*Timewarp*

I've been a nurse now for a full year! Talk about a time warp. My last post was talking about spousal support during my first semester of nursing school. So what happened in the intervening time? Lots of stress in nursing school. Lots of bellyaching over whether I was going to pass this test or that test. When it came down to it, I passed all of my classes and became a new grad nurse. I took a job in a step-down ICU, and two months ago took a position in a full fledged ICU. 

But wait, that's not it! In January, I went back to school for my MSN! I know, right? It's now May 1st, and I've completed my first semester as a masters student and have been a nurse for a full year.

This thing called nursing

Looking back to before I started nursing school, I thought I was prepared. I listened to all those that had come before me, I read the blogs, I scoured the forums and convinced myself that there is no way that nursing school is as hard as these folks make it out to be.

Typing this while on Christmas break after my first semester of clinicals and nursing classes are over, I couldn't have been more wrong. I believe I experienced every single human emotion possible over the last five months. Elation to finally be starting school, terror when I realized I was about to give my first subQ injection, and sadness when my first three clinical assignments never went home to their families. That's to say nothing of the ups and downs of studying, testing, and frantically pressing F5 on my computers keyboard while waiting for grades to be posted.

I did well my first semester in nursing school, I got amazing comments from all my clinical instructors, as well as the clients I cared for. I fell like this first semester was a tremendous learning experience and I did very well. The same cannot be said for my entire cohort however. With the recent difficulty changes to the NCLEX our school, in an effort to maintain their 100% pass rate! upped the difficulty of our theory classes quite significantly. The net result is that of the 68 students that entered the program this fall, only about 40 of us made it through to the spring semester.

I'm experiencing what I can only term as survivors guilt. I want to be elated and overjoyed that I passed my first semester, but it's hard when 3/4 of the people I spent more hours with then my family for the last five months do not get to continue on in the program. With that in mind I feel like I have to temper my personal excitement otherwise I'm rubbing it in their face that they didn't make it.

I had every intention of updating this blog on the regular while in actual nursing school. I found however that by the time clinical research, care plans, homework, studying, and ADLs were completed I didn't have time for anything but a little bit of decompression in front of the television and as much sleep as I could find.

I know my wife reads this blog on occasion, so I want to take a brief moment and thank her for taking care of our three wonderful children and shouldering most of the parenting and household duties while I'm in nursing school. Without her I don't know how I would have made it though this semester. She is there for me during my mini breakdowns and she is there to cheer me on in my successes. I love you hon!

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!

Onward

My last post I spoke about being in my CNA class. I've been finished with my CNA class for some time now, CNA clinicals have been completed. I was extremely worried about my CNA state exam, but that too passed without a hitch, and I'm now certified.

I've now also moved on to my four year university, and completed my first semester. I was only able to take two classes due to scheduling conflicts with my CNA course. I was met with somewhat of a surprise at the conclusion of this semester in that despite getting an A in both of the courses I took, my GPA was 3.7756. Come to find out this university uses something called quality points, which since my grade was technically an A- in one of the classes, it directly reflects on my Term and Overall GPA.

Bullocks!

That's going to make it very difficult to graduate with Nursing Honors.

Next semester I'll be taking Health Assessment, Intro to professional nursing, Micro, and a "level 2" class that my university makes you take. It's essentially a research class outside of your chosen major. For example, one of the classes I took last semester was a junior level Environmental Science class.

The thing that sucks about transferring to another school for my junior and senior year is that I don't know anyone here to ask about classes! I've no idea what I'm in for with the two nursing classes.

CNA - You mean I have to touch people?

It's been quite some time since my last post. Not much has happened on the school front, things are mostly stalled while I wait for fall semester to start. I'm taking my CNA class right now, and I'm about 3 weeks away from Clinicals. I was surprised to find out that we have a whopping total of 28 hours of clinicals to complete. For some reason I was under the impression that it was going to be 40+ hours of clinicals.

I really feel like this CNA class is a massive step backwards and I should have done this class FIRST. It really seems like these tests were written for 8th graders, with little to no education and just a dash of common sense. If it wasn't for the fact that my four year university uses the CNA class as a weed out process to make sure anyone entering their nursing program actually understands that you have to TOUCH people, I wouldn't be taking this class at all.

There's only one bit I'm actually looking forward to and thats the interaction with the residents at our facility.

Dollars and cents

I received my financial packet today for my four year university. Between pel grants, state grants, as well as a merit based academic grant from the college my year tuition went from 28,713$ to 10,863$. I'm soooo happy that I was able to significantly reduce the tuition amount. All of that assistance paid for all of one semester and a small part of another.

Scrubs

My scrubs came in today. Lovely white pants (gag) and a wine colored shirt. Thankfully, these are only the colors for my CNA class, and not my nursing school. I still need shoes though!

Immunizations

Between my upcoming CNA class, and my admission to nursing school I have several immunizations that I need to get, and a few more that I need titers for. I've got an appointment scheduled with my FNP for a physical and the shots, I just hope it doesn't take many trips!

On a different note, I went by the Four Year University today to pay my admissions fee and was overjoyed to hear the financial aid person welcome me to the school officially. 

You know.. cause it's never official until they have that first check!! ;)

My Geology class is plodding along, currently holding an A in the class (big surprise, I mean, it's rocks, right?) but it amazes me how many people either blow off the class, or sleep when they do bother to show up.

On being accepted

I received my official welcome packet to my four year university. I'm so very excited to be starting this fall at a new school.

 

On the agenda to take over the next several months is microbiology, intro to professional nursing, health assessment, an environmental science, and two other classes that were not offered at the community college level.

 

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd experienced a timeline jump. Well, after much soul searching and discussing with my wife, we've decided it would be best to keep my original start date of next fall to actually start clinicals. This gives me the opportunity to do all of my prereqs, have a free summer between junior and senior year for a possible internship and allows me to focus solely on core nursing classes.

 

 

Timeline jump!

I can't express how excited and terrified I am right now!

After applying to my four year university the admissions counselor for the nursing program told me that there is a more then good chance that I can start the BSN program this August instead of waiting until next year.

So since that day I have been scrambling to find a CNA program I can complete before the fall that will also leave my days this summer open so I can take Intro to professional nursing, and Health Assessment which they require you to have taken before you enter the program in the fall.

So I am so close to FINALLY starting that I'm anxious, nervous, and scared at the same time.

Burning Ring of Fire

I feel like I am never going to be finished with this two year college. Last semester I was unable to work a 4 hour science elective into my schedule so I could graduate the two year school. So instead of getting to start at my four year university where i'll be taking the nursing program, I get to take one single class.

That one single class, is.... Physical Geology. Yay. Can you tell how excited I am? I don't want to be at this school anymore, I drive 25 minutes to class, sit there for 50 minutes, and then drive 25 minutes home. My teacher that I wanted and signed up for took emergency leave for upper respiratory problems and will not be back this semester, so I'm stuck with an aging retired USGS employee that really has no idea how to teach a class, and completed his masters in geology in 1959.

On a positive note, I finally get to do something Major related this summer as I'll be taking my CNA course with an eye to have that finished before Fall.

Then, then I will finally be able to begin at my four year school. Wait, thats not it though! I get to take two full semesters of pre-req's at this four year school before I can enter into the nursing program. Granted, I could have forgone the two semesters of credits and attempted to work the 19 credits in while I am in nursing school, but I really didn't want to burden myself with unnecessary course load if I could simply wait a bit before starting nursing school.

It seems like my journey is never going to end, much less start, I'm hoping that I'm just feeling burnt out on my two year school because I know I'm so close to the end.