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.