Sunday, December 30, 2007

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.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

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!

Friday, December 7, 2007

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!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

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!!!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

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.