Catch up on last semester

So I thought I'd write on the best and worst of last semester.

Lets start with the worst (in no particular order):
1. Doing badly on the first patho test & the final. I got a B. I would be fine with this if my mother wasn't so obsessed with A's.
2. Tearing my ACL. It interfered with things like clinicals. That first clinical back was bad. My patient that week had a bed alarm. So I was often walking really fast to get to him. That must have looked funny. I was lucky that the week I tore my ACL was a holiday, so there were no clinicals.
3. Paperwork and nursing care plans. It's crazy. I'm still having a hard time remembering I need to write with verbs and stuff when I'm not writing for class. Paperwork just seemed to go on and on and I know it'll get worst with every semester.

And now the good stuff:
1. Getting an A in fundamentals. Any A felt good.
2. Getting a 98% on that one test in patho.
3. Getting an A on the critical reasoning paper. This was our first big care plan/case study/paper that we had to write. It didn't help that the patient I wrote about was not the easiest. You would think that would make it easier to write about, but not when your patient is confused and you need info from him for the paper.
4. Clinicals in general. I loved them. I liked doing new skills and seeing new things. I also felt really good when I was able to connect to my patient and talk to them.
5. Being able to say that I now have only 2 more years of nursing school.

I have to admit that I'm already getting bored with break and having nothing to study. But I was inspired wonderfully going to the "recognition" or pinning ceremony to help out as an usher. Only two more years and I'll be there. I was disappointed that they did not do the actual pinning. Apparently it was hard to find a place to pin people at last semesters ceremony, so they went with the lei presentation. I can't wait.

I'm back

So I haven't been blogging. I like to think I have a good excuse, but mostly I've just been sick.

I've also been busy with school. Started clinicals 4 weeks ago. That keeps me busy. We have a fair amount of paperwork to do, but I think I'm stressing less then some of my classmates. It helps that we're not being graded, but clinicals is a pass/fail class. I do spend a lot of time working on the patho part. Though it helps that 3/4 pts have had cancer as their main diagnosis.
Clinicals are fun, but sometimes boring. The thing is that we're limited in what we can do. I'm enjoying having pts and learning new things. I realize that as I'm typing this I keep on wanting to abbreviate everything. And I feel funny adding all the verbs in. It goes to show that all the writing I've been doing lately is for clinicals.

I did much better on the last round of tests. It just generally improves my mood. Though I barely passed the medication calculation test. Ugh. I'll work on that.

Not the greatest post, but I just wanted to update the blog.

How's 2nd Semester

So far I can say that 2nd semester is very different from 1st. Both of my classes require time to study and lab is much more involved. I had several students from other semesters, plus on of our 1st semester instructors saying that 2nd is a lot harder. I didn't believe them that it could be that much harder, but what they said is true.
Just think about what I've been through the past week. Last Tuesday I had my first Fundamentals test and Wednesday was my first clinical skills test. Then Friday was action-packed. We went over the template for the care plans we will be doing every week for clinicals. Plus we got to play with Sim Man for the first time. Everyone was telling us how much fun Sim Man would be and none of us believed them. It was fun, but it required a lot of critical thinking.
This week we had our first Patho test. That went well. I realized I like this semesters classes a lot better because it seems logical to me. We're finally getting some of the background of why we're doing something. Last semester we learned all these assessment techniques, but didn't know why. Then at the end of this week we have orientation to the hospital for next week's first clinical.
I think I just need some sleep, and then I can start on this week's work.

Loving 2nd Semester

I'm enjoying 2nd semester. I'm starting to feel like a real nursing student on my way to being a real RN.
What I love:
1. I'm really enjoying our "Clinicals." They are now just all in dry lab and we won't go to the hospital for a couple of weeks. But we're doing real "nursing things" like toileting, bed changes and moving patients. Next week we do our first real procedure - NG tube insertion and tube feedings. Everyone is having fun. Even though we're three sections, we're all doing lab together. It's great because we all feel that we're getting the same education. (This is compared to last semester, when there was a difference between what the different clinical instructors were teaching.)
2. Fundamentals class is interesting. Our instructor is really knowledgeable about nursing. She doesn't teach a clinical section, but is often in lab giving us her "pearls of wisdom." She can be really intimidating, but is very nice about telling you what you're doing wrong. And she has a great sense of humor.
3. Finally I'm taking pathophysiology. It's still at the stage where it's all overwhelming. But it's nice to finally learn this stuff.

Next week we learn about nursing diagnosis. Some of it seems silly, since we were told right up front that hardly anyone uses them anymore. But I think I will find it helpful to help organize my thoughts.

Note: If you have a skinny butt, sitting on a bedpan isn't that uncomfortable. But if you butt is bigger like mine, they do start to cut into your butt.

So what have I been up to?

...other than not blogging at all.
I've been enjoying my break. Saw 3 movies, went to lots of Holiday parties, and generally caught up with life. I'm finally at the point where I stopped clenching my teeth all the time. My one New Year's resolution is try to start running again. I'm using coolrunning.com Couch to 5K plan. I'll let you know how it goes.

Classes start up again tomorrow. I'm taking Pathophysiology and our fundamentals class with the accompanying clinical. One of the reasons I was clenching my teeth was because I was stressed out with registration for clinicals. We get to choose our section with registration, and for a variety of reasons I'm one of the last to register, so I get no choice. I was so worried about choosing the right clinical, but then realized I had no choice. That realization helped me get over it, but still upsets me.

So I'm thinking of starting reading for tomorrow. I checked the class website and we're starting Pathophysiology with fluids & electrolytes. Ugh. I did ok with that in A&P and chemistry, but it's not my favorite subject. But don't think I'm some kind of great student reading before classes start. I had some classmates, who said they were reading as soon as exams ended. Crazy.

2nd New Year's resolution - to blog once a week. We'll see how that goes.