Up In The Air

As of this blog, my nursing school status is up in the air. "Up in the air?" you ask, "What does that mean? Didn't you get accepted into the nursing program?"

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I did get accepted into the program. The plan was to start this coming January. Ray and I have done some talking, and we toyed with the idea of me starting NEXT August instead, but it still looked like January would be the time. Then Ray suggested perhaps I just start THIS August! What?!?!? Oh my gosh, I have so much to do. I want to do it....get it done, but the problem is we are not sure that I will go this August. So I can't go get my drug test, do my background check, get my fingerprints, get my physical, do my CEU courses (these are continuing education courses that I would need to work in a hospital and keep my license current), buy books, and uniforms, and a PDA, and a stethoscope and a nerdy rolling backpack. I can't do any of that yet!! I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed at this moment.

I have registered for my fall NURSING classes already, and while, under normal circumstances I would be gleefully excited, I am trying to be cautiously optimistic, because chances are I will be registering for real in January.

What's holding me up, you ask? Well, quite honestly, we're dealing with the issue of what to do about Nate. He may go to school 3 half days a week, and stay with Ray's mom some of the other time, and stay with Ray other times. My first semester will be the most hectic. I have lecture class on Momday from 9-12, then I have pharmacology class from 5-7pm. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have clinicals from 630am-3pm. Thursday I have off, and I have lecture class again on Friday from 9-12 and a nursing math class (doasge calculations) from 1-5pm (but this class only runs 5 weeks).

I will need to do A LOT of studying in the in between time. But the biggest concern is that Nate says he doesn't want me to "be a nurse" and go to school. Sometimes when I leave now for my Micro class, he says he doesn't want me to leave, he wants me to say, etc. I mean, what do I do? Unfortunately, I can't really grasp how much this would really affect him because this is just how he is with everything. When Ray leaves for work, he tells him he doesn't want him to go. Tonight, Ray took Grace out to dinner, just the two of them, and Nate said he wanted to go, too. I asked him if he wanted to go out on a date with me, and he says he wanted Ray to be there, too. So needless to say, we're trying to figure things out. Part of me feels guilty.....I'm his mom, he's only young once, etc. etc. But another part of me feels like he'll be ok. He won't be with strangers, he will be with people who love him and care for him, and this is a really good thing for our family.....a steady income, a secure job, health insurance. At this point, its all still up in the air.

I told the Health Science Admissions Coordinator that I would let her know by this Thursday if I needed to defer my seat, this way they can offer it to someone else still waiting to get in. The up side to starting now is that I have a lot of people I know through A&P class, as well as Micro class that will be a familiar face to seek out and study with in the program. One of my friends, who is also my neighbor, only living a few buildings away from me, will also go in January, and we could carpool and stuff sometimes, so that is a plus. Also, starting now would mean that I only have to attend ONE summer semester which is a 4 week shorter semester and if I start in Jan (or May, as that is third start time the school offers) I would have to attend TWO summer semesters.

Anyway, just keep me and my family in youtr thoughts and prayers while we figure this out.

Look for an update about my lab quiz and lecture exam coming around Tuesday.

Updates, Updates

To start off, I need to update my Micro Lecture Exam. I last blogged that I got a 43/50, which is basically an 86, which is a B. It ended up that I actually got a 46/50, which is an A, and basically a 92. I got some extra credit points that I didn't expect when I first found out my grade. So thats 2 A's out of 2 exams. Yay.

I had to take my lab midterm last Tuesday, which I had not studied more than 5 minutes for because I was sick with the Flu the week before and then found out the day of midterm I had come down with pneumonia as well. I went into school to take my midterm anyway after unsuccessfully trying to reach my professor to find out about when I could retake the exam. So Thursday comes around, and we get our grades for the midterm. NOT good. I got 38/50, which is a 76 which is a C. Yuck! I come to find out that EVERYONE did horrible. The highest grade was a 44 (an 88), and there was one person with that grade. THe next highest was an 82. A lot of A and B students had C's and D's on this exam. Not just my class, but all of the lab classes, not one person got an A. And most of the grades were in the B/C border range.

Today I got a very pleasant surprise. The professor (the new guy) said he was going to bring the tests so we could look them over. Apparently, he went back through the test, that was created by my old professor, and a lot of answers changed. He regraded the tests, and just about everyone's grade went up! Mine went up 9 points and I ended up getting 47/50, which is obviously an A (94%). I was so excited. I can't believe I did so well after being SOOOOO sick and not studying.

I already have a quiz next Tuesday for lab and my third exam in lecture next Thursday. I only have 3 quizzes and my final left in lab, and 2 exams left in lecture. One more month and this class will be done!! I'm really excited.

We're doing some super cool things right now in lab. Last week we inoculated plates with several different bacteria (one type each plate), and then we put these little discs full of antibiotics (each disc was a separate antibiotic) and we put them in the incubator for a few days. Today we got to see the results and what happens is, if the antibiotic works, there will be a cleared circle around the disc. If not, the bacteria will have continued growth around the disc. This was really neat.

Today we did a very similar experiment. We took several plates and inoculated them with several different bacteria (one bacteria each plate), and then separated each plate into three different zones (by drawing a line on the outside). Then we took a disc that was soaked in lysol, another disc that was soaked in hydrogen peroxide, and one that was soaked in listerine and placed them in one of the three separate areas on each plate. Currently, they are in the incubator and we will see the results on Thursday. This, too, will be interesting to see. We were basically testing the antiseptic capabilities of these chemicals.

As far as that, not much else is going on. Next week we start our "Unknown" experiment, which will be fun. We will be given a bacteria, and we will start testing it, step by step, and we have to figure out what bacteria we were given. Each step we do, it will help eliminate any bacteria that it won't be. Sounds fun. I am looking forward to this part of the class.

Until next time.......

Micro Lab Quiz 3 and Lecture Exam 2

I didn't do so hot on my 3rd lab quiz or my lecture test. I got a 40/50 on my quiz (which equates to an 80) and I got a 43/50 on my lecture exam (which is an 86). My average in my lab class is about a 92 while in my lecture class its about an 89.

We've reached the midway point in the semester, and that means that our other professor takes over starting next week. Apparently, he is an easier tester than my current professor, but while I am relieved at this fact, and I also disappointed to no longer have the challenge of my current professor. From his own word's, if you pass his class with a decent grade, you will do fine in the nursing program. I had wanted to complete HIS class with an A or a B, just for my own satisfaction, and having the new professor kind of nullifies that.

At any rate, I do think no matter who a person takes for Microbiology, it is still a very interesting yet difficult course and I will be proud of my A or B no matter what (Ok, so maybe I'd be slightly prouder with an A, but hey.....).

On another note, I FINALLY received my email acceptance from school this afternoon. Apparently, they were having email issues and not everyone was receiving their emails. There were 748 applicants and only 325 were accepted, with an additional 30 or so put onto the alternate list.

The Wait is Over

It seems like the wait is officially over.

I started hearing that word was finally getting out today. After you apply, you can log in to the school website and check your application status. As of this morning, the status said "Application in Review" for everyone's status. This afternoon I checked, and my status has now been changed to





"ACCEPTED"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, you are looking at the blog of someone who is a real future nursing student now. I can't even begin to say how exciting this is.

Waiting, Waiting

I'm still waiting to hear back about whether or not I was accepted into the program. While I am pretty confident I will get in, there is always that part of me that isn't sure. Since it wasn't guaranteed that I would get in, I can't help but to be a little anxious, and when I'm anxious, I really hate to wait.

I should be hearing something this week. Today marks a month, and the 31st day, and on the application it says they can take up to 30 days to get back to us. I hope to start hearing the letters started going out soon. Mostly everyone in my micro class is waiting, so I am sure I'll be hearing others have received some news soon even if I didn't yet.

And so I will continue to wait.

(I have 2 tests next Tuesday and another test the following Tuesday. Yikes!)

Grade Updates!!

Well, my absent-minded professor regraded my quiz. My grade went from a 40/50 to a 53/50, which is an A if I just confused you with all those numbers.

Also, today was my big 4 chapter micro lecture exam, and I got an A on that as well. I got a 45/50, which is the equivalent of a 90. Now, I am confused because I got an extra credit question correct, so it should have been a 46/50 (92) but when he emailed the grades to everyone, he only put 45. At any rate, I am super ecstatic. This was the test he said over 60% of students in the past have failed. The number of students who, unfortunately, failed, equated out to about 46%, so I guess thats better than the average. What's most important is that not only did I not fail, I passed, and I passed with an A!!

Until next time........

School, School.......

School seems to be going pretty well so far, but I guess this could be answered better tomorrow after taking my first of 4 exams in my Micro lecture class. The test is going to cover 4 chapters, so I am feeling a little crazed at the moment. I just keep telling myself that it is NOT going to get any easier once I am in the nursing program.

I am having issues in my lab class with the way my quizzes are being graded. My issue isn't so much with the "way" they are graded but more so the fact that there are mistakes in the actual grading. My first quiz, I missed 3, or so that's what it seemed like at first. However, my professor allows us to come into his office to go over the exams and quizzes during his office hours. My first quiz I had one question that I had erased and made a new mark for the correct answer, but the computer marked me wrong because it picked up the erasure mark as my answer. I understand that was the computer's mistake, but in the past, other professors would pick up on those things and correct them before the grade was reported. The good thing is my professor will correct any mistakes like that, so instead of getting an 80 on my quiz, I ended up with an 86, and quite frankly I am a little perturbed with myself because I definitely knew the answers to the other 2 questions I missed. My second test I was told I got an 80, again.....including the 2 extra credit questions which basically are each worth half of what one non-extra credit quiz question is worth. I felt pretty good after my quiz and figured I probably had got an A only to see the big fat 40 (out of 50, which equates to an 80) in my email inbox. On Saturday I had gone into school for our lecture exam review, and after the review, several of the students, myself included, went to look at our quizzes from Thursday. I had received the extra credit, but missed 4 questions, and after checking the answers to those questions, I found out they were actually correct!! Another student from my class checked hers as well, and we had the exact same answers wrong. Apparently, he graded ours with the wrong answer key, and now needs to regrade them. So, the jury is still out on how I did, but I feel a little better knowing I may have done as well as I originally thought and didn't get another B. We'll see. I should know my grade within the next day or so, as well as my lecture exam grade, too.

On a side note, I found out a friend of mine who is in my lecture class, and takes the same professor for a lab class that meets at a different time than my lab class, lives a few buildings away from me. What a coincidence, huh? I mean, of all the places and all the people you can run into at a college, you end up being practically next-door-neighbors with a friend? This worked out very well for us today when we needed to study together. Anyway, small world.

Check back soon for grade updates.