Cardio is

Over.

Today was my final exam. Got a 79. Not totally proud of it, but it was enough to earn me a B in the class, so I am super excited about that. More importantly, I took my last real nursing exam today. I have one more class and one exam in that class, but the class grade is made up mostly of paperwork, and the exam is mostly common sense, as the teacher put it. That takes a lot of weight off my shoulders. I have 4 assignments, one of them being a paper, one being a group presentation, one being a resume and the other assignment is where I have to find an article on 7 different topics from a list, then I have to write an abstract on each article and a reaction paper about each article (the reaction paper is basically my opinions and feelings about the information in the article). This I may start over Spring Break because I like to get things off my plate as soon as possible.

For clinical I will no longer have a clinical group, or an instructor per se. I will have an instructor who oversees me, but for the most part, I meet with a preceptor (a nurse at the hospital I am assigned to) and I basically work with her. I find out what days she is working and it is up to me to decide when I want to come in. I have 7 shifts to complete and can do them as quickly or as slowly as I want, except that I have to have at least 4 completed by midterm. I will also be assigned one ER day, but I'm not sure when that will be exactly, however, I am super excited about that. I start back to school on March 14th and by April 18th, just over a month of school, I will be done with assignments and hopefully all of my clinical assignments as well. So after Spring Break, I have just about 1 month of school left. I will have to go into school for things, but nothing will be due, and that will be very nice.

I'm really excited about this next step. I have already requested to work with a particular preceptor, so hopefully that will work out. She is a new nurse, only been working 5 months, however she has a great attitude, is very organized, really knows a lot, is easy going, and I feel like I can really learn a lot from her. The nurses at this hospital seem to be.....lax in some, or most, regards. They don't seem to enjoy their jobs or are thorough enough and sometimes its just better to have a fresh perspective from someone new. My clinical instructor really likes her, too and agrees that she is a great nurse and one we can really learn from. I hope it works out that I have her. I think it would help give me a more solid foundation to build from when its time to venture out on my own.

So for now, I am on a 10 day Spring Break. Ah. No more crazy studying. Maybe some crazy paper writing, but thats it.

And best of all, exactly 2 months from today, I will have my candle-lighting ceremony. And I will be graduating.

Wow.