Easy bibliographies...

Here's a post I've put up a number of times, but it's the end of the quarter so I thought I'd put this out: If you need to do a bibliography, use BibMe. It's a great free way to do bibliographies.

If you have an Apple computer...

It's imperative you watch this movie. (It's only a minute long.) It'll make life much less of a hassle if you ever collaborate with anyone.

More more advice from other people in my program...

I've got some more great information from people who've been in my program for a year and here's what they think:

Count on spending several hundred dollars more than the College of Nursing says you will in preparation for the first quarter/starting the program. (Amen to that. -ed.)

Don't think that you have to get the PDA they say you have to buy I did this and regret it. At least two other classmates have already sold the recommended pda they bought because they didn't like it. I know they changed the recommendation, but still.

I agree with what someone else wrote about studying together and planning social events like happy hours.

Amy at the college rocks as a student advocate. She knows how to work the OSU bureaucracy and has reliable, speedy follow through

If your advisor is nonresponsive or unhelpful, seek advice and support from other faculty and Amy's office.

Jenny CL and Amy can help review resumes. They are good at this.

If you want to try to get free tuition/stipend/mega-discounted health insurance, scrounge around for GA jobs. There isn't one great database where all GA positions are listed, so this involves persistently going to departments and academic affairs places and asking about availability. This is the best advice i got from a further-ahead-in-the-program student

If you are coming from out of state, move at least 1-1/2 weeks early and get as much done to switch over to Ohio residency before school starts, (driver's license, voter registration, auto tabs, obviously lease or house stuff).

I thought the welcome day and orientation were helpful - if only to get bureaucracy background check, Buck ID, etc stuff done in a group & early.

Quick update...

The contest for free iTunes is still going on. Also, I'm also still looking for an intern.

How to call a human...

It's a weird subject for a post, but as a student, you'll often need to call large companies and find out information. Oftentimes, you'll wait for a very long time going through prompts and waiting for the computer to give you another list of numbers to type.

This is a colossal waste of time.

So, if you're ever in need to call one of these companies, I'd like to recommend gethuman. It's a website that lists the prompts you need to press to talk to a person. It'll save you a boatload of time you can use for things like studying or explaining to your significant other where $25,000 went.

Free music...

Post a comment and I'll send you two iTunes codes redeemable for free music.

Internship posting...

Next years NURS 611 class is going to have a new professor. The notes I took for that class aren't really relevant any more. So, does anyone from the College of Nursing GE program of 2011 plan on using a laptop to take notes?

Would you like to be an intern? I can't say I'm going to pay anything, (I haven't made money on this site yet,) but you could put it on a resume. (As much as that might help you.)

If you think that sounds interesting, there are two requirements I have of you:

1. You need to have a Google ID
2. You need to never miss a class

I can show you how I take notes and you don't need to be perfect, but you need to be able to take, "good enough," notes where if someone missed class, they'll be able to catch up on what they miss.

If you're interested, comment on this post.

Buying books...

Here's a neat thing you can do to save some money when it comes to purchasing books.

Giant Eagle, (a grocer,) has a program where you can sign up, (for free,) as a frequent shopper and get discounts. This program also has a deal where for every $50 you spend, you get $.10 off per gallon of gas. (So, were you to spend $500 on stuff, you'll get $1 off per gallon.)

Also, at Giant Eagle, you can buy gift cards and count the money towards free gas.

Giant Eagle sells Barnes & Noble gift cards.

OSU's college bookstore claims to be a part of Barnes & Noble. (They bought the name, but they're not actually related to Barnes & Noble. They still will take the gift cards. (They won't give you the Barnes & Noble Member discount though.))

Anyway, at the beginning of every quarter, it might help you to buy a few hundred dollars worth of gift cards and going to town.

Regarding your Autumn quarter, you'll need to buy the books for pathophysiology. (The hardcover and the little one Corwin wrote.)

For your clinical class, (the nine-hour one,) the most important book is the one written by a person named Ackley. (It's the NANDA book on nursing diagnosis.) You won't need it until about halfway through the quarter so there's no rush to get that. Also, I remember I used the softcover guides to nursing assessment but the hardcovers were a waste of time.

So, good luck and watch for something neat in the coming days.

About Maternity Today...

Here's that commercial:

More advice from other people in my program...

Here's some more advice from another person in my program:

Plan a happy hour and a lot of social functions. There's a place called Hang Over Easy across the street from the college of nursing we go to a lot. (Get one of their buy-12-meals, get-one-free cards.) Also, one of the people in our class had a Halloween party that a lot of people went to. That really got everyone together.

My advice is to just talk to as many people as you can and always ask people if they want to study. If you have someone else around, you can shoot them questions about the topics you're studying and it also keeps you on task.

Finally, become friends with the computer people both in Newton Hall and in Pryor Library.

Advice from other people in my program...

I sent an e-mail out to the people I study with asking them what they think would be the most important thing to tell the new people. Here's my first response:

Don't work your first two quarters of school. You'll have a lot of other stuff to do, (like pathophysiology reading,) which will take up all of your time.

Also, don't buy any of your textbooks before the quarter starts. (I'll do a post on how to get books cheaper, later. -Ed.) Most of the books you buy are good enough with an older edition and you can get the new ones from the library.

I know this sounds very OSU GE-oriented, and it sort of is, but this is advice that'll help you in just about any program.

Buying a computer...

If you just got into grad school, (or undergrad,) you probably need a laptop. I'm writing this on my laptop as I sit and wait for statistics to start.

Anyway, my advice is to get a Mac. The college of nursing wants you to get a PC, and they don't officially support Macs, but I've never had a problem. (Moreover, I haven't owned office in about eight years.) If you buy iWork, it's much cheaper, ($71 vs. $150,) and it does everything you need from Office.

Regarding price, the Mac has a reputation for being very expensive. It's actually not. Here's a 2.4 GHz MacBook. It costs $1,099. Here's a 2.2 GHz Sony Vaio. It costs $1,999. I know Macs have options for student discounts. Sony's might too, but I'm too lazy to look around their site. (Lots of studying to do tonight.) Also, the Sony is a little slower, but it has a .3" bigger monitor. They're not the same computer, but they're close. Either way, you should see the general cost for a Mac is cheaper.

Also, the Mac can give you a ton of free software. I'll have a post about that in the future. (P.S. Nobody should buy Office.)

Finally, one last thing, if you get the black MacBook, you're paying $50 more for it. You can add stuff to the white one to make it just as fast, as much memory, etc., but the dark one just costs more.

Nine Inch Nails...

Their new CD is free. Go here to get it. (It's legally free.)

So you got into grad school...

OSU's new graduate-entry nursing program is getting lists of stuff they should buy before the beginning of Autumn so I thought I'd throw out some information they'd want.

I know they send you a list of nursing supplies you need. Here's my take on it: DON'T ORDER FROM THEM. It's way too expensive and their supplies aren't always the best.

In my nursing kit, here's what I have:

Stethoscope: I got a free Prestige Medical one that works really well, except one of the ear pieces keeps falling out. So, I boutght a Littmann Lightweight II S.E. Stethoscope. Supposedly there's some kind of advantage to the $180 Littmann, but I've never used one and I'm about the fastest person in my class at finding blood pressures. (I started out with a $12 stethoscope I bought at OSU's medical store, (now out of business.) Go to Allheart and look at what they have. Often, they have buy-one, get-one-free sales. Talk to you classmates about splitting that.

Also, if you want my old stethoscope, (a really nice one,) post a message with your e-mail and I'll give it to you.

Make sure you get one with a bell and a membrane. There are a lot that only have the bell, (they fake the membrane,) and the technique is going to be too much of a hassle if you've never taken a blood pressure or listened for heart/lung sounds.

Finally, a reiteration, no expensive stethoscope is really worth it while you're in school. As an example, the Playschool stethoscope many kids had as children will work pretty well.

Pens: They don't tell you to have this, but it should go without question. I went to Staples last fall and paid about $3 for about 20 clicky pens. However you take notes, always use ballpoint for nursing notation. (Smearing is really bad.)

Reflex Hammer: I used it Autumn quarter and haven't since. It's good to have one and practice the skill, but I don't think you'll use it after your first quarter. Find an older grad. student and borrow theirs, or look on e-bay.

Sharpies: Not something they request, but you'll need these. Not for anything specific, but trust me, you'll need one when you don't have it.

A lot of nurses favor the tiny sharpies because they can hang them around their neck. I don't.

Penlight: You'll use this about once a week or so in clinical. (At least I do, but I think it's fun to was the equally-reactive-to-light reflex. The nurses I work with use them every day, a few times a day. You can use any penlight. You might want to go with one that you can click and not one you twist, (like a Mag Light. Usually I love Mag Lights, but not for this.) You need to be able to turn it on for two seconds, turn it off and put it away for the rest of the day.

A compass/EKG calipers: I've never used mine, but I see real nurses use them at work. There's no reason to buy expensive ones. As for the name, map readers call them compasses, if you're looking for them on-line.

Hemostats: I've never used mine. Every unit has them. Maybe I'll need it during my ICU rotation, but they have them too.

Bandage Scissors: You will use them, but Winter, not Autumn. No pair is any better than any other.

Blood pressure cuff: But a cheap one of these. I bought the cheapest one that had a case and I use it to carry all my clinical stuff. I acutally don't use it at all this quarter, but I own one. I just looked, they don't have mine any more where I bought mine, but they're still sort of cheap.

Notepads: I use a Moleskin Reporter Notebook. I use Moleskine everything though. Mine's actually a little too big, but it works great for me. You can do much better.

Scrubs: Not really a part of my nursing kit, but very important. I didn't get mine from the school store. Here's what you need: buy scrub tops with a breast pocket and two hand pockets. Buy scrub pants with pockets lower on the leg. This is what I have at work and it's great. My school scrubs are missing the hand pockets on the top and I regret that often. The golden rule with scrubs is more pockets are better.

If you order from All Heart, their shipping sucks, but their prices are great. Just make sure you get yours in the right color, (true red.)

Also, make sure they tie at the waist. You'll really regret spending half your time at clinical pulling up your pants if you go with the elastic waistband. Zippers are a bad idea too.

You should have at least two pairs. Three would be ideal.

PDA: *Sigh* I've got one. It's a Palm. It works. I may have a Pocket PC for sale cheap soon. I hate it, but it's sort of useful if you ever go to any Ohio Health hospitals for clinical. Otherwise, it's only worth it when it's not around.

Here are two sites where you can find electronics cheaply.

Randomly, if you get an iPhone, (not cheap, but so worth it,) you might not need one. That's not an official announcement from the College of Nursing or anything, but it's coming.

Stay tuned in the coming days for more information about what other supplies you'll need and for some tech stuff. (My next post is about buying a laptop so it's going to be my most expensive.)

Cinco De Mayo Feliz!

Happy Mexican Independence Day! If you're not Mexican, it's okay! People have been co-opting St. Padrig's Day, (going so far as to call the guy, "Patrick,") for years.

Anyway, today is the one day of the year I'll drink both straight tequila or Corona so you may all as well make the most of it too.

Also, this is my cat. His name is Julio. He likes the tequila.