I GOT IN!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!
I got my letter of acceptance three weeks early. I am so excited I can’t stand it. It was so wonderful to have all my hard work pay off!!! I was really trying to prepare myself for not making it. I was trying to focus on things like I can go get a job and pay off all my student loans. I was trying to hard not to think about getting in. But in all honesty but the begining of June that resolve was starting to waiver. I wanted it so very bad. I just couldn’t deny I would have been crushed if I was rejected.
That isn’t the end of my hard work though. I am nervous about the math, so I am reworking my way through the text book this summer and trying to take 20 minutes a day to work out math problems by hand. I also ordered a copy of nursing calulations for dummies to start on now. I am so used to a calculator that doing things long hand makes me a little anxious. I need to be very very comfortable with it. Becuase I will have too much else to learn and can’t take the time to go over basic math again and again. I know how to do it, but it is one area that I know I am very weak in.
So a good lesson for those trying to become nurses… know your weakenesses and become good friends with them!
3 Comments »
Leave a comment
Welcome to my blog!
My name is Corinne and I am a 28 year old nursing student at Peninsula College, in Washington. I applied to The Peninsula College School of Nursing in Spring of 2009 and was accepted into the Fall 2009 nursing program and like most students working through Nursing School it is a time really focus on being the best student and potential nurse you can be.
As with many adult students returning to college this is not my first career choice. I have worked as a book keeper and office assistant. However, I wanted to make a change after having my daughter (now two) and find something that I loved and could support myself doing. Nursing was a perfect fit.
In returning to school to complete my nursing prerequisites, I noticed several things. First there are an increasing number of adults returning to school and a lack of information available that addresses many of our needs. Second, Nursing school is extremely competitive and hard to get into even though the need for good nurses is through the roof. So this blog is primarily devoted to nursing students but may be helpful to any student really. Occasionally I throw in tidbits about politics and nutrition.
I love feedback so please comment often, and if you ever have questions, let me know I am always looking for new topics to post about.
Thank you for reading,
Corinne
burwash.corinne@gmail.com
Congrats on your acceptance letter!
Hi Corrine, I am extremely happy for you. As you were, I am starting my Nursing pre-reqs this Fall at Middlesex Community College here in Connecticut. I too feel that Nursing is my calling. I always put this career on the back burner, thinking I don’t know if that’s for me for too many years now. I am 40 years old and I see things so differently now….and I a truly loving life!
My work background is very similar to yours. I am very happy I found your blog. You are so right about becoming comfortable with your weaknesses. I also, have a weakness in math. I am more comfortable in some areas,than others. The way I see it, everyone who studies to become a doctor or a nurse is not a genius, they had to study to get where they are. I will have to do the same.
I was looking at graphing calculators last night at Staples, and researching them now online when I found your blog. Do you think I should purchase one? I learn by doing, so I need to see the math problem being worked out, then I can usually understand it.
Well, I can go on and on….would love to hear from you.
Thanks,
Arrinza
ahanne07@yahoo.com
Hi, just found your site from a link to the seven misconceptions about nursing. Very good list. Glad you were accepted. I’ve just finished a term as clinical instructor for RN students. Your attitude toward the math is terrific. It isn’t that hard once you have done it enough.
Which is true of all things you are learning. I explain to my students that I learned a lot about learning because my daughter is quite dyslexic. With a lot of private tutoring, daily support, extensive technology (computer with scanning, text to voice and dictation, plus tape recorder and top notch Franklin spelling dictionary) she did quite well in high school. Especially in science and math where they eventually allowed her to take honors classes. First they explained she would have to learn the material with only 10 repetitions. Most of us require 15. (And health care considers you ‘non compliant’ if you didn’t get the first time…) She is going into her junior year at Colorado School of Mines in mechanical engineering with a GPA of 3.999- because last semester she got her first B..
Go over the notes, the medical diagnoses, meds, etc. as frequently as you can. It’s a lot like learning to become proficient with a musical instrument. Practice, practice and more practice. Nursing requires left brain, right brain and kinesthetic (touching, feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling) learning. The more you experience, the sooner you will be able to start connecting the dots in complex patients to adjust their care or notify the physician about a possible complication – in time to head it off.
Politics and nutrition, two of my favorites. Hopefully you are contacting lots of the Congress critters to let them know how badly we need more low interest loans and grants for nursing instructors.
Finally, check out this new study on sleep and memory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/science/09sleep.html?ei=5087&em=&en=39c01776286d0c71&ex=1173589200&pagewanted=print
Have fun, hope all goes well with your studies.
Ginny