Pre-Req drudgery

It's been two months since my last post. Not much noteworthy has happened. I dislike chemistry with a passion born through my hate of math. Nutrition and Med term are boring nightmare. Nutrition is a repeat of select parts of anatomy, med term is a broad repeat of anatomy and it's all just getting to me. I think knowing I only have 4 credit hours left at this school next semester has me seriously ready to move on to my 4 year college where I'll be taking nursing.

Nursing school seems so far away at this point. So many classes left to take, CNA cert to do and weight to lose before I start.

/rambling

Origins

I've held many and varied jobs in my past. I've done everything from work production on a car parts line, video stores, cable companies, retail, to sales and distribution. I started working at the age of 16, right after my 16th birthday. Work, from my first job until I quit my last job to go back to school, for me, was always just something to do to make money.

I've spoken in the past what one of the deciding factors was behind my decision to become a nurse, and while that is the main reason I choose to pursue nursing, it wasn't the only deciding factor. As the sole breadwinner for our family of four, one of my chief concerns is always going to be income, I made a decent salary at my last job, but I lucked into that position, and if said position went away, so did my ability to find another job making that kind of money again. Having a college degree, especially a college degree in a field that can make decent money, was appealing to me.

Aside from a workable income, with nursing and hospital shift work I have the option to work fewer days a week and still pull in a decent income. Being home with my wife and kids is important to me. Four 12 hr shifts with 3 days off sounds splendid.

Taking a 180 degree turn on your professional path at 30 is a daunting task, no less so for me than anyone else. However, a bookmark I bought a few years ago (right around the time I embarked on this journey) recently found it's way back onto my desk downstairs. It's metal, and has a quote engraved upon it's surface that reads:

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

And so, with that message brought back to the fore, I'll get back to studying for my chemistry test on Monday.

Online Classes

Typically I do not take online classes. I find the seated classes to be, obviously, more interactive than their online counterparts. However, this semester I could not get two of my classes in a seated format, Med Term I, and Developmental Psych. I consider myself to be extremely computer literate. I may not be as up on all the latest tech as I used to be, but I can still navigate most pieces of software without any problems.

This is NOT the case for my online classes. This blackboard version they are using this semester looks as if it was written by a Grad student with a D average. The location of assignment due dates is not consistent between the classes, nor is the method for submitting assignments the same.

Since this semester started I've been constantly worried I was going to miss a due date for something because none of my assignment due dates are posted in an obvious intuitive manner.

Aside from the online classes mentioned above I've got nutrition and chemistry. Chemistry, as I figured was going to be the only "hard" class this semester. Nutrition on the other hand is an absolute joke. So far the format of this class has lent itself more to a "wellness" class than a nutrition class. What, exactly, does my spiritual wellness have to do with nutrition. Not a darn thing!

We had to do a "Wellness Assessment" as a homework assignment. This assessment was broken down into 6 categories, the final category being nutritional wellness, the other five? Nothing to do with nutrition.

I understand this is the first year they have offered this course, and I expected there to be some hurdles and growing pains to endure while the teacher settles into a stride with the new material, but we're in the second week of class and we have not even TALKED about, you know, nutrition.

/endrant

Pathophysiology

As it's going to be a little while longer before I actually start nursing school at the University I decided to pickup a Patho book to read since I won't be exposed to Anatomy any longer after having passed A&P II this summer. After reading about Pathophysiology made easy over at Zazzy's Blog, which was via another blogger that I read, Christine.

I am throughly engrossed with this book. I've read several of the sections, and have been dorking it up pulling up secondary resources to fill in the details when I don't fully understand something.

I don't figure it will hurt me to familiarize myself with the topics the book covers but I do have a slight fear that I'll learn something incorrectly and then have a hard time unlearning the incorrect information. Heh

Hot, Hotter, Hottest

Hot:

Air conditioning unit that is not big enough for the house is keeping the downstairs at a crisp 71 degrees, and our main living area on the main level at a blistering 78 degrees. The most irritating thing about the whole situation is the fact that it's a nearly brand new unit. Installed less than two years ago, by a company that was apparently incapable of accurately estimating the amount of cooling tonnage needed for our 2800sqft house. :(

Hotter:

105 Degrees outside on a recent trip to Mississippi for a wedding. An OUTSIDE wedding, might I add.

Hottest:

My dear wife of 6 years. Our anniversary is tomorrow the 12th, and I couldn't be happier that she said yes and is spending her life with me, and has given me two wonderful little boys.

That's all she wrote!

A&P II: Summer Edition, complete.

Reproduction Written Exam: 110 (W/ Extra Credit)

Reproduction Lab Practical: 98

Final Exam: 71

A&P II Final Grade: 94

That my friends is an A for the summer semester, woohoo! I can't believe I made it through this semester with an A, I didn't think it was ever going to end. I had to get at least a 19 on the final exam to pass with an A, and I did. So yay!

Up next semester

Developmental Psych

Medical Terminology I

Chemistry

Nutrition

Providing care

I've talked about my reason for choosing the nursing profession in the past, so anything to do with sick children is especially hard for me. I'm sure that at some point in the future I will have encounter a situation where I'll have to provide care to family that is having some kind of crisis with a child, or god forbid has lost a child.

I constantly worry that I'll be able to provide the kind of compassionate care that people need in extremely emotionally charged situations. Well thats not exactly true, I know I'll be compassionate, I worry more about knowing what to say, and how to act in those situations where there are no words.

Do you just quietly go about making sure everything that you can do is done and be as unobtrusive as possible? Do you let the clients (is that appropriate terminology even?) family set the tone for how you provide care?

Hopefully these topics will come up once I actually begin nursing school and there will be some guidance provided.