mission accomplished

I got out of the semester with an A, and two B+s. Not bad! I'm satisfied, for sure, although how I got away with it I'm not sure. A lot of luck.

So I'm taking a much-needed break from the nursing world, just for a couple weeks. And then it's NCLEX study time, community health and a statistics class for grad school.

sometimes I just don't get it

I got my collection of papers back from my prof. She is a really tough grader, especially when most papers are opinion-papers, and she gave me an 88. Which is all fine and dandy... but. (You heard the 'but' coming from a mile away.)

I had to write a paper about my 'my future role in nursing' which included my future career goals. I put that I want to go into nurse-midwifery, and geriatrics. She wrote 'this is incongruous'. Yes, maybe it is, but... that's what I want to do, and those are my goals! You can't take off points for that!

And I said I wanted to be a part of a team working for women's health. She said 'midwifery is not women's health'. Since when is giving birth unrelated to a woman's health? Especially if you are assisting her to do it in a manner that she finds most comfortable and suitable to her? Or if you are providing her with safe, affordable, quality care? That's not part of women's health???

What-EVER!

you might be a nurse if...

...You can drink a pot of coffee and still go to sleep in the morning.

...You think it is acceptable to use "penis" and "vagina" in a normal conversation.

...You know the phone numbers of every late night food delivery place in town by heart.

...You´ve ever been telling work stories in a restaurant and had someone at another table throw-up.

...You refer to motorcyclists as organ donors.

...You believe Tylenol, Advil, or Excedrin provides a large part of your daily calorie intake requirements.

...You´ve ever had a patient with a nose ring, a brow ring and twelve earrings say, "I´m afraid of shots."

...You have to leave the patient before you begin to laugh uncontrollably.

...You believe a good tape job will fix anything.

wee update

I got an A in my med-surg clinical. A 98 for final performance. After all of our differences, my instructor said I did wonderful, excellent, just where I should be... so what the heck was I so worried about this whole time?!?

Just one exam left, in two weeks' time. Time to get back to karate and making money!

my next great adventure

Here I am, still a semester away from graduation, and already I've got my sights set on grad school. I would love to go directly into nurse-midwifery, but it's looking more and more like that dream will have to be put on hold for a while. I can't get in to labor and delivery until I've done a year on another floor, and I can't apply to the program until I do a year in L&D. And basically, I want to get going sooner than that. So I'm thinking of applying to U of M's nurse practitioner in gerontology program for winter '09. All I need to do is take a basic statistics course next semester, and my GPA is high enough that I don't have to take the GREs. And by the time I enroll, I'll have my first six months of 'real nursing' under my belt, at least.

I plan to take the program pretty slow, probably four years instead of two. It's intense, and I have to work and make money as well. It's amazing to think that at this time next year I'll be starting out my training as a nurse practitioner! Insane. But I guess right now I need to focus on finals, taking the NCLEX, and getting hired on the telemetry unit where I work as a new grad.

Everything is going swimmingly in nursing student world. I give a group presentation today, and then I just have one final exam and some computerized testing to do. I really did it, survived this crazy-ass semester. I knew I was nuts to do all of this in one term, but I also knew I'd be so happy to have it all over and done with. And I am!!!

I've gotta get through this

I slogged through another 12 hour NICU day on Wednesday. I'm given no responsibility, and since my preceptor doesn't take any patients, I just sort of float here and there, helping people. I spent the majority of the day helping an older nurse with the 'feeders and growers'. Meaning- I fed and changed babies all day. The frustration of just 'hanging out' somewhere, coming from clinicals where I had my own group of patients and all the responsibility I could want, almost got me in tears. The sheer monotony of it. I supposedly have one day left, but whether I will actually go or not, I don't know.

The good news is, my preceptor gave me an 'A'. I guess I was a good cart stocker.