interview advice - for UCSF MEPN or otherwise

I remember around this time last year. I remember being alternately exhilarated and terrified. My interview was in 3 weeks - YAY! and also OH CRAP! I had no idea what to expect. Many hours were devoted to scanning others' blogs about interview tips. Here's what I have cobbled together, based off other blogs, multiple books on applying to nursing school, and my own experience. I'm not offering my answers, though I can offer a bit of direction that either I or the previous authors have given.

Enjoy!

*****

Why do you want to be a nurse? (Be very specific--- this is a big question.)

What do you think a nurse (RN, not NP!) does? (this isn't a trick question! Schools want to see that you
realize that you have a step before being an APN.)

Why did you pick your specialty for the MSN?

What will you bring to the table for the MSN? (What skills/experiences will you bring to UCSF?
How will you contribute to the class?)

Why not Med School? Why don't you want to be a doctor?
(At this point they will be looking for confidence, and they want to see that you definitely know this is the career for you. So have a great answer for the med school vs. nursing school)

Why not PA?

What have you done to prepare yourself for nursing school? (Talk about your volunteer work and research you did on the nursing
profession here, not class work, everyone did that.)

What qualities make a good RN?

Why did you apply to UCSF? Once you decided to be a nurse, how did you select the MEPN program?

Do you like teamwork or to work on your own. (Say both, you like you to take personal responsibility for your actions and
contribution, but enjoy what can be done in teams. Nursing is all about teamwork, with other nurses and the MDs, techs, NPS
etc..)

They will also ask you how you will deal with the stress of being in MEPN, e.g., What do you know about the demands of this program? (very
important! I emphasized that I knew many MEPN students and knew about the emotional, physical, financial demands of this program)

What do you do when you don't get along with the nurses on your floor?

How will you handle criticism from older nurses who don't believe it's possible to become a nurse in 1 year?

What do you do if you do not agree with the nurse who is precepting you?

How will you keep yourself from burning out?

How will you know you're being a good nurse?

Describe a situation where you've had to prioritize and organize a list of tasks

What will you bring to the profession of nursing?

What do you think the hardest thing about being a nurse will be?

How do you handle adversity/challenges?

What do you think it will be like being in a master's program with people who have been working as nurses for years?

How do you handle competition?

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

Do you plan to do research or earn a PhD?

What do you think will be the most difficult thing about being a nurse?

How will you prioritize your day?

Describe an ethical conflict that you’ve gone through

Describe a frustrating experience at work and how you dealt with it

Describe your strengths and weaknesses.

How do you handle difference? Give an example.

*****
In my interview, I had a few minutes left at the end to talk to my interviewers. If you get the opportunity, ASK THEM QUESTIONS! Here's some suggested questions for interviewers:

How did you get into nursing? Why? What is your specialization? Do you do more administrative work than clinical work? Do you
miss clinical work?

What is/are the main challenges during the first year of the MEPN program?

When did you become a nurse?

Did you see any major changes since you started in the profession?

What are your expectations for the chosen candidate?

And, the one I think is the most important:

If you could give one piece of advice to a nursing student what would it be?

*****

long time, eh?

So...that's what happens in MEPN. You don't talk to anybody for, like, 4 months. Like I just did. Oops!

I missed posting. I'm going to rectify that a little bit - for example, I know MEPN interview season is coming up, so I'm going to post reflections and pointers on that soon.

I'm enjoying being on break. Lots of running, cooking, hanging out, sleeping. Ignoring school. Well, mostly. I do plan on coming up with a schedule that accommodates school + weight training + half-marathon training + volunteering + relaxing. If I'm going to do all those things, I definitely need a schedule.

OK, time to wash the mud off me. I just ran 6 miles in the mud and rain and I LOVED IT.

ask me again in a week

Because right now I am OVER IT.
OVER
OVER
OVER
OVER
OVER ALL OF IT.

Over the exams. Over the 4:15 a.m. wakeups with an hour commute to and from clinicals. Over everything.

Perhaps it surfaced today because it was a beautiful day and I'd rather have spent it riding my shiny new bike to the ocean. Perhaps it's because I had an entire quarter of slacking catch up to me in the last 24 hours. Perhaps it's because tomorrow is our first final and I am protesting out of under-preparedness. Eh.

A week from tomorrow afternoon, my first quarter of MEPN is done. I will be 25% of the way to my RN license. That's exciting, but it's hard to keep the eventual goal in sight when everything sucks.

MEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Seriously, I'll post again in a week when I hate the world less.

*sigh*

It is the beginning of Week 8. 8 of 10 weeks in the quarter. And OH, am I ready for the end.

It is also the dead of winter August in San Francisco, meaning we haven't seen temps over 60 in ages and it actually RAINS at the Parnassus campus pretty much every day. So to remedy the effects of the weather, I have fixed myself a hot buttered rum (mmm, Kraken) and am going to gently blog my way to sleep.

In these last three weeks, we have:

• 2 patho exams
• 2 intro to nursing exams
• 2 patho homework assignments
• 1 pharma homework
• 1 pharma test
• allegedly, a pop quiz in patho, which would be just blatantly cruel
• 1 nursing skills final - all hands-on with a fellow student
• 6 more days of clinicals

Yeah, the workload seems heavily weighted toward this portion of the quarter. YEAH. HEAVILY.

Tomorrow is the first of those patho exams, and I have failed at studying for it quite miserably. I've been gloating about how I haven't had to expend very much time or energy on this program thus far, and today feels like the day that all fell apart. Luckily, it's on several systems I know well (namely GI, GU, neuro), so I hope to coast by on the merit of my experience. Like always, actually. I chose to spend my weekend out of town, drinking mimosas during my designated study time. I slack, I know. It's my fault, I know.

It's not that I am upset at myself for slacking. I'm not disappointed in myself. I am actively choosing to be social instead of studying, and I am getting by just fine - no, better than fine - on this plan. I do wonder if I'm not (ugh) living up to my potential. If I spent more time with the books, would I be some kind of nursing genius? Or, am I wasting money on this experience by not taking full advantage of absorbing all this extra knowledge? Am I missing out on something that my fellow students are getting because they spend more time studying for this?

I will firmly stand by my belief that the hard part was getting into this program. Now that I'm in it's not so bad, except for the time commitment to class and clinicals. Having a commute to the clinical portion is a further drag on my energy. These are new and different demands on my energy, and that's the hard part.

I feel good about my academic performance. Perhaps more importantly, I feel GREAT about my performance in clinicals. Some of the nurses on my floor assumed I was about to finish my program, not that I was a brand-new baby nurse. Patients have mostly given me good feedback...at least, the ones who can give feedback. All signs point to me doing something quite right.

The non-nursing school parts of my life are also going well. New relationship? AMAZING. Family? Brother is coming out to visit on the day of my last exam, so I get to spend a week dragging him around my hometown of the last almost-decade. Sounds pretty OK.

Now to slog through the last MILLION assignments to get to that ending. It's visible and there are a million obstacles in the way. Gotta go knock 'em down.

Everybody Poops

Yesterday was the infamous "Poop Lecture" in my Intro to Nursing class. I spent half the time taking lecture notes, and the other half of the time writing down the gems that my professor spouted about poop. Behold! Some of my favorites are below:

• "A sitz bath is like a butt jacuzzi."
• "A rectal prolapse is a type of hemorrhoid. You won't miss it, but you may want to confirm it. Because you might think it's a little animal."
• "A pressure ulcer is like an innie; a hemorrhoid is like an outie."
• "We should just make him DNR. Just kidding!"
• "She found out that if she plucked a pubic hair, people would pee. But some things just don't work in the hospital. I can't write that in a care plan."
• "Code Brown is cleaning it all up - where's the nearest nursing student?"
• "I don't do poop in the ED. It's a beautiful thing."
• "He has the Rock of Gibraltar up his ass. He really does. Can you smell what the rock is cooking?"
• "That's how we got the term 'tight-ass.'"
• "Yeah, he's gonna poop his brains out."
• "You'd be surprised what i can stick up your nose."

And we talked about digital disimpaction...extensively.

This lecture alone was worth the price of tuition. Seriously.

being tested

It has begun...both the official, in-class testing as well as the testing of patience and sanity in and out of the nursing setting.

This morning began with a pop quiz in Pathophysiology, and this afternoon was our first Pharmacology quiz. Neither was easy. Both illustrated to me that I am absolutely NOT studying very much. (Note that I didn't say "not enough;" I feel like I'm being adequate but not terribly ambitious about the academics in this program.) I'm going to need to somehow rectify that, though I don't feel like I should entirely abandon my life in order to grub for As.

I had a very nice conversation with an awesome classmate just now about the school/life balance. I was telling her that I refuse to give up my life - I'm still running and seeing friends, and that's not gonna stop. Not merely for the sake of getting high grades. She applauded my "healthy attitude," which felt lovely. I wish I were so excited and sincerely comfortable about my current stance.

Another classmate mentioned she went to student health today for a referral to counseling and that she burst into tears while talking to the MD. She admitted she's feeling the stress. Then a few other folks chimed in about randomly crying after their clinicals, or suffering from insomnia, or snapping at partners who innocently ask how things are going. It's the middle of week 4 and we are all starting to feel it. It's right around halfway through the quarter and we are all dragging our asses over the midpoint. I thought I was immune, but I currently feel absolutely drained.

Everything is work. Assembling food for tomorrow - ugh. Going to the farmers' market - a chore, not fun. Going to visit a sick friend - excited to see her, but I'm so exhausted that I'm afraid that I won't be very good company. I finished a couple of patient assessments to turn in tomorrow and I nearly cried over how much thought and effort it took. Just sitting here and typing hurts my brain. I won't be studying tonight. Again. I need to start coping well enough to find the strength to pull myself off the couch and into the academic mode.

This feeling - it's burnout, eh? Already. And I'm only in school. No work. No volunteering. I'm not *that* busy. I'm used to doing so much more. I'm running to keep my sanity, and seeing friends for the same reason, but it's not enough to really lift the crushing feeling of exhaustion.

I'm dreaming about our 3 weeks off in September. I'm helping to assemble Scrub Crawl for the day after our last clinical, and a karaoke night for the evening of our last final. Then I need to GO AWAY. I want to go to some hot springs up north or to Tahoe or to Monterey or SOMEWHERE for a few days. I want to recapture the first three weeks of June, when I was funemployed and broke but SO HAPPY. That's become my new ideal for time off: doing nothing, at home, being cheap and creative and selling half my life on eBay to be able to afford food. YEAH.

OK, off to see friend. Perhaps I will get charming again in the next 3 hours before I have to go to bed.

early advice

It's beginning of Week 3, and I have a few pieces of advice for y'all.

1. Take your CPR training/recertification close to the beginning of MEPN. Your ABCs will come up CONSTANTLY.
2. If in doubt, the right answer is "assess."
3. Take advantage of any time off you get, like the July 4th holiday. It'll be another long weekend next time. I recommend doing nothing school-related. I went on a 3-day-long first date and still managed to do homework and an online quiz. The relaxation is so very worthwhile.
   

OK, off to take ANOTHER online exam. Strangely enough, this quarter is a third over already. Time is so funny.