Nursing Major

dee_vang

sarNie Juvenile
I want to thank everyone who responsed!

Great advices and suggestions! I am going to give it my best shot!!!! ;)
 

mainhiathao

sarNie Granny
i always want to become an RN....i'm enrolling in college next spring..cause i grduate half semester early from high school...:D.....i wish i could be a nurse in OB/Nursery...thats one of the best place for me....
 

judyp

sarNie Adult
aww. i do too. but i love bits and pieces of every area. i love love babies but i think newborns scare me a little because they are fragile. lol. but we'll see. im debating OB or pediatrics.
 

BaBeeLaiLai

BaBeeLaiLai
I should have aimed higher and went for nursing...but too bad I'm just doing medical assisting...because i was too chicken to go up for the challenge.
 

sirena

sarNie Adult
im in an accelerated nursing program, getting my ADN in october.

definitely for your prerequisites, expect for the science classes to be the most difficult. now, i don't know how your program selects their students for the program, but the BSN program over where i live is based on GPA, so if your program is based on merit, then aim for an A in your prereqs! the most difficult prereq classes for me would have to be physiology. i took that dang thing twice because i passed with a C the first time around and i was trying to get in whatever program i could at the time so i wanted to bring up by GPA. the required classes are usually english, math, critical thinking, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, microbiology and maybe one or two others and of course your GE requirements. it took me about 2 years to complete all the prerequisites to get into the program.
as far as the program, it is HARD WORK. this is when there is no time to fool around. you need to buckle down and get serious. you have to be very determined and dedicated to get through these classes. you have lecture class as well as your clinical rotation where you do your "hands-on" work at the hospital under supervision of your RN instructor and other RNs who are employed at the hospital. you will ALWAYS be tested on medication math because something that small is HUGE in nursing. as far as the tests in lecture, it is completely different from tests you will have ever taken. it is all critical thinking and you will understand what i mean when you see it.
anyways, i absolutely love nursing and i hope im not too worn out after this program to go for my BSN and possibly NP (Nurse Practitioner). you can do soo much with nursing and you will find that you love bits and pieces of different areas. but you will find an area that you want to dedicate your whole time to and for me, i found 2 areas that i absolutely love. when the time comes to apply for a job, i think i'll know for sure. at least i hope so. lol.

and as far as the comment about visiting dead bodies. im in a different program and we don't 'visit' dead bodies. sure you'll sometimes take care of a patient who ends up dying and you will have to provide postmortem care. thats all part of nursing. you see life begin and you see it end. anyways, study hard and good luck to you!! :)
you pretty much just said everything i have to say :)

and oh dearrr jesus i know exactly what you mean those darn lecture test :wacko:

like in regular school, the multiple choices question are easy because sometimes you can 50/50 because 2 always good and the other don't

but these tests they ask you

PICK THE BEST ANSWER THAT FITS!!!!!

OMG and when u read the question then u look at the answers all the answer sounds good all 4 answers sounds good and would fit

but they looking for BEST fit :wacko: its tough

beside all the constant studying etc its a really rewarding career :)
if its something you wanna do i love it

just by the end of the day take deep breath, get good sleep study hard and you be find

cause by the end of the day you need that deep breath and relaxing bath to calm u down

best of luck to you
 

sirena

sarNie Adult
this is an example of med math

5/9 + 2/3 = ?

theres more to it lol

Nipride is ordered and you are to titrate to maintain the systolic blood pressure at 150 mm Hg. Available is Nipride 50 mg/250 mL. The range is 3-6 mcg/kg/min. A microdrip chamber (60 gtt/mL) is used with a pump. Your patient weighs 135 lb.

im not doing this to scare u i just wanna show you what some of the things you'll be dealing with
 

judyp

sarNie Adult
^^ lol. those math tests are exactly like that. normally, you get tested on it every semester. my program, if you don't pass the math test by the 3rd try, you are dropped from the class. sucks eh.
 

Mya

sarNie Hatchling
Can someone who is already working as a nurse please share his/her experience on here? Whenever I read nurses' comments on other sites, many say THEY ARE WORN-OUT, FEEL UNAPPRECIATED, FEEL LIKE GOING HOME TO CRY THEIR HEARTS OUT, or WOULD NEVER HAVE CHOSEN TO GET INTO THE FIELD IF THEY COULD REDO THINGS. Needless to say, it sounds sad and depressing! I want to know what I'm getting into before it's too late, so please share any work experience as a nurse. Thanks!
 

judyp

sarNie Adult
Can someone who is already working as a nurse please share his/her experience on here? Whenever I read nurses' comments on other sites, many say THEY ARE WORN-OUT, FEEL UNAPPRECIATED, FEEL LIKE GOING HOME TO CRY THEIR HEARTS OUT, or WOULD NEVER HAVE CHOSEN TO GET INTO THE FIELD IF THEY COULD REDO THINGS. Needless to say, it sounds sad and depressing! I want to know what I'm getting into before it's too late, so please share any work experience as a nurse. Thanks!
^^ sirena is a nurse, so hopefully she'll see your post and respond. :p
my experience as a student nurse..well, my job duties are very similar to a registered nurse, just that i have yet had to take on a load of patients. with that i mean, 5+ patients. i also have not dealt with working with doctors, but other than that, i am doing hands on patient care and charting for 12 hours. it is a very tiring job but i love doing it so im not complaining. at least not yet. lol. i know it will be more tiring as i take on more patients, but thats the reward i get out of it. i go home knowing that i've helped someone. i know that when a patient dies on me or i can't fulfill their needs, i will go home and probably cry my heart out but thats all apart of nursing. i can understand where some nurses feel unappreciated because you do get those patients who will want want and want. not just the patient actually, family too. but you provide to the best of your ability and know that you've done the best you can. i am soo very excited that i will work as an RN soon. about 3 more months!!! ^_^ again, you have to WANT this. with all your heart. it is a very rewarding career.
 

iono

sarNie Hatchling
So what's the update with you nurses/student nurses?


At this moment, I think I am approaching insanity studying for my advanced med surg final :facepalm:

Any tips on how to critically think and apply what you know?
 

PhoneO_5

sarNie Oldmaid
So what's the update with you nurses/student nurses?


At this moment, I think I am approaching insanity studying for my advanced med surg final :facepalm:

Any tips on how to critically think and apply what you know?
You lose hair, gain weight...go insane. Typical symptoms for a nursing student hehehe

Med Surg? Think ABC & safety 1st. If it's a priority question Airway is always important. Respiratory. (4 sure on NCLEX it's important hehe)
Every class is different, so IDK what your final will be like.
Know ADPIE your professor should clue in to what was important and what isn't. Listen to what the teacher mentioned in class. Because that's the answer they'd most want you to answer with.

If two answers are close, figure out what is more important. What distinguishes one disease over another. Underline key words if you need to.

Most important? Don't cram. Get up early, have breakfast.
 

iono

sarNie Hatchling
Thanks for the tips.

Haha, I love the ABC questions.. i always know what to choose lol. The other questions.. not so much, haha

ah, the NCLEX. I should start studying for that now. Any tips on how to study for that? What I've heard is to do a lot of NCLEX questions.
 

PhoneO_5

sarNie Oldmaid
Thanks for the tips.

Haha, I love the ABC questions.. i always know what to choose lol. The other questions.. not so much, haha

ah, the NCLEX. I should start studying for that now. Any tips on how to study for that? What I've heard is to do a lot of NCLEX questions.
NCLEX...ahhh. I took a month off after graduation to relax before I started to study for it. I think I kinda crammed, spent hrs at the library 2 weeks prior with goals set because I couldn't concentrate at home. Too many distractions like watching Asian dramas haha

I signed up for Kaplan online, it was pricey, but it helped me because of the Question Bank (I did this right after school let out...so I had it, only utilized it once a week until I felt the test date narrowing in lol). I think it is a lot of answering practice questions because it gets you into this mode of 'how to answer' each question. Kaplan helped me figure out how to narrow things down. I think they have this decision tree...which I don't remember. I gave my books to my friends who didn't pass the 1st time. I got other flashcard books, but they were too simple of questions, so I didn't use it. I didn't even get through the questions on the lessons on the Kaplan course because I ran out of time, I did get through the question bank questions. Didn't score so hot on those. But they say Kaplan questions are hard, so it's good to get above a certain score. I think I scored below, but decided to go take my test anyways. Kaplan's book is broken down into sections. I did study every section on my own. It was easy to follow.

I got the minimum amt of questions on my NCLEX & the computer shut off! Felt like I failed badly because I didn't study my medications because I figured there's too many to even memorize. Stressed for two days, so decided to pay for the fast results. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw "PASS" on there! You really do feel like you fail after the test.

I learned some acronyms that really helped me. As soon as I got into the room, I wrote them down just in case I had them, and the questions involving them were there! There's delegation, priority questions. You need to know 'why' one thing is important over another. A selection can have one false in there, and it won't be the answer.
 
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