Is Anyone Out There?

A couple people recently reminded me that I have a (pathetic excuse for a) blog and seeing that I haven't posted anything in over 2 months, I thought I should maybe peak in and say hi.

HI!

Life is pretty same ole same ole, and really, do any of y'all (assuming at least a few people haven't forgotten about me) actually care about the ins and outs of nursing school? Heck, I'm not always sure that I even care. Just a real quick update:

I am officially on the downward slope of school. As of the end of February, I am 50% finished with nursing school and I now have less than 5 months left until graduation. I made Dean's List in the fall (GPA over 3.5) and am hoping for that again the spring, but my grades last term weren't my best (and if I could verbalize why and know without a shadow of a doubt that no one from my school was reading, I would. But I'm not willing to take that chance. Let's just say every one in my program was ready to commit several crimes by the end of that term.). All A's and B's, but still, not my best.

I went to Florida for 9 glorious days at the beginning of March. I literally did nothing for school, did not even think about school, and just sat on the beach the whole time. Well, except that morning I went to the set of Spring Breakers, a new movie with Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Vanessa Hudgens. Saw all three of them, talked to Selena's bodyguard and makeup artist, but nothing too exciting. But anyway, spring break was amazing and exactly what I needed and when I got home people asked if I was Cuban. Win.

While in Florida I got an email from my cousin asking if I wanted to do a cruise with her in August for dirtier than dirt cheap, thus continuing my tradition of planning my next trip before the first one is even over.

The weather in Indiana has been UNREAL. I'm talking high 70s and 80s with total sunshine for two weeks. As I write this, it's 85 and sunny and I'm laying out. I think God knew I couldn't handle a terrible winter AND nursing school at the same time, so for that I am beyond grateful for the mild winter and early summer-like weather.

Post grad plans: Taking NCLEX as soon as I feel ready, which is hopefully within a week or two of graduation (before August 24th). I'm applying to an RN residency program in Los Angeles to work in pediatric oncology. Apparently it's an incredibly competitive program to get into, but IF I am accepted, I'd be moving out there in February and starting in March. I know whatever is meant to be will be... but if this could just be something that is meant to be, that'd be great.

I turn 25 in exactly two months, and, surprisingly, I'm not freaking out. I'm just enjoying life as much as I can right now and taking it all in stride. I think my patients have really helped me to get a better perspective on things.

My clinicals this term are on the mental health unit at the VA and another rotation at a nursing home. Two things I've learned: mental health patients have no filter (apparently I look like a very large guy), and I will NEVER put my parent's in a nursing home. Ever. I don't care what I have to give up in order to take care of them, I refuse to let them die that way.

In May I'm spending a week working with a midwife who provides care to pregnant Amish women. I cannot even put into words how excited I am for this experience.

I think that's about all there is to say. Sorry for going so MIA; I really hope someday sooner rather than later I get back into the blogging habit and have some more entertaining things to share besides that crap (literally and figuratively) that comes along with nursing school.

XOXO,

This is how I feel

About going back to school tomorrow:

57 days until spring break. Fifty. Seven. Days.

Have a good week, y'all. I have clinical orientation 7:30-12 tomorrow, Wednesday class 7:50-1:50, then clinical 3-8 an hour away, and then clinical 6am-4pm Thursday at the same hospital as Wednesday. Welcome back.

New Year, New Goals

It's hard to believe that 2011 is over already. The year went so fast and seems like a bit of a blur. Of course, the biggest event that happened to me in 2011 was getting accepted to and starting nursing school. Actually, that's really the only noteworthy thing that happened in 2011 haha. Here's to hoping 2012 is a little bit more memorable!

Goals for 2012:

• Graduate nursing school
• Pass NCLEX on the first try and become an RN
• Get a job, preferably in peds
• Start paying off my student loans
• Take a trip with some friends (sometime after October, ideally for NYE)
• Get healthy. This is something I'm sick of saying I'll do but fail at. I need to lose a good amount of weight so I am better physically and mentally.
• Get myself out into the dating world. Although I say that and at the same time, I don't want a reason to stay in Indy any longer than I have to haha.
• Start saving money for my future.
• Not have a quarter life crisis. I am reallllllly struggling with the fact that I turn 25 in less than 5 months.

I graduate in August and plan to take an NCLEX prep class right after, with the hopes of being ready for NCLEX by the end of September. My original plan was to move back to my parents' house in August and stay for a few months, until I get on my feet, then move out after the first of the year. After some thinking though, I now plan on staying at my parents' until the end of 2013. My plan since before I got into school was to work for a year and then work as a travel nurse for a year, so at the start of 2014 I'd like to start my first stint in a new city. While I am more than eager to be out on my own sooner rather than later, living at home for the year that I plan on working in Indy will allow me to save a lot of money and pay off some of my debts. Plus, it doesn't make sense to move home in August, move out in January, then move my stuff again a year later. And then move it again a year after that. Travel nurses work with an agency to get signed on for a 13-week contract in a city the nurse chooses. Ideally, I'd do contracts in Hawaii, NYC, and LA, but that's two years away, so who knows what will happen. But that's today's plan, which I'm sure God is up there hearing and laughing at.

So that's what I hope happens in the next 362 days, which seems pretty realistic to me. What are some of your hopes and goals for the new year?

7 weeks in review

Oh, hello, again. Remember me? I've come to terms with the fact that blogging while in class just really does not work. There is minimal downtime, and the downtime I do have, I usually want nothing to do with my computer. I am currently off until January 10, so I do hope to blog more during the next 3 weeks, but after that, I'll be MIA for another 7 weeks.

Let's catch y'all up to speed, shall we?

This past term I was in Pharmacology, Maternal-Newborn (aka, OB), and Nursing Care of Children (aka, Peds). It was, hands down, the hardest term thus far. I don't know if the content was harder or if there was just a lot more work, but it was intense (and unfortunately seemed to move at a snails pace). I have no completed 3/8 terms and have only 7 months left until graduation! SO CRAZY!

I did really well this term, but there were a lot of frustrations. Unfortunately, I'm 95% sure someone from the school I go to has discovered my blog and I don't want to deal with the repercussions of venting my frustrations at this point, so I'm just going to give an overview of the courses and save my true opinion for August.

Pharmacology-- finished the course with an A- (93%). We took 6 exams in 7 weeks. Do you know how insane that is, especially when you're learning the in's and out's of a wide variety of drugs? It was a doozy. Fortunately, we were allowed to have a "cheat sheet" for each exam. Unfortunately, I spent 7 hours on each sheet, only to look at them 3 or 4 times while taking the exam. It totally sucked, but I still did really well on every exam, so obviously I didn't need the cheat sheets after all. The final for this class was easily the hardest exam I have ever taken in all my years of schooling. I only needed to answer 30 questions correctly to pass the course, but I had my doubts after I walked out of there. I pulled an 88 on the final, which I was thrilled with.

Maternal/Newborn-- finished the course with an A- also (93%). Hated the class, enjoyed the material, usually enjoyed clinical. In clinical, I performed postpartum assessments, newborn assessment, vitals, etc. I loved the time I spent in the newborn nursery and working with the most incredible doctor I have ever met. If anyone is in the Ft. Wayne area, Mark Adams, pediatrician, is so awesome. He was such a great educator for us student nurses and I learned more from him in 20 minutes than I did in class 8 hours a week. I also got to stand in on a c-section, which was the coolest experience ever. I was at the foot of the bed with a great view of everything. My instructor was worried I would get queasy because apparently the girls usually don't handle it too well, but I just kept saying, "THAT'S SO AWESOME!" (like when they pulled the uterus out and plop it on the woman's stomach and massage it to prevent hemorrhaging. Amazing.) I never thought I could be an OR nurse, but it may not be so bad after all.

Nursing Care of Children-- Not much to say about the class, finished with a B+ (90%). Clinical made me realize pediatric care is the area for me. I always said peds or nicu was where I would like to work, but peds won be over. Don't get me wrong, I love the babies and would be perfectly fine working in NICU, but I love the interaction I get to have with kids. I think my love for kids and ability to relate was obvious to everyone who observed me, and made the kids more at ease with me. Over Thanksgiving break, I shadowed a nurse at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indy for an entire 12 hour nigh shift and was exposed to pediatric oncology. I strongly feel pediatric oncology is my calling and am really curious to see if that is where I end up (I'll talk about that at a later point).

Overall, it was a good term and my cumulative GPA is now a 3.6. I'm OK with that; I'd rather it be higher, but it's certainly not something to piss and moan over.

Next term I will be in nutrition, adult health II, and research. I have no clue where I will be doing clinicals or what unit I will be on, but I'm just hoping I get to do more than check vitals all day haha.

So that's that. I hope everyone is doing well and having a beautiful holiday season. I'll be back with another post either Friday or next week, and a giveaway. WOOOO!

I wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with laughter and love.

5+ weeks later

To say I am behind on blogging would be a gross understatement. I have about 6 books to do a review on (from August. Ha, like I have time to read for pleasure during school), and I have an entire post to write about the latest happenings with creepy neighbor.

But I'll catch you up to speed on school for now, because apparently that's all I'm really capable of talking about.

I had finals this past week, putting an end to term 2. WOOOOOO!!! I'm 25% finished with nursing school!!!!!

This past term was just kind of eh, for me. I really didn't find it overly interesting or exciting. I finished up learning all of my skills (I learned the first half in July) and can now give an enema, clean a wound, give shots, pass meds, administer and read a TB test, insert an NG tube, suction, etc. Basically all the skills one learns as a licensed practical nurse. I did find all of that to be interesting, because obviously it will be applied to my everyday life, and I like being hands on. But the course portion of that class was definitely night a highlight of my week. Ever.

I also wasn't a huge fan of my adult health 1 course, and physical assessment just gave me a panic attack every single week. Literally, by Sunday, I felt fine about the course. Come Monday morning, by 8:30 am, I was panicking again. There was SO much information thrown our way in a very short amount of time, and it really was very overwhelming. For that class, in addition to a written final exam, we also had to perform a final head-to-toe physical assessment (click the link if you want to watch a video of a majority of the process). For those who don't know what that is, it's basically performing what you have done at an annual physical. But what we were required to learn was waaaaaaay more in depth than any physical I've ever had. Anyhow, we had to bring in a patient not in the class and perform the physical in 50 minutes or less, while reciting our findings. I was the very last person to go, which kind of stunk, but was nice to know that everyone else did well, so surely I'd do fine, too. I had 7 minutes to spare and received a 98.75, so I'd say I did great :)

Grades for the term:

Advanced Principle of Intervention- probably a B, maybe a B+, depends on if she rounds it up 1/2 a point.

Physical Assessment- A-

Adult Health 1- B+.

I'm happy with the grades and I passed clinical. My clinical instructor is awesome and I'm so thrilled I'll have her again for my OB clinical, which starts a week from Tuesday. During my final evaluation she said that I will be an incredible and dynamic nurse, and that I should consider working in the ER because I don't take anything from anyone and I'm a take charge kind of person. That definitely made me feel really good.

Speaking of clinical, I actually enjoyed working on the neurology/med surg unit. It isn't an area I'd want to do for a living, but I saw some really cool things and definitely a wide variety. One guy had non-stop drainage of cerebrospinal fluid coming out of his back post-op. The doctor came in to check it and when he removed the dressing, fluid shot out like Ole Faithful. Obviously, it's not supposed to do that, but it was pretty freakin' sweet.

Monday I start term three, which I CANNOT wait for!!! Maternal/Newborn nursing and Peds are what's on the schedule, so right up my alley. I really, really, really hope I witness a vaginal birth, ideally I'll also see a C-section. My instructor also said we can spend a day in the NICU, if we want, which I requested to do, and, otherwise, we'll probably be feeding and rocking the babies. Heaven.

Peds I'm really bummed about. We were originally told we would all be at Riley Hospital for Children, which is world-renowned and would be incredible exposure to pediatric care. Since peds is an area I'm highly considering, I was looking forward to being in such an environment, and hoped I could maybe even get exposure to pediatric oncology, to see if I like it as much as I think I would. Unfortunately, at the last minute, there were issues with clinical instructors, and my clinical group was switched from Riley to a hospital right down the road from campus. The plus side? I now don't have to drive to Indianapolis for clinical, which would be a good 90 minute commute one way, (although I would have just stayed at my parent's the night before, cutting the commute to 35 minutes one way), and I also don't have clinical on Saturday. The downside is that there won't be nearly as much exposure to the various areas of pediatric care. C'est la vie. But I'm hoping to find a pediatric oncology nurse to shadow on my own time. If anyone is in the Indianapolis area and knows someone who works in pediatric oncology, PLEASE let me know!!

Here's my schedule for this term, which ends in 7 weeks, then sweet, sweet freedom for a month!!!

Monday: NUR 257- Nursing Care of Children 10am-12pm

NUR 250- Pharmacology 12:30pm-2:30pm

NUR 253- Maternal/Newborn 2:40pm-4:40pm

Tuesday: OB Clinical in Ft. Wayne for 5 weeks

Wednesday: Same as Monday

Thursday: Peds Clinical in Marion for 6 weeks

Friday: NUR 250- Pharmacology 12:30pm-2:30pm

I think that's all that's been going on for the past 5 weeks. I'm going to try and write a few posts tomorrow to get somewhat caught up.

Hope everyone is doing well, sorry for being so MIA.

Back to School

Classes started two weeks ago and a part of me just died inside at the realization that it has only been two weeks. Seriously, I could have sworn it had been at least three. Things are going well so far, I'm only in 8 credit hours, so it's totally manageable, considering in undergrad I took 15-18 every semester. Here's some bulleted updates of the past two weeks (OK seriously, it's killing me every time I write that).

~Creepy neighbor asked my landlord if I died and if she could come into my apartment and check on me. You see, I went home for the month of August to work since I didn't have school. Apparently my absence "worried" him and he wanted reassurance that there wasn't a corpse in the apartment above his. My landlady knew I was home, so she told him to let her know if it started to smell haha. Then he said to her, "Maybe she has a boyfriend and has just been with him a lot." God bless that woman for telling him that was indeed the case.

~Speaking of the creep, I caught him staring in my windows the other day. I hate artificial light, so I try to have my blinds wide open as much as possible. The other day I had my front blinds and windows all the way open and he was just out in the front lawn staring up into my windows. As soon as he realized I noticed, he hopped on his bike and rode off. I'm weird, so I appreciate people's differences, but this man is on a totally different playing field.

~I started clinical last Tuesday and am on a Neuro unit, but it also gets some overflow from Med/Surg. Of course, the unit would be on a floor that connects to the Children's hospital's wing of NICU and peds, so, naturally, I wanted to high tail it over there, but c'est la vie. My clinical site is an hour away... I have to be there at 6:30am... do you know what time that means I get up?! An ungodly hour, that's what time. Out of bed by 4:45 am, to be exact. I was terrified about oversleeping, so of course I woke up every 45 minutes the night before and never got out of the stage of sleep where you are dreaming, but still hear all the noises around you. The first day I was so nervous that, during computer training, it took every fiber of my being not to pass out or lose my breakfast. By time we got on the floor at 10, I realized how ridiculous I was being. I saw three patients, one had Parkinson's, with a history of seizures, and had fallen. Another was a very elderly woman who was sharp as a tack and hilarious. She was in for cardiac arrhythmia, so I'm not sure why she was on the neuro floor, but she cracked me up. The other patient was a 2o-something male who survived a single car crash but suffered a good amount of head trauma.

We were only on the floor for an hour, just enough so we could get oriented and practice our communication skills. It was nice to talk to the patients and their families because that's really my cup of tea, as I love getting to know people and hear their stories. I have a feeling that will be the majority of this clinical experience because there is very little we are capable of doing. I have several different skills I can do, and of course vital signs, but I can't do a physical assessment yet, and I can't administer medication, so I think these next 5 weeks will really just be about getting comfortable walking into patient rooms and learning how to communicate with them.

I joked that I'd consider my clinical day a success so long as no one cried and no one died. Fortunately, it was a success, and I even made a patient (who I thought was sound asleep) laugh. Hopefully today is a little more active and interactive.

~I really, really love nursing school. I truly do. I hope student's in other nursing programs enjoy it as much as I do. And I am so thrilled that I have the reassurance that this is my calling that I so desperately hoped to get upon starting school. I'm also relieved that school has (so far, knock on wood) been a lot less hectic and overwhelming than I had anticipated. Yea, it's work, but I'm not wanting to put my head in the oven at the end of the day, and I still get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, so, God-willing, this trend continues for another 10 months.

To all my friends who have recently started school, I hope your journey is going as well as mine is! Just take it one day at a time and you'll be fine. Thousands of people have done this before us and we can do it, too.

Hugs to all of you. Unless you are still having warm weather. In which case, I envy you.

Remember 2 months ago

when I said I'd post updated pics of my apartment? Well, I've finally gotten around to it. Poor blog has had to take the back seat in an 18 passenger van during this current phase of my life. Anyway, I still like my apartment and living alone, but I look forward to the day that I can fully decorate a place that I won't have to pack up in a year. A place where I can make a house a home... and have the funds to decorate it how I really want it to look. But, for the next 10ish months, this place will do just fine.

Office

Dining area looking into kitchen (I changed the flowers on the table, added that little red table, and hung the posters.)

Another view of the dining area (added place mats, the black table in the corner, and changed the poster).

Cute little kitchen

Changed the wall behind the couch- the prints are orchids

The other side of the living area (I added the M and clock). Also, behind the door in the right corner is my washer and dryer aka best part about my place.

The boudoir (I added the headboard and moved the prints from another wall to behind the bed). The bedding color photographs horribly, but it's an iridescent-ish light blue with chocolate brown.

And finally my front entrance (my door is to the left, the welcome mat won't fit under the screen door). My landlady showed up with this little bistro set one afternoon and I love it. Obviously it stays when I go, but it's still nice to have for now!

The only thing that really drives me up a wall is the posters not being in frames, but even plastic poster frames are stupid expensive. But, like I said, I like it and it serves its purpose for now.