My Nursing School Blog First Year 2017-2018

Sample of First year nursing classes


For Fundamentals of Nursing, we will have two seven week courses. For the first seven weeks, we will be going to lecture and a simulation lab. During the second seven weeks, we will use our new basic skills in a nursing home with patients. In the lab, we will learn and practice skills on mannequins. Examples of beginning skills are placing urinary catheters, giving bed baths, changing linens on occupied beds, wearing protective equipment, taking vital signs, and changing dressings. After the two seven week fundamentals courses, we will have additional seven week courses on Medical Surgical nursing and Pediatrics and Obstetrics. We will then get a summer break and go into more depth during the second year. There is also an option to take an additional four week course to become a licensed practical nurse or LPN, but it isn't required. 

Pharmacology for nurses with an infant (pre-first year)

I'm going back to school! I actually enjoy going to school, so I'm excited about it. I took pharmacology when the baby was six weeks old through her eighteenth week. I was breast-feeding her, so I'd have to pump my breast milk on the class break in a study room or in my van. I also often had mastitis (breast infections) during my classes and exams, which means I was at school with high fevers and feeling like I had the flu. I got mastitis a total of 7 times, so I quit breastfeeding at 7 months, because it was enough already.

The class itself was tough because there was so much info to soak in. I had to constantly study, any chance I got. This meant that instead of me getting the sleep I needed, I was studying. It was a 12 week course, so I figured, just hurry up and get it over with. The best advice I would give for pharmacology for nurses, is to keep listening to the lectures over and over. Read out loud the drug and it's side effects and where it effects the body. The more you say it again and again, the more it will become easy for you to recall the info for the test. Just keep going over the info continuously until the exam, driving to school listening to lectures, and looking at powerpoint's before bed and in the morning before exams.


One week before first year begins 

I've been reading through a few chapters early, classes haven't started yet, and watching videos on how to do patient baths and other things. I also bought all the access cards for school for online quizzing, and clinical info- ouch! Very expensive. I also found the all white sneakers on Amazon. The school has been pretty particular on how we wear our hair and clothing requirements. We have to buy only a certain color of scrubs and specific style numbers.

Week One-Fundamentals of Nursing

This week we learned how to wash and or sanitize our hands properly, how to use protective gear for highly infectious patients, how to operate hospital beds and how to change a patients linens with them in the bed. We learned everything one day, and then have to demonstrate the skills the following day. After that, we have to chart on a website what we did for that patient. Next week, we are on to bathing and toiling for the patient! Fun stuff yay! Just kidding.

Week Two Fundamentals of Nursing

This week we learned how to give a bed bath, performing range of motion exercises on the patient, putting compression stockings on a patient, and how to use and tie restraints on a patient. We also learned patient positioning and were tested on these skills. Once I ran through the range of motion exercises a few times it stayed in my memory pretty well as long as the steps for the bath. Cleanest to dirtiest, so face first then arms and chest, legs and private areas last. You can grab several new wash cloths also during the bath. The lectures have been on pretty straight forward material so far. For me, it hasn't been anything I didn't already know. I also learned this week that the mannequins can be male and female, as the private parts are interchangeable. It was funny when the instructors wanted to swap out the vagina for a penis, and weren't sure where they had left the penis. Is it in a drawer somewhere? Where did I put that? Oh here it is! And the instructor emerges waving a penis in the air, and slaps it on the mannequin. We all had a good laugh. 

Week Three Fundamentals of Nursing

Hurray! Week three of seven is under my belt and over with! This week we learned how to transfer patients out of bed and onto stretchers or into chairs. I had to demonstrate using a gait belt, and a mechanical lift with another student. I passed! I also did very well on my first exam. I found that the adaptive quizzing by Elsevier really helped my test taking. A number of the test questions were very familiar, if not the same, so it was extremely helpful and recommended by the instructor. I am going to try to use it a lot more in the next couple of weeks for the next exam. I am trying to stay on my toes with memorizing and verbalizing EVERYTHING out loud to show the instructors that I am aware of what to do and will now demonstrate it. They are starting to give out more fails here and there for missing things.

Week Four Fundamentals of Nursing

So, in terms of exams, I did well on the first exam, and just okay on the second exam. My baby was sick the whole weekend and I didn't get enough study time in. I'd like to study extra hard for this last exam, and try to have an "A" average. Anyways, week four labs were great. We got to start feeling like nurses. We got out our stethoscopes and started practicing blood pressures, and listening to heart sounds on each other. We also took temperatures on each other, pulses and used the pulse oximeter. Next, we started learning to count and hear respirations with our stethoscopes. It's time for us to get up close and personal with each other, especially when listening to heart and breathing sounds. I'm glad I don't get embarrassed easily. Things are going pretty smoothly. We are starting to learn about doing head-to-toe assessments this week as well. We get extra time to learn all the steps, and have to test out for it next week.

Week Five Fundamentals of Nursing

I practiced memorizing all the questions for the head-to-toe assessment over the weekend, and all the steps involved. I also went over it in the car, and practiced on a classmate before testing out on it. Unfortunately, the classmate I usually practice with got swapped out for a different one at the last minute. So, I didn't feel it went as smoothly as it would have, if I would have had my usual partner. I still ended up passing though. I just appeared to be fumbling through the respiration sounds a bit, but that wasn't because of the partner change. I was making too much noise with the stethoscope tubing, and wasn't able to just focus on hearing the sounds. The double earpiece stethoscopes are harder to control the quality of what you're hearing though. I never noticed a problem with extraneous sounds when just using my own stethoscope. I was also saying "breath in, and out" too much, instead of just listening. I remembered all the questions, and all the areas to check over on the body though, so that was a great relief. 

Week Six Fundamentals of Nursing

This week we watched demonstrations of aseptic gloving, emptying urinary catheter bags, obtaining a specimen from a urinary catheter bag, irrigating urinary catheters, inserting straight and indwelling urinary catheters, and administering enemas. We then had to demonstrate our skills on the mannequins. We are also learning about older adult health and behaviors, nutrition, sensorimotor, urination and elimination. My final exam is tomorrow on the first half of Fall semester. I have been doing a lot of adaptive quizzing questions to try and be ready for the test.

Week Seven Fundamentals of Nursing

I didn't do as well as I wanted to do on the final exam. I think I will buy an NCLEX review book, to better learn how to strip down the "tricky" questions and better tease out the wrong answers. I think with my select all that apply, the problem is that I am sometimes leaving out one of the right answers, because I think it's a trick and the wording is making it wrong, but its not. I'm getting quite frustrated with seeing questions also that I feel I was never taught or never read anywhere in the textbook. 

As far as the lab, I passed the lab exam. We were given scenarios that required us to prioritize what we would do and then act it out on our lab partner. It was nerve-racking but I got through it in the allotted 20 minutes. I've been watching the Urinary catheter videos over and over to make sure I remember all of the steps to remain sterile throughout the procedure. We get checked off on these procedures next week. After that, we will be entering extended care facilities to do very basic procedures under supervision of course.

Week Eight Fundamentals of Nursing

After a one week break, we started off the first week back with a panic. We were going to be checking off on urinary catheter skills right away. Some people were given NO time to practice, and had to go first. A demonstration by the instructors first would have been helpful, but that didn't happen. We were all panicked. Everyone made mistakes here and there. Some of us have to repeat various parts of the check off in a few weeks. We also did more practice in the simulation labs listening to heart and lung sounds and taking heart rates. We are reading up on the topics of sleep, legal implications in nursing, death and bereavement, pain management and spirituality.

Week Nine Fundamentals of Nursing

We went into the rehabilitation/hospice care center today. We were all assigned one patient to care for. We were supposed to perform a head-to-toe assessment and do any hygiene care needed. I also took various residents to the dining room, or helped them locate their rooms. I also fed my patient several times as he couldn't use either of his arms. The facility is very nice, and I told my mom about it for my dad if he should get to that point. I look forward to going back next week, I think everyone there is happy to have us.

Week Ten Fundamentals of Nursing

We are getting very familiar with using Hoyer lifts to get impaired/immobile patients in and out of bed. We are able to do this on our own. We are also using sit to stand Hoyer lifts to assist patients to use the toilet, or have a brief change. Some patients are using bed pans. We've seen staples be removed, tube feedings, and blood sugars being done. We are studying pain management, Ethics, Legal Implications and Spirituality. I took my exam, but was stumped by several of the questions. 

Week Eleven Fundamentals of Nursing

We performed post-mortem care this week. We changed the patients brief and placed their dentures in. I thought we might do a complete bath, but I think the Nurse Aide was going to do that after we were done. We made the patient look nice and got him cleaned up for when the family would arrive. I think the instructor just wanted us to experience some of the care, but I don't think we had time to do the complete care.  We also did several head-to-toe assessments in front of the instructor. 

Week Twelve Fundamentals of Nursing

I've been watching videos for test taking for nurses. The exams are not black and white. You will be presented with several correct answer choices, and you have to choose the "best" answer. I'm really hating this part of the nursing program. I think we could learn how to take the NCLEX later, and just focus on learning material right now, but it doesn't work that way. The test questions are made to be tricky and trip you up. Some questions, to me, seem like a shear matter of opinion, in terms of "which is more dysfunctional- this scenario or this one?" What??? I'm pulling my hair out. Now I'm finding myself just happy to pass the exam. It's not my style. Whoever said don't bother studying for the NCLEX until the second year was SO very wrong. You've got to get the thinking behind the NCLEX questions nailed down right now, just so you can get through the nursing classes. 

In terms of the clinical part, I feel like I'm doing pretty good. I don't feel like I'm lost or fumbling. I definitely feel like I should lift some weights or something. I need to be able to lift patients better (rolling them so someone can clean them up/using a slide board), and try to gain some strength. I need the strength to lift my son any way. I hadn't had to lift him for quite a while due to my c-section recovery going so slowly, so I think I lost some of my strength there. We did more assessments this week, and assisted with other procedures like dressing changes/wound care. We learned quite a bit in just the few weeks we were at the nursing center. Now time to study for my next exam.

Week Thirteen Fundamentals of Nursing

I did so much better on my last exam. Trying to find ways to break down the nursing questions has been helping, along with reading the textbook more than I did before. I am studying for my final exam now. In the simulation lab, we are running through drawing up injections for patients, and medication administration. We are going through hanging IV bags and looking for signs of IV complications. I'm trying to memorize which medications would be injected where, and trying to go over common medications again to know about interactions. I've got a bit more studying before I'll feel confident about this final exam.

Week Fourteen Fundamentals of Nursing


I did pretty well on my final, it wasn't the high score I was hoping for, but it was close enough. I started out shaky, but finished strong in the end with my grade. What helped me this time, was using other books as supplemental study material, and finding lots of review questions on line in the subjects I was studying. I'm going to have to continue this through the rest of the program it seems. There were also other students that shared some resources with me, so this was also really helpful. I have to admit, it was difficult for me to remember all the signs and symptoms for electrolyte imbalances. I'm thinking of started to take Ginkgo Biloba or something like that to help my memory. I occasionally take fish oil right now, but not regularly when the heart issues started showing up I stopped taking it. But when I did take the fish oil, I felt I could think more clearly, so I will go back to it for the program. 

Medical surgical nursing

I am feeling a lot more like a nurse now. I go in and assess the patient, make sure they are eating, help them with hygiene, get their bed changed out. I'm getting into the routine. We have three exams for our seven weeks. My first exam was great, second exam was not so great. I really had to buckle down and study extra hours after the kids went to bed. It was tough, and I was worried for about two weeks about passing the next exam. I did well though, and got a high score on the final. Now that I am on break, I am reading my new textbook every day and taking the online quizzes. I'm trying to give myself a little bit of a break, but I've got to stay on track with getting through these classes. 


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