Already There

Beautiful! Especially in these moments of impatience. Moments of fear. Moments of heartbreak. Moments of wondering what my life is about and where it's headed. He's already there.

Bullets

Not feeling all that creative, and not really in the mood to write a post that is coherent and flows. So I will go with bullets.

• 100% on my first OB test. I was shocked. Still am. At the time, I did not consider it my best study attempt. Yet after taking the test and getting the grade I got, I have to figure that I somehow managed to study all the right things AND make some good guesses.
• I've seen two births now in OB. Amazing. One patient was very noisy in her pushing. The other was absolutely silent.
• Tonight I was in postpartum and was paired up with a nurse who I know through church. That was cool. 
• Loving OB/maternity rotation for the most part. Too bad I can't get a job in OB right out of school-- most hospitals require at least one year of med-surg experience first. Makes sense, of course.
• Looks like I'm going to the beach for spring break! Definitely looking forward to getting AWAY!
• Last week was much better than the previous two weeks. I have a test the end of next week (right before spring break)--so things will be a little crazy there for a while...but then spring break happens...THEN another test. Hoping I do as well on these next tests as I did on the first ones.
• I'm also working to put together an event for our chapter of NSNA later in March with similar events in April/May. The idea for these events was firmly planted in my heart and soul during my first year of nursing school. So glad to be able to have the opportunity to see it happen! Was able to do some basic planning/brainstorming done over the weekend...but still much left to be done/coordinated.

Tomorrow is clinical prep day. We got out a little early from OB tonight since there wasn't much going on in any of the units, so I was able to get over and get patient clinical info at a decent hour. Last week I managed to get my care plans and paperwork done by 8:30pm (starting in the morning). But just as I was finishing, my clinical instructor called to cancel clinical. All that work!!!  This week, myself and another student are assigned to the same patient. But I noticed that on our clinical day, our patient is scheduled for a morning appointment at the main hospital. So we'll be working hard to get all of our care and interventions done within an hour and a half. Sigh. Chances are pretty good that our instructor (or rather the student leader for the day) will reassign us to work with other students and their patients. But flexibility is key!

Sometimes You Just Have to Call it a Day

Last night I was facing a long evening of homework, but after a long clinical day and only two hours of sleep the night before, I was feeling pretty miserable. All I wanted to do was to go to bed. I realized it was going to be a terribly unproductive evening with me nodding off between sentences. So I sat down and calculated the number of hours left until 8am this morning. I could either unproductively study all evening and then go to bed for eight hours and then get up and go to work, OR I could go directly to bed and sleep for eight hours and then get up at one o'clock in the morning and get my work done after a solid night's sleep. I'm no fool. I called it a day at five in the evening and set my alarm for one in the morning. My big fear was that I'd sleep through until morning and completely lose all my study time.

I woke up with my alarm. But then I woke up again at three. Obviously I ignored my alarm, but after ten hours of sleep, my body was okay with getting up- even if it was three o'clock. And I was able to quickly pound out my evals and read most of the assigned chapter for the online quiz due today. I made a good decision! I'm at work now and not feeling any effects (yet) of an very early morning, I am expecting that around dinner time I'm probably going to crash again. BUT I can't really do that since I've got a test first thing in the morning. I could go with the same sleep pattern, but I don't want to completely wreak my sleep habits. So the plan now is to go home after work, eat and catch a 30 minute nap before attempting to study for my test. Things are quiet here at work, so I'm also getting some good studying in. 

I will be so glad for the weekend, although I won't be sleeping in on Saturday unfortunately. I'm doing "FitCamp" starting this Saturday morning at the gym. It runs six out of the next nine days. Hopefully I'll have the stamina (and washing machine) to manage all those workouts next week with my already crazy life schedule. I'm sure I'm going to be SORE too as we'll be doing workouts that I haven't done in a LONG time. I can do cardio and pool all day long, but they'll have us doing all sorts of things for these hour-long sessions. It will be fun and I'll get to meet new people- always a good thing. I'll probably give myself permission to miss one of the workouts, but hope that I'll make them all.

Well, back to studying! :D  Happy Thursday!

Hanging in...

I need to mention the other mini-dramas that I've had in the past 8 days.

• W2/8: locked keys in car at clinical site - had to call tow afterwards; it was cold/rainy day
• F2/10: previously mentioned test grade fiasco
• M 2/13: witnessed my first birth in L&D clinical; was holding the momma's leg. Great view ;P
• Tu 2/14: peds clinical prep day: lost half day of prep due to 1) going to campus to get previous week's clinical paperwork and going over it with instructor and 2) washer stopped agitating and spinning = soggy scrubs to deal with (thank goodness dryer still works!) Don't get to bed until after 2am. Morning comes early.
• W2/15 (today) up early for clinical on 2 hours of sleep. My car starts but doesn't want to come out of Park. Thankfully I've seen this before and know what to do (turn off car, place keys in key hole on gear shift, shifts to neutral and then starts car again). 

Craziness for rest of week:

• Tonight: 2 evals for today's clinical (due tomorrow while I'm at work) and read Cardiac chapter for peds quiz (due tomorrow while I'm at work)
• Tomorrow: work all day, study for OB test on Friday.

This semester I'm an officer in our school's chapter of the NSNA (we are trying to start the group back up from scratch) and we have an event on Monday. I'm also trying to work for both my part-time jobs. I haven't seen the gym in over a week. Haven't started job applications yet (boo!!!) And heaven-forbid, my favorite TV shows are stacking up!  And I am down to my last 7 bowls of turkey chili soup. Things are going to start getting ugly as all I want to do is VEG OUT and do nothing.  This nursing student needs a personal assistant and cook.

Only 85 days left until pinning/graduation. The end is near. I'm hanging in there.

Who Doesn't Need a Little Drama?

So today I took my first Peds test of the semester. This semester the faculty are allowing us to take in a 3x5 card with any information on it that we want. Tests are application oriented, so having facts on hand doesn't guarantee doing well. So I took the test, and felt like I had done really well. In fact the test felt kinda easy. There were two questions that I knew I had guessed on, so after class I went out to the foyer of the building and flipped through my textbook to see if I could find the information. Shortly thereafter, my instructor walked by (she had just run the scan-trons) and asked if I was okay. I explained I was trying to figure out the answer to the immunization question (which I did get wrong)...and she then proceeded to say I had done "really well" on the test. My heart leapt with joy at the news imagining I had earned an A, but was still cautious because "really well" can mean different things to different people!

So I drove home, hopeful, encouraged and motivated to get a lot done this weekend -- mentally making my to-do list. Been a good week - a fast week. It seemed to fly by (a good sign for the rest of the semester)!!

Relaxing, I got caught up on the last episode of Grey's Anatomy. Then I got an email stating test grades had been posted, one question had been dropped and that the class average was 86%.  I logged on to Blackboard to check my posted grade.

83.7%.  Um. What? Wait. But, she said-- Huh? But, I thought--

Stunned. Disbelief. Shock. Depression.  What am I going to do? I thought that test went well. Was even on the easy side. But now???  Sigh.

So I emailed my instructor - mentioning that she had told me that I had done really well and that this C was disconcerting as I normally earn A's and B's on my tests.  I was really hoping that there had been some sort of error. I had felt like I had done well. And she told me that I had done well. But a C?

I went on and watch another TV show on Hulu.com -- so unmotivated to do anything...needing the shock to wear off.

Then I get a reply back from my instructor. She is so apologetic. I did do well. I got a 94%!!!! My grade had been entered wrong. Something to do with scan-trons not being in alphabetical order and that she missed the error when she checked grades. More shock. Relief. Elation. Gratitude.

But then I wonder. Was my grade switched with someone else's? Did someone think they got an A when they actually got a C? Yikes. I wonder what would have happened if I had not emailed her. I suppose that I would have figured it out next week when we go over the test.

So the week ended on an up. And perhaps the "up" was an even higher "up" than it would've been because of how low it got there for a while.

I really like my instructor and know it was an accident! I am just glad that I emailed and that she quickly resolved it. It would've been a HORRIBLE weekend otherwise.

Whew.

On another good note. I have officially applied for graduation. And will be ordering my nursing pin soon :)    90 days to go!

Clinical Prep is BACK.

Today marks the beginning of clinical prep for spring semester. We've had two weeks of orientation and tomorrow is our first day of patient care in Pediatric Nursing. I'm at a children's rehab facility. Patient assignments were made yesterday afternoon, but due to my Maternity clinical I wasn't able to get my assignment or gather data until AFTER my clinical --which was around 10pm. So after stopping by the rehab facility, I finally got home around midnight. I'll have all day today to prep for tomorrow's clinical. I'm really hoping that I will make good use of my time and get my prep work done early and be able to spend the early evening reviewing skills I will have to do with my patient. AND GET TO BED AT A REASONABLE HOUR.  I've been doing prep work on Tuesdays for the past two semesters...this is no different. So to me, they are known as "Torture Tuesdays" because it's a LONG day of researching, writing and prepping with bedtime usually coming after midnight and only 3-4 hours of sleep before getting up again to be at the hospital.
Thankfully this semester I don't have to park and take a bus, but instead of a 7am start, we have to be on our unit at 6:30am. So it still means getting up insanely early. Once I finish this post, I'm going to create an estimated schedule for today's prep. If I have to be up at 4:30am (I haven't decided yet), then I'd do well to get to bed by 9:30 tonight. Fingers crossed. Please note that I really only consider Tuesdays as the torture day. I really do enjoy clinicals and all that we learn there! So Wednesdays are usually pretty great. Tomorrow I have an infant to care for!

Yesterday was my first day of Maternity Nursing and I was in the Labor & Delivery (L&D) part. Bummed that I didn't get to see a birth, but I'll be back in L&D next week and my instructor said I'll definitely be assigned to the patient that is mostly likely going to deliver during my shift. IF there's a patient! Last night there were only three laboring moms. I'll also have two more chances when I work in Nursery--as the nursery staff usually provide the Baby Nurse at the time of delivery. The wonderful thing about Maternity/OB is that we as students can't really prep for our patients. We have stuff to read, drugs to be familiar with, and a mental care plan for the moms and babies in the various aspects of maternity care, but it's not the same as with Med-Surg or rehab patients. I think I'm going to really like Maternity Nursing!

Have a good week everyone.

P.S. I totally recommend typing in "newborn" to Google Images... there are some impossibly cute pictures that will make you melt.

Preparing for Labor & Delivery

In preparation for my first Labor and Delivery clinical tomorrow night, I am watching a variety of online birthing videos. Here are my initial thoughts:

1) My crying reflex is fully intact,
2) UNASSISTED water births are both amazing and little frightening, and
3) please, please let there be a baby born during my shift.


Only 95 days and 21 hours left until PINNING/GRADUATION!