EEKKKK!!

Well I need to get studying, it's been slow up 'til now, lets hope I'm ready for the final. Our fundamentals class is almost over and there still seems to be tons of stuff to do. Clinicals have been fun, its great getting into the field and applying some of the skills that we've learned. I met a girl at the rehab center who was an FSU student. She had been going to school for three years already and was doing her first clinical day. It made me feel glad that I was at TCC and getting first hand experience on the 3rd week of class! Whatever they say about getting a bachelors, I think we'll be much better off when we start our careers. I'm proud to be an eagle!!!!

Lot's of work to do

Well ya see that F in that picture, I didn't do that bad, but I about felt that bad about how I did. I felt prepared before the test but I need to get into the "nursing mindset." I like clinicals though, it was fun actually doing nursing stuff: Being on your feet, meeting new patients. I certainly think I can handle the tasks of a nurse. Now I just gotta get through school.

Midterms!!!!

So I'm not really looking forward to our upcoming midterms. Can't really see these being much fun. I've been reading a lot but was a lil surprised to add about 6 chapters of reading today when she mentioned the nursing processes. Hopefully these will be more vague and not as in depth as the book, cause at this rate I just doubled the reading I had been doing over the past three weeks. I do feel pretty confident overall though. I think a good point is to not think too hard about the questions. As she said today, she might read into the question totally differently than we perceive it. This might cause a bit of confusion, so I need to go with my gut and not over analize things too much. I'd right more but at this rate I need to get to studying!! Good luck everybody!

OK?

Not really sure what to write/think right now, the learning commons is a lil distracting. However, there should be plenty of things to talk about. I guess we have our first day of clinicals, that should be fun. I hear a lot of folks saying that they're nervous, but I think it should be alright. Our patients will certainly like the company, and we'll be ready for clinicals, so hopefully the day will pass with lots of stories and fun for both patient and caregiver. I do like how they ease us into these things, I'm sure it's a lot different walking into a room with a nice ol' lady ready for us than a sick hospital patient. (My mom said that most of the guys in nursing facilities are too busy for us cause they're bombarded by ladies so that's why I'm expecting a female patient on friday). This should be a great first experience and I'm ready to start getting into the field! Til then, rock on grandma!!!

2nd week and rollin'

Well class and lobs have been fun, still not much to them yet but it's still fun getting to meet everybody. I keep wondering when things will pick up some more. I remember people telling me that I couldn't work, so I quit my job and now I have tons of time (fortunately I work on the weekends so still makin' some bread). I've started some studying and wondering how much I'll need to get rollin' on it. It seems to be going farely well, just reading and looking at the outline that was provided (granted these outlines are verbatum from the begin of each chapter ;) I'm ready to start getting my hands dirty now, we've done the glove lab, lets start getting to the nitty gritty as one might say. I know one thing is for sure, I want to see the worst of it now in school so that if for some reason I can't handle it, I'll be able to figure out what I'll need to do. I already hate getting shots, but maybe giving them is more fun? We'll just have to see! I still really excited about school and I think we have a great group of folks in the program, from students to teachers! Hope the books find themselves used over this holiday weekend! Now all I gotta ask, where are the doods in this picture?!?

Whoa!!!!

So it looks like my nursing peeps wanna keep an eye on my doings throughout this semester and I'll be starting a nursing blog. Not only will it be fun, but I'll get some credit out of it (or zeros if I don't keep it up :( Well it's only the first week, so not much blood and guts and poop and all that, but I think it's good to ease into all of this. I mean, they gotta show us how to put gloves on before we can be touching all of that stuff! The teachers aren't really scaring us much so it seems like there will be a lot of fun to come!
As a new nursing student, I'm excited about school but also ready to start working. I'm glad the program has lots of hands on material so that we can get in there and really see what this will be like! I can't wait for that first patient that I have, it'll be a lil scary but exciting too, I hope that I can put a good face forward and help some folks. Helping people is certainly a big draw for me about this profession. I have been to Mali, West Africa twice and was very moved by their situation over there. They have absolutely nothing but are the happiest people I've ever met. One thing that is very difficult to access over there is health care. Even very simple things like bandaging cuts or taking vitamins could have an amazing affect on the health of the country. Both times I was there I worked for a NGO, Sini Saunuman, doing work with women's rights, in perticular working to stop the practice of excision (female circumsion) and promote monogomy (most men in the country have multiple wives). It was great to see Malians working to better their situation on their own (many of these non-profits are run by westerners, this is one of the few completey run by locals). This aspect gave them an upper hand on being oble to communicate their cause, as we all know, education is the key. I would love to continue to do work with Sini Saunuman and be able to help provide the knowledge of simple, healthy practices that could make a huge difference.
Although helping people is a very important reason for me to want to become a nurse, there are some other perks as well. Not only is the pay decent (at least for any kind of lifestyle I would choose) but the hours are awesome if you can make it through three 12 hour shifts. And for a four day weekend every week, I think I can manage it. So what will I do with all of this time, it should give me time to work and practice with the bands, lots of traveling and being on the water, but most importantly it will be to catch fish!!!!