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Are there some other interesting courses you know you can make a 4.0 in to boost your GPA? Take these courses while you wait so that if you do get waitlisted then your GPA will be better. Your TEAS is great but the GPA is likely equally important.

Let the fear and anxiety motivate you to be the best nurse you can be. I think all good nurses "listen" to fear and anxiety and use it to dig into building a confident foundational knowledge. All new grads should be upfront with their employers by asking for a solid orientation period like 2 to 3 months. Use this time to your advantage. I have seen too many orientees ride the clock during their time and then panic when they are on the floor alone. Pay attention to the nurses who always seem to have it together and learn from them. Ask them to share their brain forms and methods of time management. In fact when I was new it was time management that got me more than the patient care knowledge.

I thought the same thing when reading the original post. Most graduate programs require an RN first and that means at least 2 years (4 semesters of nursing courses) and passing the NCLEX and applying to the BON in your state. Contact the dept of nursing to clarify at the specific schools.

Great point! Skills like INT IV insert and foley are very hard to come by. I definitely look for them. This semester only one student successfully performed an IV start while others tried several times. Only one straight cath this semester too. The materials are expensive. When I was in LPN school we used the hospital supplies to start them on each other. This hospital we cannot do that unfortunately.

Does she understand that you will have to start be accepted to a nursing school which takes about 3 to 6 months and then attend for at least 2 years if you have all your pre-requites? You probably have the core classes since you were a chiropractor. So by my quick estimate you would still take 2.5 years give or take to graduate. By that time you would be matching for your residency and make as much as the graduate nurse. Residencies are around $55k a year last time I checked. After 3 years of residency you will make more.

Make sure your MSN or DNP is accredited to allow you to sit for the NP certification exam if you want to continue to take care of patients, get your hands dirty and be in the thick of it. CNS also work closely with patients and families.

I was a psych nurse for awhile and managed a residential facility. I worked daytime hours. The job consisted of admission physical exam, med reconciliation on day of admission, holistic assessment within first 48 hours, discharge planning, case management. Meds. Patient teaching. Monitoring patients reactions to any med changes. Pulling charts for patients to see psychiatrist. Basically the usual nursing duties. Some of my patients did have TB, HIV, HCV which I managed through their primary care physician.

I am a nursing instructor and past nursing student so I am concerned about the difficulty you are having in nursing school. You mentioned that you are in your second semester of nursing school. Was the first semester this stressful? Was it just basic skills in a lab or were you in a clinical setting? Where the expectations different? I developed some coping mechanisms in nursing school. I already had a business degree and was surprised at how different it was to make good grades. In nursing school I had to buy uniforms and keep them presentable. Once I made that a priority the stress about the uniform went away. I made sure I prepared for giving meds. This part was so stressful for me. I got through nursing school by making procedures for everything. Have you been through a difficult course to complete a goal before? What worked for you to get through it? You can use these past experiences to get through this difficult program. Nursing school was really stressful for me too. I remember that part of my stress management was to create 30 minutes in the morning to myself and 30 minutes at night. A walk or gardening, time with a pet or my child. Living in a state of constant stress is one thing but if it is to the point where you are physically sick and not eating then it is a real problem. You mentioned that in clinical you are made to feel stupid. I am wondering if you set your expectations too high. You are in a learning environment. Has your clinical instructor or program given you clear guidelines for what is expected? I give my students a full day of orientation. They use timelines to stay on track. Their responsibilities are written out for them. For the most part the students who follow these expectations do the best. There are always some students who make up high expectations for themselves and then they cannot get their basic patient care done. You also mentioned that you feel lazy and unwanted. Is it the patients that make you feel unwanted? As a nursing student it bothered me too when the patients made me feel like I was a bother. I too felt lazy at times because things would be quiet with nothing to catch up on and then everything would get busy and I fell behind. I started to offer my help to some of the other students so they were more willing to help me when I got busy. I realized in nursing school that some of my friends supported my decision to go to school and respected my need to study for 4 hours a day after school. Some of my friends and family members did not respect my need to study. Stick to the friends who understand why you want to finish nursing school

I am a nursing instructor so I am very interested in knowing what parts of your job are making you feel unprepared. While I do prepare my students to pass NCLEX I also want to make sure that they can care for patients safely. I would like to use your specific feedback to make my clinical better for students.