Overwhelmed and Irritated...

As Thanksgiving has just passed I know that I should be remembering to be thankful. Thankful that this semester is almost over! But at this point I am so ready to be done I would love to just be done right now! 12 days is all I have left. 12 days! If I have made it this far certainly I can make it a measly 12 days...

Here is a list of what is left to do in these 12 days:

1. Test in Community Health

2. Peds summative lab

3. Meeting about my LAST semester of nursing school!!

4. Summative lab in OB

5. OB Final (which I haven't begun to study for)

6. 2 hour presentation in my Professional Nursing (PN) class

7. Working with my PN project teammates to collect and finalize our presentation information.

8. Finish the final details and do all of the writing for my teaching project I had to do for PN.

9. Write a paper for peds on ALL (a type of leukemia) that is due Dec 7.

10. Make a powerpoint presentation of this info and prepare a 5-6 presentation on my information from my ALL paper.

11. Present this information on Dec 7th.

12. Take my peds final on dec 10th.

13. Pack to go home.

14. Collect whatever wont fit into my suitcase and get it ready so that I can mail it home.

15. Do final essays for PN due dec 10th.

16. Put together final portfolio for PN class to be turned in on dec 10.

17. Fly home on Dec 10th!

18. CAN I GO BACK TO BED????????

Oy vey! I am thankful...I am thankful...

I really am thankful for many things including my family and friends back home, my dog Earl, my friends the Wests who invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner, and this semester is almost over.

I guess now I need to get back to schoolwork...but I DON'T WANNA!!!!!!!

My Oh My...

This past week has been very sad for Seattle Mariners fans. Our beloved Hall of Fame Broadcaster Dave Niehaus passed away at the age of 75. Dave has been the voice of the Mariners since their beginning in 1977. Every Mariner fan has fond memories of his voice (which is the Seattle Mariners) and his one liners like "Fly, fly away" and "My Oh My". Mariners games will never be the same...you will be missed Dave!

Just for a minute...

I should be working on two projects that I have due this week for school. Somehow thanks to the glorious invention of the internet (Thanks Al...yeah right) this ADD'er finds more excuses to NOT do homework! I think I might have a record of the number of Facebook log-ins in a day!

I am currently in the midst of writing a paper on Bulimia for my Community Health class and info for a powerpoint presentation for my Professional Nursing class. Both of these classes have become my Achilles heel in nursing school...the bane of my existence! To say that I despise these classes and the ridiculous amount of busy work they require is putting it mildly. I could go on and on about how these classes are completely ridiculous and how I have not learned anything in them nor will/are they preparing me to be a better nurse. They just serve to irritate me...must have a positive attitude...must have a positive attitude...yeah right sea cow! I have also beyond this have made 2 posters for projects in classes. Yes, you read this right, POSTERS! The trifold, print things out and glue them on pasteboards just like a junior high science fair project. I am 33 years old...I do NOT want to be making posters!!!!

I must remember that this semester is almost over...23 days until I am on a plane COMING HOME!! and 9 of those days do not involve school! However another thing I have learned in nursing school is a break such as Thanksgiving doesn't mean that you can take a break from school...it just means that you have 4 days without having to be anywhere that you can work on school! Oh boy!

I came into this semester thinking it would be my favorite. With classes like Pediatrics, Community Health, OB, and this Professional Nursing this was going to be my face semester. YEAH RIGHT! This is BY FAR the worst and the funny part is my best grade is likely going to be in OB which is my least favorite content! "I don't want to know nothin' 'bout birthing' no babies!"

But I have Christmas Blend in my coffee cup (whoohoo!) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 just 2 days away so for the moment I will survive. (I really do try to find the bright side in things despite how this post sounds.)

I should sign off for now...but "I'll be back!"

Its been a long time...

It has been a long time since I have updated this...I was in my first clinical the last time and now I am almost done with my 3rd semester. A lot has happened since then. I will update this soon as for now I must walk Earl.

Clinical Day 2

Clinical Day 2...

Today was my second day in the hospital caring for a client. This was the first week that I had to go to the hospital the day before and collect information on my client to fill out paperwork before coming to clinical today. It didn't seem to take that long to find some of the information although I think I collected a lot more than I needed and as I am still learning the computer system at my hospital it takes a bit longer to find stuff. After collecting my info I went with my friend Andie to fill out our paperwork before heading home. I got it all filled out except a part about pathophysiology (which is the disease process) for my client.

Last night I was not able to sleep real well; I tossed and turned all night. Finally at 3 AM I realized that it was silly to lie in bed awake so I got up and took my shower. After this I went back to bed and was able to sleep well...for about an hour and a half! I have to get up at 4:45ish so that I can get ready to go as I need to leave my house by 6 AM in order to be on time and not be stressed out by cutting it close on time. (You'd think I would be used to this by now with a lifetime of running late but it is so important to not be late so it freaks me out that I might be!) I can't tell at this time of the morning if it is easier and faster to take the interstate which is longer in distance but higher in speed with less lights or to take the more direct route which goes through town (but has a lot of lights and much slower speeds). It took me about 20 minutes to get home this afternoon with little traffic on the interstate. I always seem to forget though that not only does it take 20 or so minutes to get to the hospital but that I have to find a parking spot and then walk forever to get to the elevators to get to my floor! It takes about 5-10 minutes to get to where I need to go once I am on the hospital campus!! It makes me anxious just thinking about it! I know that once I get in the grouve of this it will all be okay but it is still uncertain and new.

Today was the first day that I had my very own client to take care of...all by myself. After I recieved report from the nurse I did vitals and a head-to-toe assessment on my client. WHile she was eating breakfast I entered this information into the computer. After this we had to help her to the bedside commode as she has difficulty ambulating (moving around) and while she was there I changed her bed linens and assisted her with taking a washcloth bath! Who knew that I would be paying $11,000 a semester to be a CNA!! Awesome!! I do have to say though that I am getting much better at taking vitals and much better at manual blood pressures which was really intimidating at first and I am quite proud of!! Whooty Hoo!

No I am working on my followup papers which I thought that I would type this up while my examples were printing but it seems as though there is something wrong with my printer (AGAIN) and so I must go fix it so that I can finish this assignment and study for the test that I have on Monday and the test that I have on Tuesday and finish reading the book that I have to write a book report on for Tuesday morning by 8AM along with a chapter in another book and answer questions on for Tues AM...OY VEY!! It looks as though this is going to be a very busy weekend!

Head to Toe Check-offs

This morning I had to attend clinical class to do a head-to-toe check off (or cephalocaudal to be exact) which means head to tail. This means that I had to assess someone in my class...taking their vitals signs (temperature, respiration's, blood pressure, O2 stats, and pain scale). I am fine with most of these but hearing that first BP sound (the systolic sound) is VERY difficult for me. I did okay as the teacher had a double stethoscope that we were using so she could listen too. I was only a few points off of her assessment of it so she said it was ok. Then we had to look and the head face and see if we notice anything, listen to breath sounds, check capillary refill, check radial and pedal pulses (on hands and feet), listen and palpitate the stomach, ask about bowel/urinary troubles, test hands and feet strength...and a few more things. IT WAS SOO NERVE WRACKING!! I knew what to do but when you are in a stressful situation you stop breathing and then you don't think properly!! AGHH!! I know that we couldn't "fail" this but being the perfectionist that I am I wanted to be perfect which of course I wasn't! I am thankful that intro to nursing professors are so gracious and willing to hold our hands through all of this! We have only had this class 3 times and we just really learned this stuff last week! So to be tested on it this week...oy vey.

And then to top all of this off it was supposed to snow this afternoon but low and behold it started at 9 AM instead of 2 PM like the weather people said! I took quite some time getting home from school but I made it fine. There is a really steep hill in my apartment complex that I have to go up in order to get to my apt and as I was going up I noticed someone in an SUV struggling to get up the hill. I looked to see that the other direction wasn't being used and I moved over and cruised right up the hill. I thought about waving as I passed her but I thought it might be rude so I didn't...

Now...I am going to take a nap because I was up until almost midnight doing homework and practicing taking blood pressures on myself (pretty awesome huh that I could do it!) and I needed to get up at 5:45 to get ready for school. The one nice thing today was that it only took 15 minutes to get the 12 miles from my place to school. Most mornings if I leave after 7:15 it takes me at least 30 minutes to get there!

Okay I am really going to take a nap now!!!

Just a day...the begining

So I have thought of this for a while now...blogging my experiences in nursing school so that those of you who are curious can follow my adventures! I while back I started the official blog page and now...dunnn...dunn...dunnn...dunnnaa! Here it is! And it even had a background set up on it! Man I am good.

Today was my third official day as a nursing student. My first class was my Intro to Nursing Lab at 8:30 AM. I woke up early, got ready, did a load and a half of laundry, and set out the door over an hour before class as traffic on the interstate gets bad and I needed gas. I stop down the street at the local Mapco (a gas station) pump my gas and then realize...I LOCKED MY KEYS IN MY CAR!! Along with my cell phone, apartment keys, my life...etc. The first thing I thought of was I was going to miss my very first Lab class! Not a good way to start out the semester. I remembered that they (our teachers) said "if you are going to be late call us and let us know" how was I to call when my cell phone and all of the numbers were in my car! I called my mom back in Washington (mind you it's 5:45ish AM there) and tell her I need her to call GEICO to get someone out to open my door and to look up the number to Belmont and call my teacher Mrs. Stafford and let her know what was going on. (I did all of this on the nice manager at the Mapco's personal cell phone!) I spent a lovely hour hanging out at the Map (I think that is what I will call it from now on) drinking bad coffee and reading the newspaper. I did manage to get into my car @ 9:15 and then proceeded to need to have my battery jump-started as my lights had been on this whole time. :(

I finally got to school around 10 went to an info session and then went and found my lab instructors to let her know I was there. I ended up being able to go to a make-up lab right then which worked out perfectly. In lab today we were able to play with many different types of lifts (machines that help to move patients). We were all able to both use the lifts (operate them) and experience them as a client would. This was a lot of fun! There was a lift that was like ablow-up mattress attached to a Shop-Vac that filled up with air so that clients could be easily transfered from bed to gurney and back. There was a chair lift where we were strapped in and lifted up in a sitting position (it also had a hole in the bottom in case you needed to assist a client to the bathroom!) This one you could move around; you could put a client in there and transfer them to another room, etc. There was a lift that helped you stand but I found it to be very awkard (one must have a much larger abdominal girth in order for this one to be sucessful!), and my faveorite was the Guldman lift that had a large sheet and strapped that attached to a handle bar which was then attached to tracks on the ceiling. In this one you could be lifted up feet off the bed and then moved to the left, right, front, back all with such little effort that I moved one person with just two fingers! (I imagine that this device is not readily available in most hospitals but would be so nice if it were!)

After lab was over a couple of us stayed to practice making an occupied bed (with someone in it) and then spent time eating lunch before our first Introduction to Nursing lecture course. (Dr. Shores (our professor) is she ever reads this someday will laugh as I proceed.) Dr. Shores talked to us the first hour about how you can be squeamish and still be a nurse as she fainted everytime she was in a room with a woman in labor! And then she spoke to us about how she locks the doors to the classroom so as to protect us in case someone was to try and get in the room like the kid on the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. We laughed about how she said she would grab the person's feet and then we were to dog pile the person and call 911 and security! Too funny!
We did make into the lecture portion and talked about urinary elimination...sounds very exciting for our first lecture right?? Next week in Intro to Nursing Clinical we are going to be learning to place catheters (even more exciting) and so this is where we started.

Overall, I am very excited about finally being in nursing school but feel so great about the choice of Belmont. (not that I had much choice as they were the first ones to offer me a spot) The professors and instructors are fabulous and I really am enjoying all of the people that I have classes with. This is going to be a great two years (or maybe 16 months if they switch me to the Accelerated program...please...please...please!!!!). I look forward to all of my adventures and hope that you will enjoy reading about them!