To all who starts the program at OCC in the fall

I am. As far as preparing for it I don't have a plan. I signed up for the HL sections. Are you on the MySpace OCC Current and Future Nursing Group page ? If you want to join let me know.

I'm also taking pharm. in the summer. Until we have our books, I don't know what we really could do to prepare. There are some medical calculations and a practice test on the OCC website you could look over. Other than that, I guess we just need to prepare to soak a lot of info. into our brains!

I'm taking pharm this summer as well. I will most likely brush up on my math skills and practice conversions. Other than that, I don't think I'll be studying anything else! Where are you taking pharm at?

I am. As far as preparing for it I don't have a plan. I signed up for the HL sections. Are you on the MySpace OCC Current and Future Nursing Group page ? If you want to join let me know.

my URL to my page is My URL: myspace.com/whateverandmore45

For those of you who wonder what this is all about.I have set up a Group Page called OCC Current and Future Nursing Students on MySpace. It is a Private group so you need to be invited to join. I had to do it that way to keep all the "nurse stalkers" out !! : ) I hope you check it out. Just send me a message via allnurses.com or the URL listed above and I'll get you all set up with the Group.

Thanks for wanting to join. Hope to see you there soon.:balloons:

Hi, I am still doing pre-reqs from the bottom up. Im returning to school after many years so bear with me.

Question, I never had Chem in high school and am going to try the Che 1000 class in the fall. I am so nervous. I plan on studying the Chemistry for Dummies guide to prepare myself. Do you think that I could do ok if I can learn everything in the Dummies book?:uhoh21:

Hi, I am still doing pre-reqs from the bottom up. Im returning to school after many years so bear with me.

Question, I never had Chem in high school and am going to try the Che 1000 class in the fall. I am so nervous. I plan on studying the Chemistry for Dummies guide to prepare myself. Do you think that I could do ok if I can learn everything in the Dummies book?:uhoh21:

You might want to take prereqs through a community college because you'll pay a fraction of the price. I don't know where you live, but I'm going to start at Wayne County Community College and their credit price is 56.80 a credit, compared to Oakland's at 252. I'm just telling you this since you said you haven't been to college in a long time.

I wish I would have known this when I was fresh out of high school. I started at a private college to get my BS in Electrical Engineering and I could have saved A TON if i had went to a community college for 2 years and gotten the first 2 years out of the way...

Question, I never had Chem in high school and am going to try the Che 1000 class in the fall. I am so nervous. I plan on studying the Chemistry for Dummies guide to prepare myself. Do you think that I could do ok if I can learn everything in the Dummies book?:uhoh21:

Anne, I took Chem1000 last spring at OCC. I did have high school chemistry but it was so long ago, I completely forgot anything I may have possibly learned so it almost didn't matter. Also, since I took it in spring, it was the shorter 7 1/2 week semester! I was a nervous wreck about taking that class too. I would advise trying to match up with a lab partner who seems comfortable with the experiments..that made a big difference for me. The math problems from lab were tough but with an intelligent & confident partner, it really helped me Also, just study the math conversions you'll get in note taking. Repeat the exercises over and over. I ended up with an A in the class and shocked myself. I wish you luck!

Take Grunfeld at southfield(OCC). I had him last year. I never had chem in HS either and I got an A. You'll do fine. He's very commited to students succeding.

Hi, I am still doing pre-reqs from the bottom up. Im returning to school after many years so bear with me.

Question, I never had Chem in high school and am going to try the Che 1000 class in the fall. I am so nervous. I plan on studying the Chemistry for Dummies guide to prepare myself. Do you think that I could do ok if I can learn everything in the Dummies book?:uhoh21:

I never had chem in High school too, and I was very nervous too. Chem 1000 is more of a beginners class and you'll learn everything from the beginning. I did very well and like the others said....make sure you have a good lab partner cause that would help!

Take Grunfeld at southfield(OCC). I had him last year. I never had chem in HS either and I got an A. You'll do fine. He's very commited to students succeding.

Yes, Grunfeld was an awesome teacher for CHE 1000! I got an A also. He offers extra credit as well. He's a little scatter brained sometimes but like burlygirl said, he is very committed to seeing his students do well. Good Luck!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am going to Highland Lakes right now for Algebra.

Not sure what program are you all in? The LPN or RN? What is harder to get into?

Im not sure what direction im going in until i do all my pre-req's. Im still thinking about Resp therapy. It seems like everytime I ask someone at school what they are going for, they all say nursing. There must be more people trying to get in all the time.

Im not all about money, but Im sure as heck not going to bust my butt and take out loans to make $14 an hour. I sure hope that isnt the going rate for a nurse these days. (I saw that in another post)

I see ads in the paper all the time (from nursing homes, to agency) for more than that, but have seen posts from other people a lot lower. Do you think those ads are misleading?

Im not all about money, but Im sure as heck not going to bust my butt and take out loans to make $14 an hour. I sure hope that isnt the going rate for a nurse these days. (I saw that in another post)

I see ads in the paper all the time (from nursing homes, to agency) for more than that, but have seen posts from other people a lot lower. Do you think those ads are misleading?

Unfortunately health care professionals aren't always compensated fairly for the amount of work they do.

When I was taking my prereqs at OCC for my BSN program there were a few ladies in my classes who were already LPNs. They were doing a few more classes in order to get into the LPN to RN bridge program. They would always comment that what LPN really stood for was "Low Paid Nurse":chuckle

Unfortunately working in a hospital as a new LPN grad you really would be making around 14 an hour (UofM hospitals would pay you 13 and some change look it up on their website) You would see starting pay jump dramatically (like 8 more dollars an hour) if you were a RN. If LPN salaries seem too low for you I'd suggest you invest the tuition money and time in a few more semesters of school so you can make a salary you'd be happier with. As unfair as it is, new LPN salary for those without much experience is often equal to or less than what STUDENT nurses in RN programs are paid after a semester or two of nursing courses (which is usually 14-16). It's so unfair, but I don't make the hospital payscale.

I had always thought nursing homes usually pay less than other employers.... I could be wrong-- Someone feel free to correct me. Agency pay would usually be a little more but I don't know that it would be THAT much more than a hospital salary for a LPN....

And as for your other question the RN program at OCC is harder to get into than the LPN (probably easy to understand why when you see the difference in pay....)

Good luck to you in your prereqs and getting in the program!