Tomorrow

Tomorrow is day one in the hospital. However, its going to be more of an orientation and not a real day one. We will be meeting our clinical groups in the cafeteria of our hospitals and then eventually make our way over to our floors for a scavenger hunt of supplies- this is to try to orient us as to where everything is.

Wednesday is going to be the real deal. Two students will be assigned one patient, so we aren't completely on our own- yet. We will have to go in, check vital signs (pulse, respirations, blood pressure, temperature), do an assessment on the patient and give them bath, whether its a full bath (we do everything), a partial bath (they do most of it and we assist where needed), or assist them with getting into the shower and with whatever else they need so they can shower themselves (I pray this is the case with my patients- I am really NOT looking forward to this part). Then, I will probably spend the rest of my day following my nurse around, measuring any liquids that go into my patient (drinks, IV's, etc) and come out of my patient (well.....you get the picture). I will be on a medical floor, and apparently, all of the patients on the floor are automatically hooked up to cardiac monitors whether needed or not, so I have to continuously check the leads throughout the day and make sure they are still on. Then starting next week, I'm on my own with my own patient (I say on my own, as in no other students- there is still a nurse taking care of these patients and my clinical instructor will be around bouncing in between students). I will also at some point in the 4 days I will be in the hospital during this clinical rotation perform an assessment on a patient in FRONT of my clinical instructor. Talk about nerve wracking!

Anyway, I have my second nursing lecture exam this Friday, so look for an update Friday/Saturday. I had my first Pharmacology exam last Monday and I got an 82 (not to shabby since I didn't study that much for it being that I had been so consumed with nursing lecture studying).

In sad news, I am EXTREMELY ashamed to report that I failed a math test (of all the things in the world to fail) and I now have to retake the entire math class, which begins again this Thursday. This is done because the next nursing lecture class begins 10/23 and they get the repeat math class in so that the students can repeat it and pass in time to get into the next nursing lecture class. Honestly, I am very embarrassed by this fact and am having a bit of a hard time dealing with it. There are 10 math problems related to nursing med administration. The math is very simple math, and I know how to do it, but I made two very silly mistakes, and we are only allowed to miss one question. At any rate, I will redo the math and take a new test on 10/15 and hopefully pass and move on. If not, it looks like I will have a long break until Jan, where I will then retake the Math class and then around the beginning of March I will be able to start the second nursing lecture class and clinical rotation- so I would have quite a bit of down time. So I pray, and ask your assistance in this, that this will NOT be the case. How awful to get left behind for 2 math questions.

Well, that's all for now, folks. Look for a hospital update coming soon........

Exam #1

I passed. Barely, but I passed. Today I got my first C on a test since college. I think I am a mixture of emotions. I am so very glad I passed, but at the same time I had hoped, and felt like, I did better. I have 2 more exams for this course, so I was hoping to have a bigger cushion but I did make it over the first obstacle. There are about 7 people I really talk to and they all mostly got similar grades. In the group, there's a 44, a 43, a 40, a 37 and a 36 (and of course my 39). The other 2 people weren't around at the time, so we couldn't talk to see how they did.

Scared

I can honestly say I do not think I have ever been so scared in my entire life. Today I am REALLY feeling it. I have that "sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, heart racing" feeling and am on the verge of tears. Tomorrow's the big day. The "make it or break it day" for some.....well, most in my class. If you fail the tomorrow's test, you can pretty much kiss this semester goodbye. I obviously don't want to become one of the failure statistics, but I feel SO unprepared and have no idea what to expect on this test. 50 Questions, 60 LLLOOONNNNGGG minutes and an even longer several hours until the grades will hopefully be posted. Oh goodness if I have to wait all weekend, I may just die. Or be committed into a mental institution. But I am scared. I know that there have been people who have passed before. I know there will be more tomorrow. I know I CAN pass. I just can't help being afraid. People are counting on me. I am counting on me. The pressure is rising. What will tomorrow bring?

For now, I think I will just hold my breath.........

Hospital Assignments

Today we found out our hospital and clinical instructor assignments. While I didn't originally get the hospital I was hoping for, I had been assigned a hospital about 10 minutes south of that. However, while in class today, my friend, who was another classroom at the time, text messaged me that someone was wanting to switch. So now I am going to the hospital 5 minutes away. My friend, who lives in my complex, got the same hospital, too. Hospital clinicals start in just 2 weeks.

Craziness

Nothing but craziness here. I've been working real hard the last few days going through all of our nursing objectives and answering them. Now that I am done, I will study from them for my exam Friday. I have printed all the pages that I made to study off of and it came to a whopping 50 pages!! So, I will continue to be crazy trying to remember all 50 pages of information I made. Whew! I have a lot to remember. I am completely nervous for Friday!

Clinical, Day Two

Its been a busy two days since my last post, so here's a recap of what's been going on. For my nursing theory class, also referred to as lecture, I have been trying to stay ahead of the reading which is just nearly impossible. For each lecture, I try to make sure I read all the reading assignments for that topic before that class. I have one more theory class before my first exam, so thank goodness after Friday (hopefully) I will be done with my reading for a whole week! However, I have been reading over 50 pages a day to keep myself on this track. I have not completed my reading for today, but if I happen to fall behind, I have tomorrow to help catch myself up (of course, this is in addition to tomorrow's reading as well).

Also, I have been working on answering objectives for each topic. They sell this packet in the bookstore which is called a "Module." The module contains an outline of objectives (what we need to make sure we know) for each topic covered in class. Answering the objectives doesn't necessarily mean they were in question form, but I am basically making an outline with all pertinent information related to the module. Anyway, I am pretty behind in that, so I am trying my hardest to catch up in that area as well since the plan was for me to have from Friday evening until next Thursday night to do nothing but study for my exam. Hopefully, if I can't catch myself up, I won't let it get much past Saturday so I will have a great deal of time to study.

Today was my second real day of clinicals. We actually only have one more learning day in the lab, and then its about 2 days of practice and then 2 days of what's called a "Return Demonstration" where we have to perform all of the skills we;ve learned in class for our instructors and then get signed off on. Then we have 1 more day after that before we actually start in the hospitals, which will end up being the end of September sometime. Yesterday we did vital signs, and today we talked about documentation and we did physical assessments. It seems so overwhleming all the information we have to remember in just a couple of weeks from now for the health assessment, including listening to heart and lung sounds. We have to do everything from memory, which isn't such a big deal really, but we have to be fully competent in doing these 2 weeks from today! Needless to say, it seems like I will be spending some time in the campus lab.

It's really exciting to finally be getting my feet wet, but at the same time its still so overwhelming and scary. Everyone I've spoken to has echoed the same thing, too. There are days when we all feel like we can do this, and there are days where we wonder what we got ourselves into. I guess the good thing is we are all feeling it, so it must be normal, right?

Well that's all the updating I have for now.

Tune in for more soon from your favorite student nurse!

Clinicals Begin

Today will be my very first clinical day. I'm really excited to get this ball rolling, and nervous at the same time. In about 4 weeks we will finally make our way into the hospital, but for now, we will be working in our campus lab. I'll report more later.