I should mention...

We added our third child to our family back in april. I totally forgot to make a post, but here is a recent pic of her. :)


Aren't baby bums so cute?

Here we go!!

Tuesday the 20th is the first day of "actual" Nursing school, no more pre-reqs, no more non-nursing classes. Clinicals start a few weeks after classes do. I'll be taking OB, Medsurg, Pharm, and of course the clinical course.

I can't wait to get started! It's been such a long journey to get here, there were times I never thought the day would arrive.

Spring Fever

Ahhhhhh!

It's spring! It doesn't suck outside!

Despite having a veritable mountain of school work on my schedule. I've been able to squeeze a couple hours of yard work into my schedule. I decided to grow peppers, tomatoes, and herbs this year. So after many trips to lowes, I am finished! Now all I need to do is throw the plants in the boxes which I'm doing tomorrow.

Be present - Be engaged

When I went back to school I never considered the social aspect of the college experience, I was only thinking that I'm in class to learn a topic, and that's it. Now that I've started the program I'm with people that I will likely see more than my family over the next two years so perhaps I should start to consider it. So this semester I've made a much more conscious effort to socialize with folks and form friendships. I've met some really great people so far, and I'm genuinely happy to have made these connections. For the last two years of school during pre-reqs I've always felt like I was on the outside and separate from the rest of the students. This is the first semester that I have felt present and engaged in a much more fulfilling manner then I have been prior.

If I could offer any advice to someone going back to school at an older age it would be to participate fully. Don't think you can't get involved in student unions because of your age, get involved. The younger students really could give two shits that you're older than them.

I just wish I had learned this lesson sooner!

Client abuse

I overheard something in class the other day while waiting for class to start that has been troubling me greatly. I'm sitting with my headphones on, (music very low so as not to disturb anyone and not so loud that I can not hear) and I overhear the two girls talking about working a shift at a facility that cares for mentally impaired patients. One of the girls is relating a story of feeding a 30s something woman that has some sort of degenerative neurological disorder. This client through the relation of her story was or is apparently a lesbian. The girl telling the story goes on to say that this client doesn't want to eat quite often. 

These were her words. "So she is not eating again, and I get this idea, right? I tell her that she should just imagine that its a pussy and go to town. And she totally does! it was hilarious." 

Shocking disbelief was my first reaction followed closely by disgust that this girl is going to be a nurse. A patient advocate for people that can't or won't advocate for themselves. How in the hell can someone that is going to take on that role, be actively abusing clients. I'm at a loss for what to do. My information is hearsay, she could have made it up to tell a "funny" story, and who would I even tell?

Anyway, I just felt the need to vent to someone other than my wife!

I did it!

Grades for the last test were finally posted and I got a 90. Mean class average was an 80. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now that I know how to study for, and take these tests I can relax while I'm studying and not constantly second guess myself that I'm wasting my time.

They changed our nursing uniform for next semester, so yay for not having to wear white pants to clinical. Official uniform is a Maroon top, black pants, and black shoes. We're supposed to get measured sometime at the end of next month. I just hope they have a male cut option, wearing unisex tops with very broad shoulders really sucks.

Getting a hang of this

I don't yet have a grade for my last test, but I feel like I’ve made great strides towards understanding nursing tests. I did about 200 practice questions before the test that really drilled into my thick head how closely you have to read these questions. 
Here is an example of what I mean.


A client has been admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit following an acute myocardial infarction. The nurse formulates the following nursing diagnosis: Acute pain, related to tissue damage, secondary to infarction, manifested by pallor, client report, and shallow, rapid breathing. Which of the following would be an example of a collaborative intervention? 
1. Provide a calm, quiet atmosphere in the client's room. 
2. Administer pain medication. 
3. Educate the client and family regarding treatment and therapies. 
4. Monitor for changes in the client's condition.


So in this case Acute pain defines the type of collaborative intervention you need. So the most appropriate intervention would be to administer pain meds, which require a dr’s order. It also happens to be the only collaborative intervention listed, so it’s relatively straightforward.  

Which of the following interventions appropriate for a client with Parkinson's disease who is working to improve fine motor skills would be considered a collaborative intervention? 
1. Provide assistance as needed with dressing and grooming.
2. Provide assistive devices and educate client to use grab bar and large handled utensils.
3. Make sure lighting and space are adequate for client.
4. Administer medications to improve muscle tone. 

This question however has two collaborative interventions, numbers 2 and 4. Obviously both can’t be correct, so I needed to identify the key word modifier that points to the correct answer. In the case above it’s “improve fine motor skills”.  Administering medications to improve muscle tone will not help with the improvement of fine motor skills. Therefore we’re left with the correct answer, number 2. 

I find it frustrating that it took me so many questions before I started to key in to what seems overwhelmingly obvious now that it’s all written out. Let’s hope my grasp of actual test questions is as good as I felt like it was today while taking the real test.

Not accepted,but not denied.

So we all got our letters of acceptance/hold/denial last week for the fall start of nursing school. I'm currently taking 13 hours, two of the classes I'm in this semester are nursing classes ( health assessment, and intro to prof. Nursing). In order to pass these two classes you must have a 78 test average before anything else is averaged in or you don't pass. I currently have an 85 test average in assessment and a 77.65 in intro. Notice that its not a 78? Notice that it didn't round up? Yeah..

I got a letter stating I was on hold pending final grades at the end of the semester. I went and checked my class average, I've got an A in both classes with everything else averaged in, but those test scores suck!

I'm also having a hard time getting a grasp on how to study for these tests where there are multiple correct answers. Usually I do very well on tests and don't have to study much for them, recently though I'm studying 15+ hours (easily) for a freaking 50 question test. I hope something gives soon and I figure out a good way to put everything together, because this is stressful and I haven't even started actual nursing school yet.

What a week

This is the last week before spring break. I am so glad for the week to be over. I've done nothing but study for the last five days solid. Had two horribly hard tests today. After the micro test at 8am, I just knew I had bombed it. I was thinking low 40s at best. Thankfully I managed to pull off a C on a test where the class average was 61. Still waiting for the results on my health assessment test. Thankfully that test was much easier than I was expecting.

Intro to professional nursing class got interesting today with the introduction of our second text book, "Nursing Diagnosis: application to clinical practice". Leafing through this text just illustrates how much longer I have to go!

Mad respect

Since starting my actual nursing classes I've got a lot of respect for those folks in nursing school that still manage to find the time to make regular blog posts. I'm only in two nursing classes (intro to prof. Nursing and health assessment) not horribly hard classes but there is so much material covered that coupled with my other three classes I don't have much free time at all. I also let myself get into kind of a bind. Up until now school has been pretty much a breeze for me, 3.77 GPA with almost no effort. Nursing classes are a whole new ball game, when most of your test is practical application you really have to know your shit. When half of those questions are choose the MOST appropriate, you really really have to know your shit.

So hats off nursing student bloggers! You have more fortitude then I do!


On the personal front, new baby is due in two months! I'm so happy we're having a baby girl. With two little boys in the house it will be an interesting challenge to throw a girl into the mix. It's also going to be a challenge because she will be here exactly two months before I start nursing clinicals!