Can I go to sleep? Just for 20 minutes?

I am so freaking tired!!!!!! After stressing over Pharmacology last week followed by a 3 day work stretch, not to mention hardly any sleep, This child is ready to crash and burn!!

• I had three quizzes last week. Yes three. I had two in skills lab and one in pharmacology. I did fairly well in them. And realized that I most likely studied too hard for pharm. Oh well, I got 95%, 90% and 97.5%. I rocked the pharm one. I win! Hopefully that trend will continue.
• I started clinical!!! On Thursday I had orientation at school. I found out just how much my workload is going to increase per week. Surprisingly it's not going to be so bad. Especially cuz I get Clinical. 
• Being there is no different than work, except I have a different resident and instead of 11, I only have to worry about 1/2 of one! Well that's cuz I have a partner so basically I only have to do half the work. I guess another difference will be that I get to play "Nurse" instead of "CNA." However, at work I pretty much get to do almost all the stuff the RN would, due to being delegated to. However I will have to see just how it goes, since when I actually got to go to clinical on Friday, it was more of an orientation.  
• I tested out of Oxygen Therapy in Skills Lab as a nervous wreck not knowing what I was doing and pulled it off flawlessly.
• I'm really starting to hate working Saturday, Sunday & Monday in a row. The weekends are just exhausting due to the increased workload I have to do and the fact it's impossible to be done by 3:00pm. However, I get money so it's a win-lose situation. I have to deal cuz next semester I may be down to 1 day a week.
• My brain can't think of anything else.

Well there you have it. 5 weeks down, 12 weeks and 3 semesters to go. I can do this!

Let the stress begin!!!

A bit late with my weekly blog entry, but as the title states, the stress has begun. Mostly with the internet stuff. Most of my classes are web enhanced meaning there are a whole new mess of problems. We have to submit worksheets on this wonderful invention called "Blackboard" but I have a better name for it that I'm not going to share now... Anywho I do these worksheets, feel really good about them and then hit submit and I get my grade which is usually somewhere between 60-65%. I know in other degree programs it's like Yea!! D for Diploma!!! But in nursing that's basically a BIG, FAT F! Well all the frustration has led to hard copies in Skills Lab (Horray!) and now in Pharmacology (the bane of my existence. I will be surprised if I pass this theory class) we are able to have multiple attempts. For example. If we have to type in the answer and the question goes what do you avoid with this drug? Well the book says "alcohol" and you put that as your answer, well the worksheet says WRONG! It's alcoholic beverages. Or if you have two answers such as BUN & Creatinine, well you better put them in the right order cuz the computer says WRONG! It's Creatinine & BUN. So it makes for a very frustrating learning experience. Making me want to throw my computer across the room.  That's prolly the biggest revelation of this last week. Here is the breakdown of other important things:

• I had my blood glucose tested! I was terrified due to a horrible experience in Physiology Lab at UWSP. However I had someone poke me that knew what they were doing and it didn't even hurt! I think my psychotic fear of having my finger poked is now over!!! I had a Blood Glucose Level of 86mg/dl. So I'm on the higher side of normal (which is 60-100mg/dl). I thought for sure I'd have crazy high blood sugar what with my unhealthy obsession with sugar, not to mention I had drank over half of a Medium Dunkin' Donuts Vanilla Bean Oreo Coolata. Can we say delicious?!!?
• I tested out of another Skill: Infant Heel Stick for blood glucose testing. Poor baby...
• I took my first internet quiz in Fundamentals. Uh not horrible but not so good either. Now I at least know what to expect. Here's to hoping the next one is better...
• My final week without clinical...which means that I have 2 less days a week to do homework. I can't spread it out so much anymore so this kinda sucks!
• My final week w/out clinical!!! I get to start them!!! I'm excited to begin!!!
• I had the weekend off which was awesome! I got so much done but I still have so much homework left to do. 
• I have 3 quizzes next week. 2 in Skills Lab and 1 in Pharmacology. God (and St. Joey Coup) help me!!
• Went to confession and had a very good healing/cleansing one. I hadn't felt like that since going to St. Pete's in Steubes. Having a clean slate makes it a lot easier to handle this school stuff. I have a lot less stuff hanging on. Not to mention I can receive the Eucharist again which is awesome in it's own way! I believe that this priest will be the one I'm gonna go to for confession from now on.
• I need to fine myself a spiritual director (so says my new confessor). So I have more homework. God make one fall in my lap! Athankya...
• My foot is getting so much better and it's not swollen anymore! I can almost walk on it without pain.  It's healing and I'm glad cuz I wanted it to be better by clinical.
• Oh and the wine I'm drinking right now? Is Anesso Cagnina di Romagna. It is very cheap and very good. It's quickly become my favorite. I love the tasting wall at Cellar 70. Try something before you buy a whole bottle. That's where I found this one. Yummy.

 Well that's all I can think of right now. 4 Weeks down. 13 Weeks & 3 Semesters to go!

Tips to help you succeed....

Well my friends, I have survived week 3!!! Only 14 more weeks go to, holy crap how did that happen so fast!?!?! This week wasn't so bad. There was a teacher day on Tuesday so we had NO class! It allowed me ample catch up time and extra time to study for my quiz I had on Wednesday. My week in review:

• I have spent more time in two of the Portage County Public Libraries in the last 2 weeks than in my whole life. I will most likely have to start migrating to the UWSP library cuz it's open later than the public libraries.
• I have been doing awesome on my discussion question papers. They have been flawless points wise! Which I need cuz I need all the points I can get. One of my profs even commented that she enjoys reading my writing style. I guess my Bachelor of Arts degree with all the hundreds of pages of essays and papers written has definitely paid off! Oh and the fact I know how to cite sources and write bibliographies helps a lot too!
• I tested out of another skill in skills lab. I can now do wound cares in my clinical! (I have even learned some new tips and tricks for how to do wound care at work. And I'm not talking about going out of my scope of practice, but tips for aseptic technique).
• I took my first quiz! It was in Skills Lab and I got a 93% on it! Only 2 wrong. That gave me a HUGE confidence boost. It's like "maybe I CAN pass, well skills lab at least!"
• I have a quiz in Fundamentals that opens up on Sunday at noon and closes on Tuesday at 7AM. It's online and you basically get question 1 and you answer it and click next. Then you can't go back. It's timed and you take it at home. Needless to say I'm scared shitless. The idea of reading a question and not being able to go back to it terrifies me.  They tell you not to read into questions, well so if I don't know it right away I usually will skip it and go back. Well I can't anymore. So this should be interesting. I'll either do fine or I'll bomb it. 
• We had an optional seminar to go to on Tips To Help You Succeed. We also got extra credit for fundamentals! The nursing counselor gave it. I really enjoyed it. I did get some new outlooks on the program.  He told us to make lists of why we are doing this, our goal as to why we want to be nurses. Mine went something like this:
• The Paycheck!
• I want to buy a house and a newer car
• I want to go to Europe and that's my reward to myself for graduating
• I don't want to be a CNA forever
• I want to prove past teachers wrong who said I'd never be a nurse, let alone get into a nursing program. Well I proved them wrong on the later. Gotta love teachers who crush your dreams
• I want to hand my dad my first paycheck to show him and my mom that their investment in my education was worth it
• I don't want to work in Youth Ministry anymore
• Then we made a list of things that can deter us from succeeding and if they are controllable then we need to control it and if it's uncontrollable, let it go.
• He also gave us tips on studying that I'm putting into use today to see how it affects my learning
• Yesterday we also had to take this beyond stupid test. It was horrid! I actually did equal or better than all the people I took it with and was pretty much on the same page as the national scores but I got a 64% on it. That is horrid! At least it wasn't anything to do with nursing.
• Then we took a personality test! Thank you for telling me what I already know! Needless to say none of us were ready to be told we were stupid at 8 o'clock in the morning.

 Well next week should be interesting. It's my last week without clinical and then I really need to learn when to study since I will no longer have Thursday and Friday off. This will be a busy weekend cuz I work Saturday, Sunday & Monday. Hopefully I'll get all my work and studying done and actually get better than an 80% on my quiz. Pray for me!