verushka70 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
verushka70) wrote2007-04-21 10:39 am
verushka70) wrote2007-04-21 10:39 am
HESI--ADN vs. BSN--chemo next week
I 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.
no subject
Art Majors, as well (includign Theatre arts etc) also do a hellof a lot of work for their degree.
In all of the professions above (and nursing), your professional life going to be very demanding; long hours, stringent deadlines, often a lot of personal strain as you reveal your intimate creative urges to have them stomped on by critics everywhere.
Degrees where you're likely going to be moving into say ...cubicle world, or academia - their less high pressue, IMO. Which is not to say that cubicle world or academia don't have their demands and pressures but the preparation for them is different. For example, I think that academic oriented paths spend a lot of time on social networking and social skill because ... those are going to be critical for your profession.
M 2cents.
no subject
Yes, I think that's very true.
That's true. And time pressures add to the stress. Actually, that sounds a lot like writing for fic challenges!
But there are aspects of nursing (medicine, dentistry, etc.) that are almost counter-intuitive to intellectual function and normal human response. The normal human response to seeing various bodily fluids and/or organs of other humans is "Eeewww!" or "Run away" or to get sick yourself. But we have to look at this stuff every day. You can go into areas (school nurse, office nurse, research, epidemiology) where you won't have to look at that stuff again. But many people can't get past it in nursing school. Some fail out academically... some fail out because of lack of a strong stomach.
With subjects one is good at, one feels "flow" or gets into "a zone." This harmony between self and work is very fulfilling. I get it from writing like I used to get it from art school.
But nursing engages the subject (both the science and the ill human) so many different ways that it's extremely challenging, and "flow" is more difficult/elusive. I've never been so forced to be intellectually focused, emotionally compassionate, psychosocially observant, or physically capable (hand-eye-brain coordination to insert an IV, brute force to lift or move a patient as painlessly as possible given their injury) -- or to have to integrate all of these aspects of the care of another human into a whole assessment of total state of emotional & physical health. The split into "hard" and "soft" sciences seems logical but also arbitrary at times when they come together in a field. My nursing instructors refer to "the art and science" of nursing: it's much harder than it looks & is portrayed.
Again, I think it's the kind of problems you're solving. I would liken nursing to a cross between lab and field biologist. Intellectually rigorous, but you may be attacked by the very creatures you're trying to help -- and you mustn't fight back or hurt them while protecting yourself. You see them at their most vulnerable and terrified moments, at their worst. You're to help get them better physically and mentally, ready to hit the outside world again. This requires a level of people skills that most careers don't require -- even those that require people skills. In cubical world, you may not even have to interface with people all that much -- not if you're a numbers person, or if you're a computer programmer or network analyst, for example.
Mind you, there are plenty of healthcare people who either DON'T have the people skills but have the scientific skills, or vice versa, That's the nurse or doctor who treats patients like a living slab of meat, or the very caring but clueless doctor or nurse. Someone has to graduate at the bottom of the class, as my mom says. And they're out there working! That's why there are exams before you get the license that allows you to legally perform the work you've been trained to do. But all that license guarantees is a minimum level of competency...
And I thank you. I've had a more reasonable, less rant-y response because of your comment! I think I was just ranting because of the insult done to nurses by the article in the newspaper (Hot Jobs (No College Degree Required))". Grrr.