RNtoACGNP

My mom started nursing school (a year before I did) when she was 48, with three kids and a sick husband, it can be done!!!

I agree with PP, also I bought a ton of review books and it really made no difference. Our required textbooks are more than enough reading, it's difficult to get through the required readings let alone supplemental books.

I totally know how you feel, they say they don't expect you to know every detail, but the exam questions say different

I am in U of M- flints DNP program! I started in September. The fall wasn't as bad as this winter semester has been, overwhelming to say the least .

If you are concerned about experience, have you thought to be a nurse for a couple years before you start a program? Working two jobs with a family is stressful for anybody, adding grad school into the mix so fast out of nursing school is a whole different ball game. Your first couple years as a nurse you will be learning an overwhelmingly new amount of information and skills, maybe try focusing on that and becoming a competent nurse before pursuing grad school, just my thoughts if you are concerned. In my own experience, I feel like my 4.5 years as a floor nurse was the perfect amount of time before pursuing graduate school.

I have been told that since the day I started nursing and I realize now that I was misinformed, thank you for pointing that out. I guess I have never looked far into it because 1- I don't work for a magnet and 2- I started on my BSN right away so never worried.

Any "magnet" status hospital will require a BSN. In the 5 years I've been a nurse, I have noticed in my area (Detroit/Metro Detroit) all of the big name hospitals are leaning towards BSN nursing staff more and more since I've graduated. They warned us of this in the ADN program but we all just thought they were scaring us into going back to school, but they were right. Granted, magnet hospitals are the only ones I know of that "require" a BSN- others just "prefer".

I feel that white lab coats show professionalism of non-direct care providing professionals. I know plenty of NP's and PA's that wear them, as well as some nursing supervisors. I've never seen a white lab coat worn by a staff nurse. I even know an NP (DNP) that keeps one in the hospitalist office just to put on when he has to attend meetings and/or meet with families. I think it shows class, professionalism and a general understanding that these white lab coat wearing professionals are educated beyond a staff nurse- just my opinion, and what I've seen at the facilities I work at. I think they look nice and respectable (unless they're dingy/not ironed/dirty).

That is definitely something I will look into! Thank you for your understanding and kind words! Good luck to you as well! :-)

It is usually possible in electronic charting, but I would try your best to avoid it. Do your charting AS things happen, as hard as that is it will save you in the long run. I found a new way of remembering things in the last year that helps tremendously. We have a separate "report" sheet for each patient that we receive during report, it has all of the information you could possibly want, but it can be hard to scribble notes and actually remember to look because there's so much other info. So what I do is I write recent lab results and my assessment findings on each individual report sheet, I staple them together with a half sheet of blank computer paper as the top sheet. On that half sheet I write room numbers and names, and leave an adequate amount of space to write notes throughout the day. I write any tests, pertinent vitals/critical labs, weird meds that are scheduled at odd times, and ANYthing that comes up during my shift that's a change from how I got the patient at 0700. It helps soooo much with charting and giving a good report to the incoming shift. Another thing that helps is I write in different colors like bright red, blue, green.. To help things stand out to me.

That is so uplifting, thank you so much! I have been working out pretty routinely again which is probably the only thing I do for "me time". You are absolutely right about the endless possibilities, I always tell friends and colleagues that when they are unhappy in their position. I guess I haven't thought to take my own advice because I'm not unhappy, just tired and lacking much motivation. I am going to start meditating I've researched up on it and have been wanting to try, this would be the perfect time!

Thank you, I think I am going to start doing that.

Wow, 25 years, you're a trooper good for you! I am probably going to start doing more towards the minimum, and I have actually been looking for other types of jobs (teaching, tutoring, telephone triage nursing, the problem is finding a PRN job in any of these categories.

Thank you, and wow that does sound just like me it's scary. I quit a job on cardiac step down after a year (in 2012) because I was on nights and it got so boring and redundant. I worked LTACH for 4.5 years and despite what people think LTACH really is- I can say it's very stressful and lots of adrenaline, I chose to be on the rapid team every night so I could run the codes because I loved it. I never thought about that and you might be completely right- I'm bored! All of these feelings really did come after things went south in mgmt at the LTACH and I had to resign because I knew my license was at risk. I never put those two together, thank you!

Those are things I have thought about as well, I have just recently started going back to the gym routinely so maybe in a while that will have some effects on my mood, once I've been going consistently for a length of time.