Saturday, February 15, 2020

2/15 Advice (1st semester) Paramedic to RN

Last week we had our clinical site overview and walk through. The Med-Surg floor that we are on is very small. Our clinical nurse instructor is very friendly and helpful. We met the LPN to RN students also. They were very nice. They will have clinicals on Wed and us on Thurs. Here is what I've taken in this far into the program:
1. I'm learning to think more like a nurse as far as testing goes. I feel more comfortable taking test and learning how to weed out answers.

2. Our instructors are really making an effort to make us comfortable and welcomed into the program. They hold us to a standard (and we maintain, no playing). I honestly feel as though they want me to be a nurse as well. The best way to describe is a professional program w/ a motherly touch.

3. Work load is a bit much!!!!! You have to really set time for studying, assignments, and pre-reading the next chapters.....oh and also for practice test i.e. FA Davis, and HESI.

4. Use a calendar for everything, if not, you will miss stuff. Find time to balance work vs school vs play.

5. Last, don't feel guilty if you take breaks while studying!!!!

Friday, February 7, 2020

1st Month of Paramedic to RN

The 1st month has passed, so I will give my 2 cents. Being that the 1st semester is an " accelerated " 1st year of RN program, it will helpful to get your Nursing basics down. We are moving really fast! I feel as though the material is doable, but I suffer by not having a strong basic NURSING foundation. I have to look at youtube videos i.e 4yourcna...etc. Nursing school goes deep into patho, so it's a lot of studying to be done. So far, we have covered legal, safety, infomatics, ergonomics, therapeutic communications etc. mostly foundation stuff. We start clinicals in 2 weeks. We had an intro to doing care plans (they suck), head to toe assessment, 45 min & 10 min (waaayyyyy different than a paramedic assessment).

As a whole, nursing is different. I'm starting to understand how to answer the questions. Most of the questions are not treatment related. It's more educating the patient and safety factors so far. We have had some s/s assessment type questions, but its mostly "how would you educate, or what to look out for" type questions. You have to really know the s/s of stuff. I just purchased nursing.com as an additional resource. This course is tough. But I'm taking it 1 day at a time!!!!!