What's been going on...

Gosh, where the heck do I start? It's just been non-stop lately. Once clinicals start I don't know how I'll have time to keep up with this blog...But I shall try!

We had our first exam on Tuesday. I got a 90/92 which equals to 98%! I was so proud of myself and relieved because it's supposed to be the easiest test we'll take during the program. Also, it was more knowledge based as opposed to having more critical thinking questions. Four people failed unfortunately. The second test in two weeks is supposed to be around the same lines so I'm not freaking out as much as I was before.

We also finished up testing on all our required and draw skills. Some students waited till today to get tested on everything. Not this girl! I didn't want to fret about it longer than I had to and it was rewarding and relieving to get it over with. I wanted to spread it all out and try to get it done early which is exactly what some of my close classmates and I did.

We tested out on our required skills last week which included vitals (assessing pain, temp, radial & apical pulse, resp and BP), giving a partial bed bath, making an occupied bed and transferring a patient to a wheelchair. Then we tested out on our draw skill yesterday so that we could come in later today. So instead of coming in at 0630, we were able to sleep in a little and show up @ 0930. Loved it! "Draw" skill meaning we had to draw a certain skill out of a deck of cards and do it so you had to know all of them because it was all random! Our draw skills included applying restraints, Active ROM exercises (upper or lower body), indwelling catheter care (emptying and cleaning pt), cleaning dentures, mouthcare on an unconscious adult and moving patient up in bed/repositioning patient.

I pulled cleaning dentures and I was so relieved b/c it was so easy. They were all relatively easy but there were so many critical elements on some of the other ones, I was afraid if I pulled them, I would've forgotten some stupid little step and fail =( But I'm glad I didn't. It will be much different when I'm actually talking and doing these skills on a real patient. I just had to remember to not leave the bedside with the siderails down when I have the bed up at my working height to gather supplies.

I am beyond ecstatic, falling out of my chair excited to go to clinicals. To be honest, not so much the continuing care ctr (rehab) but to the hospital. We'll be on the surgical floor, neuro floor and she said she'll put the "superstars" of the group on the Tele floor! I would like to go there because my mom is a tele nurse and I just think it would be awesome to see what it's like to be mom for rotation.

All I want to do is interact with patients and get to know nursing staff, like now!!!

Exhausted

I haven't mentioned that I am currently working as a housekeeper at a local hospital. I worked the medical unit today and I am thoroughly exhausted. I cleaned 30 rooms, 2 med rooms, 2 nurse's stations and 2 staff bathrooms. Ex...hau...sted... How I did 6 days in a row 2 weeks ago is a mystery to me right now... I know I'm only 26 y/o but I can definitely tell that my body is not what it was when I was 18. My "cleaning" hand and wrist is throbbing in pain even after 500mg Naproxen. Hopefully I can go to bed peacefully.

Tomorrow, I have to get some labs done and fill out a pre-anesthesia questionnaire before I get my right breast lumpectomy. I had three spots bx'd on my left side a year ago which turned out to be fibroadenomas (common in twenty-somethings). They've been monitoring my right breast since then and one in particular is actually somewhat large (fills up the whole ultrasound screen) and is growing. I have five in my right total! Even though I am pretty sure this one is also a fibroadenoma, the only way to be 100% sure is to get it bx'd so that always makes me a tad nervous. I just want it out because it's actually pretty bothersome to me but it stinks because they can grow back... Booooo....

On top of that, more studying!

Playing catchup on here

Hi all, I was going to start this before I started this whole nursing adventure but it has been the last thing on my list and am just now getting around to it. I made this blog so that years down the road, I can look back and relive these times. You are a sum of your experiences and memories and keeping track of my nursing career is so important to me.

Even though I finished my first week of nursing school, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm in... I'm in, I'm in, I'm finally IN. It took FOUR years out of my life waiting to just get in to the program. That equals getting a rejection letter eight times and that really wore on me as the years went by. I was seeing all my friends doing something meaningful or productive with their lives and here I was, stuck, stagnating and going nowhere. Sure I had a decent job at RAS but it was a dead-end job.

I did almost give up nursing, I had started to take classes and make preparations to apply to both the rad tech and ultrasound program as my Plan B. Now, I'm glad I didn't give up.

So we just finished first week and my first off-hand thought was that it reminded me a lot, not completely, of CNA school. I went through CNA school in the Fall of 2008 but I never ended up working anywhere after I got my license. I couldn't get a job as a CNA at a hospital and I didn't want to quit RAS for a lower paying job with no benefits so I just let my cert lapse which I kind of regretted. Reminds of CNA school because our skills we have to pass before we even go out to clinicals are basic nursing skills like bed making, ROM exercises, transferring, vitals, bed bath, peri care, applying restraints, measuring I&O, etc.

I love my classmates and I feel a great sense of camaraderie. Like my professor said, we already competed against eachother getting into the program, now it's time to watch out for eachother. I have made particular friends with three girls whom I feel will be my friends for life and I love that. My professors are all great and I can't wait for clinicals!

Back to nursing school, we learned a lot about communication and I really appreciated that lecture because now I understand that as nurses, we need to communicate in a different way. I learned we need to be more conscious of how we're saying something and we need to look beyond the obvious like non-verbal cues. We have to acknowledge a situation and be able to move on.

Trying to balance this and work is going to be a little tricky. Already it's giving me problems! I got all ready for work this morning, got there and found that I wasn't even scheduled to come in today! Imagine my surprise... Half of me wanted to stay and work because I'll need the money but then half of me wanted to go home and crawl back into bed. Eventually, they sent me home.

I do feel some pressure from family to work every weekend between school weeks but I am not playin' around with this. I worked so hard, through blood, sweat and many, many tears to get into the program, I am not going to let ANYTHING mess it up. I want to get good grades and really soak up all the knowledge and experience. My future is not in being a housekeeper, my future is working as an RN. I appreciate their thinking highly of my ability to juggle all of this but I don't want to overwhelm myself with extraneous stuff, I'll already have enough on my plate for the next two years.

Well, I'm gettin' a bit sleepy, time for a nap before studying!

This is what a rejection letter looks like, I got another after this but it was my last one! Btw, I was notified by email that I got in.

I will be so proud to wear this patch during clinicals

heheheh Yes, we are the Beavers... Notice the RED on the top, it says to hospital staff, "WARNING, I am a first semester student, WARNING! Don't ask me to do anything too complicated yet!" Then it's yellow, then green and finally blue for 2nd, 3rd and 4th semester.

Moi!

Hello all! My name is Michelle and I'm 24 yrs old. As of now, I am just waiting to get into a nursing program. This will be my second year trying and obviously, this time, I hope I get in. While I'm not fretting about that, I like to hang out with my friends, go to baseball games, shop, watch sports, ride my bike, go to the gym or hang out with my puppy. I've been with my boyfriend for almost five years. Oh and I'm a big Los Angeles Dodgers fan =)

I'm taking this class in addition to History 17B so I can have something to show for the four years I've been at Sierra (an AA degree) heheh Plus, history used to be one of my favorite subjects in high school; in fact, my first major I ever decided on was to become a history professor. With my 9-5 job, it's hard to take a traditional class so online was a good choice. I've only taken one online class before and at first, I struggled but as the time went by, it got a lot easier. I learned that I have to be doubly dedicated to being focused and remembering to manage my time better so I can get my assignments done without cramming at the last minute.

I hope to learn more about how and where our country came from. I haven't taken a US history class since the beginning of high school and have honestly forgotten a lot of exact information. Although, I have a strange inkling that I'm not alone on that one in this country. To see where we're going as a country, it's always a good thing to see where we've been.