Fundamentals for Dummies

Not too much to report on for this last week.

• Last Monday was insane, after working the weekend and basically letting everything pile up until that night, I didn't take my Fundamentals quiz until 1:00am. Yea, that sucked. Note to self, when you work, get your frickin' work done on Friday!
• About that quiz? I got an 85%. Pretty bad, but now my quiz average is over 80% which is where it needs to be for me to pass the class. I just want to pass and  move on to 2nd semester with all my classmates! 
• Continuing on with Fundamentals, I have yet to find a nurse or nursing student who actually liked Fundamentals, including myself...
• This is why I borrowed the book "Fundamentals for Dummies" from the Hospice Nurse at work, because I need that book.
• I finished my first week of long term care clinical and it was very boring cuz there wasn't much to do and flexible, cuz the instructor kept changing things. All in all I got through it.
• I almost forgot to e-mail my clinical homework. I finished it on Saturday but I just kept putting off emailing it. This morning at work I'm like "OH SHIT!!!" But thank God I had until 4pm today to do it, and I emailed it off at 3:30 when I got home. Saved by the bell!
• I tested out of the Medication Passing skill, with 100% athankya! I better have since I do that for my job! However, it is a little different when I'm learning in school, verses doing it at work.
• My brain is done thinking so therefore my post is complete.

6 weeks down! 11 weeks and 3 semesters to go!

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!

Legit

It's the end of week 2 and I survived (kinda). What did I do?

• Read a shit ton more homework
• Finished all my worksheets (some better than others)
• Find out I actually did better than what the computer said since the prof goes back and fixes the computer errors. Samantha I, Blackboard O!
•  Bought my stethoscope. I really had no choice in the color matter. I needed one and there was no time to order it online. My choices were the display model which was bubblegum barbie pink, uh I'll pass (display models are not for me) or the clear pink one which is what I ended up buying. If I really don't like it I'll just order one off of amazon and it will be Yellow.

My clear pink stethoscope!

Here's Volume I, but Volume II is nowhere to be found :(

• All of my books are FINALLY here, and I went through them just to make sure and realized that my Med-Surg book, which is a 2 volume book only came with volume 1. So I have to send that one back and order a new one. At least I get my money back!

• Tested out of 2 more skills this week: Apical Pulse and 2-Step Blood Pressure!
• This weekend is a holiday weekend so there is no school Monday which I don't have class anyway so it doesn't matter. To make things better, there's some teacher thing on Tuesday so I have no class on Tuesday! I have a week off of classes!!! 
• I have my first quiz on Wednesday and have no idea how to study for it. This could be painful!
• I got my Varicella booster yesterday and my TB skin test placed. The nurses at Ruth Gilfrey suck. I know they are very cheap vaccinations, but they suck at giving immunizations. After my catastrophic time last month I still had a bad experience. The varicella hurt like hell and it's swelled up again and looks nasty. The TB was interesting too. She didn't know how to take the sub-dermal needle out of my skin because my skin was separating from my arm. Instead of pulling it out of my skin sideways she pulled straight up. Woman where the hell did you go to school?!? No fun!

The wonderful welt from my Varicella Booster

•  Even though I had a bad experience, at least my health work is done!! Now I just have to go back and get my TB checked tomorrow and as there's no bump today it's highly unlikely the bump will come back and test positive.  

Finally, why do I call my post Legit? Because yesterday we had our photos taken for our Clinical ID's and my skills lab prof said that we are now Legit Nursing Students! I hope things are still going good next week, as I don't feel so overwhelmed this week as I had last week.

I'm Legit and have a huge shadow on my face (but everyone's did :)

New Life - New Name

Wine Colored Scrubs.  This is the new working title of my blog. Why do you ask? Well you see I am no longer a "Nurse in Limbo". Limbo is gone and now I am a week into Nursing School!!! It has FINALLY arrived!  That means I have a new life. Which as I've found in the last 5 days consists of 90% school, 5% sleep and 5% other activities.  And I've only had 2 days of classes so far. This also means my blog has a new name. When I go to clinical I have to wear wine colored scrubs, so I liked that concept for my blog. I also really like to drink wine, so maybe I'll share some of what I'm drinking at the time! Then there is the quote by Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, "They are all Jesus in disguise." People ask me all the time how I can deal with all the 'blood & guts' stuff that comes with nursing? Well just working as a CNA I've always thought of Jesus saying, "When you fed the hungry, clothed the naked, ect. You did it for me." So I've always looked at it that way. This is part of my purgatory, this will help me get to Heaven, all the while helping out those who need someone to love and care for them while they are sick.

Onto Nursing School! What's happened so far?

• Paid my tuition $1,375
• I have purchased about $700 worth of books and syllibi
• I have purchased $36 worth of scrubs (Yay for going out of business sales that saved me $150!)
• I started studying last Saturday (yup, before classes began) and found that I'm in way over my head
• Cut down my hours at work from 40+ to 16 per week
• Started classes on Tuesday and actually felt somewhat prepared! (yay me!)
• Studied Tuesday night and started asking myself why I got myself into this and it's 2 years long!
• Early Wednesday morning woke up nauseous and pukey (which made for a great 2nd day of school)
• Learned skills and tested out of 4 of them all the while trying not to puke/pass out!
• We have to test out of skills in order to do them at clinical, that's called staying in our scope of practice! (see, I'm already learning ;)
• Slept from the time I got home on Wednesday until this morning. I'm feeling about 90% back to normal.
• Found out my clinical site! I'll be in Wisconsin Rapids at Strawberry Lane and Riverview Hospital
• I'm hoping this means I can get my clinical site in Stevens Point next semester when it's snowing cuz I really don't want to drive to Marshfield or Adams for an entire semester!
•  I have about 20+ hours of homework/studying to do before I go back to classes on Tuesday
• I will be buying a stethoscope tomorrow (I still don't know what color I want!)
• I will go to work Saturday, Sunday & Monday
• I will be getting my 2nd Varicella Vaccine and my 2nd TB test placed on Tuesday 

Ah Nursing School. You are here and I never thought this day would come! Wish me luck as I start out on this crazy journey. Prayers are very much appreciated for my sanity and so that I can learn what I need to, pass my classes and get through 1st Semester!
Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka, my Nursing School Patron, Pray for Me!
She's pretty awesome! Check her out here!

It Seems Like a Fine Day for an Update!

It's been a while, so here's an update of my boring life:

1. I have been trucking along at my job, made the 11 month mark yesterday! Woohoo!!! Country Store free for almost a year! I can now say that I will have done every job possible as of this Saturday. Work the Floor, Pass Meds, Activities, act as the Director and the last one I will start on Saturday: Cook, ugh! Shoot me! I only have 2 weeks left there as a full time employee. I will be cutting down to 2 days a week due to the fact that I am....
2. Starting Nursing School!!! 2 weeks from today!!! Am I scared? That would be an understatement! I'm terrified! I am so not ready to hit the books, my year an a half break from school was wonderful!!! Although it did take me several months to get that feeling of "Time to Study" off of my brain. Now it's time to put it back in there, that is if my brain has any room left in it. With starting I have to finish checking things off of my list like:
3. Being CPR re-certified! Which I did, with my mom, on Sunday. It was just the two of us and we had a lot of fun. It's amazing what can change in the few years since I took the class the last time. 
4. CPR isn't the only thing I had to do. I needed to obtain immunization records of MMR (check!) and get a stupid Varicella shot (even though I've already had the Chicken Pox) because I had found a loop hole!!! It was either get a titer (a blood test proving immunity to MMR and the Pox) or just get the immunization. I choose the later and oh boy did I pay for it!
5. When I got my immunizations, (yes, plural) they told me my Tetanus/Diphtheria was due in a year and a half, and well since I was there I should just get that one since I hadn't had the booster that contained the Pertussis vaccine in it. So I walked into the room to get my shots and there were two women in there and they were like, "We're gonna give you your shots at the same time!" I was ecstatic since I hate shots and I only had to do it once, not twice! I was told the TDaP wouldn't hurt, but my arm would more than likely be sore later, but the Varicella would hurt upon injection and then be fine after it was done. Uh, in my case, let's reverse that!  The Varicella didn't hurt at all, but the TDaP hurt like a bitch!!! I think the girl that did that was training cuz she took forever to give it then commentated on it by saying "It's squirting". I got this shot on July 17th and yesterday (August 6th) was the first day I no longer could see the bruise at the injection site. Not to mention my arm killed for like 2 weeks and I couldn't lift any of my residents on my left side for a week. Then a few days after my shots, the injection site of the Varicella swelled up like a balloon and I got several pox on my body, one that is just finally going away. I still need to get the booster for that one in 10 days. Oh joy! I've never had reactions to immunizations like this before. I guess in my old age, my body can't take it.
6. I also need to have two TB (tuberculosis) tests done. I already  have one done thanks to work! So I need to go get another one. That one's not so bad, so I'm not too worried about that one giving me any grief.
7. Uniforms. As a Nursing Student you need to have a very specific type of scrubs for clinical. Specific brand, specific style and specific color. Oh except you can have any type of white pants (shrugs shoulders). The top and matching pants have to be the lovely wine color which I've heard that once you are done with school you will never wear again. Well I still wear my CNA clinical scrubs so we'll see how sick I get of them. I actually lucked out in this category as normally each piece will cost you anywhere from 20-25 bucks a pop. Well a uniform store closed down here in Spring and 2 weeks ago had brought all their leftover inventory out of storage and sold it for $6 a piece. I found all that I needed. I have 3 shirts and 3 pants and I paid a whopping total of $36 for them!!! I wasn't paying attention to one of the shirts I got and I don't really like the pocket placements on it, so I think I'll see if someone wants to buy that one off of me. But I'm still happy that I got 3 sets for less than the price of 1. Winning!!!
8. Today I am buying my books. It will put a nice dent in my credit card and savings account. But I am fine with this because in my program you buy most of your books 1st semester and one or two for each of the other 3 semesters. So my biggest book bill will be now! 
9. On a non-school note, I was able to go Up North to Hayward this month!!! We did get stranded, as is the tradition. It was on the island this year. It started storming and we only had canoes, a kayak and one boat with a motor. So we had to go deep into the woods of the island and try to take shelter from the storm. It was a great memory to add to the vacation books. I also had fun swimming, sitting at campfires, shopping, eating tons of ice cream and just hanging out with my cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, brothers, nieces and nephews. Successful vacation? I think so!

   

   Kissing the frog I caught, hoping he turns into a handsome prince. He didn't.

   As my time as a Nurse in Limbo comes to an end, I will be having to change my blog name, so we'll see what my brain comes up with.