SPC Nursing Program Spring 2017

U.S.A. Florida

Published

Anyone applying on allnurses for spring 2017?

Tips for level 1:

You have to read the book to do well. Read everything, all the boxes. I would even suggest reading and taking notes from the book instead of paying attention to lectures or power points. Everything in nursing school is detail oriented. Understanding concepts is important, but you will only do so well without details. You will pass understanding the concepts. You will excel if you know the details.

Practice your skills! Unless you have a really lax instructor, you won't pass skills check offs without practicing each one at least three times. That means coming to the skills lab before or after class at least twice a week. You'll do even better if you practice each one ten times. You can't just read the skills sheet and do it perfect the first time during check offs. You need to be proficient at skills for patients, not just for check offs.

Keep your head down and do not go toe to toe with an instructor. It's not worth it. We had a girl do this in our clinical group and it didn't end up well for her.

I wish I would have picked Bay Pines as my clinical site. They're pretty much the only hospital in the area with 8 hour shifts, and I hate 12 hour shifts. They also have great benefits.

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Tips for level 1:

You have to read the book to do well. Read everything, all the boxes. I would even suggest reading and taking notes from the book instead of paying attention to lectures or power points. Everything in nursing school is detail oriented. Understanding concepts is important, but you will only do so well without details. You will pass understanding the concepts. You will excel if you know the details.

Practice your skills! Unless you have a really lax instructor, you won't pass skills check offs without practicing each one at least three times. That means coming to the skills lab before or after class at least twice a week. You'll do even better if you practice each one ten times. You can't just read the skills sheet and do it perfect the first time during check offs. You need to be proficient at skills for patients, not just for check offs.

Keep your head down and do not go toe to toe with an instructor. It's not worth it. We had a girl do this in our clinical group and it didn't end up well for her.

I wish I would have picked Bay Pines as my clinical site. They're pretty much the only hospital in the area with 8 hour shifts, and I hate 12 hour shifts. They also have great benefits.

We'll put my friend! I am Baypines and love it!

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Congrats to everyone who got in!

I am a current nursing student at SPC going into level 3

I think the biggest things for level 1 are:

1) And probably the most important is to learn how to answer nursing style questions. If you learn this in level 1 you will not struggle. The reason I say this is because not only is it a completely different format, but you are going to learn how to trust yourself. You'll be presented with questions that are all correct, BUT (as I'm sure you've heard) you'll have to pick the most correct... And a hard part of that is to trust your first instinct. Buy nursing question books. I recommend the ATI books, since it correlates with what you'll be learning and will expose you to ATI.

2) DO NOT....I repeat....DO NOT PROCRASTINATE....Level 1 you may be able to procrastinate. I would not recommend getting into that habit, because the upper levels are much harder and more complex to manage than level 1. Plus, level 1 is the only level that has just theory and clinical (level 2 has pharm level 3 has psych and level 4 has roles followed by management). If you are on top of your stuff in level 1 you'll not only stay ahead but you'll also have a great foundation to build upon. If you just finished a test and have nothing to study, do that clinical prep due in a month. Get everything out of the way early. It'll make your time easier to focus on important concepts.

3) Take it seriously, but don't be too hard on yourself. Fail your first test after having a 4.0 GPA? You'll be okay! Find out what you're struggling with and seek resources on how to fix it (NIP, study groups, YouTube, the textbook, whatever works for you!).

4) Practice, practice, practice the skills that you are going to use every day/the more complex skills regardless of what kind of nurse you are (giving medications, wound dressings, using IV pumps, inserting IVs)

5) Enjoy it! It is hectic and crazy, but it is the best thing I've ever done! Enjoy the little things.

6) Find your friends that are willing to spend their time studying. What they say about nursing friends is very true: they become family. My nursing friends aren't just my nursing friends they are some of my best friends. I never thought it will happen, but it did. Find the people who learn like you and form a study group. Meet once a week. Your nursing friends will be what pull you through and make nursing school bearable

Again, congrats on getting into nursing school!

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Hi smw419,

thank you for the insight and advice, I couldn't agree more! I will be starting level 2 in January and am super anxious about the work load...cant imagine another clas on top of nursing. Do you have any advice on what to study or how to study for level 2 exams; I followed the course objectives for level 1 and was successful with that approach. i heard level 2 was more difficult and a lot more busy work. Any advice would be helpful, thank you in advance!

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Hi smw419,

thank you for the insight and advice, I couldn't agree more! I will be starting level 2 in January and am super anxious about the work load...cant imagine another clas on top of nursing. Do you have any advice on what to study or how to study for level 2 exams; I followed the course objectives for level 1 and was successful with that approach. i heard level 2 was more difficult and a lot more busy work. Any advice would be helpful, thank you in advance!

While level 2 is definitely harder than level 1 I personally enjoyed the material more. The book and adaptive quizzing are big assets for you in level 2. The people that don't use outside resources other than the book didn't do as well. Look through the power point and read THAT in the your book. It might only be bullet points of vocab but that's what you need to know and understand. In med surg, I didn't do this so much in ob for some reason, I used the ATI books too. The ATI books give you very minimal so it's nice to not be too overloaded like with the med surg book. Honestly, just get as much exposure to the med surg concepts as possible. That'll make them stick. In my study group we actually talk through what your studying and that is another way to solidify concepts.

Since you already know how to answer questions make sure you do NOT procrastinate. I did what I said in my previous post and still felt overwhelmed towards the end. I can't imagine what I would have done if I hadn't managed my time.

I also think what makes it challenging is pharm. It isn't necessarily hard but it is a 1 credit class with just as much work as a normal class. You have videos to do which I personally found helpful. You'll have a scenario where you're the nurse having a level 1 student following you. You give report about a patient and either give insulin or hang an IV antibiotic (insulin is beginning of semester and IV is the end). I feel much more confident giving report and hanging IVs but I practiced that skill A TON since as a nurse youll do it every day and could easily hurt someone. You'll have online videos to watch then take the test which are open book. Make sure you look up ALL the questions for the tests. Even if you know it's right... Do it anyway just to be sure. That'll give you a boost in the end.

Level 2 is hard but absolutely doable. I never felt confident after tests but still did well. But that's nursing school!

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Thank you guys for all these helpful tips!

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Thanks so much for the advice!

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Yes I will be. Am using these 2 semesters to do over 2 labs and stats to bring my gpa up and apply in July. What stage are you at?

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Thank you so much. I really enjoy your input and thanks for doing the research very informative.

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I just wanted to say congrats to everyone who got in! I went for my advising session yesterday and the advisor told me something pretty interesting. She said 35 students in the first wave failed to "follow through" with their acceptance so EVERY single alternate got in! and THEN half of the alternates failed to follow through so they actually for the FIRST TIME EVER in SPC history pulled students off the Wait List this semester. Interesting huh? Anyways congrats ya'll. We start Monday! Let's do this!!!!! :)

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I have to ask, was everyone accepted a 4.0 student??

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No. Spring 2017 happened to be sort of an anomaly. There were so many people who got accepted that did not participate, for one reason or another, SPC not only invited all alternates they even extended invitations to some people who received decline emails.

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