Monday, January 16, 2012

Semester Lovin'


Classes start on Monday 1/23 and I’m ready and rearing to go. The first two books and last book are for my classes, the middle three are for my benefit. I thought that Mosby was a great teacher when it comes to learning my fluid and electrolytes, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. I think if I can learn these areas really well then I’ll be able to understand more of what happens to each of the patients I take care of.  Unfortunately this area I was lacking in during last semester.  Things seemed to fly by and I didn’t catch all that I should have learned.  The last thing I want happening is to not know basic nurse information for the patients I’m taking care of.  Must know type of things like what different antihypertensives there are, or why someone would be developing edema on a certain area of the body what to do about it. 



I didn’t do so well in my 7 credit class this last semester which inevitably lowered my GPA. This means I could be out of the running for Honors but at this point I’m just glad I’m passing so I’m not worried.



This will be my 3rd year 2nd semester and will be involved with two full days of clinical Tuesday and Wednesdays with OB rotation, which sounds delightful!



I’ll have an opportunity to fulfill a cultural diversity section of our semester by visiting an Indian Reservation in North Dakota with a few other students and instructors. We’ve been told by other students who’ve already gone to expect to see lots of poverty. However I’ve also been told that a few students got to help deliver babies and give vaginal exams, I think that I’d be able to get more out of that experience than staying in town.

I'm just excited to get going through this semester seeing as last semester flew by so quickly I'm hoping this one does too.  The sooner I get through done the quicker I graduate and become a nurse.

5 comments:

  1. I have the same medsurg book. I want to burn it. lol


    Let me know if you need help with anything, I thoroughly enjoy OB.

    Good luck this semester!

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  2. In in AZ there are reservations all around. Yes there is a lot of poverty on them. But overall it really looks worse than it is.

    Have fun in OB!

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  3. Hey, I had the same Med-Surg and Psych books. I read most of that dang Med-Surg book over the course of last semester..I kept it for NCLEX and reference purposes, but I don't really want to look at it anytime soon. The Psych book reads really easy..which is very much welcome in nursing school!

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  4. My two cents on supplemental aids. (I offer this because I *love* hearing what other nursing students think of different supplements, not because I think my opinion is SO great, LOL.)

    I'm not a huge fan of the Mosby memory notebooks or notecards. If I had unlimited resources, I would get them, but if I could only choose one supplement per course, I would probably choose the Prentice Hall Review & Rationale's series. In each chapter, you get an complete but slightly abbreviated, nursing-centric review of the info that's in your text plus 20 NCLEX style questoins in the book and those same questions plus another 30 new questions on the included CD (with 50 questions per chapter, each book in the series had between 500 and 800 NCLEX style questions where they explain why the wrong answers weren't quite right enough and why the right answer was the rightest).

    If I could choose two supplements per course, I would probably make the Davis Success Series books my 2nd item. They are jam packed with NCLEX style questions.

    Third on my list would be the "incredibly easy" or "insanely easy" series.

    I think the memory books/cards come in fourth on my list -- with the cards being much better than the books. Ooh, wait, actually, they might go to fifth. I just remembered another series I really like.

    I love Davis' Notes series. RNotes, Lab Notes, etc. In fact, I think my perferred supplement list goes like this:

    1. Prentice Hall Review & Rationale series
    2. Davis' Notes series - pocket sized and jam packed with info!
    3. Davis Success series - scads of NCLEX questions
    4. Incredibly Easy or Insanely Easy series -- I've not yet found a strong preference for one over the other. (Anyone else have a strong opinion about one or the other?)
    5. Memory NoteCARDS (better than the books b/c more info and in color :o)

    I'd love to hear more about what you or other blog readers think are the best supplements!

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  5. Thank you so much Lori for all of your insight! I look forward to checking out some of these books.

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