Oh My Aching Back!!!

If you have a really bad back then bedside nursing might not be a good career choice for you.  

On the first day of the first Med Surg I clinical I felt my back aching.  And so did a bunch of my classmates.

 By the end of the program I made a promise to myself to go do hot yoga several times per week once some one hires me for a job.  

Back and shoulder injuries are really common!!!  

The person I was going to ask to preceptor me for my second independent study threw her shoulder out and was out for months and months on end.  It was shock to me when I heard it because she is very tall.  Just over 6' and well built.  Very solid.  It happened when she was wheeling a patient.

A young guy I shadowed in the ED told me that he threw his back out while adjusting a gurney for a patient.  Out for months.

My godmother threw her back out when she was walking with a heavy patient that fell.  She was out for months and months.  

One classmate's preceptors threw out her back in the middle of her independent study.  

The taller you are the worse it is.

I won't get into the stories I've heard of injuries where people never ended up coming back to work.  But it happens...

Why I Recommend Going to Downstate Reason #4

Cheap tuition.

Compare Downstate's tuition to other institutions out there.  

There's a major difference.  

That's where the differences end.  There isn't a major difference in your ability to find a job after graduating.  Employers aren't really going to stress where you graduated from.

Better to finish school with little to no debt and get a job earning 75K, than walk out with a ton of loans to pay back.

What's So Special About Brooklyn College?

Look below to read my post about Brooklyn College if you haven't already!!!

So that's it I just go to Brooklyn College and do good and then I'm sure to get into Downstate's Nursing Program?  

No!  It's a good idea to volunteer or intern at a hospital as well.  
I will post something about this later.

And there is a catch with Brooklyn College.  

A bunch of my nursing classmates graduated from BC.  I only vaguely remembered seeing one of them around campus.  Former classmates I ran into once I got to Downstate were in the PA and M.D. programs.  

At Brooklyn College you take Chemistry, all your Bio classes and Anatomy and Physiology classes together with those planning to apply to medical school.

The classes at Brooklyn College are no walk in the park.  

While at Brooklyn College my physiology class started with about 35 students.  In the end there were around 15 or so and a few of them flunked the final.  

I saw the same thing happen in my chem 1.1 class where we had the good luck of getting a professor who normally teaches graduate level classes.  His exams were rough.  No multiple choice.  Only partial credit.  3/4 of the class were gone by the end.  I got an amazing tutor and managed to ace it with his help.  My chem tutor is now a medical student here at Downstate doing research.

They don't just love Brooklyn College Students because both schools are in Brooklyn.  If you can do well at BC then you will likely do well in the nursing program.

BUYING YOUR PSYCH TEXTBOOK? HOLD UP!!!

So the assigned textbook for my Psych class is Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Edition #6.  

I went ahead and got editon #5, and it was a mistake.  

 The two books are totally arranged differently.  I sat down today to outline Chapter 14.  But chapter 14 in the 6th edition is chapter 19 in the 5th edition.  

So you may want to hold off on getting the book until you are ready to start the course.  See what edition they require.

Why I Recommend Going to Downstate Reason #3

The Program is Fast and Effective!

You are finished in just 15 months and are eligible to sit for the NCLEX exam!!!

The program has a 100% NCLEX pass rate!!!  

It costs $300+ dollars to sit for the exam, so it would really suck to not pass.  The program is totally geared towards all of its students passing the NCLEX exam on the first pass.

Also by the end of MedSurg III you will be answering patients and their family members questions.  You will be your families go to gal or guy for questions about their health issues.  This was one of the highlights for me after 12 tough months of grinding through textbooks.

Why I Recommend Going to Downstate Reason # 2

SUNY Downstate has an excellent reputation!

While doing my second independent study, I had the head of the hospital's stroke unit walk up to me in the middle of his rounds, look at my ID and say, "Oh look we have a nursing student here today from Downstate!  An excellent school.  Good luck with with your studies."  I later found out that he himself was also a Downstate graduate.

I interned at Mt. Sinai and know for a fact that they love Downstate grads.

I've also heard from a family member that retired recently from Lenox Hill that they love Downstate grads.  She was extremely happy for me when I got in the program.

Downstate is known through out New York City hospitals for turning out excellent students across the spectrum of health care programs.

Why I Recommend Going to Downstate Reason # 1

12 months into the program I started asking classmates the following question: if they could go back in time, and do everything all over, would they still have chosen Downstate?  
The answer I kept hearing was yes.  It wasn't a happy yes.  It wasn't a smiling yes.  Most of them thought it over for a second or two before they gave an answer.  But I kept hearing yes. 

The only no I heard thus far was from someone who realized that nursing itself wasn't really for them and they would have studied something different.

Psych Clinical Attire

I miss my scrubs.  When you get to psych you hang up the old uniform and throw on a shirt, some slacks, and shoes.  Something to think about down the line for those of you who are living on a tight budget.  You will need business casual attire when you go in.  No sneakers.  No low cut tops.  No perfume.  We were told a funny story of someone wearing a low cut top to clinical and a patient kissed her right between her breasts.  Funny story.  Bad reality.  But yeah, slightly more conservative attire.

Don't Change Your Answers On Tests

Sad to say it, but I made it all the way to Med Surg III, and I was still doing this.  

Professors along the way will likely warn you about this.

If you finish your test and then go over it- unless you look at a question and are like, "Oh no that's totally wrong I definitely made a mistake."  Don't change your answer!!!!  

9 times out of 10 you will change a right answer to a wrong answer.

I kept OCDing on my exams, and it cost me every time.  

PSYCH CLINICAL DAY 1

To be perfectly honest I was not looking forward at all to this clinical.  I had some experience with being inside of a mental institution in my camera assisting days.  I worked on a documentary  called The Living Museum.  I was booked two days on the project while the director conducted interviews patients at Creedmore in Queens.  One of the fellows we shot,  I found to be a bit unnerving.   For those of you interested in working with psych patients the documentary might be something cool to check out.  Here's a link to get info about the documentary and the director :

http://vimeo.com/jessicayu

The patients I encountered on day one of my rotation reminded me of a lot of the people you see every day on the trains and in the streets of NYC.  We are surrounded by people that are psychologically unstable, it's just we're so busy with our own personal lives that we usually tend to just tune them out.

There were no Hannibal Lecter types lurking about the floor.  So for those of you worrying about getting stabbed in the eyeball with a pencil or something, you can chill out.  Kind a.  I mean don't turn your back on the patients, but you don't need to be freaked out either. 

Most of the days conversation centered around the patients' desire to introduce themselves and express their desire to get back out into the world.  Seeing new faces and wanting to tell their story in hopes that we could somehow change their situation around.  

With regard to the goal of psych clinicals, what I gathered from what the professor was saying, the most important thing for us to try and accomplish in this rotation was the ability to sit down and have a conversation with the patients,  lead group projects where we teach the patients about different types of mental illnesses, and engage in recreational activities with the patients without saying anything that would disturb them or set them off.  That was the message I walked away with after our first clinical day.

Oh yeah, and also to go in and out of all doorways as quickly as possible because some patients will try to abscond if you provide them with an exit and a chance.  

One interesting piece of information we learned was that due to recent changes made by managed healthcare organizations aka those folks that provide us with health insurance, the new goal of nurses and doctors working in psych wards is to get an acute, unstable, patient stabilized as quickly as possible and then release them.  The goal is to accomplish this in under 11 days because the health insurance companies won't pay beyond that.  What that essentially means is that people that may need to spend more time to really get it together beyond the point of not being a danger to themselves and others won't get that time.

They come in, get just stable enough for release, and once turned back out into the street God only knows...