girl in greenwood

In nursing school, we spent a great deal of time discussing therapeutic communication. We were taught to validate feelings, express respect for the other person, and try to steer the conversation in a productive direction.

Yesterday I heard the following interaction while out with a group of coworkers:

Nurse 1: "You know that guy G*** with the possible mad cow disease, and how he's totally crazy?"

Nurse 2: "Sure, yeah, he calls everyone "f*cking b*tch," right?"

Nurse 1: "Yeah, that guy. The other day I gave him his meds and then asked him if there was anything else I could do for him, and he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Yes. You can suck my dick."

Nurse 2: "HAHAHAHA! What did you say - "It sounds like you're feeling horny right now. Would you like to discuss those feelings?" "

Nurse 1: "No, I just covered my mouth and ran out of the room because I couldn't stop laughing!"


I love my coworkers.

Labels: nursing, nursing school

Still here. Still studying. One week to go.

I know of 5 classmates who have passed so far. There are 3 more who have taken the test but haven't gotten results yet.

I really can't think about anything else. Sorry to be boring.

Labels: nursing school

It has begun: the studying for the NCLEX. I took inventory of myself and my study habits, and then picked up the phone and called two my favorite, most focused classmates and asked them to study with me. R* and E* are both going to be my coworkers on the same unit at Big County Hospital and we will be going through orientation together as well. We conferred on which review books we had and how we should tackle this huge body of knowledge, and yesterday we started. Today we continued with an extra bonus classmate C*. So far we've gotten through 8 chapters of the Kaplan review book and have repeatedly exclaimed "why didn't they tell us this in school??" We also learned that Maslow's hierarchy allegedly contains sex on the most basic level, right next to food, water, oxygen, and protection from extremes in temperature. This led to amusing conversation about how we've never seen any doctor's orders written for sexual interventions, and how if sex really is a basic need, as a group of stressed-out nursing students with long-suffering spouses, we may all be clinically dead.

Then since my brain wasn't quite full enough, classmate R* went home and classmates M* and D* showed up and we played RNtertainment for quite a while. There was much moaning and bitching about how the questions from the game wouldn't be on the NCLEX itself, but I wrote down 5 or 6 items to look up because I couldn't remember a single thing about them. Electromyography? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, me neither.

And THEN, because I wasn't exhausted enough from using my brain for 8 hours, I went downstairs and worked out and then showered and cooked a healthy dinner and now I really wish someone would rub my back and hand me a chocolate chip cookie.

On that note, I spent the last 8 days watching everything I put in my face, working out more than I have in the last three months combined, logging all my food into Weight Watchers... and I got on the scale yesterday morning and there was no. change. at. all. Gahhhhhhhh. But hey, my body feels pretty good, so I guess I'll just keep at it.

Labels: nursing school, weight loss

I scheduled my NCLEX-RN exam today. I will be taking it on April 30. Now I kind of feel like peeing my pants in terror... not so much because tests are scary to me, but because it means I have a hard date that I cannot procrastinate about.

Labels: nursing school

And that is that!

I graduated on Thursday. It was the strangest feeling. Possibly because I got drunker than I have ever been in my LIFE on Wednesday with my classmates. I've been trying to make up with my liver ever since.

I have a lot of mixed feelings right now - I'm glad to be done with school and its tests, papers, and other hoops through which I had to jump... I'm both excited and terrified about starting my new job in a couple months... I'm very relieved to have some free time to myself until the job starts... I'm oddly anxious and sad about not being around my beloved classmates all the time, and am trying to feel out the right way to stay in touch with my favorite people without being annoying and clingy. The one thing that I am NOT troubled about is taking the NCLEX. I know it's a big deal, and I know I need to prepare for it, but I am completely confident that it will be fine.

Labels: nursing school

I'm feeling so much better today. I still have an alien mucous creature living in my nose, and I make funny sounds when I cough, but my energy level is normalizing and I don't feel like I need to sleep 80% of the time.

I had my last regular test at school today - it was surprisingly not that hard. Or maybe I studied effectively, although since all my studying was done while high on cold medicine, I'm not convinced that's the answer. The good news is that all of my classmates who were worried that they might not pass the class did really well today and are most likely going to be fine and graduate with us!

Now I'm off to go on a hot date with my husband.

Labels: nursing school

Graduation is two weeks from today.

My last med-surg clinical is halfway over.

I think I'm finally starting to understand how to administer IV medications. Stupid IV pumps.

I've got 3 more exams and 1 more nursing process paper to write in the next two weeks.

One of my very favorite classmates got a job on the same unit as me! She may not be able to work days with me initially, but we'll be going through orientation together. That makes me really happy - she is the one person in my class who I am certain I would have been friends with even if we weren't in nursing school together.

Yesterday afternoon one of the boys in my clinical group said, "Hey guys, two weeks from now we'll be standing in [Classmate A]'s yard with beers in our hands." Unbelievable.

Labels: nursing school

I haven't been updating this here blog. I've been busy with lots of other stuff. 21 days to graduation!

Yesterday I had an observation clinical at the inpatient pediatric unit at Downtown Nonprofit Hospital. I worked with two completely awesome nurses (one was a graduate of my program!) and had a wonderful time. I love babies, I really do... and I totally don't want to work in pediatrics. It is so sad to see sick kids - and most of the kids I saw weren't even that sick. So I'm adding peds to the list of nursing specialities I don't wish to pursue.

Okay, now I have to go write write write before I leave for clinical tonight. And tomorrow is my last day of work at Neighborhood Hospital. A normal real life is so close I can taste it!

Labels: nursing school

Job stuff update:

Big County Hospital offered me a 0.9 day shift position with orientation starting June 2. I have not told them yes or no yet, although I did send them an email letting them know that I got the offer, I am interested, but I have another interview scheduled. The reason they have day shift jobs, which is an excellent jaded cynical old nurse question, is because it's actually a new unit. The hospital is expanding and this is one of the new units that will be opening up when the construction is complete, so they're hiring for all shifts right now, both new grads and experienced nurses.

University Teaching Hospital is interviewing me next week. If I understood correctly, the interview is with the nurse manager on the ortho unit where I had clinicals a couple quarters ago. I didn't love that unit but didn't hate it either. So we'll see how that interview goes, and then I'll make a decision. I feel so lucky that I may well have a choice of jobs.

In other news, I am sick sick sick with a cruddy cold that has robbed me of my speaking voice and filled my head with snot. I dragged my arse out of bed this morning at 5:00 to get to clinical by 6:00 where I supervised 1st quarter students for a few hours, then went to campus and took a terribly difficult test (I passed! Not all my classmates did so!) and stayed for lecture. And now I am home and I am going to bed. Night night.

Labels: job, nursing, nursing school

I have been getting up way, way, way before dawn to go to clinical this week. What I've learned: I really like mentoring the first quarter students. I am flattered and encouraged by the confidence the faculty is placing in me. And I really, really don't want to be an RN in a nursing home, because it is all about paperwork and hardly any patient care. That is actually good information for me, because I previously thought that I would be interested in nursing home work.

I have two interviews at Big County Hospital tomorrow morning. One for med-surg, one for telemetry. Both are for new graduate RN positions, which I imagine will have a long & thorough training and preceptorship period. I will know more about that tomorrow. I do know how much their starting pay is, and it is not too shabby. Also, both of the units I'm interviewing with have day shift positions available! That's pretty great, considering that most new grads end up working nights until they earn some seniority.

More tomorrow.

Labels: job, nursing, nursing school

First of all, I want to say hi to rosebuttons and Z* and SN Jack. Thanks for your comments and ideas! Especially about preschool waiting lists... I'm sure every decent preschool in Seattle is already booked for the next 3 years. Also, Z*, you are welcome to write a book on my blog anytime you want. I think it's so cool that we're on this same nursing journey.

I had a good series of conversations with my coworker nurses at work on Saturday. They all urged me to take a new grad job at a hospital in order to establish a good experience base and take advantage of the extra coddling that new grads receive during residency. I said, "but what about if I get pregnant and can't finish a full year of work?" They laughed at me... and said that it happens all the time, and I would most likely be welcomed back or transitioned to another position (like the float pool? or a per diem position?). So. That's what I will try to do. I'm applying to several different hospitals' residency programs for med-surg type jobs, and I'll just have to see what happens.

As for school, I went with one other classmate today to do our "self-orientation" at the long-term care facility where we are doing our management clinical starting next week. What does that mean? We will be there Monday & Tuesday mornings with first-quarter students, supervising & mentoring them along with one of the first-quarter instructors. Then Wednesdays and Thursdays, we'll do an entire shift independently... and I believe it will be as though we are additional supervisory nurses. We're not replacing or shadowing a nurse on the shift. We're supposed to be assessing residents, directing resident care by LPNs and CNAs, passing meds to a whole set of residents twice, performing treatments like wound care... and doing a whole lot of paperwork. I think the idea is to immerse us in the world of an RN in long-term care.

I'm feeling surprisingly not anxious about this clinical. The staff made us feel very welcome today, and I'm looking forward to mentoring the new kids in the program. It makes me realize that I'm come a really long way in a really short time. That's cool.

Labels: nursing school

In class today we filled out applications for the college for graduation, got the contact info for the state nursing commission so we can start sending them information about ourselves, got the contact info for the testing company so we can go ahead and send them a pile of money for faster test authorization now, and got the order forms for our pins. I think we all started to hyperventilate a little.

My biggest issue right now is that I don't know what kind of job I want to look for. One reason I wanted to go into nursing is because of the flexibility, but now that I'm getting ready to step into the work world again, I feel like there are too many choices. Most nurses & teachers have told me that getting a year of general med-surg experience is smart because it allows greater adaptability going forward, but I've also heard people say that if you're interested in critical care, go ahead and take an ICU job as a new graduate. I have ruled out some things - I don't want to work in labor & delivery, I don't want to work in the ER, I'm not very interested in working in ortho (although it would be a decent new grad job). But I don't have a burning passion for one particular area of practice. Some of the nursing students I know have a thing that they want to do, like oncology or trauma or NICU or psych or whatever. I don't have a thing like that.

Additionally, I am trying to balance the whole finding a new job thing with the whole spawning a smolt thing. We're not trying to have a baby just yet, but neither of us are getting any younger. So I feel kind of pressured to get work ASAP, so I can get a good chunk of work experience under my belt before I take time off for having a kid. And I would like to be able to go back to work part-time in a per-diem position or on a "traveler" contract, so we wouldn't have to put our baby in day care. I don't know how to balance all the variables.

Labels: nursing school

I've been neglecting my poor blog! As my pathetic short posts have probably hinted, I've been just overwhelmed with everything that's been going on, both good and bad. So here's a quick update on several things in my life:

School. This is this first week of 6th quarter, which is my LAST quarter of nursing school. Graduation is scheduled for March 20. I have two courses with two clinicals - advanced med-surg and nursing management. For med-surg, I'm going to the big downtown location of my employer, which will be interesting. For management clinical, I'm going to a nursing home where half the week I will supervise first-quarter students during their first clinical, and the other half of the week I will manage care for the residents and also manage the staff (CNAs et al) who work there. I am scared to death about the management part - I feel like I don't know enough to tell other people what to do!

House. We're getting settled into the house. I rearranged the kitchen cabinets today, and found a place to plug in the dustbuster. One of our friends asked R* if we were happy in the house, and his answer was "Um... happier than at the apartment? We haven't lived at the house long enough to know." I concur. I think the house is going to be fine but I haven't been here long enough to be sure.

Apartment. I probably shouldn't talk too much about this, but suffice to say that we've found a lawyer and are investigating our options.

Health. Remember how I signed up with Weight Watchers October 1st? Yeah. I stuck to it just fine until the whole Sh*tland thing got underway. And when we were worrying about where we were going to sleep that night or whether we'd have poo in the bathtub, I didn't give a crap about what I ate. So I haven't lost any weight. At least I've managed not to gain any, either. I worked out today for the first time since we moved into the house... I am really out of shape. But it felt good.

Also, remember how I was having too much anxiety? I finally got my act together (and powered through my anxiety about making phone calls) and saw a psychiatric nurse practitioner who specializes in medication management and counseling. After discussing my symptoms and my family history, she agreed with me that I seem to have a biochemical issue that is probably genetic, and changed my medications. It's only been a few weeks and so far, so good.

Kitty. Our Kismet kitty has been such a trooper through all of this upheaval. She didn't like the night she spent in a hotel with us, but she was well-behaved. And she was downright cheerful about staying in the rental condo for a week, even though she didn't understand why we were bothered by her clawing the upholstered chair. (She doesn't do that at home!) Today I took her to the vet for her annual checkup, and the doctor told us she's perfectly healthy, but Kismet registered a complaint with the vet techs. I have never heard her hiss, growl, or yowl before, but she did all three while she was getting her nails trimmed. Goodness. She is a furry purring ball of love at home.

Car. The dealership service center patched my tire and charged me $19. And they vacuumed my floor mats and left me a new bottle of water. Awesome.

Books. I've read a lot of books during my time away from school. The kind you read for fun. You can read about the books I've read and what I thought about them on my shelf at Shelfari.

Las Vegas. R* and I went to Vegas for 3 days right before Christmas. We stayed at the Bellagio and saw 4 shows and ate lots of fantastic food and drank way too much and played slot machines for no apparent reason and generally had a great time. We pretty much avoided the skeevier parts of the Vegas experience altogether. I'm just a little bit bummed that I didn't see any Elvises. (Elvisi? Elvi? Elvoose?)

Christmas. We went to my parents' house and they made Christmas for us. They'd gotten a tree and decorated and put up lights and Mom even got stockings and stuff to put in them. We played games and cards and ate homemade food and took naps and went to see "The Golden Compass" and went for a walk in the snow and generally had a lovely family time. It was really good.

Leavenworth. Because I worked New Year's Day, I didn't want to do anything major on New Year's Eve, which turned out to be just fine since the Space Needle fireworks didn't go off as planned. At all. We had planned to spend the night in a hotel downtown with a view, but we cancelled it in advance. Thank goodness. It would've been a real letdown! So this past weekend before school started, R* took me to Leavenworth to see the winter wonderland. It was so snowy and beautiful! It's not like city snow - everything was covered in this thick puffy blanket of marshmallow cream snow. Because the town is so small, the snow doesn't get all dirty and gross from air pollution and lots of traffic. We went for a walk on the grounds at Sleeping Lady prior to having dinner there, and it was so neat. The snow was about waist deep and they dug out paths between all the buildings. I felt like a mouse in a burrow. The stars came out and they looked so huge and bright because we were out in the mountainy woods - so pretty!

Anyway. I've got to get to bed. I've got clinical orientation tomorrow, oh joy. Oh snore.

Labels: family, health, medical, nursing school, travel

# posted by girl_in_greenwood @ 9:25 PM 1 comments links to this post

I just had an unexpected niceness happen to me. I'm sitting in the hallway at school, waiting for my classmates to finish the final exam we had today so we can go to lunch. My clinical instructor from last quarter walked by and said hi, then turned around and sat down next to me and said, "I was talking with the 5th quarter faculty the other day, and one of them said, 'You know who I really like? That Emily. She is so well-rounded and smart and with it.' "

What a sweet, sweet thing to say!

Labels: nursing school

I've checked off a few more things for this quarter:

Done with clinicals.
Done with care plans.
Done with teaching project.
Done with term papers.
Done with going to work the day after my last day of clinical which really sucked for the record.

Still left to do before the quarter is over:

Take several exams.
Write approximately twelve thousand more log entries to turn in on Tuesday. (Actually, I'm almost done with this, but I cannot stand to write any more tonight.)
Go to see my parents for Thanksgiving wherein there will be eating of pie and turkey and stuffing and potato chips and much sleeping in and much drinking of tasty beverages. I can't even express how much I'm looking forward to this.
A one-night stay at the Salish Lodge on our way back after the holiday, wherein there will be snuggling in front of a fire, soaking in a bathrub, and hot stone massages.
And some more exams.

It's really close. Graduation is four months away. Unbelievable.

Labels: nursing school

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. I realized today that this week and next week are the busiest weeks of the quarter, so I'm actually feeling really positive.

Last week was my first week of labor & delivery clinicals. I haven't seen any births. I did get to assess a newborn and her mom, though, which was awesome. I love babies. I also got to hang out with a mom who was in for observation due to pregnancy-induced hypertension - she had me feel her baby kicking, which was really cool. The census is pretty low at this hospital, and the c-section rate is pretty high, so I despair of actually witnessing a an old-fashioned birth. We shall see.

Over the weekend, R* and I went out to Port Townsend for a couple of nights. His band played a show Saturday night, but we went up on Friday so we could have some downtime. It was nice but too short.

This week in addition to classroom time, I've been out on the road with hospice nurses as part of my community health clinical. I'm actually really, really enjoying it and will write more about it soon. Also for community health, I'm doing a teaching project with 3 of my classmates on Monday and Tuesday. Then I've got three days in a row of L&D clinical, and then I'm going to lie down and sleep a great deal. After that, things slow down significantly - I do have a few more days of L&D clinical, and half a day with a lactation consultant, but that's about it. It will seem like a luxury to be done with clinical a month before the quarter is over!

Oh yeah, and I'm working on Saturday. I'm seriously trying to figure out how I can swing by the hospital tomorrow and put my name in the "please let me have a day off if you don't need me" book.

Labels: nursing school

All this talk about babies and breastfeeding in class is making me want to have a baby.

That is all.

Labels: babies, nursing school

I'm back at school this week for my next-to-last quarter of nursing school. This quarter the courses are Childbirth and Community Health. I am looking forward to the labor & delivery stuff because I think it's interesting, even though I have no intention of being an L&D nurse myself. The community health coursework is really boring to me... a lot of it is about policy and health care access and all that wonky sort of stuff that just makes me feel impotently angry. However, I think I'm going to be able to shadow a hospice nurse for my clinical for that class, which will be great.

Right now I'm still feeling very confused. I'm pretty sure I know what dates I'm supposed to be where, but that's about all I know. I'm not even sure what paperwork I'm supposed to turn in tomorrow! I hate feeling lost.

Labels: nursing school

Okay! I finished 4th quarter on Wednesday. Final grades haven't come out yet, but I believe I'm going to get a 3.5 in both classes.

We signed a lease on the apartment I mentioned previously. Now we are in the middle of packing up and getting rid of stuff, putting other stuff into storage, and generally trying to make our house look beautiful and uncluttered so people will want to buy it. My parents are going to come help us do some of the last repairs and painting and stuff, which will be excellent.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get rid of extraneous stuff. It feels good to simplify a bit. But it sure is a lot of work to go through everything we own and make decisions about whether we're going to take it with us, throw it away, Freecycle it, give it to someone specific, or put it in storage.

New job starts on Monday. I talked to my new boss this week and she told me she's going to have me orient with the RNs, so I don't know if I'm going to be a "junior nurse" and have my own patient load or what! Regardless, I'm looking forward to it and I'm sure it will go fine. This first week is going to be all classroom orientation, anyway, which will be snoresville. I've done clinicals at this hospital before so I already know how their documentation works, how to use the Pyxis, which brand of blood glucose monitor they use, blah blah blah. I think I'll take a book and read under the table like I did in 5th grade social studies class. Haha.

Labels: moving, nursing, nursing school

I have a monster headache today. My inner nursing-school hypochondriac wants to declare it a cluster headache and go to the ER for some oxygen and good drugs, but in real life I think it's just a regular ol' tension headache that needs some ibuprofen and big glass of water, which I'm taking care of right now.

School is nearly done. I've turned in all my assignments, including extra credit and my giant term paper. I've taken my last two regular exams and did just fine on both of them, so now all that's left is the two final exams for med-surg and for psych. Interesting, each final is only 60 points, not 100 points like usual finals. I will study for these exams, but I am so not worried about them.

In moving news, I got us a storage space today and bought a handful of boxes to start the pack-a-thon. Yesterday I plowed through our biggest storage closet and got rid of a bunch of stuff, posted a bunch of stuff on Freecycle, and divided up the rest into "take to apartment," "pack for storage unit," "leave with house" (light bulbs for the light pots, the egg holder for the fridge), and "Freecycle later". Now that I've got boxes, I can get going on packing stuff up and we can start ferrying things to the storage unit.

I also went and looked at an apartment today. It's not perfect - there are definitely both pros and cons - but it would be fine for a year or so and the price is right. It's like a mother-in-law apartment in the owner's house - upstairs there's the owner's unit and downstairs there's his workshop. I like the idea of living someplace that isn't an apartment complex full of people. Pros: super-nice neighborhood, walking distance to some of our favorite restaurants, big living room, big kitchen, extra leetle room for an office, storage space, hardwood floors. Cons: bedrooms are tiny and don't have real closets, just closet-y areas without doors, no dishwasher, electric stove, bathroom is nice but tiny, no off-street parking, laundry is in a storage room next to the apartment. We'll see - the owner is going to run credit checks and all that and get back to us with a decision soon. I tried really hard to be pleasant and gave him info that should make him want to rent to us: R* has a great job! We've been homeowners for quite some time now! We like quiet living spaces! I love the owner's artwork! Etc. If this place doesn't work out, no big deal - we don't plan to move before August 1 anyway.

All of this extroversion today was hard for me. Especially with a headache. But I got a lot accomplished so go me. Now I'm going to go find some lunch and then go put stuff in boxes.

Labels: moving, nursing school

My last day of med-surg clinical was this week! We left early on the last day and went out together for pizza and beer. It was fun. I really love my classmates. Now I've just got one more evening of psych clinical and I will be nearly finished with the quarter. Of course I've still got several more tests and a research paper and final exams... but it's all doable. And then it will be time for summer break and starting my new job!

We're also starting to work on getting ready to move. We're going to sell our house at some point this summer and move into an apartment for the next year while I finish up school and find a job, so we'll be able to buy our next house that will be a little bigger. We're planning on probably having a baby in the next couple years and our current house is just a little too small. Or really, it's just not laid out optimally. We hope that by selling while the housing market is still hot, we'll put ourselves in a good position to buy in a couple years. But in the meantime, it means we've got to sort and clean out and pack and fix up the house and rent a storage unit and find an apartment and put the house on the market and gaaaaaaaaaaaah. I shouldn't look at it as one big task, I guess - it seems much more manageable if I break it down into single tasks like "clean out the filing cabinet".

Thank goodness for Freecycle, that's all I can say!

Labels: moving, nursing school

I was offered the nurse tech job at Neighborhood Private Hospital this morning. :) I will be working between half and full time this summer after classes end. They call the unit "acute care" but in this hospital, it really means "place where we stick everyone who is too sick to go home but not sick enough to get sent up to the big hospital with an ICU". So there are patients who are a day or two out of routine surgery, like appendectomy or joint replacement, patients with a serious illness like pneumonia, patients with an infected wound or something that needs frequent nursing care, and the occasional sick elderly person who is a DNR and therefore doesn't need ICU facilities. I think the variety sounds fantastic! I really dislike working on a unit like the one I'm on for clinicals, where virtually all the patients are there for the same reason (it's an ortho unit and everyone has a shiny new hip or knee joint, mostly). It's boring and routine and I don't learn many new things. So my summer job sounds like I'll be able to learn a little about all kinds of stuff!

Now I just have to get through the rest of the quarter. First up: finish the next three weeks of clinical and get some free time back. On deck: write giant research paper.

Labels: nursing school, work

I just had an unexpected phone interview for a nurse tech job at Neighborhood Private Hospital. It would start in June and it would be a day shift position and they would pay me $15 an hour.

I also got up my nerve and called the ICU at Fancy University Hospital where I had a fantastic observation experience last week and asked them if they had any jobs. I spoke to the charge nurse and while she didn't have any answers for me off the top of her head, she was very nice and enthusiastic and said she would discuss with the nurse manager and call me back.

So it looks like I will have an income again, someday. And when I do, I have a rapidly growing list of things on which I wish to spend my money, including but not limited to:

getting my highlights touched up
buying a metric shitload of new bras
buying some jeans
getting a new coffee doo-dad such as this one (my small size french press broke after 11 years of faithful service. RIP, little press!)
additional old lady support stockings (I did nursing science last week and wore support stockings one day and no stockings the next day. Day 1 = no sore feet. Day 2 = sore feet. Conclusion: support hose are where it's at.)

My desires are pretty simple! Now just cross your fingers that I land a good job.

Labels: nursing school, work

Okay, back into school. It's pretty remarkable to think about how much I've learned in the past year. One year ago I was finishing my first week of nursing school and freaking out about 1000 times a day. (Aw, look how excited I was!) This week, I'm a little stressed with how much reading I have to do, and a little nervous about going to clinical next week, but I am definitely much more confident and ready to roll. I still don't like to start in a new clinical setting where I don't know anyone and don't know where anything is, but I've lived through it before so I'm sure I'll be fine.

I saw my dentist this week and he asked me how nursing school was going, and did I do stuff like give people shots? And I was all like, "pshaw, give shots, that's no big deal." One year ago, I think I would've fallen out of the dentist's chair at the very idea of giving injections.

So what am I doing this quarter? Well, I've got two days of lecture on campus, and two days of med-surg clinical at Awesome University Hospital, and one day every other week in the inpatient psych unit at Big County Hospital where I was last quarter for med-surg. I feel pretty positive about the med-surg class, and about the psych nursing theory course, but I am scared to death about the psych clinical. I don't know if I'm scared of being around crazy people, or if I'm scared that I will be horrible at dealing with crazy people, or if I'm scared that I am not that far from crazy myself and that I will end up a patient instead of a nurse. I am hoping this is just anxiety and I will be fine once I get going.

I am making a big effort this quarter to build in more healthy habits, so I have been working out in the mornings before I go to class, and have been eating right. Yogurt or high-fiber cereal for breakfast, salads for lunch, protein and veggies for dinner. And have I lost any weight? No, no I have not. Sigh. At least I'm doing all the right things.

Okay, back to studying.

Labels: nursing school

I am home from Canada, quite a bit more rested and relaxed. My final exam went excellently well - I got a 90% and ended up with a 3.3 in the class, which is quite a bit higher than I'd been anticipating. All but 2 of my classmates passed into next quarter - one of them was a "backfill" student second quarter so now we're down to 19 of the original 30 students that started first quarter together.

The day after the final, I spent most of the day cleaning house because my parents came into town and spent the night at our house. I know it doesn't sound like much fun to clean the house on my break but it's awfully nice to have a clean house again.

Friday morning we got up super early and went down to the waterfront to catch the Victoria Clipper to, uh, Victoria. Upon arriving, we cabbed over to the Empress Hotel and checked in. R* was dissatisfied with our allegedly upgraded room and went back to the desk and asked for a new room - so we ended up in a little suite with a harbour view and a lovely sitting area. I would not have asked for a new room if it were up to me because I'm embarrassed by things like that - but I have to admit that our room was gorgeous and we were much more comfortable there.

After moving into room #2, we went downstairs and met my parents for afternoon tea. It was posh as it always is at the Empress. I started my tea collection there, as the waitstaff pass out boxes of "Tea at the Empress" tea bags to each customer. We went back up to our room and changed and relaxed for a little while, then went down to the spa and had massages and soaked in the mineral pool for a little while. I felt so much better afterward. I've been really tense! We had a nap and then all 4 of us went for an early dinner at Cafe Brio. We had a really good time and the food was terrific. The only letdown was that dessert was not as stunning as the previous courses had been. R* and I had been there for dinner several years ago and I was very happy to find that the restaurant held up to my fond memory.

On Saturday we wandered around and shopped and lunched at an Irish pub which was fabulous - best fish and chips I've ever had - and took a nap and had a delicious seafood dinner. Then we went back to the Empress and had cocktails and dessert and listened to a jazz trio which was actually very good, not "hotel jazz" at all. During my shopping I loaded up at Lush and at Murchies... in fact, I'm having a cup of Queen Victoria blend as I type this.

Sunday we went on a tour bus out to the Butchart Gardens and strolled around and had tea again in their restaurant. Then we caught a bus back to the Empress, where we had left our bags to be taken over to the Clipper terminal, and discovered we had a couple of hours to kill. So my parents and I went to the Victoria Bug Zoo, which caused R* to announce that he would meet us later and hightail it for the bookstore. He doesn't like bugs very much. :) My folks and I had a great time, though - I guess we're kind of weird that way. R* found some jazz CDs in the sale bin and a book he'd been wanting, so he also had a good time. We went into a deli and bought sandwiches for the boat trip home - the one major problem with the Clipper is that the food on board is awful - and then strolled over to the terminal. We got home without incident and hopped in the car and drove home. It was a very nice vacation and I remembered why I like Victoria so much - it's friendly, pleasant, has plenty of things to do and isn't too far from home.

Now I've got just a few days off before school starts again. I actually have a CPR class all day on Friday and then regular classes start on Monday. Sigh. I need a longer break. The good news is that I don't have to get up so freaking early, though, since my earliest class this quarter is at 9:30 AM.

In other news, R* and I have decided we need to get back on the health kick again. Our plan is to have oatmeal, yogurt & fruit, or cereal for breakfast (maybe smoothies as well?), salad for lunch, and protein (chicken or seafood) and vegetables for dinner. I think I'll serve fresh fruit for "dessert" at dinner time. I went to the grocery store today and got a bunch of salad ingredients and chopped them all up and stashed them in the fridge for easy salad packing. Hopefully that will make it easier to stick with the plan.

Labels: nursing school, vacation, weight loss

Let's talk about fluid balance, shall we?

Mr. Hypo Thalamus was watching the monitors in his office, keeping track of the temperature, the hunger level, the thirst level, and several other screens. Suddenly, there was a knock on his door. "Come in," said Hypo. The door opened and a messenger stuck his head in. "Hey, Hypo, it's Osmo Receptor. Got a note for you. It's getting kind of salty out there, I think the company has lost some fluid." "Thanks, Osmo," replied Hypo. "I'll get right on that."

Hypo Thalamus picked up the telephone and punched the button for overhead paging. "Attention, everyone, we are going to Thirst Level 1. Let's drink some water out there!". He then dialed the extension for the pituitary department down the hall. "Hi, Pituitary? I've got a message for the back office. Yeah, Posterior Pituitary. Can you have him release some ADH? You know, antidiuretic hormone? Thanks." Hypo Thalamus hung up the phone and stretched. His work was done.

Posterior Pituitary had his feet up on his desk when his secretary came in. "Hi, Posterior," she said. "I've got a message for you from Hypo Thalamus upstairs. He says you need to send out some ADH right away - I guess things are pretty salty out there." P. Pituitary swung his feet down from the desk and opened his filing cabinet. Taking out a wad of ADH, he handed it to the secretary and said, "This ought to do the trick. Go ahead and tube this down to the kidneys. Tell Hypo to call me if he needs more ADH down there. Thanks!"

The secretary dropped the ADH into the pneumatic tube system and punched in the extension for the Kidney department. When the shipment of ADH arrived at Kidney Central, the foreman passed the ADH around to all the collecting ducts and distal tubules in every nephron unit. "Listen up, everybody!" the foreman shouted. "We've got salty conditions out there and we need to keep more water in the major water treatment system. No clean water should be flowing out to the storm sewer at this time." Each nephron unit readjusted their settings to allow the distal tubules and collecting ducts to get more permeable. Soon, water started splashing through the tubules and out into the utility pipelines, diluting the bloodstream back to normal level. "Nice work, everyone!" the foreman said. "You can take it easy for a while now. Good thing this company doesn't have SIADH or we would have to be on permeable settings all the time - imagine what a hassle that would be!"

Meanwhile, the Adrenal offices upstairs from the Kidney department were monitoring their own screens. "Hmm, looks like the company is reabsorbing some water down in Kidney," said one Adrenal officer. "Yeah, we'd better remind them to retain some sodium, too, or else we're going to have hyponatremia problems," replied the other Adrenal officer. "I'll send out some aldosterone, that should do the trick." The Adrenals sent a shipment of aldosterone downstairs to the Kidney department. "Thanks!" the Kidney foreman called upstairs. "I'll get some renin sent out right away!"

The Kidney foreman shipped a batch of renin out into the utility pipeline along with the water. While floating along in the plasma, the renin ran into some angiotensinogen on it's way out of the liver. "Yo, Angi!" called out Renin. "Good to see you, man! Wanna go talk to the Adrenal department with me?" "Sure!" replied Angiotensinogen. "Just let me change into Angiotensin real quick, Adrenals never listen to me if I don't change." After swapping his Angiotensiogen team jacket for the Angiotensin II jacket, Angi headed back to the Adrenal offices. "Hey Adrenals, how's it going?" said Angi. "Kidneys sent Renin to tell me that the company is having problems with the sodium levels. Can I help you with that?"

"Thanks for letting us know!" replied the Adrenal officers. "We'll send out another batch of aldosterone to the Kidney department right away."

There, now wasn't that more fun than reading about the renin-angiotension-aldosterone mechanism???

Labels: nursing school, writing

I've been thinking throughout the whole nursing program so far that many of these concepts - especially physiology stuff - would be a lot easier to understand if they were rephrased into children's stories. Or children's style stories, I should say. For example, I could NOT remember how left shift worked until I made up the following snippet of a story:

The war against the Bacterial Invaders was going poorly. The captain of the White Cell Guard took stock of his troops and realized that they were down to less than 5000 soldiers. "Troops!" he shouted. "Our numbers are getting low! We're going to have to send in our kids!" The troops replied, "But captain! The kids are not mature, and won't be as effective against the invaders." The captain sighed and said, "I know, but we don't have any other soldiers to put on the battlefield right now. We'll have to make sure we give the kids clear instructions."

He turned to the kids and shouted, "Kids, ten-HUT! We're marching out. Left! Left! Left, right, left!"

It would be easy to write something similar for the rest of the immune response. I just haven't gotten around to it. Other topics I've considered writing children's stories about are insulin and glucose (they have to hold hands to enter the cell!), different hormones, and fluid/electrolyte balance. Maybe after I finish school I'll have time for such things.

Labels: books, nursing school, writing

It looks like this quarter may someday come to an end. It's been a tough one. I was thinking about it recently, and out of the 30 people who started together first quarter last April, we're down to 20. (There are students backfilled in each quarter, plus the LPN to RN program starts with 3rd quarter, so our class always has 30+ students - they're just not all original members!) We lost 7 at the end of first quarter. Everyone passed second quarter, but one woman didn't come back for third quarter. And we've had two people withdraw near the end of the quarter, presumably because they got word they were not going to pass the quarter. I'm anxious to see who passes into next quarter.

We got partial word today about next quarter's clinical groups - I know I'm not going to Downtown Private Hospital, which is good in the sense that it means I'm probably going to be in the Awesome University Hospital group, but very sad in the sense that Classmate M* who lives inside my head is not with me next quarter! We have been inseperable at clinical for the past year and it's so strange to think of being on the floor without her. She is equally bummed out and left me the cutest voicemail after class today telling me so.

As a further sign that the quarter will someday end, today we turned in our research papers. Now all that's left is two regular exams, the last bit of log-writing for clinicals, and our final clinical conferences with our instructor. Oh yeah, and a final exam. And then, Canadian vacation!

Labels: nursing school

Tonight was my next to last night of clinical for the quarter. And my night was like an entire quarter's worth of clinical crammed into 8 hours. I did all kinds of unspeakable things to people! I started an IV on an older, dehydrated gentleman with rolly veins (on the first stick, I might add). I started a Foley catheter on a post-op patient who decided that he would put a towel over his face and "go to his happy place" while I did the deed, which struck me as an excellent coping technique. I gave the aforementioned elderly gentleman a suppository. And I changed a dressing on a road rash wound. It was a busy night.

And tomorrow is the LAST night of clinical for this quarter. We're going to go in for a few hours and then we're all going out to dinner together. I can't wait to be done. I guess I'm not really done until next week, though, because I still have a surgery observation day. But no one will expect me to do any work that day!

Finally, my mom sent me a new white pair of Airwalk closed-toe clogs (like Crocs but Airwalk brand) and I wore them for the first time at clinical tonight - and it was the first night on the floor that my feet didn't hurt. I am thrilled.

Labels: nursing school

The past two quarters have gone by extremely quickly. This quarter started out going fast, and then sometime in the past week or two, it came screeching to a halt. There are two full weeks left, then one more week with lecture but no clinicals, and then one more week where we have one day of lecture and then the final exam a couple days later. How is it possible that there is still almost a month left? Haven't I been in 3rd quarter for about 100 years?

I am dreading going into 4th quarter with this level of burnout. From what I've heard, it's like 3rd quarter plus another entire class and clinical (psych nursing). Am I going to have to give up sleeping and eating to make it work? I suppose that's one way to lose weight...

Labels: nursing school

I went back to clinical this week now that my instructor is feeling better. The extremely broken girl I mentioned last week was still on the unit on Tuesday, so I selected her again (since I'd already written a care plan for her!). I also selected another patient and wrote a care plan on him... and when I got to the hospital on Wednesday he had been discharged. Crap. So, I asked my nurse if she had another patient I could pick up, and then I basically followed my nurse around like a puppy all night. Well, I guess that's not true, I did do quite a bit of care on my own and with a classmate. I stood by and handed my nurse lots and lots of gloves while she did a manual disimpaction on my second patient... if you don't know what that means, consider yourself lucky and think no more about it.

Caring for the extremely broken girl was emotionally difficult for me. Partly because I was afraid of hurting her because she had so many injuries in so many places, and partly because she has some brain damage which makes finding the words she wants to say difficult for her. She's very young and tiny, also, which just adds to the impression of vulnerability. I felt *really* bad about giving her injections because she got very upset when I did it. She's so thin that I imagine even the tiny sub-Q needles hurt her. Fortunately classmate M* came into the room with me and held her hands and helped me reassure her when I had to give her shots. But, even though I found it emotionally difficult, I was able to do a good job caring for her. That kind of surprised me. Similarly, I was surprised and pleased with myself later in the evening on Thursday when one of classmate M*'s patients had a respiratory crisis, and both of us worked in conjunction with the patient's nurse to make him more comfortable. We've learned enough at this point that I could do useful things instead of just stand there looking dumb. That was a nice realization.

This coming week I have a break from actual patient care - I'll be observing in an endoscopy suite one day and shadowing a respiratory therapist another day. The nice thing about the observations is that they're during the day, so I won't have to be up late at night and spend no time with R*! We'll get to eat dinner together every night just like an actual married couple.

Labels: nursing school

On Tuesday, I almost fell asleep in lecture, then had to go to the hospital to pick patients for clinical. I was exhausted, cranky that my fave classmate M* wasn't with us, annoyed that I'd been allegedly exposed to pertussis at clinical last week and had to take 5 days of azithromycin, and anxious about moving to a new unit (ortho trauma, now with 100% more broken patients!) where I could hurt someone inadvertantly, etc. I commented to classmates A* and A* who were in my car that if I could just have a weekend right then, between Tuesday and Wednesday, everything would be fine. I would catch up on my sleep and get caught up at home and study for our cardio test on Monday.

So we arrived at the hospital and I went up to the new unit, nervous as all hell, and spoke to the charge nurse (who was SUPER helpful and kind), and he picked out two patients for me, one of whom I thought I could care for easily, and one of whom was so broken I was scared even thinking about touching her. She'd survived a nasty car wreck but had LOTS of broken things including both femurs (thigh bones for you nonmedical types). Ouch! So I worked very hard on my pre-plans and was all ready to roll on Wednesday morning... when my clinical instructor called me to say that she was very sick and clinical has been cancelled for the week because she couldn't find anyone who would be able to take her place and supervise us students on the floor. And obviously it's illegal for students to practice without supervision. So! I got my weekend after all! Although this does mean I'll have to go to one more week of clinical closer to the end of the quarter.

Yesterday I went out for breakfast with R*, studied my cardio stuff, worked out (30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of yoga, it was awesome! I want to do that every day!), spent quality time with my sweetie and my cat, painted my toenails, cooked dinner, and went to bed early. Today so far I've done some cleaning around the house, changed the sheets on the bed, and made plans for a study group later this afternoon. Later I'll work out and make dinner.

I really needed the break. Nursing school is kicking my butt this quarter. I'm already anxious for next quarter, because I hear we have just as much lecture plus THREE nights of clinical a week. Egad.

Labels: nursing school

I can't believe it, but I'm already halfway done with hands-on clinical for the quarter. I've finished my rotation on the telemetry unit and next week I'll move to an orthopedics/trauma unit. I've heard there are some fascinating cases on that floor!

Today I feel like I've been run over by a truck. I think I just hit a wall by the end of clinical last night. I was actually on the floor until 11:00 - no wonder I'm exhausted. This was actually week three of clinicals... the first week I shadowed a nurse and nominally had one patient to care for, except that my patient was just on the tele unit for observation and didn't need any nursing. I helped my nurse with some routine stuff, but mostly stood around and stared. The next week, I was assigned to one patient and took care of him myself. He was really sick - I was extremely nervous. But it went really well, and I got excellent feedback from my nurses and my instructor. I also made a connection with patient's family, which was pretty cool. This week, we had to ramp up to two patients. When I arrived on Wednesday, one of the patients that I had written my pre-plan for was gone to another unit. Drat! So I had to get a new patient and try to figure out what was going on with her and try to keep track of my other patient as well. I felt like I did a horrible job managing my time because I ended up delegating the other patient to the staff nurse. But last night, I was much better prepared and the whole evening went like clockwork. I successfully took care of both of my patients, gave meds on time, had time to go get some dinner and rest for a little while, and would've finished my charting before it was time to go... except that one of the night nurses asked if I wanted to start an IV! And I totally wanted to.

I was scared to death about actually STICKING A NEEDLE IN SOMEONE'S VEIN. But my instructor walked me through it step by step, my closest classmate acted as my scrub nurse (she filled her pockets with all the supplies I'd need and lots of extras just in case!), and the patient was the most cheerful, adorable guy in the world. He was an adult but developmentally delayed, and just chattered away happily the whole time we were preparing. When my teacher showed up, he said "Is this the first time you're doing this?" and I said yes, but that my teacher would help me, so he didn't need to worry... and he said, "Are you nervous?" Cracked me up. I admitted that I was a little nervous, but that I trusted my teacher and that we would take good care of him. Hilariously, he started singing "Like a Virgin," which really almost killed my instructor. And it went like a textbook procedure, which was nice for everyone involved. After we'd finished and cleaned everything up and gotten the patient settled, he called me back to the bedside... and when I walked back over, he held up his hand to high-five me. Cutest thing ever. I wanted to fold him up and put him in my pocket to take him home.

So yeah. Two more weeks at the Big County Hospital. And then I'll have the three different observation rotations, which happen earlier in the day instead of in the evenings like the hands-on clinicals. That means I'll actually be able to see R* while we're both awake, what a novelty!

Labels: nursing school

Apparently Meeegan's comment-karma did the job, because I only missed 2 points on my exam, despite ignoring the majority of the readings for this unit. (Respiratory diseases are gross, and also similar. Lots o' phlegm is lots o' phlegm, yeah?)

And Miss Kismet Kitty has discovered the joy of napping with her people. Yesterday she napped with R* after he coaxed her a little. Today I came home from class and got into bed for a power nap, and Kismet materialized on my chest about 3 seconds later, and began to purr. When I got sleepy enough that I stopped stroking her, she climbed down next to my hip and curled up and went to sleep. She's getting the hang of being a cat!

Labels: cats, nursing school

I made it through my first full week of clinical with flying colors. I was really nervous, but apparently I have learned something during all this school I've been attending, and it turns out I actually do know how to take care of patients. Last week we had to take care of one patient for two shifts, and going forward we'll have two patients. I'm a little nervous about that considering that a normal load for a nurse on the unit is 3 or 4 patients depending on their acuity... but I suppose I'll manage. I got a lot of positive feedback from my instructor and from the nurses I worked with on the floor, which was nice.

This weekend R* and I went out of town to visit my mom and dad. It was really nice to go to their house and relax and not have to worry about housework or anything for a couple of days. I finished writing my first big nursing process paper. Mom made sure I had coffee and fed us. R* got some work done and played guitar. It was nice. It was also nice to get home, especially because Kismet was so happy to see us. Such a sweet girl.

Now I'm stressed by the fact that I have an exam tomorrow that I really haven't studied for, plus another week of clinical with 2 patients this time. I don't foresee a lot of sleep happening before Friday. I feel like I have a fog in my head!

Labels: family, nursing school

This is the end of the first week of third quarter of nursing school. And boy did we hit the ground running. Day 1 we had a brief intro to the instructors and what we would do this quarter, then we had 2+ hours of lecture on testable material! Then we had a 2-hour skills lab as well. I love my skills/clinical instructor - she's very funny and silly, but also really seems to know her stuff and is very protective of her group of students. Tuesday was another 3 hours of lecture. Then Wednesday, we got up way too early and six of us convened at the park & ride to go to Big County Hospital for clinical orientation. We were there from 7:30 until 4:00 - it was a long day. While we did learn some useful things, a lot of it was pretty boring (especially the video about infection control). I know infection control is really important, and the factoid the video gave (near the beginning before I started dozing off) about MRSA and VRE being cultured off of computer keyboards on the floor was certainly an eye-opener, but the presentation method was dullsville. On the other hand, the training on the computer charting methods they use was really fun. As a reformed nerd, I LOVE computer charting. How awesome.

It was strongly emphasized to us that this quarter, we will be the acting nurse for our patients on our clinical shifts. We're supposed to take 2 or 3 patients each week and come in with a plan of care ready. And we're supposed to do all the care for those patients for an 8 hour shift. The example my instructor gave was, "Say you have a patient who has suddenly spiked a fever of 102. Last quarter, you would've gone to the RN and said hey, this patient has a fever. This quarter, you should go to the RN and say hey, this patient has a fever and his other vitals are XYZ and I think we should call the doctor and suggest that we should see if this guy has an infection." Critical thinking, in other words.

I felt really anxious when I first thought about providing all care for two patients... then I remembered that I routinely kept track of 10+ residents at my CNA job, which wasn't as intellectually challenging, but certainly required me to be organized and keep track of lots of details. So I should be fine. Even when I worked on the dementia ward, I was capable of keeping 6 residents clean, dry, and fed - certainly I can take care of two patients!

One fascinating thing about this quarter is that I barely have time to be nervous about clinical - there are only 6 weeks of clinical with 2 shifts of patient each week. And during those 6 weeks, I have 3 different observation days, where I go to observe some other aspect of hospital care (surgery, respiratory therapy, endoscopy) instead of going to clinical on the floor. It just so happens that all 3 of my observations are during the last two weeks of clinical, so I will basically go to clinical for 4 weeks, plus one extra day, and THAT'S IT. Holy crap. As if that weren't stressful enough, we have SIX exams before the final exam, the first one being a week from Monday. I can already tell this quarter is going to be over in a flash.

But you know? My #1 goal this quarter has very little to do with school - it is to NOT gain 10 pounds like I did the last two quarters. It would not be cool at all to graduate from the program 60 pounds heavier than when I started.

Labels: nursing school

University of Phoenix

I did not know until today that there was another option for me to finish my BSN after I complete my ADN, other than the program through UW-Bothell. But look! Univeristy of Phoenix offers an online BSN completion program for working RNs! Neato keen.

Labels: nursing school

I heart guts

These are the cutest 'lil guts I've ever seen! What a great gift for a nursing student.

Labels: nursing school, shopping

We had our final exam for second quarter today. I did just fine - 92%. And amazingly, every single person in my class passed both the exam and the course! So we're all moving on to 3rd quarter together in January.

I am way too tired and my brain is much too used up to have anything smart to say right now. But I wanted to put the good news out there for my readers (hi Mom!).

And now I'm on vacation for a few weeks!

Oh, and the title of this entry refers to the fact that I am now one-third done with the nursing program. I will have my ADN in another 4 quarters. Unbelievable.

Labels: nursing school

My last day of clinical for this quarter is over! I am amazed at how much I learned in 7 short weeks. Here's a short list of skills I did (on real patients!) for the first time: change a dressing on a surgical wound, remove a drain from a surgical site, give a subcutaneous injection, give an intramuscular injection, pass meds (I had sort of done this at one of my assisted living jobs, but it's totally different when a) your instructor is watching and b) you're using a Pyxsis for the first time), administer meds through a G-tube, flush a G-tube, help position a patient for a surgical procedure (I guess you'd call it surgical when the surgeon comes in and draws a whole lotta fluid off a patient's knee, right?), assisted with physical therapy, held a basin for a man who was vomiting (and thank goodness, did not vomit myself!), learned how to put on and use sequential compression devices (aka leg squeezers to the patients), removed a couple of Foley catheters, emptied Foley bags, learned about nagging patients to use incentive spirometers after surgery, learned all about taking care of patients in isolation with nasty infections, and to wrap things up, found out on my last day that I may have been exposed to tuberculosis. It was pretty awesome.

One of classmates had a whole string of crazy experiences this quarter, culminating with yesterday's excitement, wherein he was attempting to put in his first Foley catheter in a woman of considerable size (this is very challenging) and just as he inserted it, she had a grand mal seizure. Holy cow. I saw the whole thing, but I was just there as an observer. Poor D* is probably going to have a complex about putting in catheters for the rest of his life.

All I've got left to finish up to be done with second quarter is 1 quiz, 1 test, 1 skills lab, 1 set of careplans and logs, and 1 final exam. Then it will be time for Christmas!

Labels: nursing school

R* and I went on a lovely date Friday night. To celebrate R*'s birthday, we went out to dinner at Perche'No for delish Italian food (including a dessert that involved miniature crepes filled with Nutella!). And then we went over to the Pacific Northwest Ballet to see a program of 4 modern dance pieces. We had a fantastic time. I was sooooooo tired by the time we got home - I had been up late the night before writing a care plan, then was at the hospital for clinical from 6:45 to 12:30, then had rushed to campus for a lecture on palliative care from 1:30-3:00. I did crash for about 45 minutes before we left for dinner, but it wasn't enough!

This weekend I spent the entire time parked in front of the computer finished my nursing process paper, writing a paper about nursing care of dying children, log entries on various clinical stuff, a midterm self-evaluation... However! After turning in all that stuff today, here's what I've got left for this quarter:

19 days of class/clinical
3 exams
4 quizzes
3 nursing process papers (and I have to pass just one of them!)
1 final exam

This is totally doable! Especially since Thanksgiving break will occur in the middle of it, and I will have 5 days in a row away from school. (We're out of school Wed-Friday that week.)

We already had a visit from the lead 3rd quarter instructor to give us registration forms and clinical choices for winter quarter. The choices for clinicals are two evenings a week (2:00-10:30) at Harborview, or two morsnings a week starting at 6:45 at Stevens Hospital in Edmonds. I put down Harborview as my first choice - mostly because I would really, really like to have a break from early morning clinicals. Also, the evenings clinicals are on Wednesday/Thursday, which would leave me free on Fridays to do stuff like clean house or shop for groceries. Or sleep.

Now watch, since I've expressed a preference, I'll be going to Stevens for sure. :P

Labels: food, nursing school, Seattle

All I can think about right now is nursey stuff. If it's not the papers I have to write, the procedures I have to do in clinical, or the drugs I have to memorize, it's the nursing care of Elderly Kitty. Who is hanging in there, but still needs lots of attention.

This week in clinical I pulled a drain from a surgical incision, removed a Foley catheter, and passed meds. My clinical group also went to a flu shot clinic at the hospital and gave injections. I was super nervous but it went just fine. Although the first person I injected was this very skinny old man and I felt the needle bump into his bone. He didn't flinch, though, and I just eased the needle back a little bit and aspirated (no blood) and injected the vaccine. Aaaugh. The other shots I did went picture-perfect, and in fact the last patient told me "I didn't feel a thing!".

Tomorrow morning I've got an exam for which I need to know a metric assload of drugs. I'm hoping I don't just blank out - I've done my best to learn them in a short amount of time. If only there was a way to pipe stuff directly inside my head!

Friday was a super-long day - got up at 5:30, went to clinical, went to flu clinic, dropped off M* at the park & ride, took J* back to his car by my house, changed out of my scrubs, shot up Elderly Diabetic Kitty, went to R*'s gig on Capitol Hill, had a beer (hallelujah!), hung out with some friends of friends who all turned out to be nurses, talked shop, balanced my caffeine level with Diet Cokes, ate dinner, drove home because R* had a lovely cocktail with dinner, passed PM meds for Elderly Kitty, and collapsed into bed.

Since then I've basically just studied. And ran a couple errands. And had a nice breakfast out with R* today. Time to do it all again tomorrow.

The little boy I babysit for is nearly two, and is talking but mostly in one-word declaratives. When he's finished with something (eating, playing with a particular toy, swinging on the swings, etc), he announces "all done!" and moves on to the next thing. Last week he'd had a rough night and on the way home from playtime he sniffled and said, "....aaaaallll dooonnnne...." in this very sad voice. He was just worn out. I told my carpoolmates about it, and on Friday while we were driving M* back to the park & ride, J* shut his eyes and announced, "All. done." M* and I just cracked up because we so knew what he meant.

Labels: babysitting, Booshka, nursing school

Mr. Black Cat is doing much better. He's not back to 100%, but he seems much more like his old self. Just like any elderly patient, he's up to 4 different meds administered at 3 different times of day. And yes, I have to wipe his butt on occasion. Although at least this IBS flare-up has not been nearly as disgusting as the last one. I'm not expecting that he's going to live years longer or anything, but I do think he'll be with us for a few more months. Today he wanted to sit on my lap and sniff every single bite of my lunch before I put it into my mouth. This is a good sign.

Okay, as for the brainstorm - I didn't have one, I'm asking for your help with one! I have to present an article to my clinical group at post-conference on Friday. I'm totally fine with the article and the speaking part, but I'm supposed to use a "visual aid" and I'm drawing a blank. The topic of the article is prescribing a "range order" for painkillers and why it's important for nurses to advocate for range orders for their patients, and how to use these orders to keep patients as comfortable as possible. In case you are as clueless as me (I just learned this today!), a range order is a prescription, typically for pain medication, that allows the nurse to use her judgement about how much to administer based on the patient's status and the situation. For example, the doctor might write an order for morphine, 1-4 mg/hour by IV, as needed for pain. This would give the nurse the leeway to crank up the patient's dose to 4 mg/hour if the patient was in terrible pain, or to crank down the dose to 1 mg/hour if the patient was getting groggy and the pain was long gone.

So yeah, I don't need to recap the whole article for you - just tell me what you think I could do VISUALLY to help with this presentation! I don't have access to a computer or overhead, so it's gotta be something I can just hold up, pass around the table, or tape to the blackboard. The only idea I've had so far is to bring some kind of tiny candy, like smarties or jellybeans, and use them as "units" to demonstrate how I could dose 2 different patients with the same range order...?

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Labels: Booshka, cats, nursing school

This was the first week where we actually went to clinical at the hospital. Last Thursday we had clinical orientation but that was just a tour - this week we actually got assigned a patient and had to assess them, come up with care plan, etc. I was terrified of the whole thing since I don't have any hospital experience at all - I hate doing new stuff, even though it's good for me blah blah blah. But it went pretty well and I at least know where to find a couple of things on this unit at the hospital... if nothing else I can get a patient a clean gown and measure their oxygen saturation or blood sugar! By the end of the week I started to think that I might actually have fun by the end of the quarter.

However, I also started to think that I need to quit my job. I was supposed to work this morning but called in. I'm just too tired and stressed out, and R* says it's more important to him that I do well in school and that we have some semblence of a home life than that I bring home a few hundred dollars a month. Also, an unexpected variable is that my classes run a lot longer than they are scheduled - for example, I chose to work Wednesdays 2-10 PM because I was supposed to get out of skills lab at 12:30. In reality, I don't get out of skills lab until 1:30 or later, which makes it impossible to even get to work on time. I've already been in touch with the mom of the little boy I babysit occasionally, and I'm going to pick up some babysitting hours a few afternoons a week. While I don't have tons of free time, I think I can make that work, and it will be way less stressful than trying to cram in an 8 hour shift at work! Now I need to call my boss and explain that I'm leaving. I feel guilty about it - but I know I've gotta do what's right for me and R*.

Labels: CNA, nursing school

(If you're a nurse or nursing student, you know why that title is funny. If you're not, suffice to say that the brainwashing is working... I mean, I am being socialized into the nurse role.)

Last week I didn't do so hot in terms of following the schedule that I set for myself. I didn't completely fail, either - I did get up and do yoga a couple of times before class, I packed my breakfast and/or lunch most days, and I completed all my assignments on time. I managed to keep food on the table and clean clothes in our laundry baskets - but the rest of the house sort of went to hell. And I didn't get in any cardio.

Today is going according to plan thus far - I got up and did yoga this morning, went to class, ate my pre-packed lunch on campus, came home and studied for a while, went for a jog, came back and showered, and now I'm sitting down to study again. If I manage to fix dinner and clean the catbox tonight, I will have managed to do everything I set out for myself today!

It helped that Sunday was catch-up day. I caught up on sleep by sleeping until 11:30. I caught up on cleaning the house. I caught up on lots of reading for school. I'm so, so happy not to be working on Sundays anymore. Not that working on Saturday is loads of fun, but at least I get one day of down time to get ready for the week ahead and spend time with my sweetie.

Okay, time to hit the books.

Labels: nursing school

So today was the first day of class... and I am so happy to be back. Classmate M* commented to me that she also felt like she was already behind, even though school hadn't started yet, and that made me feel so much better. Honestly, it was almost like the summer hadn't even happened - we all just clicked back into place and laughed a lot and hugged each other and asked good questions and generally are getting right back into the swing of things. Classmate A* has already started talking up her margaritas. :)

This will be an intense quarter - although we only have one block of classes (theory, skills lab, clinical), we cover a lot of material. I'm still wavering between feeling like I can rise to the challenge and being scared to death. I'm most nervous about clinical - I was comfortable walking into a nursing home last quarter because of my previous work experience as a CNA, but I know nothing about hospitals. I've never even been admitted to a hospital. The one time I've set foot in the hospital where my clinical rotation will be was when I went to see brand-new baby Fish last October. And I'm guessing I won't get to hold a cute baby the entire time I'm there for clinical.

But hey, how hard can it be? Plenty of other people have made it through this program and succeeded, so I'm sure I can too. Lord knows I have already dealt with some challenging things at work - I'm guessing my chances of being slugged or pooped on are significantly lower at clinical!

Labels: nursing school

Tomorrow is the first day of class for my second quarter of nursing school. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of school, seeing all my classmates, and getting swept up in the whole nursing school experience again. I hope that my coping skills are better this quarter - last quarter I did well academically, but our house was a disaster, we ate a lot of takeout, I got no exercise and gained 10 pounds. I've created a daily schedule to try to combat those problems this quarter - including class time, study time, plenty of exercise time, specific housecleaning tasks each day, and time to cook and eat decent food. I'm putting a lot of emphasis on getting stuff ready the night before - if I put out my workout clothes and the clothes I'm going to wear to class out, then I will have time to work out and get dressed before class. If I pack my lunch the night before, I'll have something healthy to eat during the day. If I pack my backpack the night before, I won't forget an important book or assignment. Now let's just hope I don't fall asleep over my textbooks at 6 PM and screw it all up.

Labels: nursing school

I have a huge backlog of books that I've already read but haven't written up, and it occurs to me that I'm starting 9 months of school in a few weeks and I don't really see myself doing a lot of book reporting in that time... so prepare yourselves for a great deal of literary rambling. If book reports bore you, come back next month when I'll have interesting nursing stuff to talk about.

But before I turn back into my former lit major identity, I want to write some more about working with hospice patients. I know it's too early in my nursing student experience to declare what I want to do - but I really think I like working with people near the end of their lives. Putting that down in black & white sounds kind of morbid, but my most satisfying caregiving experiences have been with patients who are on hospice or about to die.

I've already written about Hospice Lady, who I think is just holding on because her children are going to come visit her soon. There was also Tired Lady, who went rapidly downhill and passed away peacefully in her sleep (my name for her refers to the fact that over the last week of her life, every time I asked her how she was feeling, she said "I'm just so tired." I think she was just done, you know?). I was one of her caregivers during that week and while it seemed obvious to me that she was going to die, her family and her doctor didn't seem to notice. Interestingly, her children called me every time she needed anything at all - help to the toilet, changing a soiled nightgown, eating some food (although they were successful in getting Tired Lady to come up with something that sounded good to eat), getting dressed, whatever. Of course I was glad to do all of it - but it was neat to have this moment of "aha! that's why I'm here! Her family is dealing with emotional stuff and baggage and can't just take care of her, so I will!"

And finally, the last couple days I took care of Bedridden Lady who was given less than a month to live... six months ago. She is basically unable to bear weight on her limbs and can barely speak, and spends most of her time in bed. I didn't do anything heroic while caring for her - I fed her and changed her and put lotion on her face and cleaned her mouth and put some moisture goo on her lips and opened the blinds when she gestured toward the window. And all I got in return was some smiles and a couple of "thank yous" - but that was more than enough.

I know a lot of people are creeped out by caring for patients who are near death - and even my husband has asked me if I'm setting myself up emotionally by getting attached to terminal patients. But I'm not. When Tired Lady passed away I felt relieved for her - she was just so tired, and now she can rest. And when Bedridden Lady and Hospice Lady pass on, I will be relieved for them, too. I will miss Hospice Lady but I know she's ready to die, and that death will not be a sad thing for her. And spending time with her near the end of her life has been a joy for me, and for her - I know because she tells me! It is really, really rewarding for me to be present with these people.

Who knows, I may end up feeling this excited about other areas of nursing as well. Which is why I won't make up my mind until I've been through all my clinical rotations... but I have to say, I'm really drawn toward hospice work.

Labels: CNA, nursing, nursing school

I've been sick for a couple of days. I felt like I was coming down with a cold on Tuesday, so I took a hippie herbal remedy and drank lots of fluids and got lots of rest. Then yesterday I had a fever so I called in sick to work, and continued with the herbal remedy and the fluids and the resting. This morning I was supposed to work, so I got up at 5:00 and thought, "Hey, I feel pretty good!" So I went in the bathroom and washed my face and brushed my teeth and put in my contacts... and then broke out in a cold sweat and had to sit down and retched a little. Jeez. So I called in to work again and went back to bed.

I'm supposed to work tomorrow morning and I swear I'm going to be better by then! I'm tired of being sick!

Shoe info for Chelsea: Shoreline's shoe guidelines are white, leather, closed toe, closed back (Dansko Professional clogs are okay, but the ones with a strap around the heel or nothing around the heel are not), no colored logos. Most of my classmates got all-white sneakers, like Reeboks or New Balance. One of my classmates scored some super-nice sneaks at Nordstrom Rack. I have a super-expensive pair of white Dansko lace-up shoes, but they're not as comfortable as I hoped. I did my CNA clinicals wearing all-white "professional" sneakers that I got at Payless Shoes for $20, and in retrospect, they would have done the job for Shoreline, too. In other words, don't feel like you're obligated to spend a ton of money on fancy shoes!

Labels: nursing school

One of my residents who is on hospice told me she was ready to die.

She is very weak and mostly incontinent, but is still able to get around a little in her wheelchair. She takes pleasure in spending time with people, passing out hugs and kisses in the dining room like a politician running for office. She has very little appetite but still eats a bit at each meal. She has some memory loss but is perfectly capable of holding a conversation and expressing herself appropriately.

Last weekend I worked the evening shift on the floor where this resident lives. And when I was getting her ready for bed, she told me she wanted to die. I took a deep breath and said, "you feel like you're ready?" and she said yes. I sat down and took her hand, and said "It sounds like you're tired of the way things are now." And she exclaimed, "Yes! I'm exhausted!" I told her I could understand why she might feel that way. She got very quiet for a few minutes and patted my arm and petted my hair (I have long hair and was wearing it in pigtails) - she seemed to find the touch reassuring. Then she said, "Maybe I just won't wake up tomorrow." And I agreed, "Maybe you won't. Or maybe you will, and either way, whatever happens will happen." She smiled. I asked her what I could do for her before she went to sleep - she wanted a drink of water, and a hug and a kiss, and then she smiled again and said, "And hit me over the head with a baseball bat!" I couldn't help but laugh... but pointed out that I wasn't going to do that. She said, "Well, I don't have a baseball bat anyway."

I sat with her for a little while longer just holding her hand. She told me after a few minutes that she would be able to sleep. So I kissed her goodnight again and went on my way.

How did I do handling this situation? I wanted to make it clear that it was okay for her to talk with me about dying, that I wasn't uncomfortable or creeped out. She seemed comfortable with my response.

Labels: CNA, nursing, nursing school

Do you have Britney Spears in your head now? No? Then go back and read the title of this entry again.

Today was my first day training at the Old People Hotel. I've been away from the CNA role since April 1st, which really isn't that long. And I've had 10 weeks of nursing school, which really isn't that much. And yet I found today that I feel completely differently about the CNA job than I did in April.

The girl who trained me is actually one of my classmates from my CNA training class last fall, which was a nice surprise - it was nice to see a familiar face in a new setting. But I was very much struck by the attitude of "getting my work done" that all the CNAs showed - not that they are uncaring or abusive to the residents in any way. But instead of putting the residents' well-being first in their minds, they are more concentrated on finishing their tasks on time. That is such a contrast to the conditioning we've gotten in nursing school, where we are taught to be primarily concerned with the client's needs and preferences even if that makes our job harder. (Up to a point, obviously.)

I think I was probably somewhat this way before starting nursing school, although I'd like to think that I was more attuned to what my residents wanted and needed. I guess it was easier at The Home because the residents were for the most part more "with it." So it was easier for me to remember to respect their individuality, because they would remind me.

In any event, I'm pretty sure that what my nursing instructors would tell me to do is to model the behaviors that I believe to be correct. So I will model good teamwork, respectful treatment of residents, and personal responsibility. And I will earn my stardust ('cause you sure can't call a CNA's wage "money") and keep my head down until it's time to go back to school.

Also, I went to the gym and worked out after work - and then soaked in the hot tub for my aching feet. I am not used to be on my feet 8 hours a day anymore.

Labels: CNA, nursing, nursing school

I took my last final yesterday and am officially done with my first quarter of nursing school. I know I should feel elated, but mostly I just feel tired. Part of that is probably exhaustion from the whole whirlwind experience. Part of it has to do with some psychological issues I'm dealing with myself (don't worry, Mom, I'm not hugely depressed - I'm just struggling with the ongoing anxiety). Part of it has to do with some stuff R* and I have been dealing with together (again, don't worry Mom, we're just dealing with finances and they're tight and money makes me anxious!).

But now summer is here! And I'm starting my new job on Monday morning, at the assisted living place. I never heard back from the mom of the little girl - I guess that means she wasn't interested. Well, whatever. I'll work as much as I can at... hmm... I need a new work alias. Let's go with Old People Hotel. So yeah, I'll work as much as I can at the Old People Hotel and that will help our financial situation, and I'll work on all the home projects I want to do, and go to the gym a lot. The gym is more or less between the Old People Hotel and home, so I can probably trick myself into working out by going there after I work a morning shift, because I'll get off at 2:00. Then in August/September I already have some babysitting work lined up, so I'll be able to earn a little extra on top of my job. It's even possible that I could keep 2 shifts a week or so during the next quarter of school, which would ease the financial burden on R*. That would be good for both of us, I think.

We got email today telling us what our clinical assignments will be. I am in the least-desirable clinical group - at a big hospital downtown with clinical on Thursdays and Fridays. Parking at this place is $5/day, and if I were to take the bus, it would cost me $2.75/day and take more than 2 hours of commute time. I may carpool with one of my classmates instead - she lives fairly close and we discussed it today. And she would probably pay for parking in gratitude for not having to drive downtown. We are in clinical with one of the Problem Children from our class and we are both dreading the experience. We've agreed to remind each other to stay calm and professional, even when Problem Child makes us want to scream.

Another part of the email was the textbook list for fall quarter. It looks like I'm going to be able to spend less than half of what I'd budgeted on textbooks because I have the opportunity to shop around and order them early. The campus bookstore is such a ripoff! But first quarter I had no choice because I had to buy books the day classes started.

Out of the 30 students who started this quarter, we ultimately lost 7. One dropped out voluntarily and the rest failed one or more parts of the program. That seems like a frighteningly high attrition rate... I hope it's not like this every quarter. There is a core group of people who I really like and want to stick with - I should write them an email proposing that we get together and join forces to get through the program! Maybe we need a secret handshake or something...

Labels: CNA, nursing school

Rosebuttons, your comment made me laugh... I am definitely not in love with every one of my classmates! But there is a smallish group of us who are very tight and I appreciate them so much.

So this summer is nearly upon me. I've got a couple of things pending, and lots of plans. The pending things: I interviewed for a CNA job at an assisted living & Alzheimer's care facility that is SO NICE. I actually really hope that they hire me - I was extremely impressed with the dementia care practices I saw and would like to get a closer look at that. I may change my mind in the future but right now I'm still quite interested in working with the elderly after graduation. The other pending thing is a possible babysitting job for a 9-month-old girl a few afternoons a week. Her mom is a freelance graphic designer and wants to have someone watch her daughter while she gets some work done. I should hear back about both of these opportunities in the next few days.

I have other plans, too - I really really really want to get in shape. My intention is to go to the gym or work out hard at home every day (granted, I won't achieve it every single day), and I'm still trying to figure out how to fit it in, but I really want to do yoga every day too. And I want to keep our house spotless. And I want to finish a bunch of projects that have been up in the air for a long time. And I want to clean up my garden. And I want to cook healthy meals and use up stuff in the pantry. And I want to go through all our closets and cupboards and other hiding places and get rid of the stuff we don't actually use.

Where can I get another 12 hours a day to fit all this in?

Labels: CNA, nursing school

Today was my last day of class for the quarter. I'm done with exams, done with logs, done with nursing process papers, done with roleplaying, done with skills lab. Now I just have two finals to take next week and I am off for the summer!

This has been a really intense experience, these last 10 weeks. I felt at such a disadvantage going in, because I was notified so very late that I would be able to join the program. But since then, I've risen to the challenge and more than succeeded. I am proud to say that I have excellent test scores and excellent feedback from my instructors - and most important to me, I have had some of my classmates say REALLY kind and heartfelt things to me, completely unsolicited. Today I gave a classmate a ride home and out of the blue she told me, "You have such a calm manner with people, I think you're going to be a terrific nurse." That was so nice to hear.

7 of us went out to breakfast between classes today and had such a good time together. It's going to be sad to not be with this same small group of people in clinicals next quarter - although I hope at least some of us will be together!

Labels: nursing school

Here it is, week 7 of the quarter. That means I'll be finished with my first quarter of nursing school in a month. A month! And I've got so much to do between now and then in terms of test-taking and paper-writing and so on. The weather in Seattle has taken a turn for the gorgeous. So even though I need to write 1)a regular clinical log, 2) an example of focus charting, 3) a summary of this week's Older Adult project, 4) some scenarios for communication lab on Thursday, and 5) at least part of a nursing process paper tonight - I can do some of it on my laptop on the patio. I'm out here enjoying the breeze and a big iced coffee so I don't fall asleep due to all the peaceful vibes from the garden/birds/windchimes/bumblebees.

I sure wish someone would come weed my garden, though.

Labels: nursing school

I'm starting Week 6 of my first quarter of nursing school. Our quarters are 10 weeks, so I am halfway through my first quarter. How did that happen so fast?!

While our instructors have warned us that this week coming up is the most stressful one of the quarter, I feel about as caught up and prepared as I have since starting the program. I've still got a lot to do this week, but I think I'm ready.

And at the end of the week I get to go see my mom for Mother's Day, while R* stays home with Diabetic Kitty. I am lucky.

Also in the category of "lucky," I need to log off the computer so I can go fix the mussels/green curry sauce/fresh baguette/artisan cheese/fresh asparagus/handmade chocolate truffle meal we foraged at the farmer's market this morning!

Labels: nursing school

One of my intructors today said, "Nurses get really excited about patients' gas and bowel movements." Need I say more?

Labels: nursing school

Even though I am completely preoccupied by school, this is the happiest I can remember being in years. I feel so purposeful! And I'm also doing well in school. My instructors tell me I'm doing a good job, both in the classroom and with the hands-on skills. Obviously doing well in the classroom doesn't guarantee that I'll be a good nurse, but it doesn't hurt.

I went for a "run" last night after I got home from school. The quote marks are there because I can only actually run for 3 or 4 blocks before I have to take a walking break. And today I'm very sore in my thighs and especially my hips. But I feel good that I actually got off my ass and did it, especially because I'm really uncomfortable running.

Actually, that's been a theme since the first day I started nursing school - there are a lot of things that make me uncomfortable and I think that's good. I'm uncomfortable getting up at 5:00 to get to clinical on time. I'm uncomfortable speaking in front of a group of people. I'm uncomfortable introducing myself over and over and over to strangers. I'm uncomfortable touching people I don't know. But this is precisely why going into nursing is so good for me - I will grow and stretch and it will be good for me, and I will be proud of myself. And, you know, save lives and stuff.

Labels: nursing school

There are a lot of firsts going on lately... today was our first day to work with residents at clinical. I am not naturally super outgoing, but I found it pretty comfortable to jump in and help out with some of the residents. I guess since I got used to working with older clients at The Home, it seems normal now to talk to people who are not fully oriented, have hearing loss, or whatever. Our clinical instructor was very impressed with us.

Tomorrow I have another exam. We're really not wasting any time in this program. I need another weekend in the middle of the week just to catch up!

Labels: nursing school

One of the things that the outgoing class of first quarter nursing student told us at orientation was "Let go of your expectation of getting a 4.0 in your classwork. Just concentrate on passing." And I privately thought that was a lot of crap, because I am an excellent student, and have never been the sort of person who wanted to pass a class instead of ace it.

But it is awfully nice to have yourself geared up to take your first nursing school exam with the intention of passing, not aceing, and then discovering that you got a 90% on it in spite of your laid-back, gonna-pass-this-test attitude. I certainly don't think I'm going to get an A on every test in nursing school, but I do think that I'm catching on and that feels good.

Labels: nursing school

The past week has flown by in a blur. I already feel rather immersed in nursing school, although I know it's going to get more intense after next week when we start clinicals in earnest. We've been practicing certain hands-on skills already - CNA style stuff like transfers and bedmaking and oral care and such - but we have clinical orientation on Tuesday and then start hands-on care the following week. And as an extra bonus, we have our first exam this Wednesday. They really don't waste any time in this program.

I am really enjoying it, though. I can feel my brain waking up and stretching, which is a very good feeling. And I am still loving the vast majority of my classmates. My biggest concern is just keeping up with all the coursework, and still getting enough sleep and not eating every piece of junk food in sight! It's going to be a really good thing to have the summer off to do non-school stuff for a while.

Labels: nursing school

I had one class this morning and now I've officialy made it through my first week of nursing school.

I'm starting to feel a little bit better - I'm not caught up yet, but I'm not completely behind, either. And I seem to be grasping everything on about the same level as my classmates, which is reassuring. I was especially pleased to discover while studying last night that the math stuff we will be tested on is coming easily to me. It was a LONG time ago that I studied decimal fractions and all that kind of stuff... but apparently it's been hanging out somewhere inside my brain for all these years. My mom and dad are coming to visit us this weekend, which will be a nice mental break.

I normally try to answer comments people leave in a more personal fashion, but you might have gotten the idea that I'm a little short on time right now, so I'm just gonna throw my answers out here in public.

Rosebuttons: Thanks for stopping by! It is nice to get proof that people live through all six quarters of the program, and then go on to have jobs and lives and pets and hobbies and stuff. :) As for my tootsies, I wear size 36 Danskos - if you also have teeny feet, we can make a deal! P.S. - any general hints you have for correlating the readings to the outcomes for a given unit would be much appreciated. I'm still in that "huh? outcomes?" stage, which you may not even remember!

Doug: Believe it or not, the elliptical+textbook=exercise option works remarkably well. As for parking, it is a crapshoot every day how far I will have to walk to class. :) It's not too far to bike from home, but my bike has no basket and I honestly don't think I could carry all my books in a backpack and still be able to pedal uphill. Especially since it's a 1-speed. I probably look like the Wicked Witch of the West riding it.

May and Marj: Thank you for your continuing enthusiastic support! It may not seem like much, but I really feel good knowing that there are nurses out there thinking postive thoughts on my behalf.

Labels: nursing school

Just a quick post here as I take a quick study break...

Man, there is a lot to do just to stay up to speed! My program has 5 required classes (Foundations, Communications, Skills Lab, Communications Lab, and Clinical Practicum) plus an optional class for Success Strategies. I'm taking the optional class too, because why not?

There is sooooo much reading and so many handouts and so forth. I've got two 2" binders and lots of dividers, and I still don't feel totally organized. Oh, and I dropped about $550 on textbooks this quarter - ouch! Fortunately, we'll reuse many of them for other classes in the future.

The worst part about coming in as an alternate is that I'm already behind. I hate that feeling. If I hadn't had to register and buy books so late, I would have already done about 200 pages of reading. I'm going to try to go back and catch up on that over the weekend, because if I try to do it in order, I will be behind all week. Keep moving is an important skill!

My classmates are awesome. Even only two days in, a sense of camraderie is developing. It's good to know that we don't have to be competitive anymore and the more we help each other out, the better the entire group will do. I'm also impressed at how smart/experienced/well-educated/confident many of my classmates are. And it was really heartwarming that so many of them warmly welcomed me when they recognized me as an alternate from orientation. :)

The only way I'm going to get any exercise this quarter is going to be reading on the elliptical. And I'm afraid the only way we're going to get anything to eat is frozen food from Trader Joe's. Which would definitely be healthier and cheaper than ordering pizza every night.

Labels: nursing school