This wonderful! This made me laugh, smile and # 3 made me cry because its so TRUE. Sometimes being in this program noone understands what your going through except for the girls by your side that are going through the rigorous hoops of nursing school along with you. Theres even days I just want to quit, I'm either to sleepy to go on, frustrated because I'm lost or just feel like this is not for me.This past semester seemed like the worst for me In clinical, I was put up to the most challenging patients and skill that even the nurses on the floor had a difficult time caring for, but I got through it.
However, reading the comments are very encouraging. So future nurses hang in there it will be well worth it in the end. GOD BLESS YOU ALL

Wow, thats great ! Reading this put a smile on my face, my goal in life is to become a successful nurse
and yeah like everyone else i always hear the negetive, the put downs, and everything else, but i try to
keep my head up and stayed deteremind. I always say to myself if i want it and i belive i can do it than
i shall get there :) i try to turn the negetiivity and turn it into motivation. In the meanwhile before i start
the nurseing program im trying to do as much research as i can trying to learn as much as i can about the
human body and the important systems the body carries, would you suggest thats a good idea? Idk i think
refreshing my memory and knowing somethings in advance might help ? suezy.juarez.6@hotmail.com

Hi, I'm an LVN x 1yr and am i'm in an associates degree program. During clinicals I get really nervous when doing certain procedures? I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe i expect myself to be better. I feel as though everyone is expecting me to be perfect at my skills. It really gets me down when i get nervous because it shows on the outside. Is it normal for even a nurse to be nervous? I get nervous to the point that i have tremors when doing an IV or giving an injection or drawing up medication. It really affects me and I really want to be a good nurse. I love my job, but i hate being nervous around others. Any advice. mariposa221@yahoo.com

Hi, I'm a first semester nursing student and I am scared out of my mind! Today in clinical, I had a mean patient that wanted nothing to do with me since I am a student.  For class, we have to do a complete physical assessment and diagnosis for this patient and I could not even lay one finger on this patient.  Does anyone recommend any good strategies that can allow a student to actually try to get within 5 feet of a patient?

I want to be a hospice nurse. My last rotation was on the oncology floor. I was honored to be with a lady who chose to have all medications and procedures cut off to satisfy her belief that life is about quality rather than quantity of days. This feels good to me - and I love this aspect of nursing. I spent most of my day talking to the daughter and rubbing lotion on my patient's skin since the radiation treatment caused much dryness. FINALLY I have found an aspect of nursing that makes sense to me. Dying is real and there's no bull involved because once you're there, you're there. I'm regenerated and can't wait for my next rotation on the medical floor. I have one month left and then my first year is up. I'm not on a fast track and although I'd like to be, there's nothing in my area. I was looking at the possibility of becoming an apprentice nurse at the hospital nearby, but they've already hired their 5 workers. That leaves me out. I'm now wondering what it will take to become an apprentice worker in the New Orleans area where I know they are short of nurses?? I would LOVE to work there for the summer - even for free - if it meant I could get experience. Anybody know?? Please respond, and I'll ask my instructors because I am willing, able and excited to offer my help to anyone who needs it.
Woo hoo!
Priscilla

Even though I'm not a nurse a piece of advise for all ER Nurse hopefuls:

Take the time and get involved in an EMT course. It gives you a good way to expereince life outside the hospital in the street where it really gets crazy. Also you know what the medics bringing the patients in to you are going through. A good way to experience the whole spectrum of emergency medicane.

This isn't exactly advise, but I had this when I was in nursing school and although it is tongue in cheek, it also rings true.

Dear Lord: I know we go through this every day, but please give me the knowledge as to why I actually wanted to go to nursing school. Lord, give me the strength to make it through those boring three hour lectures without falling asleep. Lord, please give me the patience to make it through 12 hour clinicals with instructors who can't just give you the right answer. On the same note, give the nurses the ability to remember what it was like to be a student and give us just a little more respect. Lord, give me the endurance to read all the assigned readings and be able to remember it when I am taking a test with 4 right answers. Lord, give my family and friends the ability to realize I really am on the edge of insanity. Finally, Lord, give me the vision to see that one day I will be a real nurse and I will never have to wear this ugly uniform again.

Amen

In reference to my entry below, I just wanted to make sure that you know I am cheering you on and wish you the best of luck. I didn't stress that enough I don't think. Got a little caught up in the "day in the life" thing. You sound like you are going be a GREAT nurse! Oh and by the way, I spelled obscene incorrectly in the earlier entry. Hey-nurses aren't always spelling bee champs okay? If we were then we'd be ENGLISH MAJORS! Hahahaha. Best to you, Emily

In the future, when you are working in your new career, you will find yourself up to your elbows in blood (if your lucky, it will be blood, if not,something worse) when one of your fine co-workers will come and take over and relieve you for your lunch break-should you be so fortunate to get one- and you will wash your hands, heat your lean cuisine in a hand-me-down microwave in your breakroom that used to be a patient room before the most recent renovation of the hospital, sit at the table that rocks back and forth, and not miss a beat. It is then that you will know that you have reached a milestone. Don't soak in the moment too heavily though, because the co worker that relieved you 5 minutes earlier is back in the breakroom, formerly known as a patient room to tell you that they are swamped and they need you back NOW and oh by the way your patient in room ?? is screaming your name and can be heard all the way to the neighboring unit so you'd better go see what it is they want. You'll hear the sound of that patient screaming your name later that night in your sleep as well, along with the sound of beeping IV pumps, cardiac monitors and various other disturbing sounds, depending on the type of department you work in. I hope you enjoyed that partial lean cuisine you inhaled. I know you probably have to pee, but that will just have to wait because your patient in room ? didn't and now they are covered in urine. There is no additional nurse, CNA, tech or kind stranger to help you because although hospitals are ALWAYS adequately staffed and the patient/nurse ratio is always reasonable, it unfortunately isn't today, so you are on your own. That patient is still screaming your name and other patients, even ones you aren't caring for, have caught on and are screaming your name as well. Hey, you have a call at the desk, it is Dr. Painintheass, he has a long list of new orders for you to take and administer to your patient despite the fact that it is less than two hours until shift change. You'll get right to those orders just as soon as you finish helping your pal with her patient that just coded in the bathroom. After slipping on urine on the floor, losing your namebadge in the toilet and seriously straining your back, you and your pals get the patient squared away, turns out he just vagaled down on the potty. Hey look, it's the oncoming shift! Hey guys! Great to see you. After a cozy session of shift change report it looks like it may finally be time for you to go home and pee.......except that all of that fun you've been having has to be documented on all of your charting that you just haven't found the time to do. So grab an age old office chair that's missing a wheel and is stuck on the high position, some leftover uneaten cornbread from your patients dinner tray and hide in a corner, closet or comatose patient's room and get charting! Tomorrow you can do it all again, and laugh about everything you went through today, cause thats part of the job! Oh, and do tell your patients goodbye before leaving, especially the one thats been screaming your name--the ones that scream your name are usually screaming it because they like you, not because their pissed off. The ones that are pissed off almost always use obsenities. Good luck! Don't worry, you'll do fine. You've got a great sense of humor and that is a requirement for this job. Emily RN emergency room nurse-Alabama.

Echoing what everyone else has said...make friends. Help your classmates out when they are stuck on something, if for no other reason than if you help them, they will help you.
Be organized...I keep my lecture notes bound together in packets by exam. So I have an Exam 1 bundle, Exam 2, etc...it made it much easier when it came to study for finals. My experience is that they love to hand out papers in Nursing school, and inevetibly, the one you lose is the one that has the really important info on it. (Like next semester's reading assignments...luckily, I found it!)
Whether you do or don't have to take the HESI test, http://www.hesitest.com has good case studies to go over, and they have a workbook you can purchase too.
Use the study tools that you are given. CD-roms in books, textbook websites, etc. After a couple of exams, we noticed that some of the questions came straight from our textbook's website.
As an extension of that, pool your resources. Use the aforementioned friends, and maybe each of you buy one study guide or NCLEX book, and rotate them around through the group. If everyone brings one to a study group, you have a good variety of questions and rationales to work through.
Fear is a totally normal reaction. Everyone is afraid...afraid of patients, afraid of instructors (I decline to name names lol), afraid of exams, afraid of actually performing a procedure on a patient...It's OK to be scared. The more you see and do, the easier things will come.
Back to using your resources...use your clinical instructors. They lke to act like they are there to pick YOUR brain, but turn the tables and pick their brains. They've been in the game a long time and are clinical instructors for a reason. Yes, they like to intimidate you, but in the end, they are there to help you succeed.