gM_2010

Students should ask themselves why he or she is in that position in the first place. A student can have a bad exam and it typically won't wreck their chances of being successful in the course. When students are not successful at the end of course and just misses passing-he or she most likely missed 15-20 questions throughout the semester and put themselves in jeopardy.

I'm an ACNP and practice in a specialty cardiology ambulatory setting. I like it because I do both episodic and chronic disease management. I am extremely busy and probably see about as many patients daily as I did on inpatient rounds.

Bs are perfectly good grades. I graduated with a 3.2 from my BSN, 3.7 from my MSN, 3.8 from my post-masters NP and my PhD. Keep ticking the tests and assignments off and go get em!

Guess what-every move you make and everything you do in the "live environment" is scrutinized just as closely as the SIM lab. Get used to it.

Students don't get the whole picture of EVERYTHING in an instructor's airspace in the clinical setting. My priorities were timely delivery of meds and sick patients. I would have students march into any patient room that I was in without regard to whatever I was doing with another patient and/or student. I ask the other student "is your patient in trouble" and other student always answers "NO". My response to other student-"Get out". Trust your instructor and don't take in personally.

Well stated-how can you be an advanced practice nurse without ever being a nurse.

Please request an appointment with your faculty. If you missed any key concept/components. you'll learn something. The instructor may have also have an error. Good luck.

We always need new ideas and fresh blood. However-you have to punch you ticket to ride to the NCLEX to be part of the solution. I always enjoyed 2nd degree.career changers for their perspective/maturity/life experience. I challenge the original poster to get to the NCLEX and be part of the solution!

Any needle stick or other injury in the clinical setting should be reported immediately for a few reasons. 1. Students don't have the experience or judgment to make decisions about risk of harm to themselves and/or patients. 2. Any injury is an opportunity to learn from what/how it happened and debrief to avoid repeating it. 3. There are very real risks of harm. Suppose the student had a needlestick with a patient who had a bloodborne disease requiring treatment/surveillance. I've had a number of students make a med error, stick themselves, or pass out in clinical. I've sat with them in occupational health and/or the emergency room in clinical. Your instructor can and should have your back if you let him/her know immediately. Additionally, one of the few times I issued a clinical failure is when there was a potential injury to a patient from an incident and I heard about it from the floor staff and not the student. Always act in the best interest of the patient and you should be OK-even if there was a med incident/error. Good luck!

Pretty standard for an undergraduate program

Good advice from all the previous posters. I have one more suggestion. If you reapply to your current program or a new one, find that university/school's office for student disabilities. Every college has a process for assessing and handling students with accommodations for disabilities. I ran large Med-Surg 2 classes at a major university and was REQUIRED to accommodate students who followed my university's process for learning disabilities. It was the students' responsibilities to see their disability services advisor every semester and bring me the test accommodation. I was not obligated not required to honor any request for accommodations for a student who didn't come through student disability services. If you do or believe you may have a learning disability, it would be worth your time to seek out the student disability services office of your university and make an appointment for assessment and learn your your university/school's procedures for handling test accommodations. Good luck!

Good words of wisdom. You also want to think about the nursing care priorities for your patient -which may be different depending on the type of nursing focus (meaning peds--maternal--psych--med-surg, etc). For example from a med-surg standpoint-think about the actual nursing problems of the patient that can cause death, harm, or a bad outcome if not addressed by the nurse. The typical problems for a med surg nurse address A-B-Cs, consequences of the admitting medical diagnoses (. At risk problems in my opinion a lower priority than actual problems-unless at risk for airway or ABC compromise). Care plans are thinking exercises for you to A) recognize patterns in the patient's data that in turn (B) comprise the defining characteristics for a particular problem in your care plan book © pick a plausible problem label (D) and articulate an outcome for the nursing care problem is measurable and observable. Good luck!

Check out the Centers of Disease Control websitfor the leading causes of death:FastStats - Leading Causes of Death There are some interesting trends

If you want to work ICU-you need AGACNP. You will have didactic and clinicals preparing you to manage acute & critical care. Another consideration is that many hospital systems are looking closely at the preparation of applicants. You can do FNP as post masters.

I am sorry you are having difficulties. I would suggest that you: 1. Ask for a conference with your clinical faculty and the course lead/director. You deserve an interim performance feedback and a plan for improvement. 2. The previous posters have offered excellent advice about seeking medical evaluation for anxiety. 3. Read your undergraduate/student handbook carefully for policies & procedures about handling clinical performance problems. Make sure your faculty are following their own rules. Every program has a handbook but no one ever pulls it out until a problem comes up. 4. Consider meeting with a counselor/advisor from the student disabilities unit in your school. If there is any possibility of anxiety/ADD/ADHD-you may benefit from extra time or other modalities to help you succeed. Every school typically has such an area and you typically need an evaluation/screening by their counselors. Good luck!

Cheating is not a new problem in nursing schools. I would encourage you to talk to the instructor and let them handle it going forward. Your colleague isn't worthy of the degree if she isn't doing the work and demonstrating sufficient mastery to move herself along. She also isn't safe to be turned loose on unsuspecting patients. Nurses are consistently rated among the most trustworthy of all professionals. A student who is aware of a cheater and does nothing is just as guilty as the cheater . Do the right thing and talk to your faculty. Good luck!

There is a flaw with the logic here. How is a student qualified to judge the quality of the material? Students can certainly distinguish between good and poor instructors and hopefully are receiving the former to get their money's worth. Most of the time I'm happy if an undergraduate student can distinguish between stable or unstable relative to a patient. Yes-I am paid by a school. No-I do not intentionally spend hours of my time thinking up multiple ways to write "trick questions" and set them up for failure. I need my students at all levels to be their very best at all times because they are the nurses and advanced practice nurses for me and my family. I know this because a family member was expertly cared for this summer by my former NP students after a catastrophic illness and is recovering well . To the OP-I wish you the best of luck in your school/career going forward.

I agree with this poster-you may have trouble being employed as a CNA with a criminal record. You'd probably fail/turn up a red flag on a background check.It would likely be worth the expense in the long run to hire an attorney-do the probation/whatever sentence and get your record expunged if possible. Nurses are consistently rated as the most trustworthy of all professionals. It's a lesson that a person entering the nursing profession must have a pristine personal reputation at all times. Good luck!

I'll give you a perspective from the instructor's side : 1. You sabotaged yourself by putting yourself in the position of needing an 80 to pass. You left many points on the table through an entire semester. Don't put yourself in the position of barely getting by. I can tell you no one wants to be cared for by the "80%" nurse. 2. There are times when students just get a question plain wrong. Get over it and move on. 3. If you do decide to Go up the chain of command-be courteous to everyone. If you are antagonistic, you risk alienating the faculty and will have a difficult time in your program. You really need to ask yourself if one question is worth it in the grand scheme of things. Good luck going forward.

Sorry you are having such a rough time. I would encourage you to make an appointment to sit down with your faculty to ask/clarify a few things: 1. Review the care plan assignment to better understand the expectations. You want to improve going forward. 2. Understand why you were dismissed from clinical to learn and improve. You want to understand what the error(s) were so you can be sure not to repeat them. You pay tuition and are entitled to an opportunity to learn from mistakes for improvement before you pay more $$$$ for a repeat clinicial. I don't understand why you were dismissed. I've been a faculty for many years and have dismissed students for showing up sick,unprofessional behavior, tardiness, med errors and/or being unsafe. You being dismissed for making an error on an assignment doesn't make sense. I would just deduct points from the assignment-not toss someone out of clinical. I would go up the chain of command in the school if you do not get answers. Good luck

Healthcare systems are paying attention to the congruence of the education and credentials of APN applicants to the practice area closely these days. Potential graduate students need to think carefully and long term about what they want to do with their practice to get to the best graduate program. I ask people what they see themselves doing practice-wise in 5 and 10 years. Essentially-an FNP could and probably should have difficulty getting a job as an ICU APN.

I agree with the other posters. I've had many students start their nursing careers at your age and older and do well in both class and clinical. Older students bring a maturity and life experience that I appreciate and also makes for a very good nurse. Good luck in your studies going forward.

Yes-you did your job. The family friend/patient could have easily notified your family. You can be dismissed for confidentiality violations.

Agree with this poster. Moving forward both in school and professionally with employment is difficult with a criminal record since practically all employers will do a criminal background check and expect you to disclose anything out of the ordinary. You need to get your record expunged/sealed.

I don't agree with this poster's comment about finding a few faculty who want you to succeed. Most faculty want you to succeed and graduate.