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Hey Everyone,

Here is an ask me a question and it comes from Yolanda:

“Hi Sarah,
I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your Registered Nurse RN life and creating the web for people like me who have questions. From reading some of your post and answer/questions your site was more helpful than allnurses web site. Your answers were straight to the point. I do have 1 question for you, actually 2. It is May 2009 when is your graduation? And *congratulations*. My 2nd question is i am currently taking my pre reqs. for the rn program have not applied yet. I did not know nor did i see it on the list that i have to take general courses as well. My plan is to take “all” non-clinical courses and get them out of the way. Could you tell me which courses to take before applying and starting clinical classes?

Thank you so much
Yolanda”

Thanks Yolanda for your kind words! Sorry about the delay in getting back to your question. Congrats on wanting to go to nursing school! Yes, I graduated in May of this year 2009. I have actually already graduated which was on May 9, 2009.

I can give you advice on what type of classes to take that are non-clinical but I can not tell you the exact classes to take because each nursing program is completely different in what they require. For instance my nursing school didn’t require me to take physics but one of the other nursing schools about 20 miles from my nursing school required their nursing student to take it. So it really depends on what your nursing school curriculum decides. I suggest you go your advisor and ask what non-clinical classes you can take.

Here are some class I think you could get ahead a get done that are not clinical: Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, Nursing Theory and Research, Pathophysiology, Health Assessment, English, History, any Physical education class, Math, and all your electives. That should help give you a start. However, your nursing program may not require you to take any of those course so I would just check with your advisor because they are usually the ones who can point you in the right direction.

Thank Yolanda and good luck with your nursing  career!

Sarah

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Hey Everyone,

I received another “ask me a question” and it comes from Nurse 2 Be and here is what they asked:

“Hey Sarah,

I am currently a nursing freshman entering Nursing 3. I always seem to be the slowest at care plan writing. I always feel as though my assessments are broken (patient leaves for procedure or PT and things are almost impossible to get done). I have only performed 1 complete clinical rotation. Are there any suggested books that could help me, or even better any personal advice. I do have a tendency to double- check everything (as far as my paperwork, – somewhat like a perfectionist- Help Please!) nursing is fast paced and I don’t want to be the tortoise. I loved to be a Registered Nurse RN.”

Nurse to Be, thanks for your question and I know exactly what you are talking about. You sound just like me when I was in your position. Here is my advice for you:

I’m going to go by my experience and hopefully it will help you out. When I first started nursing school and was in your position I was a huge (and some what still am) perfectionist. I was a little to the extreme too. Everything had to be perfect! I constantly double checked my work, nurses notes, hourly checks…etc in clinicals and I noticed I was behind my peers because I did it so much. However, as semesters went by and I got more experience on the floor (and with those dreadful/painful careplans lol) I got faster and more comfortable where I wasn’t have to double check everything.

Careplans are not fun to do and they take time to write. It would take me about 5-6 hours to get one done. So expect to be slow at them and I’m sure many of your classmates are in the same position. To help with the “broken” careplan here is what you can do. When I had to do careplans we had to go the night before and get information on our patients and then do a careplan. I don’t know if you have to do that but if you do I would ask the patient’s nurse if they are going to have any tests done or even that morning on the floor ask the nurse because they will know so you can work your careplan around the tests. If you don’t feel comfortable about asking look through the charts, especially in the doctor’s orders section. That should help you a little bit to implement your careplan.

You are just starting out so expect to be slow because that is how you are suppose to be. If you were fast at what you were doing and already knew it you wouldn’t need nursing school. I would take advantage of your clinicals and learn how to make yourself faster and more efficient….trust me you will get faster and learn it. I know you feel overwhelmed and you are probably saying in your head “how will I ever get all of this stuff down?”. It takes practice and time. You will not learn it over night or in a couple of weeks. It takes a while.

Also, don’t beat yourself up over being a perfectionist that is an AWESOME quality. Many nurses possess it. Almost half of my graduating class are perfectionists and lets just say group projects took a while to get done because everyone wanted everything to be perfect. I would want a perfectionist as my nurse lets just put it that way. I say hang in there and keep working at it. I promise you will get faster.

Good Luck with everything Nurse 2 Be and the journey is well worth it in the end!

Until next time,
Sarah

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Posted under Ask A Question, Daily Ramblings