Random advice

- Learn your nursing math *with* all of the units written in everywhere. If your math skills aren't strong, this is doubly important, but even if your idea of difficult math begins at the calculus level and you think dosage conversions are a piece of cake, sooner or later, you _will_ get a teacher who insists on the notation. Better to be in the habit.

- Working full time while you're also doing clinical rotations is tough. You will probably either be working a full shift 7 days a week or doing your own job 5 days a week and then doing a full clinical shift on top of that twice a week. Do what you need to do to prepare yourself mentally and physically. Learn to love exhaustion. :)

-Before you start clinical rotations, talk to your instructor about what sorts of things will vary in real life from your classroom learning. Try to ask about which things you should worry about and which things are just a matter of perhaps being done in a different way.

- Get a good set of nursing drug cards. A really good set. You will probably need to make your own drug cards at some point, so know how to use the ones you've purchased. Notice what's important to include when you make your own.

- Buy retractable pens. Keeps accidental ink marks off your scrubs and hands. Also keeps you from stabbing yourself on a pen point - sounds silly, but it will happen......

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Ya Gotta Decide Sometime......

For a (very) brief summary of a (very) long list of possible nursing specialties and jobs, try http://choosenursing.com/options/index.html

Make Sure Your School is Certified....

 Oh, my goodness! I can't imagine going all the way through nursing school (not to mention *paying* for it!!!) and then finding out that I can't sit the exam because the school wasn't certified. I sure hope that these folks get their money back and are able to start over.

Nursing School Nightmare

Notes From Florence

The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe.

--Florence Nightingale