HESI--ADN vs. BSN--chemo next week
Apr. 21st, 2007 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verushka70I passed the HESI exam! I didn't just pass it (850 is passing), I aced it (1078). My report says that's the 96th percentile. YES!! Something to feel good about, for once! I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED !!! I get to graduate! Also, this is supposedly predictive of my chances of passing the NCLEX-RN on the first try. Apparently (so HESI people say) those who pass the HESI on the 1st try have a 75% chance of passing the NCLEX-RN licensing exam on their 1st try. So, although I will still hit the books like a crazy person (especially in the areas HESI scoring told me I need work on), at least some of the pressure is off now. I feel more confident than I did two days ago, that's for sure.
I was amused to read the comparisons between average HESI scores from diploma nursing schools, ADN nursing programs, and BSN nursing programs.
The average HESI score for diploma school nursing students, in the past year, has been 838 (which is below passing, 850).
The average HESI score for ADN (assoc. degree/2 yr program) nursing students the past year is 837.
The average HESI score for BSN (4 yr degree program) nursing students the past year was 838.
All that extra money and two extra years of school... to only do 1 point better (and with an average that is still below the passing score).
Far be it from me to dissuade people from 4 yr degrees -- I already have one, from '92. But these alleged 2 yr associate degree (ADN) programs -- the kind I'm about to finish -- require a HELL of a lot more work than most 4 yr college liberal arts degrees. I have a friend with a BA in German and another with a BA in Fiction Writing. They would EASILY fail out of this "2 year" ADN program.
What really pissed me off was the article in this past weekend's Parade magazine in the Chicago Tribune, about what people earn. They had the nerve to include Registered Nurses in the category "The Hottest Jobs (No College Degree Required)." I was like, PLEASE! The journalist who wrote the frakkin' article -- who probably got her job with a 4 yr journalism degree -- probably would fail out of a two year associate degree nursing program. There is no comparison when it comes to the difficulty of the material. Nursing school -- whether 2 yr or 4 yr degree -- is supremely ass-kicking. Many very intelligent people fail out. At least the moron who wrote the article apologized in the online version of it and removed RNs from the "No College Degree Required" section. I hope they print that retraction, too, in next week's Parade magazine.
Before I switched my major from English to photography/film/video/electronic media when I was at the University of Illinois, I got a good sense of liberal arts studies (mainly because I didn't switch majors until my 3rd year, as a junior). It was NOWHERE NEAR AS HARD as the anatomy & physiology, microbiology, and general & introductory organic chemistry prerequisites for my ADN nursing program -- let alone the 2 years in the program itself! I mean, we've already lost half the people we started with in August, 2005.
Anyway... in slightly less than a month, I will be attending commencement on a Friday night 5/18, and then the pinning ceremony for just the nursing students on Saturday 5/19.
And there was much rejoicing!
\o/
My heart goes out to all my classmates who failed the HESI this time. I am sure they will get it on their second chance!
(Except one, who deserved to fail because she has cheated & cribbed off others for the last two years & slacked off more than anyone in the program. I'm not sorry for her, as mean as that sounds. She's been riding the coat tails of other, smarter and much more studious people with a lot of two faced behavior. And, well, she's just not a very nice person. I don't think she'll pass it the 2nd time, either, because I don't think she actually understands the material. She just knows how to pass tests and classes with Cs by getting answers and help on studying/cramming before exams. Oh well. I guess what goes around comes around. It sounds mean. And I guess it is mean. But she's really fucked some people over in the last year and I just can't feel sorry for her. I almost feel the universe gave her what she deserved. May it continue to do so. Karma, man.)
But everyone else who failed -- most of them had to continue working during school, so they didn't have a chance to really study. I'm talking people who had to work or be evicted (with their children) or foreclose on their homes and have their cars (which they need to get to work!) repossessed. And of those who failed, I personally know that some of them really know their stuff -- a couple are clinically way more competent than me (I've always been good with the scientific knowledge & standardized tests, but I have no clinical experience except that which I got in nursing school, so I know my first job will probably kick my ass. But in a strange way, I'm looking forward to the challenge!) One girl chose to go to the ICU during our advanced med-surg clinicals. I know she knows her stuff! So I am sure she will pass it on the 2nd try.
I'm going to try to get together with two of them to study and really help them because they deserve to pass, especially after working so hard. Also English is their second language so even though they're really smart, the language thing makes it harder, I think. Hell, some of the questions are worded so strangely, I have trouble understanding them -- and I was born here with English as my first language!
Oh, it's almost all behind me! Now I have to update my resume. And then do the management class clinicals in early May. Yay!
\o/
On the other side of things... my mother begins her new chemo regiment next Tuesday. I told her to ask them to Rx her Marinol (the cannabinoid anti-nausea drug) since the only thing that worked to prevent the nausea & vomiting last summer during her first chemo was NOT Tigan, NOT Compazine, NOT Reglan... but WAS marijuana cookies we baked her.
I don't know if she'll be assertive enough to demand it. But now that classes are over for me, I certainly will be.
I was amused to read the comparisons between average HESI scores from diploma nursing schools, ADN nursing programs, and BSN nursing programs.
The average HESI score for diploma school nursing students, in the past year, has been 838 (which is below passing, 850).
The average HESI score for ADN (assoc. degree/2 yr program) nursing students the past year is 837.
The average HESI score for BSN (4 yr degree program) nursing students the past year was 838.
All that extra money and two extra years of school... to only do 1 point better (and with an average that is still below the passing score).
Far be it from me to dissuade people from 4 yr degrees -- I already have one, from '92. But these alleged 2 yr associate degree (ADN) programs -- the kind I'm about to finish -- require a HELL of a lot more work than most 4 yr college liberal arts degrees. I have a friend with a BA in German and another with a BA in Fiction Writing. They would EASILY fail out of this "2 year" ADN program.
What really pissed me off was the article in this past weekend's Parade magazine in the Chicago Tribune, about what people earn. They had the nerve to include Registered Nurses in the category "The Hottest Jobs (No College Degree Required)." I was like, PLEASE! The journalist who wrote the frakkin' article -- who probably got her job with a 4 yr journalism degree -- probably would fail out of a two year associate degree nursing program. There is no comparison when it comes to the difficulty of the material. Nursing school -- whether 2 yr or 4 yr degree -- is supremely ass-kicking. Many very intelligent people fail out. At least the moron who wrote the article apologized in the online version of it and removed RNs from the "No College Degree Required" section. I hope they print that retraction, too, in next week's Parade magazine.
Before I switched my major from English to photography/film/video/electronic media when I was at the University of Illinois, I got a good sense of liberal arts studies (mainly because I didn't switch majors until my 3rd year, as a junior). It was NOWHERE NEAR AS HARD as the anatomy & physiology, microbiology, and general & introductory organic chemistry prerequisites for my ADN nursing program -- let alone the 2 years in the program itself! I mean, we've already lost half the people we started with in August, 2005.
Anyway... in slightly less than a month, I will be attending commencement on a Friday night 5/18, and then the pinning ceremony for just the nursing students on Saturday 5/19.
And there was much rejoicing!
\o/
My heart goes out to all my classmates who failed the HESI this time. I am sure they will get it on their second chance!
(Except one, who deserved to fail because she has cheated & cribbed off others for the last two years & slacked off more than anyone in the program. I'm not sorry for her, as mean as that sounds. She's been riding the coat tails of other, smarter and much more studious people with a lot of two faced behavior. And, well, she's just not a very nice person. I don't think she'll pass it the 2nd time, either, because I don't think she actually understands the material. She just knows how to pass tests and classes with Cs by getting answers and help on studying/cramming before exams. Oh well. I guess what goes around comes around. It sounds mean. And I guess it is mean. But she's really fucked some people over in the last year and I just can't feel sorry for her. I almost feel the universe gave her what she deserved. May it continue to do so. Karma, man.)
But everyone else who failed -- most of them had to continue working during school, so they didn't have a chance to really study. I'm talking people who had to work or be evicted (with their children) or foreclose on their homes and have their cars (which they need to get to work!) repossessed. And of those who failed, I personally know that some of them really know their stuff -- a couple are clinically way more competent than me (I've always been good with the scientific knowledge & standardized tests, but I have no clinical experience except that which I got in nursing school, so I know my first job will probably kick my ass. But in a strange way, I'm looking forward to the challenge!) One girl chose to go to the ICU during our advanced med-surg clinicals. I know she knows her stuff! So I am sure she will pass it on the 2nd try.
I'm going to try to get together with two of them to study and really help them because they deserve to pass, especially after working so hard. Also English is their second language so even though they're really smart, the language thing makes it harder, I think. Hell, some of the questions are worded so strangely, I have trouble understanding them -- and I was born here with English as my first language!
Oh, it's almost all behind me! Now I have to update my resume. And then do the management class clinicals in early May. Yay!
\o/
On the other side of things... my mother begins her new chemo regiment next Tuesday. I told her to ask them to Rx her Marinol (the cannabinoid anti-nausea drug) since the only thing that worked to prevent the nausea & vomiting last summer during her first chemo was NOT Tigan, NOT Compazine, NOT Reglan... but WAS marijuana cookies we baked her.
I don't know if she'll be assertive enough to demand it. But now that classes are over for me, I certainly will be.