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!