was great. It is only a 5 minute drive from home versus the 30 minute drive to where I am now, only working every 3rd weekend instead of every other weekend, familiar with staff and policies. Up until the ICU floating incidents I was really starting to feel comfortable in what I was doing. I've kept in touch with old co-workers who have said they would love to have me back if I were able. However what stops me is that this would be my fourth job change in less than a year. PCU -> Home Health -> Detox/Mental Health -> PCU? I am just not sure how bad this looks to future employers. If I go back to PCU I plan on staying. I've gotten a view of the grass on the other side and it hasn't been greener. In my situation - would you stick it out at the detox facility? I feel like I should but there have been so many red-flags that I am not sure it will get better.

I attended a job fair last week, specifically for soon-to-be RN graduates. During this job fair we were interviewing with hiring managers from different hospitals/units within this particular health system and in some instances were given our second "peer" interview at this time as well. Now I am a bit lost as to what happens after this. I've sent "thank you" e-mails out to those I've interviewed with and I know that it will take some time for them to make their decisions. (Most of the spots are for residency programs that will not start until August.) Say I am offered a position at one of the places I've interviewed with - do they typically call or e-mail with the job offer? Do they usually give you a certain length of time to decide before you accept the offer? This is all completely new to me so I have no idea what to expect. I'd appreciate any advice you all have to offer as well. Anything you wish you would have known while job hunting or before accepting your first job? Thank you!

Hello, everyone! I have just started my final semester of nursing school and along with our regular classes we are also required to complete our precepting hours during this time. I found out today that I will be in the PACU. I am pretty nervous because I have basically zero PACU experience. The most I've spent on a PACU unit was maybe 30 minutes. So, I was hoping to get some advice from some of you on what things I should brush up on or anything that you wish you would have known before starting on your unit. I really want to do a great job so I am open to any and all advice you have. :) (Also how many patients do you typically have assigned to you?) Thank you all!

Could you speak with someone from the nursing program to see what their policy is regarding absences and missed clinicals (or labs)? In my ADN program we had several girls who were pregnant during first semester. We also start out doing clinicals right away (literally the first week!) so what these girls were able to do was to "bank" extra clinical hours by attending other clinical shifts. But then again these ladies were due at the very end of the semester so they had the time to get the hours in. Some programs may be more strict and not allow any absences or allow make-up clinicals or labs. If you were considering not attending this Fall semester would you be able to start in Spring?

Hello everyone! This upcoming fall semester I will be doing my clinical rotation in the Neuro ICU at a local hospital. I'm pretty nervous about this because my only experiences so far in clinical has been on Med-Surg floors. I have no idea what to expect, but I have been trying to read up on as much as I can to get an understanding of what this floor is about. Does anyone have any advice or anything that I should keep in mind before I start my clinical rotation? Any suggestions are appreciated. :) Thanks for reading!

I'll be done in May 2016. I am so excited but so nervous at the same time!

Personally, I feel that this is something that's not worth getting upset over. Just be thankful you are not the person having to take the exam or class over and over again. Even for the student that keeps withdrawing each semester - why does that matter to you? In the long run you very well may never see this student again after graduation. If it takes someone one time or ten times to pass NCLEX why does it matter? All that should matter is that they passed - they've proved that they are competent enough. I do agree with the poster(s) that said that after your 2nd or 3rd failed attempt you should be required to do remediation.

This is how my program is ran. They call it "test mastery". We must average at least a 77% or higher to pass any course. After that the rest of our assignments are factored in to out total grade. My program has fantastic NCLEX passing rates. The graduating class of December was 100% 👍🏽

You paid $500 to take the TEAS V? That is INSANE. I paid $50 at most to take it two years ago. Maybe your school ripped you off? And for the record I felt the TEAS was incredibly easy. *shrug*

My advice would be to mainly work on getting your GPA up. You really need to be above the minimum requirements to get into a nursing program - I would look into the requirements for the school(s) you are planning to apply to and go from there. Are you able to afford childcare? That might help (even if it is just a couple hours a few times a week) as far as finding time to study goes. Good luck!

Way to go! You're almost done!!

Agreed with what everyone else said. It all depends on the school. In my school we are given our options (hospital location, days, and times) and we chose which clinical we want during our registration. If the spot is taken you go somewhere else.

Our school uses ATI for homework and final exams - well for some classes. We also use HESI for homework but not exams. I actually like the HESI case studies way more than ATI. I'm not sure if this is what you're asking but for our Fundementals/Nursing Skills final we had to take an ATI exam. We were expected to study the ATI material on our own time to prepare for the final. We were given an ATI book at the beginning of the semester and about a month before the final practice ATI fundamental exams were opened to use. Our school was pretty open with us that we may have difficulty with the ATI final but the hope was that our grade was already high enough to where the ATI grade wouldn't fail us. There were several items that we were questioned on that we wouldn't learn until 2nd semester, like ABGs. The final was also graded by levels - so if you scored between (I'm just going off the top of my head here) 65-75% on the ATI you would be given a 85% as your final exam grade. Our pharm exam was also ATI but our instructor set it up so that she was able to pick and choose the questions we would be asked. That's also how our Adult Health 1 (Med-Surg) exam will be. Overall, I'm happy with how our program is run. I will add though that if we fail the ATI exam we aren't held back or anything of the sort - that is unless it brings your overall grade down to a 76% or below.

I'm going to say they won't allow it. In the beginning of last semester I bought a few of these: CharMED — Home and got chewed out in lab (didn't even take them to clinical) for having them on my stethoscope. The reasoning that was they couldn't be cleaned easily and could spread bacteria. I will admit I was a little sad that I wasted the money after finding out I couldn't use them.

It can be done. If I had to guess I would say 75% of my cohorts are working (at least part time) while in nursing school. Many of us are also parents. You just need to figure out a schedule and stick to it. Don't be surprised if you feel overwhelmed at first, it's normal. You can do this! From my experience the only difficulty students have had with working and school (outside of being exhausted) is getting their job to be flexible around their clinical and class schedule. As we move further on in the program our options have started to dwindle. Personally, I believe it is because they are banking on people failing and/or dropping out of the program. During our recent registration we were informed that contract negations for clinical sites have not been finished so the spots we think we're are getting could be changed at any time. Those who are working are feeling frustrated because their job requires some notice regarding their school scheduling and right now no one has a clue what will happen. But we know it could be much worse! At least we are allowed to try to pick and choose where we will go. We are lucky in that respect. So if you do decide to work make sure they understand (and are willing to work with you) that you may need some flexibility in regards to school. Perhaps you could find a contingent position somewhere? Good luck!

Could you meet with your instructor to go over your exam? A lot of times it helps just getting the rationale from instructors for why an answer was correct or incorrect. Your instructors want to see you succeed! During my fundamentals course I had failed 2/5 exams. The first exam I figured was a fluke - I didn't study nearly as hard as I should have and focused on the wrong aspects. After my second failed exam I knew I needed to do something so I set up an appointment with my instructor. She let me go over the exam and explained the rationales behind the answers I got incorrect. It also helped her to see why I thought the way I did. She also loaned me this book - Test Success: Test-Taking Techniques for Beginning Nursing Students: 9780803628182: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com which gave a lot of great strategies for answering questions. I did much better on my next exam. There are also a lot of great YouTube videos that offer tips on taking nursing exams and learning how to answer NCLEX style questions. Good luck on your next exam!

Hard to guess what your instructor is going to ask, but for vitals I would just attempt to know the normal vital signs for an adult - BP, Temp, Respirations, etc.. I would think they would tell you about a patient give a list of vitals and have you select which vitals were abnormal/normal and which abnormal vitals would be highest priority. Should be pretty easy. For mobility and immobility I would focus on aspects of safe patient handling/transfer, how patients properly use assistive walking devices - crutches, canes, etc. Good luck on your exam! Use the chapter overview and questions at the end of the chapter to help you study!

Are you able to transfer to a different university? If so I would HIGHLY consider it. I don't see any benefits to attending this school and I would be worried that the end result would be the school's loss of accreditation and the possibility of not passing NCLEX for you.

Your best bet would be to ask your professor. Sometimes it will work and sometimes you will need the more updated information.

I don't have a problem with the e-mail. Students should be held to the dress code standards. Our program is very similar - uniforms should not be wrinkled/dirty, no nail polish (and nails must be non-artificial and trimmed), no more than one post earring per ear, long hair must be pulled back, etc.. It stated in the e-mail that you all had previously been told the rules and some chose to go against them. Our program (and I'm sure most others) would also send you home if you were not following uniform/dress code.

We started clinical immediately in our ADN program! I had clinical on my very first day of nursing school and a Pharmacology lecture the following day. The first day was just orientation to our clinical site at the hospital and the following two weeks we focused on taking vitals and practicing our head-to-toe physical assessments. And it will be the same for me this semester. Class starts back up on Jan. 19th and I will have clinical that afternoon and then my lecture classes will be the next day.

I've been fortunate enough to not have to work while in the program, but plenty of my cohorts are full-time workers and full time students. One of my friends in the program has decided to do what you've mentioned - work full time and take classes part time. Yes, it will take her longer to graduate than the rest of us but the end goal is all the same. We'll all (hopefully) be nurses someday. Do whatever works for you. Yes, it can be frustrating feeling left behind but I think it's a much better feeling than being overwhelmed and having your grades suffer as a result. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

I agree with everyone else - get Stats over and done with. You will feel so relieved when it's over! It's not a hard class and is doable online.

I wouldn't stress about your ACT score. If you feel that you could improve or get a higher score then go ahead and retake it but if you think you've did your best then that's ok, too. I would focus more on your overall score and what you need to be competitive for your program's admissions. Work on getting that A in A&P2 and study for your TEAS/HESI :) We also use a point based scale for our admissions and I want to say that a 20 ACT score was the minimum needed needed to get any points (27+ was given the maximum points). I know someone that got into our program with a 17 on her ACT. She graduated, and has been an RN for over a year now. :)