advice on what to study to refresh myself? acls?

Hi everyone. I am trying to get a job after being out of nursing for two years. I have a little over two years med-surg experience. I decided to hold off on refresher course until I see how my applications are received.But I know I need to study on my own meds etc. I just don't even know where to begin? I really want to study the nitty gritty, not restudy the theory and all of that, so I don't look like an idiot or worse hurt someone. Any advice? I have all of my books and notes from school. Was also wondering if I should get acls certified, my bls is current but honestly I think if I were to be put in a code situation right now I would freeze. I know scary. Do you have to really know your stuff to even take an acls class? Your responses have helped so much in the past
.
In my experience, there has never been a reason for a m/s nurse nurse to have ACLS, b/c they are have never been permitted to do anything beyond BLS at any facility I've ever worked for. We have always had code teams that arrive and totally take over. We (the code team) don't even let them stay in the room mostly, which is fine b/c they probably have a half dozen other patients to take care of and are happy to get rid of one, lol. So unless you are looking for a unit or ED position, I don't see the point in boning up on drugs and procedures you aren't going to use. I'd just study the general pharmocokinetics and dynamics of classes of drugs so you know how why they do what they do, and what to anticipate for patients.

Quote from linearthinkerIn my experience, there has never been a reason for a m/s nurse nurse to have ACLS, b/c they are have never been permitted to do anything beyond BLS at any facility I've ever worked for. We have always had code teams that arrive and totally take over. We (the code team) don't even let them stay in the room mostly, which is fine b/c they probably have a half dozen other patients to take care of and are happy to get rid of one, lol. So unless you are looking for a unit or ED position, I don't see the point in boning up on drugs and procedures you aren't going to use. I'd just study the general pharmocokinetics and dynamics of classes of drugs so you know how why they do what they do, and what to anticipate for patients.

A health assessment and physical examination course is a good way to refresh skills.dishes

I always thought ACLS was fun. Most posters on here seem to view the opposite.

Quote from dishesA health assessment and physical examination course is a good way to refresh skills.dishes

The courses are available online, here is a link to one online course outline http://www2.athabascau.ca/syllabi/nurs/nurs326.phpdishes

I don't understand why you don't want to do a nurse refresher course. Seems like a good idea to me.

jrowmom, if you are interested in independent review on health assessment and physical examination, check out the links in this thread http://allnurses.com/nursing-student...es-145091.htmldishes

I'll check it out. I recently went to book store and got "portable Rn" which has a little on everything and really practicle things like oooooh I forgot about that and it is something really simple. Uggg so hard to clear cobwebs out aftertwo years of not studying anything except TV. Just like working out. I will consider this course and still considering refresher course, all least i would be forced to learn it.

Some places will give you a refresher course as part of being hired, if you've been out of the biz for awhile. They might also give you a tremendous orientation that includes a bigggg book with everything you're expected to know in it, and lots of weeks as a rookie before you're cut loose to work on your own. I think it depends on where you work. Maybe consider that you're going back to being a rookie. So, you'd be expected to know things a rookie knows. Do you still have med/surg texts? How about past clinical course work? How about a review course you might have taken before doing your licensure exam?