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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Hi ho, hi ho.....

And it's off to work we go! Our class is just about to start our first clinical rotation! Some of us are excited, some terrified..... and most of us are some combination of the two. How could we not be? We are *finally* getting some hands-on, practical experience with real clients. The flip side of that is that it's hands-on, practical experience with real clients. LOL.

I think I'm going to head off to allnurses.com to read the forums on nursing school bloopers and stories...... Aren't medical folks always the ones with the best stories at parties? I'd love to hear yours. :)