Your first semester of nursing school is definitely a WHIRLWIND OF ADVENTURE, especially if you're in an accelerated nursing program. You will be studying ALL OF THE TIME. Friends? BYE. Social life? BYE. That cute boy you've been seeing? BYE... Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but you really will feel like you don't have a life other than school. Here is a bit of an overview of what your 1st semester might look like: INTRODUCTION TO NURSING: 2 credits From the syllabus: "This required course introduces the student to the conceptual bases of nursing. There is an emphasis on the nursing process, patterns of the person environmental interaction as a dynamic unit, and the role of the nurse in the health care delivery system. The principles of service learning are introduced." This class was actually my favorite. It talked a lot about nursing care, ethics, different nursing approaches, etc. Throughout the semester, it really reminded me of why I went in to nursing in the first place. It was definitely my easiest class. PHARMACOLOGY I: 3 credits OH BOY, this was the worst for me. First of all, SO BORING. Some of it was certainly interesting, but for the most part, a big SNOOZE. Also, extremely difficult. We had a first time pharm professor, so that definitely made matters worse. She read directly from the slides and that was it. And then her tests.... IMPOSSIBLE. Nothing like what she went over in class... Anyways, my rant is over. You will learn everything there is to know about drugs involving the respiratory system, heart, pain, depression, etc. You'll learn their mechanism of action, indication, contraindications, adverse effects, and nursing implications. GOOD LUCK, MY FRIEND. NURSING FUNDAMENTALS & HEALTH ASSESSMENT/ADULT HEALTH & ILLNESS: 8 credits This is the BIG MAMA course for the semester. 8 credits!!! It included a 4 hour lecture, 3 hour lab, and 8 hour clinical. My school combines the two courses for accelerated students, whereas regular 4-year students would take them over the course of 2 semesters. Everyone will refer to it as "med surg." This is going to really be the foundation of all of your nursing care and is certainly the most important for the NCLEX. This also means it is going to be TOUGH. There is an INSANE amount of information to learn, and it can feel very overwhelming at times. Just be consistent and stick with it! From the Fundamentals syllabus: "This course is designed to provide students with the tools required to perform a comprehensive physical assessment and review of a patient’s history. Students will learn inspection, auscultation, palpation and percussion techniques. Emphasis is placed upon assessment of the well person with common health problems. Health promotion and maintenance strategies are highlighted for all age groups." From the Adult Health & Illness syllabus: "This class provides a knowledge base for effective nursing care of adult patients. Students will gain insight into the management of chronic illnesses. Through utilization of the nursing process, the student’s role as patient advocate, patient educator and caregiver are further actualized. Methods of systematic analysis of research are introduced. Experiential learning in a variety of settings provide an opportunity for the student to promote, maintain and/or restore an optimum level of wellness in adult patients and families in collaboration with other members of the health team." I hope this overview gave you a better idea of what to expect for your first semester!
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So, you've gotten into a nursing program and you're wondering how you can prepare for the hell that is about to ensure? I got you covered... When I was first starting my program, I wish I had a better sense of how to prepare. I think it would have made things a lot easier and could have reduced a lot of stress. GET THE SYLLABUS ASAP Some professors will post the syllabus over the summer so that you can get a head start on the insane amount of reading they're going to assign. I highly suggest you make at least a little bit of a dent in it. It's kind of hard, since I feel like I barely remembered anything I read over the summer... but honestly, most of it was just fluff stuff about nursing theory and ethics and blah. But I'm really glad I got it out of the way early so that I didn't have to worry about it when the semester really got started. REVIEW ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY NOTES If you felt weak in any areas, now is the time to brush up! Review your systems. For me, I wish I had gone over the heart and kidneys! UGH. Also, parts of the blood and their function. I can't emphasize this enough... REVIEW YOUR SYSTEMS! You don't need to know every bone in the body, but it will be seriously helpful if you understand the flow of blood throughout the body, the structure and function of the heart, kidneys, liver, etc. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! LEARN SOME MEDICAL TERMS I was previously a journalism major and had never worked in healthcare before, so when I started school, I didn't even know what emesis (vomiting) meant. I was googling things CONSTANTLY... which, of course, will happen. But it can REALLY help to learn some of the most common nursing terms that come up again and again. It will save you a lot of time in the future. This is a pretty decent list from Quizlet. ALSO.... just relax. You will never... and I mean NEVER feel like you're ahead in nursing school. It is pretty much a game of being really far behind and seeing how quickly and efficiently you can catch up. These are just a few ways you can become *almost* on top of shit. I can't believe I did it! I successfully finished my first semester of an accelerated nursing program. There were definitely moments when I didn't know if it was possible, but I am so proud of myself for making it through. This was easily the most difficult thing I've ever done, and it was WAY harder than I thought it would be. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but this was definitely NOT it. If I had to sum up this past semester in one word, it'd be STRESS.
I think part of the struggle was that these accelerated programs inherently move so god damn quickly. I feel like I could barely get a handle on something before we moved right on to the next thing. You ALWAYS have to be on your shit. Here are some tips I came up with for surviving your first semester: I've always been afraid of caring for a patient who is actively dying. I'm not exactly sure why. I guess it makes sense... death is a scary thing. I always worry that I'm going to cry in front of a patient's family or say the wrong thing. This semester, my clinical is on an oncology floor where death and dying seems to be somewhat commonplace. So far, I've done a pretty good job of avoiding it, but I wanted to challenge myself to face this fear of mine.
I've always been a straight A student. I finished my first undergrad degree with a 3.9 GPA. My lowest grade in all of college was a C, and I think that was my very first exam during my freshman year. I thought failing was for fuck ups... for people who were too lazy to try.
I can't believe it, but I’m starting my fifth week of nursing school. It has gone by SO fast. This week, we had our very first clinical. I got so very lucky in my clinical placement. Some of the people in my class were put at shitty hospitals and some even got assigned weekend clinicals. I was put at an extremely nice hospital with a shit ton of money and resource on a week day in a pretty convenient part of the city.
I honestly can't believe it. I got into every program I applied to: New York University, Penn State, Loyola University Chicago, and Hunter College. But how was I supposed to decide? Ultimately, I knew I wanted to stay in New York. My boyfriend has a great job here, we moved in to a new apartment together, and we just adopted a cat. I'm finally making some friends and really starting to like Astoria. I'm not quite ready to move back home to the Midwest or to Pennsylvania, where I know absolutely no one. So, I narrowed down my choices to Hunter College and NYU.
Some nursing schools require you to take a pre-exam as part of the admissions process. There are a few different kinds and it all depends on which school you want to apply to. I am applying to Hunter College's Accelerated Second Degree Program, and they require the National League for Nursing RN Pre-Entrance Exam. I wanted to share with you all a few recommendations for studying for the test. If you SERIOUSLY follow through with these, you're guaranteed to do well. It just takes a shit ton of TIME and EFFORT.
If you're just starting your journey to enroll in a nursing program, my number one suggestion is to do your RESEARCH and PLAN far in advance. This is especially true for accelerated nursing programs. I made a list of the most important things to do if you're just starting out exploring schools and taking prerequisites.
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AuthorMy name is Jeanie and I'm in an accelerated nursing program in Manhattan. My first degree was in strategic communications from the School of Journalism at UW-Madison, so it's been a big change, but I LOVE IT! Read my blog and check out my youtube page to peek into my journey in becoming a nurse. Archives
January 2018
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