the end is near!

Thanks everyone for the comments on my previous entry. I know that nursing is a tough career--physically and emotionally. I am not some idealistic nursing student with unrealistic expectations about the career I am throwing myself into.

With that, I am moving on.

This week coming up I have no exams, but then the following week I have an exam every single day, except Tuesday.
Last week I got an 86 on my MS exam, so even if I get a 100% on my final, I will only have a 92 (B) in the class. Now, I just need to make a 73% to get a B in the class, which will happen easily.
Pharm--I got a 98 on my cardiac exam. Highest grade in pharm yet. I am pretty sure I'll be getting an A in this class unless the HESI kicks my ass. Today I plan to work on the study guide.
Psych--90% on the final, so I need about an 88% on the HESI for my A. I have heard the psych HESI is easy, so I hope I can pull it off.
Time to get moving.

hmm, disgruntled much?

I just received an email (to a place I don't normally receive email) from obviously someone who is very disgruntled and bitter about the nursing profession. I thought I would share it with you all:

Dear Nicole,

I just found your blog and have enjoyed reading it very much. You seem like a very intelligent, idealistic person with a lot to offer the world.

However, your comments regarding the person in intake who was lamenting the way things are in the nursing profession worries me. I hope you do not get too disillusioned when you graduate and start working and you get the eye-opener that is the first nursing job. I saw you were recently taking three patients. Try caring for eight or nine, all of whom are ridiculously sick and your floor is shortstaffed. When you ask management for the staff you are "supposed" to get according to the hospital's staffing grid, they will tell you they will "see what they can do" but nothing ever gets done about it and meawhile you are left holding the bag. What are you going to do if more than one of your patients start coding at the same time? If something happens, no matter how perfectly and how well reasoned your clinical skills and decision making are, if one of those people dies it will be blamed on you, and be your fault, because "you're the nurse! Why didn't you do X, Y, Z" which of course naturally would have solved the probelem of how you are going to be in two places at the same time. And why didn't you catch the DOCTOR'S mistake in time? and don't forget about your other six patients who also have problems going on.

I am very sorry to hear about your classmate getting attacked. I hope she is OK. But please don't kid yourself regarding that psych patient that attacked your friend/classmate. People with psych issues walk among us every day, not all of them are safe in the psych ward and not all the people who attack are mentally ill. Some are just mean. My first year out of school I had a co-worker whose little old lady patient (who did NOT have psych issues btw) attacked her by trying to strangle her with the stethoscope worn around her neck during her morning assessment. And even if you are not physically attacked, you will definitely be verbally attacked by patients and their families, and often physicians. And don't forget the little old men who like to pinch butts or try to 'kiss the nursie".

Anyway, if nothing else, do yourself a favor-- go to the local courthouse and listen to the malpractice cases being heard. I guarantee it will scare the hell out of you. Just last fall there was a nurse in Wisconsin who was charged with a felony with possibility of jail time for a medication mistake. While you are young, while you are still in school, and still have time to make a change, do it. I would love to be able to recommend the nursing profession as you are right, the world does need nurses, but I cannot do it because what that nurse in intake was saying is TRUE.

If you still want to be a nurse, more power to you, but please really think about what you are doing. There are other, equally wonderful ways to make a difference in medicine. Nuclear medicine, radiology-(especially CT or MRI!) , sonography, pharmacy, are great ways to contribute to the field. But please don't buy into the imagery of what the hospital industry would want you to believe nursing is, because it is all a marketing lie. Even when you are in school- even in your last practicum- you are still so INSULATED from the realities and the level of unrealistic expectations that you will not be able to see how things really are until that graduation ceremony is a well worn memory and the celebration of passing your boards is, too. You will not see it because it is intended that way. If it was shown to people training for the profession beforehand, no one would do the job, and hey, the world needs nurses. How many nurses do you see running BACK to the bedside? Not many, I bet.

The funny thing is, I used to think the way you do about nursing.

One last thought in closing: Do the math. Literally.

Median wage of a nurse= in Florida about $24. New grads of course, start MUUUUUCH lower. MAybe $18. But start with the median.

$24 divided by the number of patients assigned to you as a full assignment (conservatively 7 on med surg) remember, you are responsible for these peoples' LIVES.
Grand total? $3.42

Yep, the hospitals are paying you $3.42 per patient per hour for all those nursing skills you are studying so diligently to acquire. A babysitter gets more than that. And the approximate base charge to the patient for a day's stay in hospital bed, not counting meds, treatment, etc= $1500/day. What's wrong with this picture???

Just a thought.

Good luck to you in however you choose. But choose wisely, as said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Kelly

Why this person chose to pick me out of all the 4353543 different student nurse blogs, I don't know. All I do know is that I really do not care, so please do not email me again. Also, I find it quite disturbing to think this person took such the time to write out this letter. Honestly, I didn't even have time to read all of it when I posted it. What are people thinking writing something like this to me??

OH OK, I THINK I WILL CHANGE MY ENTIRE CAREER NOW BASED ON WHAT YOU SAID!! Yeah, Mom, I decided to quit nursing school because KELLY sent me an email telling me how shitty my life is going to be? You know, I should just jump off a bridge now because my life is obviously going to suck a lot. What? Who is Kelly? Yeah, no idea.
C'mon people, seriously.
Also, I am only semester 2 and we're only supposed to have 2 patients, so when I took 3, I was pretty damn proud of myself, so please do not take that away from me, whoever the hell you are. And why do people always comment on the entry about the guy attacking my friend? And yes, I realize psych patients are everywhere, they have reiterated this point to us over and over and over and over to the point if I hear it one more time, I just might vomit.

Now, it is 7am and I need to go dry my hair because I have class at 8 am and an exam at 12pm. I hope I pass so I can make $3.42 an hour!!! wow, what a dream.

recap

I know, it's been far too long since my last post. I've been keeping extremely busy with school, but everything is beginning to come to a rapid end.
Let me recap.
Last week I finished almost everything that needed to be done for both MS and psych clinicals: case studies x 2, AA meetings, SOAP notes, etc. I am now technically done with MS, but since I missed one day, I need to return this Tuesday. Psych though? FINISHED! woo. I am happy. I did not enjoy psych clinicals all that much. It was pretty boring and when it wasn't boring, it was more scary. Not fun for me.
As far as MS clinicals, I am happy and sad it will be over soon. Happy so I can sleep in and not wake up at 4am on Tuesdays, as well as two days in a row off from school, but sad because I know I am missing out on opportunities to grow and learn more skills. I actually feel like I've been learning a lot. I attempted another IV insertion. Got it in, got the flash of blood, but when I went to hook up the flush thinger, accidently dislogded the catheter--woops. At least I got blood, right??

As far as classes--
MS
-I have a high B, but since we only have one more exam and the final, the only way to bring it up to that 93% would be if I scored like 98% on both, which is highly unlikely. I can live with my B, thank you!
Pharm
-Had a low A, now I have a 91, but we still amazingly have 50% of our grade to go, including the HESI, so I think I can definitely bring it up to an A *crosses fingers*
Psych
-Grades so far: 87.5, 100, 96. This averages to about a 94.5, which is an A. We have one more exam (final) and then the HESI. I think and HOPE I can pull off the A. I heard the HESI for psych is a lot easier.

What's in store for this week? Amazingly--nothing! An entire week of no tests or presentations. I'm enthused. However, the following week is going to be PURE HELL. 3 exams in one week--ms, pharm, and psych. I doubt you'll be hearing from me until hell week is over.

My last day is May 4th, then I am off for about 10 days and summer session starts. I am taking Ethical-legal nursing online, as well the community lecture and a special geriatric based clinical. Usually, community is taken during 4th semester with peds/womens/ob stuff, but we can opt to get it over with early. I thought I might miss out of some aspects of community by taking the geriatric focused one, but I figure I will get it done now with less hassle 4th semester. Also, I live in Florida, so it can't help to learn as much as I can about geriatrics!

OH YEAH and I've applied to a few jobs for the summer.

I am so glad the week is over!
Monday I had my cardiac exam--88%. I can live with that.
Yesterday was my second psych exam, which I was worried about because the first one I got an 87.5, so I definitely wanted to do well, but I've just been way too tired to study the way I should have. Well, I got a 100%!!!! I know it is because she has two bonus questions at the end, woo.
I have one more week and then I am off for Spring Break! Not that I'll be getting much of one considering we have our 3rd MS exam the day we come back--evil.
This thursday is my fourth pharm exam. I am doing pretty well in that class. My grades so far: 97, 91, 96. I'm not too worried. I usually make notecards, but this time I am going to see how I do without them. Mostly just because I am behind on the reading and it takes way too long to make the cards.

My car is broken, so I can't go anywhere. I don't think I will have somoene look at it until NEXT weekend. I just can't deal with that crap when I have tests to worry about.

Goal for the day is to finish pharm reading, study a bit, and then hope to hang out with the boyfriend.

three patients

Today I took THREE patients. We're only supposed to have two, but it just worked out this way. In fact, today went incredibly smooth. I thought I would feel overwheled, but it was awesome. I went in, look at their charts, did their assessments,charted, gave their meds, and then spent the rest of the day helping/doing whatever that had to be done.
I feel like it is all starting to come together--it is much better now that we can pass meds; we're actually learning the role of nurse. I like it a lot.
The night before clinicals I always feel nervous/anxious, which makes no sense because it is always good, but for the past few weeks, I've secretly been excited to go because I can feel myself getting better! However, when that alarm goes off at 4:10am, I don't exactly share the same sentiments:)
I never talked about my patients all that much--maybe I should give an overview of them or something. First, I'm on a telemetry/MS floor that focuses on strokes.
Patient 1-CC=dyspnea
Patient 2-CC=pulmonary embolism/rectal bleed/lung CA
Patient 3-CC=Afib with RVR

I hate psych clinicals

Today I had psych clinicals and we left early because my friend was attacked by a patient! argh, it was horrible. I don't feel like typing out the entire story again, so I am just going to copy and paste an AIM convo I had, minus the screennames, so I'm sorry if the story isn't grammatically correct or sounds dumb.


oh man it was horrible..soo it was me, L, T, and A on the adult floor, which i have yet to be on. i felt weird as soon as i got on the floor bc the nurses and techs were just weird in general..then we were doing vitals and this tall black man kept coming over and talking to tammy and i..he seemed ok, then he would grab his penis and be like.."you want this, you want this!" we just moved until he was told to go into his room..so we were kind of freaked out from that. then the patients went to breakfast so we sat in the tv room. well, we were at the table and lindsey was to my left and then tammy was at the end of the table. then this guy in a wheelchair who apparently is retarded wheeled in. he was gross. he had food all over himself and on his hands and he would talk very weird..he'd be like, "I AM GOING HOME TODAY!!" but it was very hard to understand him...anyway, he wheeled in and he sat between L and T.
He was like HI I AM ROB and he shook their hands, then he tried to kiss them and they were liek NO, we cannot do that, no touching, etc. he was like "YA WE CANT TOUCH, I KNOWWW, I WANT TO HUG, BUT I KNOW WE CANT." he seemed harmless you know..then lindsey got up to wash her hands since he had just kissed it and he was gross. then he was just sitting there for a few minutes with a smile on his face, he reached his arm behind tammy to like put it around her shoulder or pat her, i dunno and then he fucking SNAPPED and he fucking grabbed her hair with all his might and he pulled her down, then he was trying to bite her and he was biting the air making this horrible noise like AARGG ARGGGH, like an animal
I jumped up so quick and i was screaming STOP IT STOP IT and i was trying to pulled his hand off the death grip he had on her hair, but he tried to bite me!! so i started screaming HELP HELP, you know.then like 6-7 nurses/techs came in and they were all over him, on the table, etc trying to pry him off and he is just like biting at the air and screaming like an animal! Then they finally got him off. oh and the whole time the otehr patients are like yelling PUNCH HIM OUT, HIT HIM IN THE FACE!!!!
I was so shocked. it felt unreal. when it was happening i was just like what the hell..is this for real!!
It was scary as hell. he turned into like an animal!
I am not going back on that floor, i dont care
--did anyone actually get bitten?
yeah supposedly this tech got bit through his gloves
but i didnt see it
--but none of you guys?
it took them forever to get him off
no thank god
--good
but T had a huge welt on her head bc he was pulling her hair so hard
---how old was this person?
if she hadnt been holding her hair at the root then he would have ripped it out of her scalp, no doubt
i dont know, it was hard to tell bc he was so weird..maybe 30-40
i was so scared! i was shaking so hard. i thought i was going to cry lol

then we remembered how earlier they were watching the movie blade, about vampires, so maybe he was being a vampire

and we werent even on the floor long at all..this all happened before 9am

am seriously going to have nightmares lol..especially with the noise and look that he made
he was biting the air going AR AR AR i dont know how to type it out lol..but animalistic..like nawing

IV

My day in clinical was pretty good. I took two patients, did all of the charting, assessments, and the MEDS.
Today I did my first SQ injection for insulin! woo go me. I did it and then I was like, "You were my first injection-EVER!" And everyone laughed and said, "oh yeah tell him after the fact!!" haha.
THEN this male travel nurse on my floor asked if I wanted to start an IV! I was like YES! Friday was the first time we ever even learned how, but that was on a rubber arm. This nurse rocks so much. He didn't make me nervous at all. He sat down with me and walked me through it. It helped that my patient was totally disoriented and old, so he had like no clue what was going on. I got it in really good, but he said to bring it a little LEFT, so I did, but I could never get a flash. Then he pushed it to the RIGHT and got it. He was like, "I'm sorry! I kept saying go left, but I meant right!!" So I ALMOST got it on my first try. I think it is way easier on a real human and not those dumb arms. Anyway, IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! He told me that I did great and that my approach was PERFECT!

wow.

Today was boring for the most past because I was in the ER intake and there were no psych patients, so I basically sat around and talked to the psych RN who was a male. This guy was either burnt out or did not think of nursing very highly. He kept saying things like, "I'm JUST a nurse," how nurses have no power, etc. I was like...what the freakin' hell?! THEN he was like, "you're young, don't do JUST nursing. I would seriously think about medical school or masters program--become a physician!"

WHAT THE HELL?!
First of all--I am not JUST going to be a nurse and it pisses me off when people put down their own profession. We need to advocate for our profession, we need respect. Putting it down does not help the matter. Also, if we can't feel respect for our profession and realize how important our role is then obviously this will not translate well to the public--no one will give us respect and therefore, people will not want to be nurses. THIS WILL NOT HELP THE SHORTAGE.
And to suggest that being a nurse is somehow like being a lower level doctor---what?? It's not even the same profession. GEE, maybe I am proud of the fact that I want to be a nurse, not JUST a nurse either. Be a doctor? Ugh, no thank you.
Some people just shock me.

pharm

I got a 96 on my first pharm exam!
woo.

my mind.

Lately I've been experiencing an influx of emotions. One second I am so pumped to study and do whatever it takes to be the best nurse I can be...and then the next--I just want to do NOTHING. Last night I felt pretty low, but then in class today I got another one of my surges of : okay, I must do this. I will work hard, I am motivated, dun dun dun!!

I came home and finished all of my notecards for pharm. NOW I have Tuesday and Wednesday to actually study (and not just prepare for studying). Although, making notecards really helps the info stick in my brain. I'm one of those people who has to DO IT to learn it, so writing definitely works for me.
We've had lectures on fluid and electrolytes/ABG all of last week and then today in every class. Wow, I never want to see the word fluid and electrolyte again...oh wait, I'm in nursing school, so that is impossible!!

I definitely want to work as a tech during the summer at a hospital, but I am kind of worried about the committment. For summer, I'm pretty much open (besides summer courses), but once school starts, I don't want to work at all, so I don't know what to tell a possible employee if they ask. I guess I could be PRN, but I'm not sure.

A problem I've been dealing with lately involves negativity. However, it is not even my own negativity--I feel like everyone around me is negative. I am not better than all of them because I am easily drawn into the negativity. But sometimes I just want to be positive and not complain about every little thing or get sucked into drama, but it is soooo easy to get wrapped up in it!! How do I always end up around people who are just as sarcastic as me? I need a change of scenery.

School has been good, but I've been exhausted from waking up two days in a row at 4am for clinicals. Besides that, I rock. Why do I rock? Well, I have been managing to read ahead, which is a miracle.
I passed my med calculations exam, so now all I have is the motor exam and then I am free to pass meds in the hospital. Watch out everyone.
My first real exam is next week--Pharm on Thursday. I'm getting ready right now to drive to the library, study for about 3 hours, and then hang out with the boyfriend.

I love 3 day weekends! Especially when they fall right after the first week of school.

The first week went well, to say the least. I already know it is going to be a rough semester. However, I feel incredibly motivated to study, learn, and be the best nurse I can be!
My goal for the semester is to truly LEARN and understand what the hell is going on. I plan to read all assigned readings for the week during the weekend. This way, I can focus on studying during the week and listening more intently during class time. I'm almost done with the reading for this upcoming week. I will say--7 more hours and I'll be done. By then, it will be time to sleep since I wake up at 4am for my second clinical day.

NERVOUS!! Last week my regular preceptor was not around, so I had a floating nurse. She was nice and helpful, but I feel like our personalities will not mesh well. I hope my real preceptor is there tomorrow and I hope she is willing to show and teach me all the things she knows, ha.
Even though we're supposed to have our own patients, etc. I feel like if someone handed me a chart and said, "Go," that I would have no idea where to even start. I can't even read half of the stuff in the chart because of poor handwriting. So, I guess that is what's bothering/worrying me the most for right now. I go into clinicals with a dreadful feeling, but once I am there--everything is fine.

Time to begin reading.

first day of MS clinical

I had a good first day. I like this other hospital (it is technically the same hospital, but a separate facility in a different city). I am on telemetry, which is cool because I am interested in that stuff. Finally, male patients!
My preceptor wasn't working today, so I was stuck with some floating nurse who was kind of weird. She seemed angry, but she was cool for the most part. She kind of quizzed me about why we were doing certain things, which was helpful.
Tomorrow we have psych orientation at the same hospital from first semester. I'm excited because we don't have to be there until 9! Also, it just seems like a fun rotation.

1st day of second semester

Tomorrow is the first day of semester 2 of 5! I'm excited.
I finished my drug calculations book, but I haven't began reading for any classes.

alright, I don't really have much to say, except for this, sooo yep. Pretty pointless entry.

school and soup stuff

HAPPY 2007!!!

There's only about 4-5 days until the first day of second semester. I'm excited, stressed, and nervous.
I still haven't worked on my med. calculations book. We have to do the entire thing--it is loooong! I will begin today once I clean, shower, and make sure everything is in order. I wish they would post the syllabus for MS1 and Pharm. Psych is up. I have about 10 chapters to read, but fortunately that class isn't until Friday 1:00, so I am not stressing about it too much.

Hope everyone is having a nice holiday break.
Yesterday I made some apricot lentil soup. It sounds pretty odd, but trust me, it is good. AND 16 GRAMS OF FIBER! WOO.
Here's the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apricot-Lentil-Soup/Detail.aspx

Scrapbook

What does everyone think of starting a scrapbook for nursing school?
I've never made one before, so it would be a new hobby. The only thing is that I don't have a lot of pictures from this past semester, so I don't know. Suggestions?

FINISHED!!!

Final grades:
Fundamentals: 92.4% B
Clinicals: Satisfactory
Physical exam/assessment: 95% A
Pathophysiology: 97%A

WOOOOOOO

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL TODAY (AFTER TWO FINALS OF COURSE)!!!!!!!!!

You're know you're in nursing school when/if...

The other week during our presentation, something really made me look around and laugh.
We were all eating pizza, with various toppings while watching a powerpoint presentation on cervical cancer. It was filled with pictures of the cervix, cancer, and other images that no normal person in their right mind would want to see when eating pizza, but damnit--I looked around and everyone was chowing down like it was no big deal.
It was awesome.
Gotta love nursing school.

After yesterday's HESI, I feel like I need to step it up a bit even more for next semester. I mean, I did study extremely hard this semester, but I can't even imagine what the MS-HESI will be like if Fundamentals was that torturous.
I plan on buying my books for Spring on Friday. This way, I'll have them all Christmas break and when I have nothing to do, like when Mirza is working or practicing, I will knock out some chapters. They already posted the psych chapters for the first two days of class. Everyone says that Pharm sucks too, so I better get a start on that as well!
blaaaa
I should really be studying for Patho and Physical assessment right now.
I am just bummed that my 92.4% is staying as it is and my final grade for Fundamentals is a B. 0.6% away from an A.
If I get A's in the rest of my classes though, my GPA will stay the same as it was before nursing school--a solid 3.7.

HESI

I don't give a shit what anyone says, that HESI exam was hard.
First of all, it had questions about the size of needles and shit, which we never ever covered--it sucked!!

I got an 899, which is a 78%. I got the highest out of my group, which is good, I guess. People were getting like 50% and shit.
It says that an acceptable score is 850 and a recommended score is 900, so I was one point away from "recommended."
The average score last semester for Fund was 821. And the average score for the nation was 826, so I did better than 62% of the nation's nursing students, while only 38% of the nation's students had higher scores than me.

THIS BLOWS though because my grade in fundamentals is a 92.37 and I need a 93% for an A!:(
I hope they can somehow throw out questions or something!

Finals week

I have been studying like a mad woman for this Fundamentals HESI. I am going insane. It is now almost 10pm (despite what the dumb time says on my this blog) and I don't know how I feel. I am nervous. The information isn't even hard really, it is just the way they word the questions so DUMB and confusing! arghhhh.
I started studying around 10:30 this morning once I noticed a professor posted an outline of "what to know," which took me until almost 4 to go over . Then at 6 I went to a study group.
I don't know what else to do!?
AAH.
I think I will do a super quick review of all 40+ chapters and then go to bed, wake up at 6:30, review all morning and finally take the dumb thing at 12:00.
I need an 85% to get an A (93%) in the class, which means I can miss 8 out of 55.
Watch me miss 9!

Elder Abuse

Did anyone watch Primetime the other night on ABC ?
They had this thing where they would have someone talk really loud on the phone in a restaurant to see how people would react, or have children be realllly annoying.
One scenario involved a 90 year old man in a wheeelchair with his caregiver (one in scrubs and then one in regular clothes, like a family member) in the park. Then they had the caregiver abuse the old man physically and verbally when someone walked by (he would smack his hands when someone looked away or push the old man in the wheelchair).
Holy crap. It made me really sad. Even though it was fake, I still felt so bad for the old man because you know this type of thing happens all of the time. It made me want to go out and be a gerontologic nurse, haha.
They said out of 100 people, 75 people walked by and only 15 people actually did something, either telling the man to stop or calling 911. Isn't that horrible? I know people can say, "oh yeah, I would do something," but when you get in the situation, it's difficult because for one--the caregiver was a man, so if you're a woman, you might be intimidated. Also, people do not like to get involved with conflict. However, I honestly think I would have done SOMETHING. I mean, GOSH!! It was horrible!!!
As far as the cell phone thing, I probably wouldn't have done anything, except sit there and be annoyed, but for this, I can honestly say something would have been done on my part.

From abc.com: What do the experts say?


The experts agree: Do something. Anything.

"If you're uncomfortable, call police officers or get involved," Gelles says. "Go up to the person on the receiving end of the abuse and say, 'I'm uncomfortable with how you're being treated. … Can I help you?'


If the victim responds, Gelles adds, follow his lead. If he's not capable of responding, turn to the caregiver. Tell the caregiver you're really uncomfortable with his or her behavior and ask for the name of the caregiver's employer.

The caregiver may not recognize that his or her behavior is abusive, Keating says. She suggests approaching the recipient of the abuse first.

"Smile and try to defuse the situation, or direct conversation toward the elderly person. Make the elderly person. … A person," she says.

"If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem," Gelles says. "If you walk away from social injustice, you become part of the social injustice."

I'm bringin' nursing back!

Today felt SOOOOO long.
I got 100% on my patho quiz! That means I will have an A if I can make a 74 on the final, which should be pretty easy, so I am almost guaranteed an A.
I came home around 7 and hung out with Mirza for awhile. Now it is 1:35 and I should sleep. The weekend will be full of studying...oi.
I am thinking I will sleep in a little though because if I start too early then I burn out later and I feel guilty when it's evening time and I am not studying.
For my own self, tomorrow I will:
-Finish physical exam notecards so I have them for next week
-Order all my patho cards to coorelate for the 40 chapters, pick out the ones he chose.
-Organize a study plan for Fundamentals for the next 3 days by chapter and questions, etc.
-Take out chicken to defrost.
Weeeeee!

How it went

I just got back from presenting my case study. We were presenting from 9-2...felt like forever! It was cool though because our instructor bought us pizza, woo, she rocks. I got 100% on my case study. She wrote,""Excellent presentation --an under diagnosed and understood disease. Quiz was good interactive creative tool!! Thanks."

Glad that is over and done. Now I need to sit here for like a half hour and do nothing (lol), followed by extreme notecard making.

Case study boredom

The semester is coming to a close. I can't believe how quickly it went. It seems like just the other day I was posting about my acceptance into the program.
Currently I need to be finishing my case study for clinicals--it's on Ovarian cancer and I'm really not that interested in doing it at all. I want to STUDY, not do stupid projects. We have to give a 20-30 minute presentation on it, but that is definitely not going to happen. It is due tomorrow at 9am. I only have about 11 slides. I should really be working on it. Right now it is 11am; I want to have it done by, let's saaaaaaay: 3.
Edit: It is now 1:30 and I finished it!!!!:):) It totally sucks, but I don't care.
After that I need to make about 500 notecards for Patho.
Then I'll probably go over Mirza's to play the Wii, if my car starts okay. I really shouldn't go over his house because I have to study. ughhh, it's so hard to just NOT GO!!
This is what I have coming up:
-Tomorrow: Case Study
-Thursday: Patho quiz covering 8 chapters
-Monday: Fundamentals HESI EXAM (aaaaah!)<--need an 85 to get an A in Fundamentals, which means I can miss 8 out of 55!! -Thursday: Physical exam final <---need an 87 to get an A because it is worth 40% of my grade. Patho final THE END!! CHRISTMAS BREAK!! Cannot wait.
Wish me luck.

How it went

Just wanted to update about how my head-to-toe went. In the morning, I was SOO NERVOUS with stomach flips and heart palpitations. Mirza came over and we practiced twice before we finally left.
About 3 minutes into the exam, I consciously said to my self, "Hey, I'm not even nervous!?" It was weird--all my nervousness went away. I wasn't red and blotchy and my heart wasn't beating fast like I had anticipated. I think it is because my instructor is so awesome.
Anyway, the only things I forgot were CVA tenderness and aorta width, but I guess almost everyone left those out. Also, I think I left out the babinski reflex, but she thought I did it. Another funny thing is when I was examining the ear, I was about to move onto the mouth area and my instructor, without even looking up, quietly and calmly handed me the tuning fork. I was like "ooooh yes, now I will do the Rinne and Weber tests!" ahhaha.

Head-to-Toe

Well, tomorrow is the "big day"--my full head-to-toe motor exam. It has to be done in a half hour. I practiced on Mirza last night and I did it in 27 minutes. However, I really want to practice it one more time tonight because I know it'll be a lot more scary when someone else is watching and grading and I might easily forget something under pressure. I'm feeling pretty good about it at this point though because when I practice, the most I ever miss is 1 or 2 and I realize it before the exam is done and I do it, so they can't take away points, except for not in logical order. We need an 85%.

This is the exam (I rewrote it so it was in "logical sequence"):
Head-to-Toe Motor Exam


Sitting

· Introduce yourself and explain exam.

-Ask them to remember 3 words: Apple, Book, Cat (Cognitive ability-memory (0.5))

-Inspect skin 0.5

-Palpate skin (turgor, texture, temperature) 0.5

-Hair—Inspect 0.5

-Nails- Inspect and palpate (clubbing, capillary refill) 1.0

-Observe facial features for symmetry 0.5

-Assess CN V—Trigeminal (Motor and Sensory) 1.0
Ask them to clench their teeth
Rub cotton on face for them to feel

-Assess CN VII –Facial (Motor only) 0.5
Ask to smile, frown, squeeze eyes, raise eyebrows)

-Palpate head and scalp, including sinuses and TMJ 2.0

-Palpate and auscultate temporal arteries. Inspect neck and neck veins. 2.0

-Palpate neck: 1.5
-Trachea
-Thyroid
-Lymph nodes (state which ones)

-Assess CN XI-Spinal Accessory 0.5
-Ask them to shrug their shoulders

Before each ROM say inspecting joints/muscles 1.0

-Neck 2.0
-Flexion
-Extension
-Lateral bending
-Rotation

-Neck Strength 2.0

-Shoulder 2.0
-Adduction
-Abduction
-Internal rotation
-External rotation

-Shoulder strength 2.0

-Elbow 2.0
-Flexion
-Extension
-Supination
-Pronation

-Elbow Strength 2.0
-Reflexes –Upper 2.5
-Biceps
-Triceps
-Brachioradialis

-Wrist 2.0
-Flexion
-Extension
-Ulnar deviation
-Radial deviation

-Hand strength 2.0

-Fingers 2.0
-Flexion
-Extension
-Adduction
-Abduction

-Inspection of eyebrows, eyelids, orbital area, eyelashes, lacrimal gland 2.5

-Palpation of orbital area (sclera, conjunctiva) 0.5

-Pupil condition and response to light and accommodation 1.0
CN III (Oculomotor), CN IV (Trochlear), and CN VI (Abducens)

-Direct and consensual response 0.5

-Extraocular movement (six cardinal fields) CN III, IV, VI 0.5

-Fields of peripheral vision CN II Optic 0.5

-Functional vision (Rosenbaum) CN II Optic 0.5

-Ophthalmoscope examination (red reflex using RRR, LLL) 2.0
-Proper use of instrument=1 point

-Inspection and palpation of the ear 1.0

-Otoscope: ear canal and tympanic membrane 2.0
-Proper use of instrument=1 point

-Functional hearing (whisper test) CN VIII Acoustic 0.5

-Assess Rinne (side of head) and Weber (top of head) 1.0

-Inspect external nose 0.5

-Inspect internal nares with otoscope (use diff. Speculum cover) 0.5

-Inspect lips, teeth, buccal mucosa, tongue, floor of mouth 2.5

-Inspect tongue for movement CN XII Hypoglossal 0.5

-Observe movements of soft palate CN IX Glossopharyngeal and X Vagus 0.5

-Inspect anterior, posterior, lateral, chest wall. 0.5

-Respiratory rate, rhythm, and effort (retractions, use of a accessory muscles) 0.5

-Palpate for chest wall (for tenderness, lesions) 0.5

-Thoracic expansion (anterior/posterior) 1.0

-Percussion (anterior, posterior, lateral) from apex to base (note resonance, hyper resonance, dullness 1.5

-Tactile (or voice) fremitus 0.5

-Auscultation of breath sounds from apex to bases (posterior, anterior, lateral) 1.5
Voice sounds: egophony, whispered pectoriloquy, bronchophony

-CVA tenderness (ie-hit kidneys) 0.5

-Inspection of precordium. Describe 6 areas of assessment (aortic, pulmonic, Erb’s point, Tricuspid, Mitral, Epigastric) 3.5

-Palpation of precordium for any heave, thrill, PMI, pulsations 0.5

-**Auscultation of heart in the 6 areas of assessment (sitting) 1.5

-Inspection, palpation, and auscultation of carotids 1.5

- **Location of palpable pulses (2.5)
-Radial
-Brachial

Laying Down

-Inspection of abdomen (supine position, pillow under head, arms at side, empty bladder 0.5

-**Auscultation of heart while laying down (1.5)

-Auscultation of all quadrants: 3.0
-Bowel sounds
-Aortic
-Iliac
-Femoral
-Renal arteries

-Percussion of abdomen in 4 quadrants 0.5

-Percussion of liver span at MCL 0.5

-Percussion of splenic dullness 0.5

-Light palpation of 4 quadrants 0.5

-Deep palpation of 4 quadrants 0.5

-Palpate aortic pulsation/width 1.0

-Palpate abdominal organs :liver, spleen, kidneys 1.5


-Hip: 3.0
-Internal rotation
-External rotation
-Flexion
-Extension
-Adduction
-Abduction

-Hip Strength 2.0

-Knee 2.0
-Flexion
-Extension

-Knee strength 2.0

-Popliteal pulse (2.5)

Sit back up

-Patellar reflex (2.0)

-Ankle 1.0
-Plantarflexion
-Dorsiflexion
-Ankle strength 2.0

-Foot 2.0
-Invert
-Evert
(of both subtalar joint and transverse tarsal joint)

-Achilles reflex (2.0)

-Babinski reflex

-Clonus

-Dorsalis pulse

-Posterior tibia pulse

-Ask them to repeat the 3 words from the beginning of the exam (0.5)

-Ask them: 1.0
-What would you do if your house was on fire? (judgement)
-What does it mean to say, “Don’t put eggs all in one basket”? (abstraction)

-Sensation 1.5
-Touch
-Pain
-Vibration
(lower and upper extremities)

-Discrimination 1.5
-Stereognosis (key in hand)
-Graphesthesia ( Draw 8 in hand)
-Proprioception (Done along with romberg)

-Coordination (finger to nose, nose to finger, alternating, rapid hand patting) 1.0

-Sitting balance (sternal nudge) 0.5

Standing up

-Vertebral column 2.0
-Flexion
-Extension
-Rotation
-Lateral bending

-Standing balance (Romberg sign) 0.5

-Gait 2.0
-Regular
-Tandem
-Walk on heels
-Walk on toes

The end!!!

If I lay here

Last week I was so unproductive. It was my first week with no clinicals, so I had Tuesday and Wednesday off to *cough* study, but I had a real cough and a tickle in my throat, so I pretty much just sat around and watched tv, I can't even lie! It was okay. I was feeling a bit depressed for awhile, but now I am feeling more positive again. Still, I haven't been getting much productive studying in because of the excitement of holidays coming, but today is a new day! I have today off, so my plan is to knock out two chapters of Fundamentals for hardcore studying. Tomorrow the lab is open from 8-12 to practice head to toe, so I will do that and then study the other two chapters of Fund. because our last test (minus the HESI) is on Monday. It rocks that it only covers 4 chapters, but I also have my head-to-toe next Wednesday and I am FREAKING THE HELL OUT!!!! It is so much to remember and we have to do it all in a half hour.
Over Christmas break we have to do almost this entire Drug calculation book, which we will be tested on when we return from our "break." I guess they will have this thing called Med Pour in the lab, which is like a huge test. Every semester from here on out, we will have a drug calculations test and we have to pass with a 95%, but we get 4 chances, so I am not scared. The cool thing is that I already finished the first 6 chapters of the book because I thought questions from it would be on this test, but I guess not. woohoo for being ahead!

Things I am currently shitting my pants over:
-Head-to-Toe exam
-Fundamentals exam
-HESI-Fundamentals...how the HELL do we study for this?!
-Money

Goals for today:
-Activity/sleep ch. 36--KNOW accomplishment! I needed something to keep me focused, but I didn't want to do notecards, so instead I made a chart with two columns and wrote questions and answers for the chapter--108 to be exact.
-Wound care ch. 47--KNOW
-Review for Patho
-Begin notecards for physical exam/assessment
-Look over stuff for HESI?

Two Group photos of our team, which will probably be deleted soon after I post this...
*deleted*

LAST TIME WAKING UP AT 4AM UNTIL 2007!!!!!! WOOOHOO!!

Last clinical day

Tomorrow is my LAST clinical day!
I got my nurse preceptor a little hallmark ornament of a set of scrubs wearing a stethoscope, along with a nice thank you card. I also got a thank you card for the nurse I had last week because I feel like she taught me a lot.
Finally, I bought a box of Whitman's sampler for the entire floor. I hope that isn't tacky, but I figure they eat enough donuts, cookies, and cupcakes as it is. Time for some chocolates!
I feel uneasy about tomorrow though because I have to do TWO Soapies! argh.
Gotta remind myself to bring my camera so we can take a group picture.

I got skillz....

That is me at Daytona.

woohoo, so today I inserted a foley into a female!!!!
I had practiced in the lab on dummies, but never on a real human. Well, today I GOT THE CHANCE!
My nurse donned sterile gloves as well though and helped with holding the labia back, but I did everything else--it rocked.
Oh, and she said I did a really good job, which was awesome to hear.

Semester 2 schedule

Well, here is the tentative schedule for Semester 2:

Monday
Med Surg 1: 8:00-9:20
Med Surg Advantage 1: 1:00-2:50
MS1 lab: 3:30-5:20

Tuesday
MS 1 clinical: 7:00-3:00

Wednesday
Psych nursing 1 clinical: 7:00-2:00

Thursday
Pharmacology: 12:00-2:50

Friday
MS 1: 8:00-9:20
Psych nursing 1: 1:00-3:50

17 credits.

Took Fund exam 3 yesterday: 90%, but still waiting on the results because if 75% or more got a question incorrect then it is thrown out *crosses fingers*
Also, I had a patho quiz, which I didn't do so great on: 22/25=88%. This will hopefully be my drop quiz:(

Happy Halloween!

the "convention"

Well, since I am just sitting here while time flies by, not studying..I have decided to write about my experience in Daytona.
For the most part, it was okay/fun, really. The condo was gorgeous, the beach was beautiful (the gulf is still 423423 times better though), and the weather was nice for the most part, except when we woke up and it was 47 degrees!
The reason I took off time from school was mainly to GO TO THE CONVENTION. I am a geek and I was actually excited about the focus sessions and talking with other nursing students and even nurses. What can I say? I'm a big, fat nerd. However, NO ONE else shared this sentiment. There were so many focus sessions I would have loved to attend, but we only ended up going to TWO!! It would have been three had one of them not been cancelled the first day. We attended Physical Exam/Assessment tips and "Pharmacology made INSANELY easy," which is just fine and dandy, except that I'm not even in pharm yet, so it was kind of useless to me.
I would have loved to attend "Studying and Test Taking strategies," but it was cancelled. No one wanted to go earlier with me the next day when it repeated.
"7 Tips for Highly Effective Nurses?" YES! I thought that would have been interesting...apparently I was the only one.
Also, I thought it would have been neat to see how the HOUSE OF DELEGATES worked, but no--once again, I was the only one.
NURSE JEOPARDY? The geek in me would have loved to do this. In fact, the 3rd semester students needed more students. I said, Hey, I'll do it, but none of the people in my group wanted to stay and even WATCH. THEY COULDN'T EVEN STAY AND WATCH ME EMBARASS MYSELF? So, I didn't.
Gosh, I sound like such a push-over, but I'm really not. I almost went by myself at one point to "Volunteering during a disaster, why and how," but then everyone was going out to lunch, and since my friend was helping me with expenses for the entire trip, I did not want to starve.

Another thing that was stupid--we were on Daytona beach and the majority of the time--they sat in the hotel watching E! True Hollywood Stories....WHAT? We're in Daytona, it is beautiful outside, and we never get a break. TV will always be there, but this will not. I layed out by the pool instead. They said it was too cold to lay out, but my friend and I were like PFT, NO. It was warm in the sun and I have a very odd sunburn to prove it.

And finally, Thursday night they decided to go to a club called "Razzles." *blank stare*
1. I don't drink
2. I don't dance
3. I've been around enough drunken people dancing in my life (ie-crazy family members every holiday)

NOOOOOOO.
I got all dressed up (overstatement) to go, I was dreading it, but I had two other girls with me who do not drink and who do not dance, so I was like..oook, let's go. I backed out last minute. I just felt too stupid. I know, someone will say--you should have just went, could have made fun of the drunk people, would have been a new experience, etc etc. But seriously, that is just NOT ME. It is not my scene and I don't feel like I should do something just because everyone else is doing it.
So while I was left alone in the beautiful condo, I called Mirza, ate mint chocolate chip ice cream, and I got naked in the jacuzzi. I had fun anyway.
TURNS OUT, I am even more glad I did not go because the stories I heard from everyone that involve making out with strangers, strangers touching you, etc--GLAD that I preserved the images of my classmates as I know them now. Besides of course seeing them drunk at the condo.

It was fun...there were laughs and hot tubs and pools, but seriously? Meh. I would have thoroughly enjoyed the trip if I were with Mirza.

Okay, I will say THIS--it was a much needed break, especially considering the day after our Thanksgiving "break" we have a test. It was a lot of fun visiting a new place and seeing new things. I have some pictures, but I am scared to post them.

I hope no one finds this and hates me, haha.

DAYTONA!!!

I'm leaving in about 2 hours for the Florida Nursing Student Association Convention!!!
I have been all up the east coast of America, but somehow missed the east cost of Florida--it'll be a first.
We're staying here: http://www.oceanwalk.com/

Everything is packed, including my notes and Fundamentals book, although I don't know how much time study-wise I'll get in! Oh well, I need a break. And as an American, I defnitely do not get enough of them.
Pictures hopefully to come!

Disappointment set in when I opened my blinds this morning to find no sun. However, now that I've been sitting here with the window open, the grey skies and cool breeze is kind of welcomed. I can hear the same person playing saxaphone across the campus as I do for hours everyday and it smells crisp outside. Generally, I do not look forward to winter and cold weather, but for some reason I am excited this year. I don't know what it is.
All I know is that despite all of this drama going on with my life currently, I still have probably one of the best lives around. Mirza is the greatest, most supportive boyfriend in the world. And I get to go to school and study something I love. Also, I love watching this squirrel outside my window. We've developed a relationship since I moved in late August. He jumps from limb to limb and I just watch...I hope he doesn't go away once it gets colder. It will be nice to see my apartment decorated for Christmas.

I'll give you an update!!

Okay, let's see....I'm drawing a blank.
Let's not discuss family life because it is nuts, embarassing, digusting, and stressful on every level.

Nursing school recap:
Fundamentals: Exam 3 on Monday Oct 30
Pathophysiology: Quiz covering 6 chapters (heart) Monday Oct 30
Physical Exam and Assessment: Exam 2 Thursday Nov 3rd.

THIS WEEK:
Monday: Fundamentals and patho
Tuesday: LEAVE FOR DAYTONA--FLORIDA NURSING SCHOOL CONVENTION.
Wed: FNSA CONVENTION
Thurs: Same
Fri: Morning-same, leave. Study.
Sat: Study until dead
Sun: Study until dead
Monday: DIE

Ah yes

Ooooh today was definitely...interesting.

I chose my patient to do my PAT on.
She was 25 years old, 31 weeks pregnant, a heroin and crack addict and she smoked a pack a day. ALSO, she was a prostitute.
Last time she did heroin was last week...and she periodically took cigarette breaks...all while pregnant.

But the BEST part was when she was vomitting during my assessment!!! She said, "I need a bucket~!" and I frantically looked around for one and gave her the garbage instead (with the red bags) and then she threw up all over, but I couldn't leave the room immediately like I WANTED TO because I was in a gown and gloves since she was on contact precautions for MRSA and she was Hep. C positive, SOOOOO I had to de-gown and de-glove and wash my hands all while listening to her vomit forever.....FUN TIMES.
I said WELL, thanks, I think I got enough info!!!
But she goes, "Well I feel a lot better now! we don't have to stop." No, really. WE DO.
Before this, she even fell asleep during my interview.

Things are looking better!!

This past week I did not get in a lot of useful studying. I read, yes, but studying? Not so much. It wasn't from pure laziness though. I found homes for almost all of our 5 cats. Two friends of mine from clinicals took two (one of them is mine, who he is holding until I can move out after next semester and into my own apt, as opposed to a dorm), my dear friend Megan took Cinders, my brother took Sable, and my mom's friend took Sadie.
Truly, this week has been stressful. My mother left yesterday--she left everything behind except for a few necessities. Besides that, the apartment was left full of our things and it was disgustingly dirty. My step dad has been taking care of it. I am so glad my mom is gone. Now, the only stress I want in my life should be related to school and money. It is kind of sad when those are WELCOMED now considering the stresses I COULD be facing.

Onto school, last Wednesday I did Hospice. I basically went with a nurse to two patients homes, then she bought me lunch, and then I sat alone in a really boring meeting for 2 hours. It was not the most fufilling or fun experience, but I also had a lot on my mind.
My Fundamentals exam 2 grade is now a 93% (A!!!).
Next week=FNSA CONVENTION IN DAYTONA!! YAY!!! FUN.
As far as this week goes? I am almost finished with reading for Fund. since the test for that is the Monday after convention. This week I have a patho quiz on Thurs. We have one almost every week, so it's not a big deal.
So far, my grades look like this:
Fundamentals: 95%
Pathophysiology: 96%
Physical Exam/Assessment: 100%
Clinicals/Lab: Satisfactory (we only get S or U).

Perhaps I will begin taking more pictures like I once did, especially for convention. Look for those maybe.

school and life

I have survived Fundamentals Exam #2. I made an 86%. Trust me, this is GOOD. More than half the class failed last time (I made an 80, but a 92 with the curve), so a B is definitely great in my eyes. Also, she will be throwing out some crappy questions, so my grade will go up once again. It just sucks because she refuses to give any sort of study guide, yet it covers 13 chapters (and we go over like 5 chapters in class). She says they used to give study guides, but they can't anymore because then students did not do so well on the Fundamentals HESI at the end of the semester because they only focused on the study guides when you need to know...everything in the book.
Also, today I had a Patho quiz, which covered neurology. It consisted of 40 questions covering 5 chapters. I miss 3, which is a 92 (B...missed an A by one point). Patho is a fun class and it is not difficult because he helps narrow down the information for us a lot. Also, we can drop one quiz and get up to 20 points extra credit for being "victims" in the disaster training thing-a-ma-bobber.
Besides the constant studying, my life is pretty much turning upside down. My mother is an alcoholic and my step father finally left because he can not deal with her constant threats of suicide and refusal to get a job for over a year. Now, he is gone and my mother is left with nothing, so she is moving to Massachusetts and giving away all of our 5 cats (who I love more than life) and pretty much abandoning me in Florida. So, I won't have a family anymore and it's going to suck. Not that it is much of a family anyway, but at least there was the facade. Also, she has MY cat who cannot live with me since I am in dorm, so now she is taking her up north. I am very depressed.

I cannot be in contact with her though unless she gets sober, which she will not. She is going to die.
Supposedly she is leaving on Friday. First, she was going to drive (pft), but then she cried like a baby up north, so her brother is sending her money for a ticket. She is the most selfish woman ever. Now I have to go home sometime this week in between classes and clinicals and pick up my things like my computer, television, mountains of books, and some clothes. I am really really dreading going and saying goodbye to my cat or possibly not even seeing the other cats because she might have gotten rid of them already. I don't know how she can do this. She is ruining my life. I love my cats so much, how can she just give them away?!! They are like her children. I know she is going to regret this and hate herself. I dont know what she thinks she is going to find in Massachusetts--she is going to be a drunk either way. ughh. All week I have been repressing this because I needed to study for my exams. She called me on Friday in the middle of my studying and that really pissed me off and I got super angry at her. HOW CAN SHE DO THIS?

tuesdays=anxious

I don't know why, but every Tuesday I feel like I cannot fully relax. I think it has to do with the fact that it is my one day off, so I feel so much pressure to use my study time wisely, yet I have SO MUCH TO STUDY that it feels overwhelming. That, and I have clinicals in the morning, which means I wake up at 4:10am, so I feel anxious wondering if I will get enough sleep. At least last Tues. I went to bed at like 7pm, but I don't know. Also, I don't know why I get nervous before clinicals because nothing bad has ever happened, it has always been a good experience, yet I still feel nervous the day before.
One thing I am super worried about right now is money. I am suppoed to get monthly checks from the VA and now it is Oct 3rd and my check hasn't come. They are always screwing something up it seems. I hope my mom calls me today and says it came.
ALSO, Oct 25-27 is the Florida Nursing Student Association convention in Daytona, which 12 of us are going to--I am excited, BUT then I realized the Monday after that is our 3rd Fundamentals exam and a Patho quiz,ugh. I don't know when I will study!!
That, and I am stressed about not seeing Mirza as often as I would like. I really miss him.

ps: in case anyone ever wondered who the hell I was: http://www.myspace.com/moonischasingme1

two tests in one day

Yaaaayyy! I got a 96% on my first physical assessment exam, but then she gave away some questons because the majority of people got them incorrect,so I now have a 100%!

And I got 100% on patho!!

Today I was with a different nurse because my regular preceptor had the day off.
She was nice and helpful with the whole learning process, but I do like my preceptor better--I can just relate to her more on a personal level.
She had 5 patients, so I went around and did all the vitals and charted. One of our patients had some sort of trauma and she was totally out of it. She was MRSA positive too. All morning she was yelling, "Help me, help me now!" over and over and over. She was just laying in bed with a diaper, but she wasn't old or anything. I felt pretty bad for her. I had to do her BP manually because of the MRSA and I was like oh great, watch me not be able to hear anything because the steth looked crappy and old, but actually, I did her BP perfect and fast! She just kept asking me over and over about her family and showering and shaving her legs. I just tried to treat her/talk to her like she was normal. I gave her a bed bath and helped clean out her mouth, which was so dry and had crust on her teeth...I think some of it was vomit. She kept saying she felt "grungy" because she hadn't showered in awhile. It was sad. Finally, someone from her family called when we were giving her meds through her gastric tube and she started crying, "Please come visit me, I'm so lonely. Everyone has forgotten about me, please come see me." I thought I was going to cry because it was sooo sad. At one time, she was normal like me but then one moment can just screw you up. And I wonder if her family is just too overwhelmed with her to come visit anymore since she doesn't make a lot of sense, she flails about in bed and she is incontinent.
She begged me to stay with her. "Why can't you just stay here with me? You helped me feel like a human for once again!" (because I cleaned her). I was like well, I have to go do other things. It just kind of blew.

I was only on the floor until 11:30 though because our instructor let us study and then we had a guest speaker about restraints.

I got a 93% on my first PAT, woo. She kept telling other people to look at mine and the another student's because we did ours good. How embarassing.

Tomorrow is the first physical exam test, as well as patho quiz #3 (?). I haven't studied since I've been home, but I'm not too worried because I've been studying like a mad woman all week. Plus I wanted to watch Oprah because it's been awhile:)
I have a study group at 7 though.

aaaaaaaah

I AM SO OVERWHELMED RIGHT NOW!! AAAH.
There is NOT enough time in the day. There is so much to study and so much to read.I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN...so why I am wasting time by typing this? And why I am watching Deal or No Deal?! SHIT!!

remind me who I don't want to be

Yesterday was...interesting.
I finally got on the floor around 7 after waiting around for my instructor in the cafe and eventually just going up. First thing my preceptor and I did was go into this old woman's room. My preceptor uncovered the blanket and this woman had dark brown watery poop all the way down to her FEET. PUDDLES OF IT!! There was sooooooooOOOooo much. I guess she had part of her colon taken out, so it was just leaking out of her. In between her legs was a puddle of watery poop....and it was bubbling.
Wow. It took 3 of us to clean her..it was alll over. I wasn't grossed out so much at first, but then my nurse and the PCT said something about it and I just had to look at the wall for a second and concentrate on not gagging up the oatmeal that I had for breakfast. I got through it fine after that.
I felt bad for the woman because she had no toes (diabetes) on one foot and the other she was missing her big toe. She said just they kept falling off. Also, she felt bad that we had to clean her because she said she hadn't been like that since she was a baby.
I mostly worked with the PCT, which I did not like. She was sort of nice to the patient, but behind their backs she would bitch and complain, especially about the woman who couldn't control her bowels. She kept rolling her eyes and saying how she didn't want to deal with this. She was acting like the woman was doing it on purpose!! It wasn't her fault, damn. I kept mentioning that we should go in and check on her to see if she needs to be cleaned up. I figured it is easier to clean a small mess more often than a huge one every once in awhile. She was just like, "I don't even want to know!" Hmm, well, when she is an 89 year old helpless woman laying in an ocean of her own shit, I think she might change her mind!!

Then we had another patient who was in a lot of pain, but my PCT was like "UGH, she whines too much, most people with that surgery just leave within a day, but she will be here forever!!"
wow, bitch. She has been at my hospital for 30 years--yeah, I think it is time to move on.
Then she proceeded to tell me how when she was an LPN (why is she a PCT?) none of the RN's who came out of school knew anything and the LPNs had to teach them all. I was like ohh yeah WHATEVER. She was seriously jaded.

I got to use the bladder scanner twice though, which was pretty cool. And I got to see a blood transfusion.

curves

WOO HOOO!! I now have a 92% on my exam because of the curve!

92% is still a B, but I'll take it!!

Fundamentals #1

WELLL, I didn't do so well on my first exam (by my own standards anyway). I got a 48/60 which is an 80%, which is C. However, the average was 43, so that means like half the class failed (75 and below is failing)!
She said she doesn't normally curve, but this time she will, so I will have a B then.
I'm not really that worried or upset though since it was the first exam and I KNOW that I do understand and grasp the information--it's just those pesky NCLEX style questions!!
I don't even know what I could have done MORE to study--I feel like I really do understand everything. Sigh.

Time

I studied this past week a little by little so that it all didn't pile up before the test--smart thing to do. I didn't think I would go home on Sat. to see Mirza, but I could not concentrate anymore until I saw him. I honestly feel like I could focus so much better once I took a break and spent time with him.
ps: I have the most amazing boyfriend in the world. We'll be together 4 years in February and it has been HARD living only 30-40 minutes away. We only see each other once a week, sometimes twice if we're lucky. It doesn't seem like we live that far, but we both just so busy with school (he's studying music education) that it is impossible to get away and be together. I probably cry everytime I leave him , which is stupid, but I can't help it. He's so much a part of me. SIIIIIIGH.
What was he point of this post again? I forget.
Oh yeah, tomorrow is my first Fund. exam at 12. I feel kind of confident, but then again I am scared because of the critical thinking type questions.

aaah

"You haven't lived until you've administered an enema."

I was successfully checked off on an enema (lucky me) and NG insertion and removal today! I still would feel scared as hell to insert an NG tube alone though, since it was only simulated on the dummies and the tube didn't go completely down.
One cool thing I did today was learn how to use a panoptic scope (or whatever the heck it's called)...holy crap!! It is so awesome when you look in the eye. It looks just like this:


I have to say it was pretty cool. Finally getting to see stuff besides vaginas, penises, and anuses! WOO

Second Full Clinical Day

I just took a nice, hot and thorough shower and then made a quesadilla with rice and corn. Now I am going to sit here and relax for a few moments before I decide WHAT to study, since there is soooo much to do choose from.
My day went really good today. I was tired, but I pushed through it! We have to do these Patient Assessment Tools, which are reallllly long and our first one is due next Fri, so I wanted to get it done today. Fortunately, one of my patients from last week was still in the hospital, so she let me use her as my guinea pig:) I finally did vitals on a real patient, as opposed to a class mate or family member/Mirza. All was good. Then I had to interview her for my PAT, which was a lot easier than I thought--and I kind of enjoyed it. The only thing is that I didn't have as much time as I would have liked, so I kind of had to rush, but it wasn't a big deal. I had to ask a 79 year old how many sexual partners she's had, which I am sure I'll have to ask again to someone else, but it was definitely interesting the first time. Actually, it wasn't a big deal at all. My patient was pretty awesome. She was in the hospital recovering from a laparoscopic bilateral salpingo oopherectomy! Yeah, don't ask me if I can recite that later or if I even spelt it right--TIIIIIRED.
It was sad to say goodbye because I'll never ever see her again and she was sort of my first real patient. Well, not really, but the first one I got to do vitals and PAT.
Another one of our patients was a woman who just had a C-section and her 6 day old son was in the room--aaawww.
THEN there was a code blue!!! But of course it was on another floor, so I didn't see anything interesting.
However, I did hear the lullaby music about 3-4 times today, which plays throughout the hospital everytime a baby is born!

Study Marathon

The week long study marathon for me begins in a half hour.
I have fundamentals exam 1 on Monday, September 18th. Originally, we had Patho that day as well, but we convinced him to move it to Thursday. Also, on Sunday I spent all day working on medical terminology, but then yesterday we convinced her to move it to the first week of October. At least I finished almost all of it, so now I can just relax (HA!!!) and focus on Fundamentals...and Patho....aaaand physical exam..aaaand clinicals..right.

First test

I got 100% on my first test/quiz in Patho (and first test ever in NS)!! It was 25 questions--not too difficult, but we all still studied our butts off for it.

As a reward to myself, I am not studying, but instead--eating apple pie with ice cream and kit kat bar crumpled inside.

mmm

My first day of clinicals!!

Okay, now that I actually have a decent moment--MY DAY!!

Seriously, it was so much better than I had anticipated. I thought I was going to feel so stupid and dumb, but my preceptor rocks. Today I did a lot of shadowing, but I also helped too. Basically, she had 4 patients, all who had just come back from surgery. She showed me how to chart everything (so much), how to organize time, etc. I learned a lot today. I got to do a glucose check! woo lol. I didn't really do any vitals on my own because I was watching my preceptor do it. OO and I got to watch an NG tube come out. And the thing that holds the drainage is pretty gross--it was filled almost to the top with like dark black, green, and white stuff *shudder* Glad I didn't smell it!!
Overall, I had a great great great day!!

wooo. Now I am going to shower, clean, and then study for my patho quiz, which is tomorrow and then SLEEP.
Somewhere in that time I am eating apple pie though.

One more thing--today was very reassuring for me that nursing is what I want to do. All day I kept thinking, okay, I could totally do this and like it. Maybe not work on this type of floor exactly, but some form of this--definitely. It feels good. Now I have more motivation.
Also, at the end of each clinical, we have to give our preceptor a little form to fill out about us with ratings and comments on things we did good and things we need to improve on. She didn't comment on things needed to be improved since it was my first day, but she did write something along the lines of, "Nicole was very motivated the first day on the floor. She was a pleasure to work with."
yayy

Good news for dorky nursing students who have to wear white from head to toe: According to the TODAY show, it is now fashionably acceptable to wear white after labor day!

I guess that is one less thing to worry about..whew.


ha.

Brrrrrr

aaaaah IT'S FREEZING!!!
I was really hot last night in bed, so I got up and turned the AC down, but it was dark, so I couldn't see. When I woke up, it was like 62 in my apartment!!!!!
It feels like freaking winter!

Oh, and none of my roommates have been here all weekend--it is niiiice.
What's on the agenda for today?
I woke up at 7am, so I will be tired tonight and sleep soundly, as opposed to last Tuesday night when I only slept for 3 hours. I'll be waking up at 4:30am..aaaah. I'm nervous about clinical now because I don't even know what to do!! I've been checked off on some things, but I don't know. I hope I don't annoy my preceptor--well, too bad.
Back to the agenda, I'll be trying to study for Patho (first quiz on Thurs) and then at 4:30 today we have a review.
I wish the air would hurry up and get warmer!!!

The Nurses' Pledge

Inside our pocket skills book is The Nurses' Pledge. We'll probably have to say this when we're graduating.

I solemnly pledge myself in the presence of this
assembly to faithfully practice my profession of
nursing. I will do all in my power to make and
maintain the highest standards and practices of
my profession

I will hold in confidence all personal matters
committed to my keeping in the practice of my
calling. I will devote myself to the welfare of my
patients, my family, and my community.

I will endeavor to fulfill my rights and privileges
as a good citizen and take my share of
responsibility in promoting the health and
welfare of my community.

I will constantly endeavor to increase my
knowledge and skills in nursing and to use them
wisely. I will zealously seek to nurse those who
are ill wherever they may be and whenever they
are in need.

I wil be active in assisting others in
safeguarding and promoting the health and
happiness of humankind.

First WEEK recap of nursing school

The week has finally ended--it's Friday!!!
So how was my first week of nursing school? Well, besides long--it was GREAT!!!
I am impressed with my program--all of the instructors and faculty are amazingly nice and supportive. They're constantly complimenting us and saying we're the best. As a student you can feel that they want you to succeed and it's quite refreshing.
Monday
My first class began at 12:00: Fundamentals of Nursing. This is basically where we learn the basic things that are needed to know when it comes to Nursing. The book is gigantic. Our professor is a nun, but no she doesn't walk around in full head dress and a ruler, slapping students on the wrist! In fact, she is a nurse practitioner (I am pretty sure all my professors are, except Patho) and she is soooooo NICE. I mean, she is serious about the profession of nursing, but you can tell she wants us to succeed. In fact, every single instructor and faculty member that I've come across so far has been this way--as I mentioned.
At the end of this class, we have a HESI, so it's definitely an IMPORTANT class (well, all of them are).
At 4:30 I had Pathophysiology with a retired Gastroenterologist. He told us to guess how many patients he has had over 20 years. Most people guessed around 10,000. He put the figure up on the board--100,000. And 20,000 colonoscopies!! He's an awesome professor because he has a lot of real life stories to go along with each disorder that we study. Also, he isn't crazy and doesn't expect us to know every single detail from the book. He told us to read the chapters once--then look at his slides, answer review questions in the study book, and then he will tell us which slides to focus on from his powerpoints. I have my first quiz on chapters 1-4 next Thursday. It covers the cell biology, genes and genetic diseases, altered cellular and tissue biology, and fluids and electrolytes (and acids/bases). I'm nervous since this is the first real test so far. Also, our grading scales is 93-100=A, so it will be tough. I just need to study hard and not focus so much on the number so much as retaining the information.
Tuesday
I have this day off, but I went to a meeting of the Internation Health Service collaborative. I was the only nursing student out of like 100 medical and college of public health students. I definitely joined and I hope to MAYBE go to the Dominican Republic in December to help.
Wednesday
This was a good day. We had our hospital orientation! The only sucky part is that my hospital is an hour away, sooooo we car pooled and got there quite early so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic. Basically, we sat around and talked about hospital policy while filling out forms. During lunch, the nurse recruiters brought us free food and then spoke about the hospital and how awesome it is. It's a magnet hospital and also it is one of the Top 100 Hospitals in the US...woohoo. At first I did not want this hospital at all, but now I think it is an excellent choice for me. I could even see myself working there after graduation. We'll see.
One cool thing about orientation is that we got to do Accucheck glucose checks on each other. It was fun to see blood and all that neat stuff. That was the first skill I ever got checked off on! See, we have these tiny little spiral bound laminated books that are color-coded according to our semester (Semester 1=Green, Semester 2=Yellow, Semester 3=Red, Semester 4=Blue, and Semester 5=Black) with a list of every skill we will have to master. There are three boxes next to each skill. The first box represents a skill that was completed in the lab correctly. The second box (level 2) is for the actual patient, which our preceptor (nurse) will check off, and the third level or box is when we do it independently on a patient without prompting need. It is a very cool thing to keep track off for my entire nursing school career.
Anyway, back to the orientation--we did glucose checks and isolation gowning, etc. Finally, we got to visit the floors we'll be working on this semester. I don't know how every other nursing school works, but mine is something like this: At the beginning of nursing school you're assigned a hospital with 11 other students--this becomes your TEAM. You are then a part of that hospital for the entire 5 semesters. It becomes like home and the team members sort of become like a little family within nursing school. THEN, you're assigned to a preceptor who is a nurse that works in the hospital. Basically, you follow that nurse around and she is your instructor and ...guidance. I was afraid of this because what if the preceptor didn't want a student? Well, it turns out that my hospital only picks nurses who actually WANT to be preceptors.
I am on the Gynecology/Women's Med Surg/Pediatrics (kind of confusing!) floor. My preceptor is so awesome and nice--she seems quite down-to-earth, so I am relieved.
It was scary at first because our task was to complete a seek-and-find while we were on the floor. My team brought me up there, introduced me to my preceptor, and then left me all alone! haha. I am the only student from my team on the floor. Some students have others with them, but not me. I think this will be beneficial because then I won't rely so much on another student as a crutch, you know?
During my seek-and-find a woman came back from surgery, so I got to go in the room and watch them transfer her to another bed and do vitals!! yayyyyyy for seeing things.
Once the day was over, I was pretty damn tired. The night before I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep somehow, so I went home, read one chapter of physical exam, and then went to bed at 7pm. I slept for 14 hours!! It felt GOOD!!
Thursday
Physical examination and assessment at 12:30--awesome professor. She's upbeat, happy, and has a sense of humor. This seems like it will be a class where I learn a lot, but it will be fun,so it won't seem like learning.
4:30 was Patho again.
Friday
We had to wake up early to take "pre-HESI" exams, which have no effect on our grades. They're just to "see where we are," which is a lot of pressure!!They covered math, vocab, grammar, biology, Anatomy and physio, and reading comprehension.
Meh. I did pretty bad on math--74. The rest I got like 85, 88, 89, 89, and 93--not in that order. I got the highest in grammar, go figure. I think second highest was AP and then biology. I guess that is average. Whatever. I happened to glance over at the girl's screen next to me and she was getting like 95's and crap...making me feel pretty inadequate and STUPID. Tests suck.
Once that was over, I got to go home and read for about an hour and a half (because I sort of wasted a lot of time making food). Lab was at 1:00, which was what I had been waiting for!!
First, we had to go into these virtual labs and do some BP's, pulse, temperature, and respirations on the computer, which was kind of weird. Finally, we got in the lab and did the things.
One thing we had to do was go behind the curtain and "observe" the SIM man and now we have to write some sort of report--I'm not quire sure because I haven't looked at the workbook yet.

So far I have been checked off for:
-BP
-Glucose monitoring
-Handwashing
-Isolation cap and mask
-Isolation gowning and gloving
-Pulse-radial
-Respirations
-Temperature :Axillary
-Temperature: Oral-electronic thermometer

Now I must go begin reading 4455235235 pages. Hope next week is even better!

Ah

I got 14 hours of sleep.

tired

I can't really type a lot right now because I have to do some reading before I pass out (only got like 3 hours of sleep), but I just wanted to say I had a great hospital orientation. I met my preceptor and she is awesome. Now I'm so happy I am at my hospital. Our instructor is amazing--so laid back and normal. Love it.
Now I'm going to attempt to read 2 chapters of physical exam and then sleep, wake up tomorrow morning and read 2 chapters before class.

Oh, and I now know how to do glucose checks--woo for me! Yay for blood!

yeah

I GIVE UP!!!!

NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I IRON MY UNIFORM PANTS--THEY ARE STILL WRINKLED!!!

I've tried steam, dry, and STARCH--WRINKLES!!


Anyway, I went to the meeting today. There were probably like over 100 students, which I was surprised about. The Vice president wanted to see who was who, so she asked the college of medicine to raise their hands--almost everyone. Then she asked college of nursing to raise theirs---ONLY ME!!!!!!!hahah. It was funny.
Then the president doctor guy kept coming over and sitting on the floor to talk with me about recruiting other nursing students and even running for vice president. Yep. I'm totally going to run for vice president now. They go to the Dominican Republic in December--it is awesome!

Now I need to get other nursing students involved.

Getting involved

Even though I'm sure I'll be intensely busy this semester, I'd like to get involved!
One thing I am definitely looking at is student council from our college, but also there is this program called the Internation Health Services Collaborative, which looks interesting. It is the college of medicine, nursing, public health, and physical therapy--they do fundraisers, etc. Their goal:

• Promoting sustainable health projects in underserved communities within the U.S. and developing nations
• Creating a forum for interdisciplinary interaction within *the university* Health and throughout *university, which will result in more well-rounded health professionals

They even went to countries like Dominican Republic and Educador.

Sound cool? Should I do it? I tried emailing some of my other clinical members to see if they wanted to go since they have two meetings.

First Day

My first day of nursing school went pretty good. I like my professors for Fundamental and Patho especially. There isn't much to say. My day started at 12:00 and ended at 6:30. Gotta remember to bring more food next time.
The only thing that kind of bothered me today is this girl who is in clinicals with me who is a nice person, but complains a lot. She's pretty negative about everything and talks a lot about people. In fact, she's kind of pre-occupied with everyone else and how they piss her off. I just stay positive and hope it changes.
Now I'm only hoping that Wednesday isn't cancelled because of the hurricane. That is our hospital orientation day.

OF COURSE!!!

You have GOT to be kidding me!!


I will be pissed if classes are cancelled during the first week--I have clinical orientation on Wed!! MOVE OVER ERNESTO!!!

The Big Day

I start nursing school tomorrow!!!
About time.

What's in store for tomorrow?

12:00-2:50 Fundamentals
4:30-6:20 Pathophysiology (most excited about this)

I have one more chapter to read of Fundamentals, then I need to read 2 of Patho. Not to mention the 4 for Physical exam that need to be done by Thursday's class, the entire med term book for fundamentals, and I need to go back and review everything and answer objectives. FUNNNNNN

Goodbye black ink!!

OMGGG my team coordinator was not joking when she said she would post A LOT of papers for clinicals...GULP.
bye bye ink.

Anyway, the dinner last night was fun. I set up a car pooling with one girl and another guy. They will be picking me up at 6:30am on Wed (we don't have to be here until 8:30, but traffic..). I told them I'd be standing outside and they won't miss me because I'll be the dorky nursing student in ALL WHITE.
Our TC gave us a tiny tour and we saw the skills lab--sooooooooo cool. It is basically a bunch of beds with supplies, but it is brand spankin' new. The semester 3 students were jealous. We even have two of those sensored dolls. I think this is awesome MAN!!

Also, I found out floor number I am on and my preceptor's name. It is kind of weird though because most students have another student on the floor with them, but my number is different from everyone elses? Hmm. I still don't know what the name of the floor is--just numbers, which mean absolutely nothing to me.

So far I feel great about this program. EVERYONE I meet has been nice and friendly. Also, they seem to be organized and have it all together. woooooohooooo.
Okay, I have to get back to reading. I've only read 3 chapters of the 9 for Fund. It is only taking me awhile because I am writing out the objectives and jotting down answers after, as well as answer the review questions. ALSO, I pretty much have to read an entire 600 page med. term. book before Sept 11th, along with finish 32 quizzes/exams. It can be tedious, but at this point, I am open for anything. I'm just glad I am in the program!
I hope I make more friends.

EDIT: I just found a sheet that has key code for the hospital. I think I'm going to be on "Gynecology and Women's M/S Pediatrics (Locked Unit)." WOO sounds awesome!!

Planning

Oh god, I just went through and wrote down every quiz and exam in my planner for every single class. I think I'm going to be sick now!!

Tonight is the dinner from 5-7pm. I made a greek pasta salad, which looks and smells oh-so-delicious. I made so much extra that I can live off of it for the week, so that's good.

Already it is starting--I have tons and tons of reading to do before Monday.

Still no roommates here.

On my own

It is official: I am on my own.

Not that I haven't been an independent woman for awhile now, but truly--I am on my own now.
Mirza (boyfriend) helped me move all my belongings on Sunday into my cute little apartment-style dorm. Since I moved early, none of the other roommates are here, but I met two of them.
I love my room. I love my nice big desk with tons of studying space. I love being on my own...so far. I kind of wish I had the whole apartment to myself because it's been great--all nice and quiet. I think my roommates will be quiet though, for the most part. They didn't seem like party-animals or anything crazy.

Let's see, what nursing school related news do I have?
Ah yes, I bought the rest of my books. Eight more. That brings the total to 12--not too bad. However, they were so heavy that I had to carry them to my car in a cardboard box, which the lovely cashier taped up for me. Longest. Walk. Of. My. Life.
The box weighed a ton, not to mention the sweltering Florida heat beating down on me. And of course I had to park in Egypt. Sigh.
I feel relieved about getting my books though.
I think the grand total was: $851.00

I have already read the first chapter of Fundamentals and the first chapter of my medical terminology book. We have to take this online med. term course through blackboard, but the system will be down until this Thursday.
I feel kind of lost. I want to start reading for my classes, but I have this irrational fear that I'll forget everything!! Crazy,I know.

More news: we were sent an e-mail informing us of a 3 hour test the first day of school to see "where we stand." I don't understand the time though because I have patho during the same time? I'm nervous. No clue what will be on this thing. I am worried I'll get a low score and then my professors will think I'm a moron!!!

Anyone have any studying advice for me before school starts on Monday? Or any advice at all would be great. Thanks.

The countdown

Well, well, well...time is slowly creeping up on me. There are now ELEVEN (11) days until the first day of NURSING SCHOOL!
The real drama begins on Sunday though--I am moving out of my home and into a dorm. I'll be on my own for the first time. I am so ready and excited.
I have almost everything I need--dishes, pans, towels, bed in a bag, school supplies, and my unform is almost complete!
I went on campus the other day to get my books. Supposedly there are eight books just for one class. Unfortunately, my drive was kind of pointless because I could only get four books--the rest were in boxes.
My fundamentals professor already posted things for us to do online. We have to complete this medical terminology course online that consists of 16 quizzes and 16 exams. Yowza. It has to be done by the 11th. AND OF COURSE, the book that I needed for that wasn't available.
Others things that I am excited about--next Thursday we have a welcoming dinner from the college. I need to bring a side dish. My mom has a mean recipe for macaroni salad, so I might bring that.

That is pretty much all that's been going on. I'll post again once I am on campus. Wish me luck!

Quick Update

I have to be to work in 20 minutes, so I guess a quick update is in order. Nothing too interesting has been happening lately. I've just been stressing about money and getting ready for school to start, which is in 25 days! I'm excited!!
I am trying to get all my things together since I'm moving to a dorm, however, it's hard because I'm broke!
I got my stethoscope in the mail yesterday. I bought a Littmann Classic II SE in raspberry color. I really like it.
Well, this post is pretty pointless. Once school begins I will have more interesting posts!:)

I'm alive

Just a quick update: I'm not dead. I was up north visiting family:)

Change of plans!!

Okay! I just changed my schedule!! I didn't want to go to school late, but I heard this other patho professor is way better, so I am taking him. At least with my new schedule I won't have classes on Tuesday and I can prepare for clinical, etc.
Do you guys think this sounds better?

Monday:
Fundamentals 12:00 pm - 2:50 pm
Pathophysiology 4:30 pm - 6:20 pm

Tuesday:
NOTHING!!!

Wednesday:
Clinical 6:30-2:20

Thursday:
Physical Exam & Assessment 12:30 pm - 2:20 pm
Pathophysiology 4:30 pm - 6:20 pm

Friday:
Clinical lab on campus 12:30 pm - 2:50 pm

Still undecided about pharm, which would be Mondays 8:30-11:30 or so.

Need Advice!!

I need advice everyone!
Should I take Pharm. the first semester along with patho, fundamentals, clinical, physical exam, and the lab for clinical? It would put me at 17 credits, but it only meets Monday mornings.
Would this be too much for the first semester? Will I be missing out if I wait to take it second semester? Also, second semester we have Med Surg and Psych, so do you think Pharm would be too much with that?
Help!

Nursing School Orientation

Well, I had my orientation yesterday. Boy was I tired!! Overall, it went good.
I got there way too early because someone told me traffic is bad at that time, but I guess I was lucky. First, the Dean came in and congratulated us all. Apparently, over 600 people applied and only 72 were accepted! I was one of them! yay!!
Basically, the whole orienation (7+ hours) consisted of mainly the clinical hospitals trying to convince us to choose them for our rotations. We got to choose between 4 hospitals. One is the biggest one in the area, the other is on campus, the third is a mix of 3 on campus, and the 4th is a big one as well, but it's almost an hour (maybe 45 minutes) away.
At my school, you pick one hospital and then you're there for all 5 semesters. There is no switching once you're matched up, NO MATTER WHAT!
I picked my top 4 in that order and of course, I got my 4th freakin' choice. Now I have to drive soooooo far for 2 years.

Here is my schedule for first semester:
Monday:
Fundamentals 12:00 pm - 2:50 pm

Tuesday:
Pathophysiology 8:30 am - 10:20 am

Wednesday:
Clinical 6:30-2:20 (chya, so I need to leave before the sun is up!)

Thursday:
Pathophysiology 8:30 am - 10:20 am
Physical exam and assessment 12:30 pm - 2:20 pm

Friday:
Lab for clinical 12:30 pm - 2:50 pm

YIPPIE!!!

Orientation is tomorrow!!! wooohooooo!!!!!!

Mother Theresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and god;
It was never between you and them anyway.

come back to me!!

AAAAH My favorite website, allnurses.com, has been offline since yesterday and it's still not up!! I'M GOING THROUGH WITHDRAWAL!!