So far, so good...

This semester is turning out to be a lot more enjoyable that last semester, and there seems to be a lot less pressure on us as students. The instructors seem to be spending a lot less time introducing us to new concepts, and instead are trying to show us how to use the concepts that we have been taught to make the connection to actual patient care.

My lecture class has been focusing on role of the nurse issues and concepts, and how to practice within the scope of the Nurse Practice Act. We are getting into a perception unit right now, and will move on to maternal-infant (my favorite) next.

We just had our first clinical day this past week. I actually did two days of clinical; one day was in a long-term acute care children's facility, and the next day was my regular med-surg clinical day. The children's facility was an interesting, but sad experience; a lot of these children are CPS cases, or have been victims of abuse or neglect. I am glad that I was able to go, but I don't think I could handle it emotionally to work there. I have an opportunity to go back later in the semester, as well.

As far as my regular clinical day, I am in the same hospital as last semester, but with a different instructor. It's always hard to get used to a new instructor, and their expectations, but I think I am really going to like this instructor, as well as learn a lot from her. I didn't get to do a whole lot this week; I had to be checked off on PO meds again, and did a lot of drink-fetching for the patients. It was good to ease back into it, though. Next week, we begin team nursing, and I am actually the team leader. I'll have three other students working with me, and we will be in charge of 4-6 patients. We actually evaluate each other, and I hope I do a good job with it. We'll spend the next four weeks in teams, rotating through the positions of team leader, medication nurse, treatment nurse, and float nurse. I am excited, but nervous about it.

Later in the semester, I get to go back to the specialty areas where I am considering working. I am looking forward to that, because I am still unsure exactly where I would like to work. I started nursing school with my heart set on labor and delivery, but as time has gone by, have become more interested in pediatrics. If I am being realistic, in order to get a pediatric job, I will have to drive into the medical center downtown, but I don't want to be that far away from my kids. Most of the local hospitals have very small pediatric units, and send the more acute cases to the children's hospitals in the medical center. I think I could really like labor and delivery, so that may be where I will apply initially. Who knows if I will even be able to get a job in a specialty area; I may end up in a med-surg unit (although I really hope not) for the first couple of years. I don't think I want to do ER, OR, or ICU, either. It's so funny that I can actually talk about looking for a job in the near future...

We are supposed to be doing somewhere around 350-500 NCLEX/HESI questions per week this semester as a way to practice for our actual HESI test on April 8th. I have been trying to make the time to do that, but have not been successful every week. This week, I had class or clinical every day, and that combined with the stubborn sinus infection that I had, was exhausting. Having a week like that makes it so hard to study, or do any other work outside of class. I'm determined to pass the HESI on the first try, so I need to keep my eye on the prize.

Have a great week!

Looking for guest writers

Does anyone out there have a nursing school experience you want to share, or maybe a great resource that you have found beneficial? If you are interested in writing a guest post, please send me an email to the address in the sidebar.

Helpful sites/resources

I am trying to compile a list of websites that nursing students or even professional nurses might find helpful, with resources for different topics, notes, NCLEX or HESI help, etc. If you have a site that you like, please leave it here in the comments, and I will add it to the list in the sidebar.

I know I have neglected this site lately; I had envisioned it as being a resource of its own for nursing students, but I am finding it hard to juggle school, my family, my house, and my Cub Scout leader responsibilities. I am trying to do a better job of managing my time, and hopefully will be back soon with more posts. In the meantime, any suggestions or comments that you have would be greatly appreciated!

Last semester, here I come!

My final semester of nursing school starts on Tuesday. I can't say that I am fully ready to spend a large majority of my time either studying, or worrying that I am not studying enough, again, but it is so nice to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. These past couple of years have been a crazy whirlwind, and I sure hope that I look back on them and think that all of the sacrifice was worth it. I started school when Zoe was eight months old, so that is all that she has known.

This semester is supposed to be all about preparing us for the transition from the role of the student to the professional nurse, and they cover resume writing, as well as do their best to prepare us for the HESI, which is a standardized test that we will take in mid-April. We have to pass that test in order to graduate, as well as to sit for our national boards this summer.

I have three classes this semester: theory, which is our lecture course, an online jurisprudence class that helps us to pass a jurisprudence exam (another requirement, by the state, I think), and clinical. We no longer have a lab class; we've learned all of the lab skills that they deem are important, and are supposed to be ready to practice any of them in the hospital. Let me tell you a secret; I learned how to start IVs from a 7-minute YouTube video, and I have practiced once in the lab on a severed arm from a mannequin. That arm bled all over the place, because I guess I didn't do it right. There is no way that I am ready to start an IV on a real live human, so I am planning to practice in the lab to hone my skills first.

Like I tell myself every semester, I am going to try my hardest to better manage my time, keep up with the kids and the house, and spend less time on Facebook. I do have the added pressure of needing to study for the HESI this semester, and look for a job, so I am sure I will have an even harder time sleeping than I normally do.

I am hoping that six months from now, I am gainfully employed in a job that I enjoy, and look forward to going to. I keep wavering back and forth as to which department I want to work in, but I think I will just be happy to quickly get a job. I really thought about pursuing a school nurse position, or a position in a doctor's office, but neither of those jobs will pay what I need to make to climb out of the debt that I have put us in the past couple of years, and one of the reasons that I left teaching (not one of the main ones) was that I didn't want to work 40 hours a week anymore. Sure, I won't get weekends, summers, and holidays off, but I only have to work 3 days a week, which means I will get at least two days a week where I will be home alone. Bliss! Maybe that means I'll once again have time for regular hobbies.

For now, I have to keep myself busy with printing out PowerPoint presentations and completing the assigned reading. May 11th, here I come!

The End is Near!

I am sure I have written this somewhere already, but I want to see it in writing again, to prove to myself that I have made it to the end of this awful semester, and am going to be 75% finished with nursing school.

As of right now, I have:

* 3 more days of lecture
* 2 more lecture exams (one is a biggie)
* 1 more lab (my last new skill in nursing school-IV starts)
* 1 more clinical day (how happy that makes me!)

I will be a free woman December 14th, around noon. The madness starts up again January 18th. Can't wait...

Where did the semester go?

I knew it had been a long time since I posted on here, but I was shocked when I clicked onto this page and realized that I haven't added a new post since the semester started. Where did the last three months go?

This has been a very challenging semester for me, for many reasons. It's been really hard for me to get used to a different set of instructors, with different agendas. My grades haven't been all that great, even though I have studied harder this semester than I ever have. I'm having to come to terms with being okay with Cs in my classes, which is hard.

Clinical has been beyond challenging, with an instructor who is so focused on checking us off on certain skills that she makes it not fun at all. We, as students, are focused on patient care and increasing the level of skills that we can perform on the patients. My instructor is focused on getting us all checked off on central line dressing changes so that we don't have to do that skill in the lab at the end of the semester. It's hard to understand how she grades us (when a large part of the rubric consists of how we interact with the patients) and consistently gives us grades much lower than we expect to receive. Needless to say, it's been really frustrating, I haven't enjoyed clinical this semester, and am excited that we only have one more clinical day to go, and we can put this behind us.

Because of all the difficulties we've experienced, my clinical group has grown very close. It's great to have such a wonderful support group, and I don't think I would have made it this far into this semester without them.

We haven't had a holiday since Labor Day, and I was so excited when I realized that my son has the entire week off for Thanksgiving. Not so for me; tomorrow, I have 5.5 hours of lecture, and Wednesday, we have an exam on the material from last week's lecture, as well as what is being covered tomorrow. It's all downhill from here, though. We have clinical December 1st, one more exam December 10th, and our final is December 14th. I can't wait to be able to say that I am 75% finished with nursing school! We found out this week that pinning is May 11th and graduation is either May 13th or 14th. I'll be counting down the days soon.

...Here We Go!

Nursing III starts for me tomorrow. I have made sure the house is clean, the pantry and fridge are stocked, meals are planned for the week, childcare has been arranged, and all of the PowerPoints and assorted notes that were posted this weekend are all neatly organized in my binder. I have everything that I need in my backpack: a fresh supply of ink pens and notecards, my new Trapper Keeper with dividers that are labeled for each of my classes, my adorable Lilly Pulitzer planner, and my MacBook and power cable. I still need to plan my outfit for tomorrow and pack my lunch. Class starts at 8:00, but enrollment is up by 40% at my school this year, and due to construction, a lot of parking is blocked off. So, I will try my best to arrive on campus by 7:30.

We have already been given several files to print and take to school with us tomorrow and Tuesday. Tomorrow is orientation all morning, then lab packets and concept map planning in the afternoon. Tuesday, I believe we have our first lecture on Role of the Nurse, then will do some math practice in the afternoon. Wednesday, we start hospital orientation, and my regular lecture and clinicals will take place beginning next week. I guess there's no easing into it this year...