I don't know about you...but for Thanksgiving I....

The hardest part about not having time to blog is that there's so much to catch up on once I finally find some time to write...so I hope you have some fluids, a snack, and if you need...make a quick run to the restroom! :) Ready or not...here we go...


Well, first things first, I took my 4th exam; which has always been rumored to be the worst, most dreadful, horrendous, gosh-darn-awful test that there ever was. The rumors proved to be true. It covered the cardiovascular system, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and addiction. Some of the questions seemed to have no right or wrong answer, it truly came down to, "which of these is the most correct answer". I'm proud to say that I passed the exam and got a pretty decent grade too!!! *Super happy and kinda freaky celebratory dance* Now I'm left with one more exam (HESI which is an exam to help us prepare for the NCLEX) and the final which will have 50% new material and 50% cumulative info. 


I'm filled with utter excitement and disbelief that this semester is almost over...each time a new semester begins I get this overwhelming feeling that it's never going to end and by the time I get close to finals I'm left scratching my head wondering how I ever got here! This week we have Thursday and Friday off for the Thanksgiving holiday and then next week we get to review/prep for the final and it will also be our last week of clinicals. So how does a nursing student enjoy school while at the same time not forgo ones studies? Well, I'm glad you asked because I figured out the perfect balance between enjoying my time off and taking advantage of the time I have to study...Well, I don't know about you, but for Thanksgiving I LOVE opening up the bag of giblets and getting my hands dirty (for educational purposes of course)...

That's right...I tore open that baggie full of glorious treasures and I made use of this lovely turkey that gave its life to feed us for our Thanksgiving dinner. It contained the lovely glorious gizzard, the heavenly heart, and the lustrous liver! So what did I do? Well, I taught my mother and brother how the blood travels through the body and into/through the heart. I taught them the different structures and their functions...and helped myself review for my fantastic final that I have coming up....okay enough of my annoying alliterations! :) Basically, I played around in some guts and had fun trying to identify the different structures of the heart and liver of the turkey! 

 Hey, sometimes you just have to have some fun with some freaking turkey giblets...that's all I'm saying!


It's really nice to have a break and be able to spend some time with the ones you love. I was having a particularly nice time with my mom. My mom has a friend who is a great cook along with her husband and on his blog he talks about brining the turkey before you cook it. I had never heard of it, but my mom had, and her friends husband had a blog post devoted to it. So we got the ingredients to brine ourselves a turkey...it was one of the most glorious, aromatic, delightful thing I've smelt it quite some time! 


So there. I'm learning to enjoy my time off from school and still reap the benefits of what free time I have to learn. 


Another quick thing...today after lecture I was walking to my car and all around me I realized I was surrounded by my fellow classmates. I just want to say how thankful I am for each and every one of them! There's something comforting about walking into a classroom filled with people that you've been going to school with and walking along with on this journey. I'm thankful that I have such amazing friends in this program...all that I can say is, "Look out world...you have a great batch of nurses headed your way"


So take some time to enjoy your family....and I don't just mean sitting chowing down on some turkey...I mean really take the time to be with your family and enjoy each person...one thing that you learn real quick in nursing school is that no one is guaranteed tomorrow. Regardless of your age, gender, health status etc. Until my next post...Happy Thanksgiving!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Alrighty...so little time and so much has happened; so I'm going to try and get you all back up to speed! It's just that time in the semester where everything comes at you at the same time (e.g. exams, papers, case studies, preparing for clinicals etc.). I just feel like there is never any extra time to spare in the day...which in turn leaves me exhausted by the end of the day! 


First, I finally rocked an exam! I'm super happy and proud of myself! I got an 88 and the class average was an 82...so I was happy to be a few points above the average....however, that test is over and it's now time to start studying for the big one, aka, the Cardiovascular, Cancer, Addiction and Autoimmune test! :O Every time that I go into an exam, I try and think of it as a brand new page, a new chance, a clean slate...otherwise you get caught up on the past times that you wish you would've done better!


Second, I went to the OR (operating room) and I didn't pass out! (It's not uncommon for people to pass out the first time to the OR for those of you who may not know) There was a girl in the program, bless her heart, who just had the worst experience at the OR...essentially anything and everything went wrong for her. She passed out, they had to cut her scrub top off of her, her car was ticketed and booted...needless to say, I went into my OR day slightly terrified and just a little worried and I was thankful to come out with my dignity, clothes, and car/wallet all intact. I'm thankful for the girl who, unfortunately, had to be the guinea pig and go through that experience. She did, however, share with us..."don't lock your legs, look away if you need to, breath through your mouth"  I'm eternally grateful for her words of wisdom!


Third, I have the cure for constipation!!! :D I've been meaning to share this for a while, but whenever I sit down to write it always slips my mind...hahaha...no pun intended! So, at my clinical location they have this despicable concoction that they use for patients who are constipated. They make about an 8oz glass that has prune juice, MOM (milk of magnesia), they heat that up and then put a pat of butter on the top of the mixture so it then melts. They say the butter acts as a lubricant and helps things slip and slide a little easier! So...for those of you who may be suffering from the unthinkable...there's your cure! You may write your checks out to Margaret Rosecrans! ;) hehehe...


On the more serious note....today I had a bit of an "ah-ha" moment. I met up with my mother to have lunch with her and as I sat with her and "people watched" I realized that I was doing assessments on each person that I watched. I saw an older gentleman in the tripod position that looked like he should have an oxygen saturation of about 90%...I saw an older woman that was having difficulty feeding herself and I found myself keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't aspirate as she swallowed. I saw a younger girl on crutches that was had the crutches right under her armpits and I couldn't help but cringe as I watched. While sitting I caught myself doing this assessments and thought to myself; regardless of how difficult, stressful, emotional/physically draining nursing school is, I know that I'm in the right field. Sometimes I feel like I'm not going to make a great nurse or that I just suck at my head-to-toe assessments...and somehow being able to make these quick observations of people was comforting. I can honestly say that I'm headed in the right direction!

Hahaha...I feel like this sometimes!


Fewsh...with all of that said...I register for level 3 sometime this week...I keep scratching my head wondering how on earth is it possible that I'm getting ready to register for the next level? Oh how time flies when you're having fun...which means I need to make the most of my time and get to studying! :D 

Master of None

Oh where to begin...the time is just flying by. We have just wrapped up our eighth week of classes and fourth week of clinicals. This semester our clinical situation is similar to last semester. We have a total of 9 weeks of clinicals and 3 of those weeks we have to spend on campus in a clinical simulation. So lucky me...my on-campus time is right in the middle of my clinicals...meaning I spent three weeks at my clinical location (healthsouth) and I'm now on campus for 2 more weeks and then I'll go back to healthsouth for 3 more weeks! :) 


I've really tried to go into the campus-clinicals with a positive attitude but this past week was torture! We do a lot of acting out situations and it's really hard to take the scenario serious when others are laughing and joking about the situation. I think the instructors get overwhelmed sometimes or run out of activities for us to do and try and use up as much time by asking questions like, "so how did this situation make you feel?" or "tell me what you think we were trying to get you to realize..."     Hahaha...for all you nurses/nursing students out there...our instructors do a great job at coming up with open-ended questions (aka therapeutic communication). 


Well that's enough complaining about campus clinicals because no matter how much I want to fight it or talk about how much I don't like it...it is what it is and there's not any chance for us to get out of it..so I suppose I'll suck it up and be as great an actress as possible ;)


Actual clinicals are great! I love the place that I'm at and I've had the opportunity to work with some interesting patients and some really great nurses. I think one of the most accurate and funny things I've heard is a nurse share with me what she felt it was to be a nurse. She told me, "I'm a jack of all trades and master of none!" Initially, I just laughed and thought nothing of it; however, as the day continued on I'd to little tasks that I'm good at, but not great at...and I heard in the back of my mind, "jack of all trades and master of none." In a strange way that bothered me, for those of you who may not know I tend to struggle with perfectionism. Nursing is the type of career that you never perfect...you always learn, change and grow. This is something I'm finding to be truer with each passing day and something that I'm working on accepting.


I had a patient that was labeled a difficult, rude, unpleasant patient. I was worried about going in to meet this patient because of the comments that had been made from the other staff. I reminded myself though that that was their own assessment/opinion and I needed to enter her room with an open mind...as far as I knew she had a clean slate. At first she did seem a little standoffish but the more time I spent with her and the more I showed her that I really cared about her and wanted to offer (as little as it may be) as much help to her as I could, she started to open up. I think what she wanted was for someone to take a little time and actually talk to her and hear her out. I like to take people that have been stereotyped and labeled as a rude patient and prove it wrong. I think the biggest thing is realizing that this person has more to their life than whatever illness has brought them to the hospital. I don't know exactly where this woman has been or how she has been treated..and regardless of what she may, or may not tell me, you never know how much of it is the truth. So the next time someone tells you to avoid "so-and-so" because they're in one of "those" moods...try and remember that maybe their situation isn't what we may think it is...we haven't walked in their shoes...


Now that I'm done preaching I just wanted to share one last quote that I heard this past week...and I don't remember exactly where I heard it so I can't give the person who said it credit but it was this, "Hard work beats talent and talent doesn't work as hard!" So I'm going to work harder at having a better attitude with my campus clinicals. I'm going to work hard at becoming the best jack-of-all-trades that I can be. And I'm going to work hard at going into each patients room with an open mind and allowing them to show me who they really are...or who they aren't!

Has me pondering…

So I it’s time for an update! As of Friday we have our clinical assignments…of course there is always a chance that things will change, but I’m hoping that they won’t seeing as how we have our orientation to our clinical location on Thursday! I get to spend my time at a nursing rehabilitation center called HealthSouth. We’re told that we’ll see a lot of patients with TBIs (traumatic brain injuries), SCIs (spinal cord injuries), and ortho cases (e.g. total hip replacement). I’m hoping to have the chance to practice some skills…I hear that there’s a lot of PIC lines there so hopefully I’ll get to change some dressings! One must keep in mind during clinical that you have to make your presence known (in a good and not so annoying way) so that the nurse will remember to save something for you! So…if you see me walking around with a brown spot on my nose, well, you’ll know why! ;)

The downside to clinicals this semester is that we’ll have to spend parts of it on campus for a simulation again. We’re broken into larger groups of about 12 (because of the lack of clinical instructors) therefore 4 of us will have to stay behind for campus clinical…We’ll get rotated through both campus and actual clinical locations, but I’m a little bummed that not all of our time will be spent with “real” patients! Oh well…I told you that I wasn’t holding my breath when it came to clinicals…I’m trying to be optimistic and remind myself that last semester even though it wasn’t as much fun, it was a great learning experience!

Well then, it’s time now for story time! This past Thursday and Friday (the week we were supposed to start our clinicals) we spent our time on campus for our final “check-off”. This was comprised of our instructors making sure that everyone knew how to wear their uniforms so we weren’t a disgrace to the CNM name! So we all got lined up in a massive line as we got examined from head to toe. Literally, they started with an inspection of our hairdo and went all the way down to the style of our shoe! The only thing they didn’t make us do is stick out our tongues…and that’s only because they forgot…and I wish I was kidding! J

So after our lovely day of being inspected for the umpteenth time we spent the next day watching a movie (apparently our instructors couldn’t think of anything more exciting). Honestly though, it was a really good movie that got us thinking about the way we interact and treat each person. The movie we watched is called Wit. It’s about a woman who is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and spends the rest of her time in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy. It’s a drama filmed like a documentary about the time she spent with her healthcare providers from the time she was diagnosed to the time she died. The moral of the story is to treat each patient as a person and not as a disease. We’re reminded that regardless of how grumpy someone may be, how fascinating their case is, or how few questions they ask…they’re still a person and they deserve to be treated as that…an individual; a mother, brother, nephew or niece, grandma or grandpa or a neighbor that lives down the street.

I think the main thing that I wanted to share with you is how my fellow nursing students reacted to the end of the movie. I took a moment to glance around through my watery eyes and everywhere eyes were teary, noses were running, tissue was being whipped out like Kleenex was running out of business ;) and it was there that I realized how awesome it is that I get to share a career with people that honestly have a passion to help each person to the best of their ability! While yes, there will always be that one grumpy nurse whose life would be so much better if everyone just went away; however, for the most part all that we nurses want are to cherish and nurture each individual to the best of our abilities. Shamelessly wiping away at our tears realizing that we have the potential to affect the way someone heals and perceives the entire healthcare system…it’s overwhelming and extremely exciting all at the same time. Hey, I may not be perfect at giving you a quick and easy IM injection and it may take me a while to change your dressing, but when you just need to cry I can offer my presence to you and just sit there with you and give you a tissue to blow your nose. I can listen to what you have to say and be an advocate for you. I can go out of my way to get you an extra pillow to make you more comfortable so you can rest. I can listen when you say you’re in pain and do my best to ease it and not judge the kind of pain you’re in. I can be there. I can listen. I can intervene on your behalf. I can brush your teeth after you vomit. I can wipe your butt when you can’t reach. The list goes on and on. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the movie has me pondering the different things that I can do to make each person feel like a person and not feel like they’re being treated like “the disease in room 123”.

 Even though we student like to give the instructors flak about lame days where we sit around and watch a movie…it doesn’t hurt to be reminded every once and a while that each person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect (hmm…reminds me of elementary school…who knew those words would come back to haunt me)!

Coulda been better!

Headed into the fourth week. We were supposed to be starting our first week of clinicals..but I don't believe that is going to happen! (Like I've said before, expect the unexpected) Hopefully we'll be getting our clinical assignments soon! I have the first exam under my belt and it really coulda been better. I got a 76% .... just a little recap...for our grading scale a 75% is a C, an 84% is a B, and a 93% is an A. So I got a C but that's not good enough for me. If you've been around nursing students I'm sure you'll hear a C equals an RN, but I'd rather be in the B's! However, in times like these I try and remember my mother's words of wisdom, "Don't sweat the petty things and don't be the sweaty things!" However, something still has to change in my studying habits!

After class today my friend and I were leaving and we kept running into people and of course the first thing we ask when we hear they did well was, "How do you study?!" I think this has to be one of the must frustrating things for me as a nursing student. I've always had straight A's and known what to expect on exams and I knew how to prepare for them, but it's completely opposite here! So I'm always open for new ideas and lovely words of wisdom!

A lot of us are a little frustrated with our new lecture instructors over their teaching methods. Our level 1 instructors set the bar so high and were simply amazing that we're now struggling to figure out how we should best go about learning this material since our class consist mostly of our instructors reading their adorable slide-shows to us! :) I have a feeling a lot more self-teaching is gonna be happening this semester and I'm hoping I'm up for the task!

Oh...we had our skills check-offs on Friday..that went very well! Completely opposite of our level one high stake check-offs! Basically they just gave us a bunch of scenarios where we had to write out what was wrong, right, what is called what, who goes where etc. We also had to demonstrate our fantastic IM injections and how to spike and prime an IV line! I'm ready for the real world now! What happens is they then tell you if you're adequate at the skill or need remediation while in clinicals...thankfully I rocked it and didn't get any remediation! (FEWSH!) But this cartoon completely describes how I was when I was drawing up my meds for my IM injection....

Well I need to get my hind quarters into bed. We get to have our test review tomorrow...that's where I get to kick myself for picking the wrong answer when I knew in my gut I should've picked the first answer I initially had chosen! You see you can always deduce your possible answers down to 2 out of the 4...the hard part is picking which of those 2 answers is the right 1...and with my luck right now I don't think that I'm going to be trying my luck at the casino any time soon!!! ;)

Well dang...

Into week three and things are heating up! We have our first exam on Friday...which of course everyone is thrilled about! I thought that I'd have a better idea how to study this time around and I thought I'd have a handle on things but I find myself running around like a chicken without its head and its feathers plucked out to boot! I believe I'm forever going to curse the subject of fluid and electrolytes! There's just something about those two things that makes me want to pull out my hair!

On the up side...we also have our clinical skills check offs this week. Thankfully they're not high stake so no one is really worrying about them. However, I must admit that I'm a little nervous about giving IM injections! Sub-q injections are easy...you know...tiny needle, tiny volume, easy injection sites etc. The IM injections is just a little bit bigger...a little bit better! :D But the only way to get better is to practice! So I made sure I injected the crap out of my grapefruit! We had the privilage of getting real close and personal again with our classmates...you know...feeling them up for their acromial process, anterior superior iliac spine, greater trochanter. Only in nursing school is it ok to walk up to your classmate and say, "Hey do you mind if I feel you up to try and find the ventrogluteal IM injection site?" and there wouldn't be a problem whatsoever

Whenever the time does come though to give my first injections this picture is basically what I'll be thinking in my mind! But I'll be telling my patient, "No, you aren't my first injection...I've had hundreds of people before you! You're in the hands of a pro!" (hahaha as my fellow nursing students stand to the side and laugh as I fumble with the needle)...So...for those of you who will be getting your flu vaccination this fall...you know to look for me!! ;)

Well dang...it's time for me to sign off and get to studying! I have a lovely exam coming up and I'm hoping to be as prepared as possible for it...flash cards here I come!

The tweet I've been waiting for...

I just got the tweet that I've been waiting for...saying, "CCT scores are released." I immediately logged into blackboard to see my results. Now just a quick recap, the CCT is the dosage exam that all of us are required to take at the beginning of each level. We have to get a 90% or higher in order to continue on in the program! If we didn't pass we had one chance to take a retest and if we failed that we wouldn't be able to move on for the semester! A lot of students complain about this test, but in reality, if you mess up on 1 out of every 10 doses that you give, that's a heaping lot of med errors...so I really don't mind it, but it certainly makes the time we have to wait seem like a lifetime. So anyways...my results....dun dun dun...29/30 = 96% YAY!!!!! I wish I would've gotten 100, but I'll settle for a 96...for now! :)

Of course being the good friend that I am I had to send out a mass text to everyone saying that grades had been posted! See that is how we nursing students work! When we hear some exciting rumor, hear an amazing tip from a higher up student or just hear that grades have been posted...we let them know...so my phone is vibrating off the table...really...it fell off the table! So that's my update! Now I shall prepare myself for bed...once the clock ticks 10pm my mind switches and I start thinking in, "how many hours will I get if I go to bed in (fill in the blank) minutes" so I'm hoping to not think that way tonight and get to bed at a descent hour!! :) toodalooooooo!!!!