The First Days of Nursing School by the Fall 2009ers!!!

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Alright well I have been wanting to post this for a very long time! Since I first logged on to allnurses I couldn't wait until it was my turn to say, I am a nursing student!!!

So, technically, yesterday was my first day but I was only there for a couple hours. We went right into lecture about the history of nursing and how it's ever changing. We also learned about the different educational paths a nurse can take, but I already did that research beforehand on allnurses :p

Today was mainly orientation and a welcome to our nursing class. We went more in depth about what to expect and also dissected our huge textbook-like syllabus. I am not joking about the size of that syllabus, it's insane. Since starting I have been reading nonstop. We have already been assigned about five chapters to read from our fundamentals book, which is not the most interesting of reads, but it's doable. I'm just overwhelmed really, probably because they talked a lot about what is to come. Over the next month, three papers are due and at the end of each semester we are taking the ATI tests. If we fail those, well then we have to take the course over.

Today was also one of our lab days. So for lab, we watched two videos about ensuring infection control by washing hands and applying ppe and then of course we had to do it. The basics for right now. Tomorrow is another lab day, bedmaking and body mechanics. So I guess I should get back to reading a couple more chapters and stop playing around on allnurses. I am just so happy to have finally made it. I'm still in a state of shock. Somebody pinch me.

Specializes in NICU.

We actually do not test out at all on things like hand-washing, bed making, transfers, ambulations, ect. We will have test outs on med administration, sterile dressing changes, and every aspect of health assessment, including taking a history of present illness interview.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Alright time to post again in this small time frame that I have. The past two days were our first clinical days. go us! I am on the Surgery/GI floor. It was an overwhelming experience to say the least. I think overwhelming is going to be my word everyday for this nursing school process.

Anyway, yesterday we buddied up with a nurse and just shadowed her while noticing her time management skills. Out of her patients I was allowed to choose one to take care of today. I chose a sweet older lady who really made my first day go really well. She was on isolation precautions and I just helped her with her tray, took her vitals, lifted her in bed, and assisted her whenever she had to use the restroom. It really makes me happy at the end of the day to know that I helped her just a little bit and made her day just a little better. I cleaned up her room and changed her bed linens just to create a nicer environment. One of our other objectives of the day was to give a bed bath. So another student and I assisted a different patient with that and she really enjoyed it. The nurse was really busy today but did express her appreciation whenever she had the chance to even breathe and that made me feel good. I know there will probably be some bad clinical days, but I am so happy my first day with my own patient went really well.

Ok now I have to get back to finishing my research paper and the rest of my clinical worksheet due tomorrow.

Have you guys had your clinicals yet? How are they?

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Ok here goes my first few weeks of school, We have went over handwashing, IM and SubQ, we are talking about nursing throughout the lifespan, covered health and wellness and vital signs. We have checked off on vitals and handwashing. We went to a local Headstart school for an orientation and our local health dept. We will be teaching our middle schools about not smoking during "red ribbon week". We will be doing clinicals next week at the headstart school and at some point giving flu shots at our local health dept. Needless to say there has been an enormous amount of info and reading to go along with it..first nursing process test is next friday. Wish me luck....have been studying furiously.

Take Care All

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I've been enjoying this thread immensely and figured it was about time I did more than just read, so here's a word about how it's been going for me.

We had our first exam yesterday. We were all freaking out, but it really wasn't so bad. The instructor who created it is wonderful, and the questions all seemed pretty fair and well written. Of course, I did my usual--that one thing I swore I would NEVER do again--I changed a couple of answers. :banghead: The results were posted a few hours later (told you, she's a terrific instructor), and I got a 92%, so four wrong out of 50. Not my finest hour, but I'll take it. I just know that those two I changed were part of the problem but don't know what the other two were. We get the chance to talk over our exam if we want to before class on Monday (if we want to go to her office), and I'll do that just to find out what I did wrong and learn from it. :confused:

So far we have had three lab/clinical days. For the first five weeks they are in lab (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.) They're going really well, although there are quite a few of us in our clinical group so there isn't always time for each of us to practice a skill. Two more like that and then it's off to the LTC for once-weekly full-shift (7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) clinical. Gulp!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm definitely finding it's true what "they" (this web site) said about the volume of work! It's also true that I'm loving it so far. No complaints here.

Have a wonderful, learning-filled week! :stdnrsrck:

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

All of you that just had your first exams, how long have you been in school? We just got done with our 4th week and we have had a total of 6 exams and returns. :stone

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All of you that just had your first exams, how long have you been in school? We just got done with our 4th week and we have had a total of 6 exams and returns. :stone

It sounds as though you guys dived right in! We started on Friday 4th, but most of that morning was spent explaining the course. We only had about an hour left for lecture. Then we missed the next morning because of Labor Day. So, although we had been in school for exactly two weeks when we had our first exam, it was not two full weeks. Also, we have had two brief on-line pharmacology quizzes (taken via BlackBoard). We have another exam in two weeks plus more pharmacology quizzes in between. I guess that actually means we're doing about the same, if you count the pharm quizzes (three things every two weeks).

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
It sounds as though you guys dived right in! We started on Friday 4th, but most of that morning was spent explaining the course. We only had about an hour left for lecture. Then we missed the next morning because of Labor Day. So, although we had been in school for exactly two weeks when we had our first exam, it was not two full weeks. Also, we have had two brief on-line pharmacology quizzes (taken via BlackBoard). We have another exam in two weeks plus more pharmacology quizzes in between. I guess that actually means we're doing about the same, if you count the pharm quizzes (three things every two weeks).

I didn't even count quizzes LOL. We did dive right in, we had our first Pharm exam after one lecture, we have pretty much had exams since week 2, this past week was the roughest week. We started our full clinical day on Monday had a Pharm exam on Wednesday, a Math Exam on Thursday and Returns on Th (skills exams) and Fundamentals exam on Friday. Also had 4 writing assignements due. 2 for Clinicals, one for Math and one for Fundamentals.

All of us were very glad the week was over LOL

We started August 24th and that day was orientation and we also had the 7th off.

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Holy brain strain, Batman! That sounds like one tough week. :no: Sure hope you're relaxing for at least a few hours this weekend. *wine

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Yikes! I'm going into week 4 and will have my first test on Monday. Next week we have 2 tests. We've covered a LOT of ground in the past 3 weeks so I'm a little concerned about the tests...both because it's hard to know what to expect and because there has been SO much information to cover. But I've prepared and I'll study some more tomorrow, so I believe it'll be okay.

Clinicals are going well. We've covered the basics (hand-washing, bed-making, bed baths) as well as exams of the Integumentary and Respiratory systems. I can't even express how exciting it was to be able to hear breath sounds!

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

I was hoping to hear this was more common LOL, NO exams next week though thankfully so I am enjoying my weekend.

It's bitter sweet though the amount of the exams, Cons are, we have exams OFTEN, they aren't worth a lot of points (Fundamentals are worth 40 and Pharm worth 30) so in Pharm if you miss more then 2 you are out of an A more then 4 no B and more then 6 questions you failed the exam. So not very much room for error. 99% of our grades are from exams.

The Pro is, since they are so often, it's not over massive amounts of material.

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I was hoping to hear this was more common LOL, NO exams next week though thankfully so I am enjoying my weekend.

It's bitter sweet though the amount of the exams, Cons are, we have exams OFTEN, they aren't worth a lot of points (Fundamentals are worth 40 and Pharm worth 30) so in Pharm if you miss more then 2 you are out of an A more then 4 no B and more then 6 questions you failed the exam. So not very much room for error. 99% of our grades are from exams.

The Pro is, since they are so often, it's not over massive amounts of material.

One difference for me is that I am only doing one course--Fundamentals. It's a 7-credit course, and pharm and math are incorporated. We aren't having any lectures in pharm or math but are assigned reading and practice questions. The on-line modules are pharm only (we read a PP then answer 10 questions on BB. Easy-peasy because it's obviously open book/open PP), but our actual exams each incorporate five math questions. We will have a math test next month. As in most courses, we have to pass with high marks and get just one chance at a retake. No pass, no continue in NS. Apart from a touch of "math exam anxiety" I'm not too worried about that though.

Good luck to one and all as we continue our journey.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
One difference for me is that I am only doing one course--Fundamentals. It's a 7-credit course, and pharm and math are incorporated. We aren't having any lectures in pharm or math but are assigned reading and practice questions. The on-line modules are pharm only (we read a PP then answer 10 questions on BB. Easy-peasy because it's obviously open book/open PP), but our actual exams each incorporate five math questions. We will have a math test next month. As in most courses, we have to pass with high marks and get just one chance at a retake. No pass, no continue in NS. Apart from a touch of "math exam anxiety" I'm not too worried about that though.

Good luck to one and all as we continue our journey.

Wow it always amazes me the differences the different nursing schools have.

We have Fundamentals and that is 9 credits, Pharm is 3 credits and separate class and Math-Dosage and Calculations is 2 credits and separate class.

now at the end of the semester though we take the Doage and Calc exam through our Fundamentals class, that is the one you have to pass 100% but the math class has it's own exams, quizzes and written assignments. The nice thing is, the Math class is our ONLY class the whole 2 year program that is not on the Nursing Grade scale, so in that class it's the 90-100 is A 80-89 is a B and 70-79 is a C.

We have Clinicals now the one day a week. Next semester we have 16 credits and clinicals 3 days a week. Next semester is said to be the hardest semester of the program.

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