The Extra Bits-Time Management/Budget Management

SW BUSINESS

Things you may not have thought about that take up time and money:
I will try to give you an approximate price and number of hours and I will give *MY* opinion on whether or not it was worth it

TCPS- Budget 2-3 hours at the beginning of each clinical. It gets faster as you go along. You begin to see that the same questions are going to come up over and over again.

Intro to the library- They give this class at a weird time. It is somewhere in the middle of the semester when you could have been using the library and its resources before then. See my library guide post and don’t rely on this class. It is useful, though. Budget about 2 hours.

Guide To Using The Library

Alzheimer’s Day Services- Well, you HAVE to do this. It’s a clinical day. I wanted to add it to the list as being out of the ordinary. This one is fun, though.

AH1 Health Fair- This is an all-day affair on a day that you DON’T have clinical. It’s an ‘extra’ day. So budget one day for this and about 5-10 hours preparation and revision. There may be some printing costs involved if you want to make your life so much easier and let Kinkos do the final version. They have a MACHINE that folds tri-fold brochures. This costs about $20.

Service learning for Denmark- There are different levels at which you fulfill this requirement depending on what status the International Studies department gives you based on your essay and interview. I think the maximum is 30 hours and the minimum is 20. It’s not as scary as it sounds. I had done most of them before the semester even started by working the Welcome Center. You can make your own projects. If you already volunteer somewhere, you can use those hours. Budget 30 hours.

Peds Clincial at a school- this is another clinical day. If you are in the Nights and Evening program, you are obviously not going to be able to do this on nights or weekends, so budget one day for this. This also requires a paper. Budget 2-3 hours for the paper.

Clinical orientation days- Budget one day for this. It’s part of the curriculum. It should not be a surprise. 

Fingerprinting for VA- this one is a little inconvenient and difficult. You have to go when the hospital has time. You may find yourself needing some extra childcare for this one. Budget 3-4 hours.

Virtual IV- Hahaha, I was TERRIBLE at that thing. Mr. S was incredibly patient but I think he spent an hour rolling his eyes at me. Budget at least one hour. Then budget another one if you are bad at it. No faculty member is going to sit there all day while you try and remember to throw the darn alcohol pad in the virtual garbage. This may require two appointments. I rocked my first real IV I put in, coincidentally.

Criminal background check- The original one when you get into the program means going to get a urine test. So, I went before I taught school to my appointment and could not pee enough. So I spent the whole day at school drinking water and NOT peeing. My 3 year old students thought I was hilarious, “Miss Jan is so THIRSTY!”  I RAN out of school that evening for my next appointment (running with your legs crossed is so much fun). Budget about ½-1 hour for this. Not sure how much it costs. Budget time online to fill out paperwork.

There is another check for the NCLEX. This is mostly fingerprinting and takes about 20 minutes, plus driving time. Costs about $45.

TB test/flu shot- TB skin test takes about 5 minutes from what I have heard. I wouldn’t know. My darn parents vaccinated me with the BCG which means I will show up positive. I have to get a chest X-ray EVERY SINGLE TIME. Then I have to spend hours trying to get the doctor to say that I don’t have TB. You have to come back 2 days later and have it read. I am not sure which is more inconvenient. Chest x-ray: budget 30 minutes in the doctor’s waiting room.

Gathering Clinical passport documents- This depends on you. Do what I said and scan it all into your computer so you don’t have to do it every semester.

BLS-This takes about 4-5 hours and about $50. But hey, you can’t work anywhere without it.

Representatives from hospitals and BSN programs- They come in and talk to you for about a half hour each.

Test reviews- budget 20 minutes whenever your teacher decides. Probably won’t be during class time, though.

Picking up patient for clinical- the day before clinical, except in Mental Health. It takes hours and hours. You have to find a computer, get all the info and then go home and write it all up. Budget 4-5 hours getting information and 5-10 hours doing clinical paperwork.

Getting an ID badge- 15 minutes in the main part of campus. Bring your student account summary to prevent yourself from having to make a return trip.

Exit test-exit test takes 40 minutes.

NLCEX study books- You can spend an absolute fortune on these. Remember some are available free on Amazon and the SW library. Even second-hand they add up quickly. If you buy some, budget at least $100.

NICU- This is part of a clinical day. I am also trying to highlight the many wonderful opportunities we get at SW and the many ways this curriculum is taught.

MMHI Court Session- This takes a good 3-4 hours, but it’s fascinating.

AA Meeting- Budget an hour and a half for the meeting, plus driving time.

Wound Care Nurse Lecture- Again, this is class activity, but it is nice to know what things you will be exposed to. I asked her about maggots in wound care-cool!!

Child Abuse Lecture- Very interesting seminar. I believe this is scheduled out of class time. It is mandatory.

Transplant Lecture- This is given as part of AH2. Fascinating. Talk with your loved ones about your wishes for organ donation.

HESI prep- THREE DAYS. It’s three long days.

Uniforms- Our uniforms were slightly different, but I know out lab jacket alone cost $38. Budget about $100.

A good watch- up to you. By ‘good’ I mean: has a second hand. I never wore a watch before nursing school. Now I can’t be without one.

My nursing lab-$50. Worth it to be able to cut and paste stuff to make study sheets and for practice tests.

Evolve/HESI- this is $50 and is touted as optional, but you are going to want to have this. It has tons and tons of resources beyond what your teachers have you sign up for that are FREE.

Khaki pants/skirt- you are going to need these for mental health instead of scrub pants. Buy them at a thrift store if you’re never going to wear them again. $3 at thrift store.

Shoes- If you think you might wear a pair of all-white sneakers again, feel free to splurge. Mine came from Payless and were about $30.

Stethoscope- Get a good Littmann-$100. The ones in the official ‘kit’ suck. This is an investment for your career. You will love it and hate when you have to use the one designated for contact precautions.

SNGA dues- $25 a semester. This pays for your pinning and loads of events. Pay on time, everyone. It’s so frustrating for faculty and the representatives to have to hunt you down.

NLCEX fees-

NCLEX-RN Application Fee:                                    Two hundred dollars ($200.00)*

(submit 15 days before graduation)                            (Cashier's Check, or Money Order

(submitted directly to NCS Pearson)

                                                                                   

Board of Nursing Fee:                                                            Ninety dollars ($90.00)*

State Regulatory Fee:                                                             Ten dollars ($10.00)*

Repeat Examination Fee:                                            One hundred and ten dollars ($110.00)

White scrub top- You need this for pinning and for the photos they take to put in the hallway forever and ever.

$20-25.

Varicella titer-$55-$85 if you do not have insurance. Trip to Shot Nurse-depends on where you live as to how much time this will take.

Fluids and Electrolytes Project-This one takes coordinating all the people on your team outside of class. Factor in driving, planning and executing the project and you are looking at 4-5 hours. There are expenses depending on what you decide to do. Most people bring in foods to illustrate their projects.

GAS/Driving Time-Some people come from quite far away to go to school. I come from East Memphis and even for me gas expenses were high. I heard of one student spending over $270 a week.

Photos for graduation-various packets available. $30-200.

Nashville trip- Free. You have to get to school by 4 a.m. and you probably won’t be back until 6 p.m. You do the math. Good for ½ clinical day.

Frame for your license- $30- worth every penny.

$12,000 to Starbucks- I could not take a test unless my clothes smelled like coffee. Worth every penny of the many dollars I spent there. I have not been in a Starbucks since and at some point I told them that I don’t actually LIKE coffee.

This licence was earned at Highland Starbucks.

The Truth- Can You Handle The Truth?

SW Business

MYTH	REALITY
Fellow Students know more about the program than the people who are actually paid to run it.	Well, they are PAID to run it and they work hard. If you want to know something do not rely on hearsay, go to the source. From YaNawn-some great words: From a very young age I was taught if you didn't know an answer to raise your hand and ask the teacher for help. However, as we get older we seem to forget this basic principle and resort to reasoning. I often times hear students asking other students questions about assignments, clinical or exams. When asked "have you talked to Ms. or Mr. ____ I often get a blank stare. Our instructors are great about talking you through the material, answering questions about the course or just providing guidance to help you do better in courses. One of them told me once "don't let ME fail you, if you think I am the obstacle that prevents you from moving forward then climb over me". During the entire program we have the possibility of having up to 14 different instructors who have been endowed with the task of giving us as much knowledge as they can. We should take advantage of it...
It’s a two year program	Well, that depends on how hard you study. If you try to take on much more beyond nursing school, it definitely won’t be a two year program.
The Nights and Weekends program is held exclusively on nights and weekends.	It’s not. You may run into clinicals and assignments on other days. This can affect your work and childcare arrangements.
It’s OK to ask previous students for careplans.	Don’t be stupid y’all. It’s cheating. They also have plagiarism software they can run it through and they keep previous students careplans to compare. They also know if you got it straight from the internet. Also, you need to KNOW this stuff, so do yourself a favor and learn it.
Your faculty don’t care about you.	Yes they do. I know this for a fact. Some may be more approachable than others, but they are all there to HELP you. Make an appointment if you need one. Send an email, take advantage of the resources they set up for you.
You can’t pass AH1	Yes you can! You really can.
It will be easy to take other classes along with nursing classes.	It is ridiculously hard. Don’t set yourself up for failure if you can possibly avoid it. Do them in the summer.
SW nurses are less well trained than other nursing programs.	This for sure is completely and totally untrue. Our training is rigorous. When we get out on the floors, we can hold our own.
You can’t share NOTES or do objectives together.	This is perfectly fine. In fact, sharing objectives and working on them together is a good way to study.
SW nursing students are all very similar in background.	I was surprised at just how diverse SW is. It’s really a fun environment in that way. I have friends from all over the world from nursing school. I love it.
You’re special. They can bend the rules for you.	Well, no…. There are rules for a reason. They have evolved over many, many years and many, many situations. Now that being said, it doesn’t hurt to talk to a faculty member about your particular situation.
You have no representation as a student. You don’t have  voice. No one is listening.	You do. Your SNGA representatives.
I need to stick to myself and I am in competition with my fellow students. After all, so few make it all the way through.	Exactly the opposite. The people who did make it all the way through were people who cooperated with each other and shared resources.
They give such short breaks during classes that I will never have time to go to the bathroom because the line is so long.	Not if you’re a guy

Graduating

SW Business

Beyond SW

Studying/Testing

Exit Test

You have to take ANOTHER exit exam to get out of there, besides the HESI. It's a little, teeny bit easier. Very basic math and reading comprehension skills. This is probably not officially mandated anywhere, but I took it the semester BEFORE I graduated and not in my last semester. Then I didn't have to worry about it in AH2. I got away with that and I know someone else who did, but I am not endorsing that in any way... just saying.

Here's how to schedule it...

ETS TEST

I forgot a calculator and frantically went to the bookstore right before the exam and wasted $15. I don't think I needed the calculator. The test is only 40 minutes long, it's really, really not hard. Just make sure you sign up early, the slots fill up fast.

Graduation

You get to walk in the regular SW graduation aside from pinning. A number of my classmates did this. Hey, you earned it! Nursing students get to wear white ropes. Show your nursing pride!

You have to file an intent to graduate form. You are going to have to meet with your advisor to make sure that all your requirements have been met. Remember that faculty member giving advice to students in a previous post? It bears repeating here:

"One thing I wish students would do is get things done early. 

Just because a student waits until the last minute to get 
something done (ie. application for graduation and advising 
emails), doesn't mean it becomes an emergency for ME."

Don't wait- you don't want any nasty surprises.

Graduation Status

The excellent news is that your honors status is decided before your AH2 grade is in. Whether you are cum laude, magna or summa is dependent on your GPA up until then.

BTW, if your GPA is high enough, you will get about 25 letters asking you to join the honors society for two-year colleges. I threw them all away and didn't bother sending in the $36. Then I came to make my resume and thought, "Hey, that might have looked good on a resume..."

Phi Theta Kappa

Southwest Business-Part 1-Admission To Nursing School

SW Business

Studying/testing

Let's start all the way at the beginning.

General Facts About The Cost OF SW

ADMISSION TO THE NURSING SCHOOL

Here are a couple of bulletin board discussions about what criteria are needed to get in:

allnurses.com-Discussion about SW

SW Acceptance Process

But why believe what they say when you can have the official word? Here you go...

Nursing Department

There is a rubric for admission

First criterion is your grades in THREE of the prereqs (although more are required, these are the ones they look at):
A&P 1, A&P 2 and Microbiology. Having As is important. I have heard of people getting in with a C in one of them. I am pretty sure it's really hard to get in with a C in ALL of them. The more As, the more points toward your final score. I applied for nursing school while I was still taking A&P 2 and got in. My friend who was taking A&P 2 with me didn't know you could do this and is consequently graduating a year behind me. But you may not get in that year, anyway and have to apply again when all your prereqs are done.

Next criterion is the NLN score

Here is official SW information about sitting the exam

SW NLN Site

The NLN is basic math, English and science. It's not hard. I called the testing center on a Monday and asked when the next sitting was and was told Friday. I had exactly 4 days to prepare and got a 146. SW wants 100 or above. You are better off with 120 or above, in reality. Again, one point could be the difference between you being accepted and someone else being accepted.

How To Study For The NLN

Of COURSE there are study guides. Practice always helps, but this is not a hard test.

Study Guide

Next criterion is your GPA- again- the higher the better. Gaze fondly on your pre-admission GPA, it will never be that high again.

Lastly, you are expected to write an essay about, "Why I Want To Be A Nurse". Mine was awful.

TIP:

How many people DON'T actually read information given by the university?

SW Catalog

read it!!!

Here's a possibility to help pay for this endeavor:

Nursing Scholarship

Since I mentioned prereqs, let's talk a little about that. Do everything in your power to get them all  (A&P 1, A&P 2, microbiology, nutrition, psych, stats, English comp1) done BEFORE you start nursing school. You won't believe me when I tell you that ONE nursing class will consume ALL your time. That being said, I am scared of math and avoided stats for a really long time. I ended up having to take it in third semester. I took peds first so the easy part of stats was during the more difficult class and the harder part of stats was during mental health which was the easier part of the semester. The fact that I found a stats class easy and a welcome break from nursing should tell you something. One of my classmates had to do prereqs in the last semester and got no sleep whatsoever. Way too difficult to do. Take them in the summer if necessary, but do try to get them out of the way.

Some of the prereqs can be done via the CLEP test

CLEP Test

Lets Talk Textbooks

Resources
SW Business

This is a good Site:

Abebooks

and try this:

Amazon Student

AMAZON PRIME IS FREE THE FIRST YEAR WHEN SIGNED UP FOR AMAZON STUDENT!!!!

A quote from my classmate:
best part of amazon prime is you pay $40 bux for a year student subscription, and you can get a %$&*load of books and everything else in the world shipped FREE 2-day to you, or pay 3.99 and have it shipped overnight. 

Here's a link to the official bookstore:

SW Bookstore

You do not need a current edition of Lehne, Management or even Foundations (although it can be hard to follow if you don't- so just for the ease, I got the most up-to-date version). Another thing you can do is split the cost between you and someone taking the class in the opposite half of the semester. Get with a student from last semester. Check the bulletin boards for students selling books.
A up-to-date Med-Surg book is useful for AH1, in AH2, Mr. S. uses his slides and I barely consulted the textbook.
General consensus after polling my classmates is that the bookstore is way, way too expensive

If you can, get the electronic version. Those darn books are HEAVY. If not, buy a really good wheeled backpack.

I have exactly two texts left on my shelf- Lehne and Med-Surg.

How To save Money In Nursing School

How To Save Money On College Textbooks
50 Sites To Help You Save Money On Nursing Books

SNGA

Classmates/teamwork

SW Business



YOU HAVE A VOICE
You do have a place to make yourself heard. You have a way to bring grievances to teachers.

From a representative:

SNGA is a very under-utilized resource. We basically acted as student-teacher liaison, bringing any student complaints/concerns/ideas concisely to faculty... We played a big part in the test date changes, to accommodate the majority, for example.
We also do (mostly by email) respond to and offer guidance to any student needing help.
Funds from dues go to anything voted on as being prudent and beneficial to the student body. This semester was the t-shirts and coffee machine for students (which we didn't get to see too much of). And of course, there are the Nashville trips, senior photos, etc. so basically SNGA is a student voice and guidance, and gets other things done as listed above.

The last president of SNGA gave a great description of what they do. Thanks, Krystal:

Members President (always 4th semester) Vice President (always 3rd semester) Secretary Treasurer 2 Representatives from 4th semester 2 Representatives from 3rd semester 2 Representatives from 2nd semester 2 Representatives from 1st semester These officers and representatives are your voice. They are able to bring your questions, concerns, and ideas directly to the instructors. Members are available via email, and are able counsel students regarding the nursing program or SNGA. Dues help with activities/items planned by SNGA Welcome back party Pinning Ceremony Conferences with TNA and NASA Food that is provided for activities Coffee machine SNGA meetings are held monthly SNGA also prides itself in community involvement – donating to organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Day Care Center, volunteering within the community, speaking about the program within the community.

Here's the official word from the Student Handbook:

STUDENT ORGANIZATION

All students of Southwest Tennessee Community College enrolled in the nursing program are members of the Student Nurses Government Association (SNGA). Students are expected to participate in the activities of SNGA.

Membership dues are collected at the beginning of each semester of the first and second year. This fee is used for supplies and operating expenses for the pinning ceremony and for other community projects in which the SNGA is engaged.

PAY THEM- they pay for a lot of stuff, including pinning!!!

STUDENT NURSES' GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

We, the students of SW Department of Nursing, in order to initiate school spirit, to motivate ideas, to encourage quality citizenship, to promote student welfare, to assure the rights and privileges of students and to communicate openly and honestly with the administration, faculty, and staff of the nursing department and SW.

Purpose and Objectives

        *to unify the nursing student body

        *to be the representative voice of the nursing student body

        *to serve as a means by which student needs, concerns, and               opinions will be expressed

       * to open and maintain a line of communication between the               nursing student body, the faculty and staff of the SW nursing             department

        *to learn about the democratic process

        *to encourage and promote student representation 

        *to encourage and promote nursing student involvement in all             nursing department and college-level programs and                           activities.

 All students of SW Department of Nursing are members of the SNGA. A designated SNGA representative is responsible for the collection of dues.  Dues are non-refundable and non-transferrable.

  An active member is defined as follows: 

*Any nursing student who holds office within the SNGA

        *Any nursing student who volunteers his or her services to     work with the SNGA in a non-elected function

        *Any nursing student who votes during an SNGA election or     student body meeting

        *Any nursing student who voluntarily attends meetings called  by the SNGA officers or students

         *Any nursing student who serves on a faculty organization  committee

General qualifications of Officers and Representatives:

   *All officers must maintain a dedication to the purpose and   objectives of the SNGA within the confines of the rules and regulations of SW.

   *All elected officers and representatives must be in good  standing with SW and the SW Nursing Department

        * Members of the Nursing Faculty serve as Advisors to the  SNGA.

Participation in Student Government Activities and Program of Learning

Students have the opportunity to serve on Standing Committees. Through the Student Government Association, students are invited to serve on college and department committees. All students who are current nursing students are members of the Student Nurses’ Government Association and are encouraged to become involved in all activities and in the governance of the College. The Department of Nursing encourages students to become active in professional organizations.