Cardio for Cardiac

I'm not sure if it's my new study strategy or not, but here is what went down last week.  Last week was the much  feared week of having first test in both lecture courses (Psych + Adv Med-Surg). Why schedule tests for the same week? Makes no sense, but hey, I'm not in charge.  I was also a bit nervous because the bulk of the first few weeks of school I was also preoccupied with my sister's wedding and I was not at all focused on learning anything. Only did what I needed to do to not miss any deadlines. So reading fell by the wayside, so going into the test I felt like I was behind and was literally going to have to cram it into my head.

I knew going into the weekend that my Wednesday clinical was cancelled due to my instructor having a prior commitment.  So I knew that I'd get a bit more time to study on Tuesday (no prep) and Wednesday (no clinical) for the Cardiac (Med-Surg) test on Thursday morning.  Psych test came Tuesday. Thought I did well, but got a B. Definitely not a bad grade, but I really felt good about the test and thought I had gotten an A. Bummer. I already knew that the Cardiac content was going to be challenging, so I had to figure out a way to force myself to stay awake and study. So Tuesday and Wednesday I worked typing up the content/answers in the Study Guides (these are basically objectives for the unit). So here is where I was brilliant: I took my lecture notes, Study Guides, medication sheets and took them to the gym with me. Gym closes at 9:30, so I left my house at 6:30 and proceeded to study while I did cardio! I got in TWO HOURS of elliptical and upright cycle (which of course kept me awake) while I studied! Awesome. There was certainly times during that second hour that I wanted to stop pedaling and stop studying...but I persisted!  And apparently it was sufficient enough for me to get an A.

Next test I won't be as lucky to get day off before my Med-Surg exam, so I will just have to focus on doing Study Guides earlier, so that they'll be ready to take with me to the gym the night before the test (also a long clinical day). The challenge for us is that we have clinical the day before a test...it just stinks, but that's how it is. I definitely plan to do this gym-study thing again. I would never do a two hour workout normally and I'd probably really struggle with staying awake if I stayed home on my couch... It definitely seems like a double win.

I'm delighted to say that I'm consistently getting to the gym about five days a week, sometimes six. I feel great, sleeping well and continuing to lose weight and inches. Have an optimistic goal of reaching my goal weight by graduation, which would be a REALLY fun dual achievement. The only downside of weight loss is the fact you do eventually have to change your wardrobe -- sometimes more than once depending on the amount of weight loss. Definitely not a bad thing to get a new wardrobe, but when you are limited financially it is a bit less fun to anticipate. I'm hoping that between Target, Goodwill and bags of old clothes that maybe I can survive for a while with minimal expenses. May not be the most stylish chick (wait, I've never been stylish), but at least I won't be wearing saggy pants. haha.

Another Cardiac Arrhythmia Video

In honor of getting through the week with tests in BOTH lecture courses...and getting a B on the Psych test and an A on the Med-Surg test (Cardiac focus), I will post yet another Arrhythmia video. Now it makes a bit more sense to me after having spent the past four weeks focused on Cardiac. Enjoy:



Next in Med-Surg comes Neuro. Time to bring out those Cranial Nerves again!

I'll post this weekend if I get a breather and tell you about my new study strategy for tests...

First Tests of the Semester

First tests of the semester are next week. Both. In the same week. What were they thinking?

Well, I totally lucked out. See, the majority of my class has Mondays off b/c they have clinicals on Wed/Fri while I have clinicals on Mon/Wed. They normally have a built in day at beginning of the week for reading/studying for class/tests. I don't. Mine day is on Friday - which of course tends to be the day that I say "heck with studying, the weekend is here!"  However, this past Wednesday, my clinical instructor told us that she's cancelling next Wednesday's clinical because she's involved in "Day of Caring" or something at the hospital. At first, my instinct was disappointment b/c we'll have to make up a clinical day at the end (always nice to get them done on-time and early). But then I realized that by not having clinical prep on Tuesday or clinical on Wednesday, that will give me almost two full days of additional study time for our Med-Surg exam on Thursday morning. This first test is "everything cardiac".  Diseases, disorders, dysfunctions, meds, physical assessment...  So it's going to be intense! My Psych test will be on Tuesday morning, but I'm less worried about that. The first few study guides were less about specific disorders and pathologies and more about intro to psych nursing and nursing process related to psychiatric care. While I'm definitely more motivated to study for the med-surg exam b/c I generally feel the Psych test will be more common sense...I really can't assume that- I will need to set aside time to review and focus on our Psych study guides.  I'm really nervous about these tests. Want/need to do well!

I didn't get much done today as I started back to work with the artist today. She's going to get my Friday mornings. I came home and was exhausted (from pool workout and work) and I napped for probably 2 hours. I've done a few hours of studying for med-surg (working on Study Guides) but I'm pooped and tomorrow's another full day.

Tomorrow I'll be going to the local airport to be a volunteer for their airport drill. Apparently there's going to be a mock crash scene, and volunteers will be crash victims or family members. They haven't given us much information, but we'll be oriented for a few hours tomorrow morning before the drill begins. I have to show at 7:30 in the morning and we'll be released around 2pm. I'm planning to head to the gym before hand (as not to waste precious study time tomorrow afternoon), but I've calculated that in order to make it to the airport thing on time, I'll be showing up at the gym when they open at 5:30. ugh. Don't even want to think about how early I'm going to have to get up.

That said...I probably should head to bed.

Oh, by the way...clinical prep for Day #2 went much faster. Got to bed about 12:30am --which allowed for about 4 hours of sleep. A HUGE improvement. I was still dragging during post-conference, but I did manage to get to the gym afterwards! Yay!

Torture Tuesdays

Well, my sister is married (yay!) and now it's back to reality of being a student nurse.

Last week was really hard. It was my first week of my Adv Med-Surg clinical (on Wed). But prep the night (Tuesday) before was BRUTAL. This semester we have lecture in the morning and then head over to the hospital to get our patient assignment for the following day and begin our work of gathering assessments, lab work, meds, & medical, family and social histories from the charts to be able to form our working care plan for our patient. I started my prep work at home around 4pm...and I worked all night. I think I got about 90 minutes sleep (!) before getting up to head back to the hospital. I was perky and alert for clinical, but started fading dramatically in post-conference! I skipped going to the gym as that seemed impossible. I went home and piddled around hoping I might get a second wind (yeh, right!) but I think it was about 5:30 and I decided to take a short nap...that short-nap lasted 10 hours! Woke at 3:30am, completely disoriented with date/time. I also found I had been sleeping with my bedside lamp on! So tired. I got up about 4 am and worked on my evaluations of my expected outcomes and cleaned up some of my working care plan-- all of which was due by 3pm on Thursday afternoon. Realized about 30 minutes before I was to leave for lecture that I had not done my clinical evaluation (of self)...so I decided to wait and do that AFTER lecture since I would have plenty of time.  

After all that, I ran home, packed bags for what I'd need for the wedding weekend and then headed over the mountain to get started on last minute wedding stuff. Silly me, I stayed up until 4am (!) working on our unique table identifiers for our guests. Then Friday morning I was up again early to head over to wedding site to continue working on getting stuff done in time for rehearsal. I was feeling pretty nasty as I had not had a shower since Tuesday morning (prep day) when I had showered after my aquatic class before lecture. I'm embarrassed to say that I never got a chance to shower or change before the rehearsal. I was so disgusting!! Stayed up late Friday night too working on lighting project for the dance floor, and then got up early to drive back to Charlottesville and back (about 90 minutes) with wedding clothes (yes, left them behind!) just to meet up with nephews and brother-in-law to set up chairs at the ceremony site. I did find a window of time to get my first shower on Saturday morning and wonderfully I got to take a second shower an hour before the wedding! Whew.

EVERYTHING went really well and came together in some cool, even unexpected ways! It turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day (as planned, of course)! Two weeks prior we were looking at the possibility of two hurricanes...but one hurricane dumped early (all week) and the other went out to sea.

I focused really hard to get some good sleep the last couple nights. Made it to the gym this afternoon after Psych clinical...and now I'm preparing for another prep day tomorrow :(  Not looking forward to it. REALLY hoping that things will go much faster this week. I CANNOT afford to be a zombie the rest of the week, as next week I've got tests in both my lecture classes and will be needing to study all weekend, rather than sleeping!

If I'm going to get up and go to the gym in the morning (aquatic class) I had better get to bed!

Cheers.

WANTED: Motivation, Self-Discipline & Better Attitude

I'm already behind in my readings as we enter the third week of classes. Last year, on average, we had one unit per week and had a quiz almost every week (except on testing days). This semester we have fewer units and instructors might take three to four weeks to cover a unit. We'll have one quiz per one or two units, but we don't have quizzes every week like we did last year. Last year when there was a quiz involved, I definitely was on target with my readings... however, this semester I'm already behind in my readings. Why? Well I don't have that weekly quiz deadline to keep me on track...plus I've had other stuff going on (wedding mostly) that has had me distracted. But really it's a motivation/self-discipline deficiency that I need to get a handle on.  I really NEED to come to terms with the fact that THIS is most important. There is little else that takes priority over school right now. Not the gym, not weight loss, not laundry or dirty dishes, not checking Facebook (!), not my favorite TV show, not grocery shopping, not reading, not journaling, not BLOGGING (!) etc...   It's pretty pathetic that I'd procrastinate by cleaning my toilet!  I think it's more an emotional hurdle that's going to require dying to self and letting go of my resentment that after 100 days of summer, my time is not my own for the next 249 days. THIS is my work, whether I like it or not. Don't get me wrong. I'm enjoying nursing...but not the school part.

I despise doing assigned text book readings. I do well for the first three pages and then I start to get sleepy/distracted (um, like now!)...and then end up having to reread the same paragraph five times. I am a procrastinator too, which does not help. So not only am I not motivated or self-disciplined to do my readings...I wait until the evening when I'm tired! ugh. I need to get turned around and on the right track QUICKLY. Perhaps I need to start viewing my reading/study time like I do my gym time...and just GET IT DONE.

The wedding is the weekend, so I will have no excuses. The library on campus sucks (it's busy and usually all study rooms and cubbies are full), so the alternative is to go to the local library or to Panera. Panera's not great b/c I'd feel obligated to spend money (and eat food I shouldn't). The library branch near me is next door to my gym, so I really have no excuse. The only thing is that on clinical days, I wake early, am gone all day and then head to gym before heading home. So if I were to leave gym and go to library, I'd have to figure out how to pack (& heat) dinner --in addition to lunch/snacks for clinical. Sigh. Not sure it's sane to try. But I'm thinking at the very least I should attempt to try the library for Thursday afternoons and on Friday/Saturday.

After the wedding, I'm supposed to start back working for the artist on Friday mornings (provided she hasn't changed her mind about me staying on). I need the money, but school is a priority. Hopefully I can get this schedule/study dance figured out soon.

At least I got my substance abuse support group visit out of the way. I attended an AA meeting less than three minutes from my house one evening last week. It was a really great experience - although a few awkward moments for me when they went around the room and did the "Hi my name is... and I'm an alcoholic". What am I to say? Um, my name is Joy, and I've probably only had only two dozen alcoholic drinks in my lifetime - aside from communion wine. No, I didn't say that... basically I mumbled that I was a nursing student. Anyways, I survived and they they were pleasant/gracious - despite me feeling like I was crashing their meeting. I will say that it was encouraging to see that participation and discussion by group attenders was high. Now I just need to do a write-up about my feelings about my experience (and answer other non-meeting questions related to substance abuse and support groups).

Well, I think I've procrastinated long enough that it's time for bed. Tomorrow is Labor Day and I'm going to have to do some heavy laboring in my textbooks tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to turn my computer completely off - Facebook is just too much of a temptation.