stethoscope – I Am Nurse Tiffany

What is ATI???

August 24, 2019August 24, 2019by I am Nurse TiffanyLeave a Comment

This quarter of nursing school, I had to take my first ATI assessment. I was a little familiar with the product because I needed to take the ATI Teas when I was applying to school. As a student nurse blogger, I like to be transparent with my audience to ensure they too know all about the many woes of nursing school. So what is ATI????

According to ATI:

ATI’s Comprehensive Assessment and Review Program (CARP) is a focused remediation resource that is with you and your students throughout the nursing program. This comprehensive learning solution goes beyond NCLEX preparation by offering unique and proprietary remediation on each test, whether it’s practice or proctored. It does what no other test prep can do – it ties directly back to the NCLEX®. To address diverse learning styles, this program offers multiple remediation tools, including traditional and online reading materials, videos, practice assessments and Internet sources.

The thought is the results will yield increased pass rates and student attrition rates are decreased. The program offers 8 specific targeted areas to test you on. Each subject area comes with study materials attached such as eBook or physical book. This is to assist you on major concepts that you must conquer to ensure successful mastery on assessment test. The targeted areas are below.

Targeted Subject Areas:

RN Adult Medical Surgical Nursing
RN Community Health Nursing
Fundamentals for Nursing
RN Maternal Newborn Nursing
RN Nursing Care of Children
RN Pharmacology for Nursing
Nursing Leadership and Management
Nutrition for Nursing

So if your school use ATI products, you should be glad. There are also many other companies that offer similar products such as Kaplan, Hesi, etc. If your school does not offer these products to you, you can do a little research to find individualized products that are available. Hopefully, if your school want you to succeed. they will already have a program like this incorporated into the program.

Although, it can be a pain to have to study for these assessments, I find it to be helpful to easily point out my strengths and weaknesses. This allows me to go back and focus on the material that I can improve on. Moreover, it allows me to be better prepared for the NCLEX.

References

ATI (2019). Comprehensive Assessment and Review Program. Retrieved from https://www1.atitesting.com/Solutions/DuringNursingSchool/ComprehensiveAssessmentAndReviewProgram.aspx

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How to Deal With Anxiety in Nursing School

July 20, 2019July 20, 2019by I am Nurse TiffanyLeave a Comment

Anxiety

I have recently been having a hard time dealing with stress and anxiety. I think the reason for this is the constant going of nursing school. There is always somewhere to be and something to do. Regardless, this is what I signed for so I have to stay on top of things. If you fail to it is very easy to get behind and even fail out of nursing school. Luckily for me, I have finally been able to get into a flow that works for me. I wanted to share it in hopes that I am able to help someone else.

Step 1:

Get organized!!! You can start by getting a planner. This helps because my syllabi are always at least ten pages long on average I have at least three classes per quarter. Seeing what I have to do on a daily view is better than seeing what I have to do over an entire quarter. I also do not want to carry around several folders each class in order to stay on top of things.

Step 2:

Make sure that you are incorporating ME TIME! People often forget just how important this is. This can be achieved by making sure you are doing things that you love such as, hanging out with friends and treating yourself to something nice. Self-care is a must in nursing school. If you do not take care of yourself, it often develops into stress, anxiety, depression, etc.

Step 3:

Avoid Caffeine! Like majority of Americans, I too enjoy a cup of joe each morning. However, when you have anxiety sometimes coffee can make it worse. What is more, caffeine is know to cause gastrointestinal upset.

Step 4:

Practice Relaxation Techniques! People often underestimate the benefits of this. This can done by meditation, yoga, aromatherapy, etc. One of my favorites is tuning into the relaxation music on YouTube. It helps to put me in a better mood so that I am capable of being more productive.

Step 6:

Tell yourself Self-Affirmations! This is important because if you do not believe in yourself and can motivate yourself, you cannot expect someone else to. For example, you can do this by adding sticky notes to your bathroom mirror. Additionally, when you feel negative thoughts creeping into your mind, you can silence it by speaking something positive to counteract it. For spiritual or religious people, you can download applications to your phone that can send you daily devotionals.

Step 7:

Do NOT Cram! Cramming can create the most anxiety because you are putting unnecessary stress on yourself by not properly planning for an exam. In nursing school, there are usually minimum 6-7 chapters on one exam and these chapters have a wealth of information. When you wait until the last minute, you likely will not remember everything you studied. Also, you will not remember the information long term and that will not do you any good when it is time for the NCLEX. That brings me to my next point.

Step 8:

Shut Your Brain Off! You heard that right. Sometimes you have to learn to quiet your mind. I usually do this when I go into what I call “information overload.” This is basically when I studied for too long and now feel like I cannot retain any more information at the time. I step away from the material and go relax. Once I feel that I can handle looking at the information again, I go back to it. This can also be done the night before the exam. Instead of cramming more information the night before, just take a step back and do nothing. This will help you sleep better, feel refreshed the day of the exam, and hopefully help you perform better.

Step 9:

Seek Help. Unfortunately, sometimes are mental health can get far beyond our control. It may be some lingering trauma that we have yet to deal with or some genetics that are out of our control. If you feel that you are unable to maintain control of the anxiety, do not be afraid to seek professional help. This can be by way of a Licensed Clinical Profession Counselor, Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Therapist. Their services include but not limited to, therapy sessions (one on one or group) and medications.

Well that is all the tips I have for now. I really hope this can help someone. I am placing a link here for those who may be interested in aromatherapy. It is super useful for relaxation and stress relief.

Link: https://amzn.to/2JRGCCd

Lastly, for more tips on dealing with anxiety, check out my YouTube video below.

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Which Stethoscope?🤔

January 20, 2019March 23, 2019by I am Nurse TiffanyLeave a Comment

I have a lecture and lab component class that requires me to need a stethoscope. So being a new nursing student, I decided to go the cheaper route and purchase one from amazon for $15.00 and free prime shipping. Initially, I did not think this was a bad idea considering the fact that I was saving money. However, I soon realized that it was a mistake.😩

First impression, the stethoscope was black and cute. It was very light weight and even included replacement pieces if you lost the original ones. For practice use, I found it to be a little difficult to hear sounds clearly. This can be a problem in practice because you can get false readings. However, I will continue to use the stethoscope for use in lab with my classmates.

Ironically, I was also gifted a beautiful Littmann (classic III). First impression, it was beautiful and pink. It is also light weight and instead of a name tag, my name is engraved. This is awesome because it makes it super difficult for someone to steal it. As far as functionality of it, the sounds are super clear. This stethoscope I would rather use on patients and can be more confident in my readings.

I know for some pricing can be a problem, but you honestly get what you pay for. If you can just stomach to make this purchase, you will have a reliable stethoscope that will last a long time.

These are my honest opinion on both stethoscopes. Below are the links to where both stethoscopes were purchased. Hope this helps!

MDF Dual Head Lightweight Stethoscope

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011E8DG2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0011E8DG2&linkCode=as2&tag=studentnurs06-20&linkId=1b8240636a144657b2c5243b13226c37