Teachers

Some people really have no business stepping foot inside an educational institution. This semester I have had instructors that have totally changed my life for good and bad. One clinical instructor has allowed me to grow and progress to a level I never considered possible as a nurse. She expected so much out of me and I desired each week to impress her, to know my stuff, and to perform on the clinical floor. I will always be grateful for the instruction AND the confidence that she has shown in me.

Another instructor is a joke to the word education and has no business attempting to instill knowledge, that she has not gained into students attempting to learn a new art. She is a brand new instructor and  has an aura about her that seems as though she believes her self gods gift to nursing education when in reality she commands disrespect, pity, and disdain.

From the experience I have only strengthen my desire to one day enter nursing education and provide students with the guidance they deserve. Nursing school should be hard and demanding and require a great deal of effort. This does not mean however that instructors should adopt a sense of godliness when in reality their knowledge is severely lacking. Nursing education is currently suffering from a lack of quality faculty to fill the thousands of faculty openings across the country and regrettably the students are suffering.

I have attended 5 universities in the course of my education including; private, public, Division I, regional, Online, and community colleges . . . and I have never been so disgusted by the quality of my education or an instructor as I am at this point. The good thing is . . . . only 6 days left in the semester!!!!!

Here is what I have learned about what a teacher should be to aid their students:

• Be prepared - don't just show up with pre printed slides provided by another instructor or the book publisher. Do some homework and be sure that you at least have a basic grasp on the material you will be presenting.

• Be Humble -  you don't know everything, don't pretend that you do.  Your students will respect you more if you can admit you gaps in knowledge.
• Be Respectful - if you say something  .. . do it! Understand that you students are adults too and deserve basic common respect as does any human being.  If you arrange a meeting . . . BE THERE!
• Respond to Emails and Phone calls - enough said.
• Provide Clear Instructions - if the instructions are provided clearly once you will not have to do it again.  Simply prepare lessons and assignments with the end in mind provide a rubric and give this to students.
• Practice what you preach - your students will be watching you.  We don't know how to be nurses yet. Practice what you preach.
• Don't become a teacher if you do not have basic communication skills 
• Give feedback - we are here to learn . . . help us!
• If students are failing your course - ITs YOUR FAULT! if good students are doing badly in your course yet doing well on national exams . . . its time to look at yourself!

I will always be grateful for the excellent teachers that I have had and the many well prepared instructors that take the needed time to provide us with the education that we hope to attain while spending an enormous amount on it.  The sad thing is. . . the one bad apple can spoil the bunch! Lawn service allen tx

2nd degree bsn methodist college of nursing reviews

Exercise

I have been spending the past couple of days working on building a website about running bleachers.  This has kept me pretty busy, but it is something that I love.  Not the running bleachers as much as just the working out and staying in shape.  This keeps me sane during nursing school. Anyway check it out I don't think you will be dissappointed.

Get NCLEX prep tool

This tool from ATI is a great NCLEX prep tool. You can throw it on your ipod or iphone and practice NCLEX questions wherever you are . . . check it out.

 There are also a few free NCLEX prep tools.  This one costs about $20 but I think it is worth it.

Nursing School Test Taking

Okay, I've gotta plug this book one more time because it saved be during my first semester of nursing school.  It is called Test Success: Test-Taking Techniques for Beginning Nursing Students (click to view on Barnes & Noble), testing is a bit different in a BSN program, you are required to "think critically" and this book really helps you learn the game.  Thats all it really is, BSN tests are a game and once you figure out the strategies it becomes much easier.

Med Error

I admit it, I'm not proud of it, I knew it would come some day but I just hoped it would not be so early in my career.  I made a medication error.  I gave my patient Lactobacillus in the wrong form.  Lucky for the patient and me this was a VERY small and insignificant medication error.  I was supposed to give him another form of this probiotic but failed to read closely enough and administered the wrong med.  I immediately told my nurse and teacher who were supportive and cautioned me to read more carefully and pay better attention in the future. I felt pretty lousy, although it wasn't really a big deal, what if it had been. I have learned my lesson!

Respiratory Nursing

Clinicals this weekend in many ways restored my desire to be a nurse.  I think it had a lot to do with my clinical instructor.  She was mean, nice, helpfull . . . you get the picture.  She drilled us about our patients, their conditions, and the meds they were on, but at the same time she treated us like adults and allowed us to see many procedures and found opportunities to see procedures, practice skills etc.  Sadly, clinical instructors as good as her are hard to come by but on the up note this was the first time in nearly two months that I was excited to be in nursing school.

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Cardiac Cycle Animation

Learning the cardiac cycle is essential to preforming well in nursing school and in working as a professional nurse.  Below are a few links to help learn the cardiac cycle.  There are some animations on the cardiac cycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlFBzaTuoI&feature=related                           

Below is a link to the best series of videos that I have found.  It is by a professor named Dr. Najeeb and he uses them in his USMLE prep course.  Search through his youtube page to find many other helpful videos.  This series of 8 videos on the cardiac cycle should leave you with a very complete understanding.  He provides his own animations of the cardiac cycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbivIaFPoQI

Grade Inflation

Nursing School Grade Inflation

I have had grade inflation on my mind a lot lately for a couple reasons.  I fear the MCON is the king of grade inflation in some ways, and it concerns me that students are not fully prepared to practice in the role of RN.  Despite being able to memorize basic information I am not confident in some students abilities to act as competent members of health care teams.  Is it the students fault?  I am not entirely sure, if we are not challenged to learn concepts and only required to memorize a few simple facts to pass a test basic human nature will take over and students will become lazy and only memorize those simple facts.  I have been fighting to continue to dive into material truly learn concepts despite being spoon fed answers from instructors.

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Psychotropic Drugs

Here is a simple list of the major psychotropic drug classifications, their method of action, and major side effcts.  This is not complete, of course, but it gives a basic idea for study purposes.

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Stressed Nursing Student

Okay, I was a bit upset last night.

Time to move on.  We have our first mental health exam tomorrow.  I have really enjoyed the mental health rotation at the hospital.  In this rotation we really just talk with the patients, but you meet some of the most fascinating individuals and have a chance to learn much more in depth about various mental disorders.  I do not think that I will ever work in a mental health capacity, but I am sure that the experiences gained working with these individuals will create life long memories.  How many people do you know have been locked in a room with 30 bipolar and schizophrenic patients?  It really has helped me to see the thin line that separates sane from insane or mental health from mental disorder.  I will always be grateful for the appropriate balance of chemicals in my brain.

DON"T GO TO MCON

Granted I currently hold a 4.0 GPA at MCON, but I will tell you. . . go anywhere else!

Fall Semester

This semester we are only taking three classes; Complex Med Surg, Mental Health, and Quantitative Research.  We now have two clinical days so we get to be in the hospital much more which is good.  Now that I am beginning to acquire some skills nursing is starting to become much more enjoyable.  On Saturday mornings I am on the lock down mental health unit (which is a lot of fun)  then on Sundays I am on the Oncology floor.
This Saturday we have a big Cardiac test in Complex, it will be our first grade for the semester and actually accounts for a total of 13% of our total course grade.  I have been working really hard (my wife tells me to cut back on my study time) and it has paid off, I was able to squeak by the first two semesters with a 4.0 GPA.  The program is front loaded so if I can pull off another decent GPA this semester I will really be in the clear.
I need to add some study tips on here eventually because I have found several things that really seem to help out a lot with learning the material.

Summer Almost Over

This has been a VERY busy summer.  We moved, my wife started a new job, I took 16 credits, my son had surgery. .. . It has been a bit stressful.  I have enjoyed clinical much more this semester as we are now able to give shots, starts IVs etc. . . I started my first IV a couple weeks ago.  That was a bit stressful as the patient was 88 years old and I had only ever done it on a rubber arm or on the young arm of one of my classmates.  I am proud to say I started it on my first try and it went very smooth.

Summer is almost over so I am beginning to prep for finals.  Then Fall starts right away. . . No rest for the nursing student!

Second Degree BSN

Second Degree BSN semester two. So first semester is finally over.  I managed to squeak by with a 4.0 at the end and more than anything I am just happy that it is over with.  This semester will be BUSY!  We are studying Med-Surg which is a six credit class and 5 other courses on top of that.  Oh, and since it is a summer semester it is only 12 weeks long.

How to prepare for your first day of nursing school.

First of all RELAX! Yes, nursing school is hard and it will beat you up a bit but you will not survive if you are stressed out. You will hear horror stories from friends, family, other nursing students about how rough it will be, but don't listen to all of this.

Take sometime to think about your life and how to keep it in order, set your priorities (nursing school should be up toward the top), make sure you are balanced and you will be fine.

As far as being prepared for the first day, I would suggest taking a crash course in critical thinking. If you plan to pass the NCLEX you must learn how to think critically. Buy a book off of Amazon.com or from Barnes and Nobel that talks about basic test taking strategies and critical thinking steps and work though it. One book in particular that I study almost more than my text books is: Test Success for beginning nursing students. It provides some test taking tips and strategies as well as critical thinking basics.

Seriously, relax. Get a gym membership or find out if your school has a free gym (mine does). If you are not taking care of yourself you won't make it. Take a speed reading course or learn how to improve reading comprehension. There is a lot of reading in nursing school, and if you are like me you don't really learn by reading. Learn how to comprehend more of your reading.

Go to the VARK website and find out what your preferred learning style is. Take the simple test on that site and then spend sometime researching ways to enhance your learning through that method. I am a kinesthetic learner, which means I learn by doing so I take TONS of practice tests per each chapter. I also draw pictures and go to the lab a lot. This is how I learn but it is different for everyone. I can't read my text word for word, for me that is just a waste of time.

Websites Heart & Lung Health Assessment Study

I found some websites that are pretty helpful with Heart and Lung Study:

http://www.lawrencegaltman.com/Naugbio/CADAVER/GALLERY.htm

This website has some cadaver dissection videos. . . do not click if you are not comfortable seeing human dissection. They are very informative and provide excellent visual instruction.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hhw/hhw_electrical.html

Very simple animation depicting the electrical conduction of the heart.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072495855/student_view0/chapter22/animation__the_cardiac_cycle__quiz_1_.html

Simple animation with narration and quizes, covering electrical conduction and diastole and systole.

http://depts.washington.edu/physdx/heart/demo.html

Heart sounds.

Second Degree BSN

So the second degree BSN is a beast all its own. Most people stress about nursing school. In the Second Degree programs, also called Accelerated BSN (ABSN) programs we complete nursing school in under two years. Yep! A BSN in about a year and a half.

Some schools have their ABSN programs last only about 13 months. It is crazy stuff. You really have to dedicate yourself pretty much to reading 24/7. It does all pay off though, my class is 19 people and we will have our BSN in about 18 months.

I don't plan to stop there. I don't think that you really can. While nursing provides a lot of benefits as far as a career you really should go on and get an MSN or DNP. I plan to become a CRNA right now. That is a Nurse Anesthetist for many reasons the top two being; I want to be around surgery and I want to make money. The nursing community is really pushing for advanced degrees for nurses anyway so it will be great to be ahead of the curve.

The above picture is an image from the MCON.edu website which is the school I attend and it is an actual picture from the SIM lab connected to the hospital that students use on a very regular basis.

This is the MCON building where I spend all my time. From about 7 or 8 am until the evening and ALL day on weekends.

Wild Turkeys

Well Peoria is kinda strange. As I was walking home from class a couple days ago I crossed paths with a wild turkey. Right in the middle of downtown. We saw four walk trough our front yard just the other day too it is strange.

School is busy still, but I am starting to learn exactly what I need to be stressing about and what I can relax about a little bit.

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MCON 10 year anniversary

So the school had its ten year anniversary last night. It was a small little gathering with some of the staff and previous graduates and students. The school has been around MUCH longer than ten years, but I guess that must have been when they actually received accredidation or something.

The staff of the school is all VERY helpfull and excited about the school and the students. I was able to meet and talk with some of the recruiters and admission staff. The first group of second degree BSN students graduates next semester and they are all very excited to see how they do on the NCLEX. I too am excited to see how well the ciriculum is preparing me for the only test that actually matters. I feel like our program is very intense and hopefully they are actually teaching us what we need to know.

They are highly focused on the NCLEX and improving pass rates and we do a lot of reading and "critical thinking", there is also a lot of study material available for us to prepare for the test.

I bet that the Second degree BSN program has a higher pass rate than the college overall. From what I have seen we seem to be more focused and excited about the route we are on. . . . and we seem to complain less!!

How to Study for Nursing School

I'm actually not really sure what the best way to study is. I know that I am putting in at least 8 hours a day of reading, typing, note taking etc. . .


Amazon Book

I did well on the first test. At least I didn't do as bad as I thought I would. Our school has an adjusted rubric, meaning that anything under 93 is a B and anything under 84 is a C. I got a B on the first test. I am hoping to still get an A in Holistic Nursing. This is our hardest course for the semester and if I can get an A or high B it will really boost my confidence in an overall high GPA.

I know this shouldn't matter to me too much, but I have hopes of CRNA school or NP school and I want to land a good job right out of school, so I just think a good GPA will keep more doors open.

Here are a few things that I do that help my studying:

• Read all assigned readings.
• Make notes in the book as I go.
• Turn the powerpoints into questions and answer those questions.
• Repeat step three two or three times.
• Teach a classmate what I have learned.
• Approach the professor at least once per section with questions.
• Take all practice tests from the book, ATI, book website & included CD-ROM

Basically, you have to shut off the other parts of your life that are distractions. Our school does have a gym connected with the hospital that we can use for free. I am sigining up for that now.
Plus I have an awesome wife that is very supportive!!!