What classes to take when pre-req's done??

student4ever · Jun 7, 2005

So far all I have for my program in the Fall is the core courses which equate to a whole 6 credit hours. I want to round out my schedule so I still qualify for my federal and state grants so what classes should I look into to round out my education? I want to graduate with honors so I'm looking to keep my GPA and raise it a few tens of a point. I've already taken A&P, Micro, all english, math, psy, phy, soc, and fine arts requirements. I was thinking about taking beginner's Spanish to brush up on my foreign language skills.
Any other easy type classes out there to take that will improve my GPA but won't hurt my study time for my core classes?

Spanish is a great idea, especially if you are planning to practice in an area with a large Hispanic population. I can't tell you how many times my highschool/college Spanish has helped me out in my current job at the hospital. When a patient comes in with illness/injury and cannot communicate effectively, it greatly adds to the tension and fear they are feeling. A lot of hispanics in our area are illegal immigrants, and terrified to seek healthcare. It's amazing what someone who speaks their language does for their emotional well-being. They see someone who speaks Spanish as a friend/ally who will help them and understands where they're coming from. It also speeds the process up when you don't have to wait for an interpreter to come in, and is much more personable than doing the whole telephone translation thing. Also, many of them are clueless as to follow up care and general health practices, and if they truly understand their discharge instructions, they will be more likely to follow them, and even if they don't go find a family doctor, they know they can come back and see you, which at least brings them back for more medical care.

I work in the ED, and that's something that makes my job worthwhile, is to see healthcare becoming more clear to someone who doesn't understand. One night we had a young Hispanic girl come in by squad for a suspected overdose, and because there was no one to translate, they kind of went by medical diagnosis only, and called psych to commit the patient for attempted suicide. I saw this girl's father distraught in the waiting room, and asked him in Spanish if there was anything I could help him with. He poured out the whole story, and told me they were locking his daughter up, and he was terrified she'd be deported. I went back to the doctor, and tried to figure out what was going on. When he told me that she was being committed for suicide attempt, I explained the process to the father, and that the committal was a 72 hour thing. He started screaming that his daughter was not "loca," she was just taking her medicine like the doctor said, and the doctor should have to go to jail because he almost killed his daughter.

Turns out the daughter had been having trouble sleeping, and her family doc had given her a Rx for Ambien, with the instructions to take "once a night before bed." This was what he WROTE DOWN, the father showed me. Unfortunately, "once" in Spanish means ELEVEN, so trying to follow the doctor's orders, the poor girl had taken ELEVEN Ambien!!!! The girl got admitted over night for observation, and went home the next day. It is so important to make all instructions to patients and their families clear, and to be able to speak another language is an incredible asset. Some places here where I live, employment advertisements state bilingual only need apply.

SO I guess in short, Spanish would be a great idea! Good luck with school!

Momto3andNurse2B · Jun 7, 2005

I'm not sure if you are going into an ADN or BSN program, but I spent a year waiting to get into my ADN program after I had all of my necessary classes finished. I'm not sure if I will pursue my BSN right away or not, but I checked out RN-BSN programs I might be interested in and checked to see what their requirements were. That way, if I do decide to do it, I won't have to take more classes just to start.

I do agree that Spanish is a good choice, many schools require a language for BSN.

Richele

soontobe_RN · Jun 8, 2005

So far all I have for my program in the Fall is the core courses which equate to a whole 6 credit hours. I want to round out my schedule so I still qualify for my federal and state grants so what classes should I look into to round out my education? I want to graduate with honors so I'm looking to keep my GPA and raise it a few tens of a point. I've already taken A&P, Micro, all english, math, psy, phy, soc, and fine arts requirements. I was thinking about taking beginner's Spanish to brush up on my foreign language skills.
Any other easy type classes out there to take that will improve my GPA but won't hurt my study time for my core classes?

I was in the same situation as you two semesters ago. My first question to you is, what program are you in, ADN/BSN? By the sound of your prereqs., I would assume ADN, like myself.

The first thing I did was decide if I ever want to advance and eventually go for my BSN. At that point I looked at the prereqs for a college I could transfer to, to get my BSN.

Then I went down the list and tried to find classes that sounded interesting and that would help in my current program. I , like you, did not want them to be too hard b/c I was finishing up my other prereqs. and needed to have time for them. I took the following:

Organic and Biochemistry

Nutrition

Ethics in Health Care

Medical Terminology (which I am taking this summer).

Spanish is also very good to have,too, although, I haven't taken it yet.

Remmber, being financial Aid, the classes you take have to be in the same area of you degree. For example, I could not take buisness b/c it doesn't have anything to do with nursing. By the way, if you are getting pell grants you can still get money for class and books even if you are below 6 credits. Your award just gets cut. I hope this helps!! :)

Good Luck,

Jennifer