ends and beginnings

My level 3 year is finally finished. I didn't do as well on my finals as I'd hoped. Especially in Med-surg where I only got an 80, and needed a good A on the test for a B in the class. It looks like now it may be a C+. I got A-s in both clinicals though and I was happy with that.

At least it's all over with. Now I can turn my mind to the nursing externship, and all of the nervousness that goes along with that. Today is my last day at my old job. From now on when I say work, I will mean nursing work.

criminal activities

Monday I went to work happily looking forward to my 11 days off afterward. However, it was not to be, because it was discovered that one of my co-workers, a full-timer, has been helping her self to a few residents' vicodin, and leaving a clear trail for the nurses to follow. Needless to say, she was fired the next day and the nurses were left kissing everyone else's ass, including mine. So ok, I volunteered to work today and tomorrow for them, but I'm not terribly happy about it. I will be making call-in pay though, so I guess I will have to let that comfort me. Plus the good-esteem of future work references.

Tuesday we all had breakfast together, with our instructor at this cute little diner near the hospital. It wasn't too bad. She is a total crab during clinical but ok outside of it. Plus, she gave me my grade: An A-, and 'good job' comment to boot. Didn't see that coming! So I was feeling a little friendlier towards her as well.

So this weekend is study-for-finals marathon weekend. I can't wait to get this semester over with!

classes with the kiddies

My last psych clinical was a joke. I literally surfed the web for Nepali websites. I also read a bit about Borderline Personality Disorder, if that counts as 'work'. And I finished my last assignment for the clinical.

Wednesday my friend and I were sitting in Med-surg, rolling our eyes over the gaggle of girls in the front row squealing and giggling over a picture of something pornographic on someone's cell phone. I don't get it... don't they have cable? Haven't they seen naked people before?

Tomorrow morning is my only ATI test for the semester, in psych. These are computerized multiple choice tests that are supposed to measure our level of skill in different areas. Really, they measure how well the school of nursing is teaching us. Oh, and we have to pay almost $50 per test.

the end is in sight

Yesterday was my last day on the floor in my med-surg clinical. My instructor was even crabbier than usual but luckily not to me. How could she have been? I did nothing all day! Patient #1 was NPO and patient #2 went out to X-ray. Boring, very boring. I spent most of the day wandering around, reading my Nepali book when my instructor wasn't around, pestering the floor nurses with questions, or visiting the medical library to check my email.

Yesterday I forgot about meeting with my psych group. I feel terrible!!! We are doing a presentation on some sort of treatment for depression using magnets. I just forgot about them. I did write it down... just didn't remember to look at my planner. Brilliant, isn't it?

see new things

This morning I had to get up very early to go and see ECT. My lecture professor was there, that lunatic, she tried to quiz me on things and took me down to ECT herself. When I saw my clinical instructor I practically ran to her, like "save me! save me!" I was observing with some med students, I'm guessing first year students because they didn't seem to know much at all and they didn't seem to have a clue who I was. At first they assumed I was a med student, until I said I was a third year. Then they just got confused. My instructors always poo-poo the med students, roll their eyes at them, and dismiss them completely. I think I'm developing the same attitude.

Anyway, watching a seizure induction was interesting and the doctor had a habit of explaining everything to us, as well as quizzing us regularly. I enjoyed looking at the EKG strips. Still, it was still a little startling to watch the pt's body reactions. They are supposedly paralyzed except for one foot, but the anesthesia produces body movements that look like a seizure.

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I watched a PICC line placed for the first time. It was a very difficult placement because the patient's arm was so swollen. They tried to place it in three different veins, I can't even remember which one ended up working. The cool thing was watching them find the vein and place the needle on the ultrasound. I held the patient's hand the whole time, not just to keep her from going over the sterile field but also because the lidocaine they used on her arm stung her every time. The amount of blood coming out, however, resulted in me gripping her hand instead.

Today we had our GI lecture in medsurg, and it always makes me laugh at how interesting nurses and nursing students always find bowels and stools. I think we could've talked about it forever.

back to norms

Today's medsurg clinical was a flop for me. I could just do nothing right in my instructor's eyes. And then, afterwards, she heard that I have an externship and said "why, do you want to work at that hospital?" Like it's the worst possible choice of hospitals, and not one of the best in the country. I said yes, and I want to get into their grad program there to be a nurse-midwife. She said 'oh I used to want to be a nurse-midwife. Where are going to get a job? Have you thought about that? There aren't many nurse-midwife jobs around here.' Fine. Dash all of my hopes and dreams. She's not even accurate, maybe nurse-midwives didn't have a big job market in the 70s when she was getting started, but I've seen a ton of job openings at the hospitals around here. OOOOHHHH she pisses me off!

Everything about that clinical just makes me mad. Only one more, and then in two weeks we are meeting and 'going out for breakfast'. That's great, much better than clinical, but why am I being forced to socialize with her? I'd much rather sleep in.

Tomorrow morning it's up at 6:30am, drive to the hospital, search out parking, watch ECT for a half hour, and come home and go back to bed. What a waste of time! I'm so, so ready for this semester to be over.