level four nursing

So after a long hiatus it is back to the grind. I am now a level four nursing student, as well as a new tech on a cardio thoracic floor. I have a med-surg clinical on an ortho-trauma floor and another clinical that hasn't been assigned yet, but my request was for 1) Labor/Delivery 2)Postpartum or 3)NICU. So in any case I'm hoping to be around babies and do something a little different than on my other two sites.

And exactly how I'm going to manage two classes, two clinicals, and work? I don't know. Because I'm supposed to work 32 hours at the hospital, the med-surg clinical 8 hours a week, and the other clinical 100 hours before the semester's end. That's 12.5 hours per week. Add 2 karate classes, and things like eating, bathing, and sleeping, and that's pretty much going to be my life. I'm already bumming about having to cut down on my karate by one day.

So far I have just been in central nursing orientation at the hospital. It's the same orientation I went through as a nursing extern, so needless to say I'm quite bored. AND I had to take yet another CPR course. It was through the hospital, but the one I had through Red Cross was much better. In fact one nurse failed the hospital one, she missed 7 questions. If you haven't been certified recently through somewhere else, I think this two hour mini review would be inadequate for anyone.

I've met a few nice people, including some new nurses who will be on my floor. That's nice because I've heard a few really scary things from someone in my clinical who works there too. Like, the nurses abuse the aides and take advantage of them, they never schedule her for hours, etc. I'm just hoping it's different for me.

From now on I'll probably be venting in here a lot, so as not to bore readers of my regular 'touchy feely' journal to death with medical details. Anyway, I think this is really going to be the semester that makes me into a 'real' nurse. It's really going to push me to grow and challenge me to learn as much as I can.