All About the Tiny Humans

After two full days of classes, I feel like this semester is already flying by!  With a dual clinical scheduled in Obstetrics and Pediatrics, this semester is all about the tiny humans <3.

This is a reference to <Grey's Anatomy>, by the way!

I have very little experience with the little ones.  While my besties are having their babies, I am fumbling my way through nursing school.  But I love love love babies and kiddos, and I think they are possibly the closest we get to experiencing pure joy.  So I am both terrified and ecstatic for this round of rotations.

While on the topic, I would like to give a shout-out to all the mommies and daddies out there.  Even in two classes, learning all about the pregnancy, birth, and illness experiences with children makes me appreciate the heck out of you guys!
And makes me a little terrified to be a parent.

I successfully passed my third medication dosage calculation exam yesterday (for Peds) with 100% (required).  I will be taking yet another dosage calc exam on Friday for OB.  Gosh! I realize that this is an effort to reduce medication errors in patient care, but I am over these anxiety-inducing math tests!  Ugh, I hate math.
Sorry, Mr. Denning. 

In addition to eye-openers about the secret lives of tiny humans, this semester will also be an introduction to the night life for me.  Twelve hour night shifts during March for Peds...ahh!  You might as well suit me up and ask me to play in the NFL.

Here I go.  And as I learn, hopefully I will come up with some interesting topics to discuss.  I do love your comments and suggestions, so hit me up if you have something to say!
 

 

So far...so good!

Well I'm two workouts into my New Year's resolutions and already thinking about procrastinating the reading for the first classes next week.  

Bad idea, I know.  

While pondering my options and taking full advantage of my vacation, I started to reflect on my nursing school journey thus far.  I thought it would be appropriate to post a list of things I have learned in my first two semesters of nursing school.  Not a list of skills and facts I have memorized, but things I wish I had known before starting last summer.

********** 

So here's what I've come up with (not necessarily in order of importance):

1.  There is A LOT of reading.  It's hard to keep up with.  But class will be so much harder if you don't.

2.  Find good shoes.  I mean really good shoes.  I know that the best shoes are often the most expensive, but it will be worth the investment after two days in a row of 10 or 12 hour shifts.

3.  Nursing requires a good deal of physical strength and stamina. Who needs to exercise?  Oh yeah, I do.

(By the way, I haven't tried that 5 hour energy drink, but I think I might.)

4.  If you have a question, don't be afraid to ask.  Chances are there is someone else with the same question.

5.  If you have the opportunity to practice a skill with a real patient, and they are willing, DO IT!  Dummies are nothing like the real thing and you may not get another opportunity until you are a real nurse.

6.  Eat and hydrate when you can during shifts.

7.  Be open to constructive criticism.  No person is perfect, and your instructors and peers can help you improve if you will listen.

8.  Use caution buying used textbooks online.  Although hundreds of dollars can be saved, you may not get what you ordered.

9.  Be thankful and be kind to your patients, instructors, peers and other healthcare professionals you encounter.  You may need some support or a letter of recommendation someday, or an opportunity to start an IV for the first time ever.

10.  Get a laptop.  Take it to class.  Take notes directly onto the power point presentation and save.  STOP PRINTING! Save as much money on paper and ink as possible - trust me - it adds up more quickly than you think.

10.  Balance.  You work hard, and you study hard, but take care of yourself and don't forget your family and friends!  Sometimes it is totally worth it to have a glass of wine and watch Grey's Anatomy with your honey instead of poring over pharmacology notes a third time.

(BTW, have you noticed the hot hot male NURSE that is flirting with Dr. Bailey?  Love it!)

**********

So here I go into a dual clinical semester armed with this knowledge and eager to add to the list.  This semester will bring an added challenge/learning opportunity as I have been assigned to the night shift for my pediatric rotation.  I have no idea how this will go...I am usually asleep by 10 pm.

Cost Crazy

At the beginning of every semester I get a little nervous waiting for the tuition bill and the syllabi that tell me what $$$ books I have to buy for this round of classes.  And for good reason, I think.  Today, I got a cheerful e-mail telling me that I have a new bill from the University ($$$$) and purchased three textbooks from the University bookstore ($$$) that must weigh 15 pounds each.  One is paperback, so maybe it is only ten pounds.  Even the cashier commented on how heavy the books were as she was straining with her little arms to put them into a bag.

For as badly as nurses are needed, shouldn't nursing school be a little easier to afford?

The anthem of the poor college student.
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals "Money"

And tuition!  I wonder if anyone else has ever experienced this:  I applied and was granted two federal student loans (one subsidized, one unsubsidized).  However, the amount of the loans is not enough to cover my tuition and fees, not to mention my cost of living.  As I am a full time student in an accelerated nursing program, I am currently unemployed (translate: incoming cash = 0$).  How can this happen?  The lovely man at the financial aid office was glad to tell me how this can happen when I called him in a panic, on the verge of tears at the beginning of last semester.  This is my second bachelor's degree.  I am not a true undergraduate student, nor am I a graduate student.  I am in this weird doughnut hole where I do not qualify for loans awarded to the above mentioned students, but can only receive up to a certain amount each year...yadayada, etc., etc.  Has this happened to you?  Were you able to get a private student loan with no income?

I was also curious as to what has been your experience with ordering used textbooks online.  I know that hundreds of dollars can be saved by ordering from sellers on sites like Amazon.  However, twice now I have ordered books that I never received, and I end up buying them at the campus bookstore anyway because I don't have time to re-order.  Do you have any favorite sites to order books from?  Do you have any horror stories?

Well this has been my rant for the day.  I would love to hear your stories and/or suggestions.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Like An Open Book

At the end of last semester, each Med/Surg student had a perioperative/ER day that I may or may not have previously mentioned.  We were at the hospital from 0600 to 1830 splitting our day between the operating room and the emergency room.  

So I wanted to tell you about  

the day I decided that I don't want to be an ER nurse.

My day started in the pre-operative area, where I was assigned to a patient undergoing a robotic assisted bilateral salpingo oophorectomy (translate:  robotic ovary removal).  The patient and her husband were lovely and I enjoyed meeting them very much.  I was able to experience the whole interdisciplinary "well-oiled machine" that is the perioperative system from pre-op to PACU.  It was fairly cool.  The actual procedure was super cool.  Not my first choice as an RN, especially the long sterile surgery in the OR, but I think I could do pre-op or PACU if my options were limited.  I miss the continuity of care though as patients are stamped and processed through the machine from one nurse to another, to another.

Then I went to the ER.  The Emergency Room.  Where the waiting room was packed full of sick, tired, uncomfortable and unhappy patients.  Twice while I was there, a doctor or nurse had to go into the waiting room and apologize to the angry patients and explain that all of the beds in the ER were full, as well as all of the beds on the floors upstairs in the rest of the hospital.  Ugh!  I found the experience so chaotic and uncomfortable.  

Even two successful first-stick IV starts weren't enough to convert me.

I find the human body fascinating.  That being said, the human brain is something different altogether.  I have absolutely zero experience with psych patients, or even persons diagnosed with mental illness.  To treat physical symptoms is something I am learning well, but what do you do for someone who is so sad that they have tried to end their own life?  How do you fix that?  There were several psych patients in the ER that night, and I'm sure I had something similar to a "deer in the headlights" look on my face through the entire shift.  I'm not really looking forward to my mental health rotation, but I'm sure I will learn a lot. 

Yeah, I'm not very good at hiding my emotions...or even my thoughts.  My face is like an open book.

Anyway, I now have the utmost respect for the ER nurses who do intake assessments and triage patients and mitigate repeated complaints and manage the filled beds in the rooms and lining the halls and face the ambulance bay prepared for anything.  You guys do great work in a chaotic, stressful environment and my hat's off to you, but you probably won't see me in the ER if I have another option.

I am so thankful for the whole experience.  I had great experiences with all of the nurses, doctors and paramedics I worked with and I was able to see a lot of things that I will learn from, and never forget.  I find that I learn the most from hands-on experience, and I am looking forward to my dual clinical rotation this semester for more lessons!

New Year

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Well I realize that I am a few days late but here's wishing you all the best in 2011.  Welcome to the year of the rabbit.

Now let me wrap up 2010.  I ended the semester by procrastinating all assignments to the very last moment possible...but ended up with stellar grades in all of my classes - even better than I expected!  I ended up writing my evidence-based proposal about implementing a routine sexual health nursing assessment for adult oncology patients in a rural outpatient oncology clinic.  My professor commented that it was a unique and important idea, but I have experience and my last job to thank rather than my scattered brain.

When all the assignments were finally completed and turned in, J. and I headed to the mountains to visit his family for a few days before Christmas.  Then we dropped about 6,000 feet in elevation to spend some time with my family for Christmas and New Year. 

There was lots of rest and relaxation to be had by all (even the dogs),

there were many games of cards and dominoes to be played,

snow on New Year's Eve,



and the break found me surrendering to the curls that I have battled off and on for so long.

Oh! And more food than you can imagine.  Did I mention that my mother is the best cook in the entire world?  I think my New Year's resolutions will have to go into effect somewhere else...

Speaking of resolutions, I have been trying to think of something new this year.  Of course I always have the same resolutions to exercise more, eat less, study harder, etc., etc., but what could I do that would make a real change in my life and the lives of others?  I know that I can only control myself, and my actions and reactions, so I decided to focus on that - to be a change agent and do everything with love as suggested by my two favorite quotes from two great people:

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
-Mahatma Ghandi

"We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.”
-Mother Theresa

So I will try to make these changes in myself so that I can better achieve my goals and be a better student for my professors, a better nurse for my patients, and a better person for my friends and family.

So I've had a wonderful break, an opportunity to recharge, and hopefully I will still be able to catch up with some good old friends before I return to the world of nursing school.  I noticed this morning that the syllabi have been posted for my two classes this semester, and there is quite a long list of reading for the first class...so my break might not be quite as long as I expected.  I am looking forward to having two clinical courses and no online class though.  OB and Peds here I come!