1st Semester: CHECK!

Well I'm not sure if I'll be blogging in the next few weeks, because my friends, I am done! I have finished my 1st Semester. I have done it! I have finished the race! Oh there is still so much more to go but I need to bask in the glow of the fact that I have actually made it through one quarter of the nursing program!!! Many times there were doubts that I could do it. I've cried, laughed, screamed, wanted to quit, felt like I could actually do it, felt that it was impossible and had every other emotion imaginable up to this point. Until January 10th I'll be enjoying my laziness. Watching TV, sleeping, reading novels and not textbooks, regularly exercising, working, and anything else my heart desires. I can now enjoy Christmas and New Years. There's not much to say about the week but here it goes:

• Monday was my Birthday! It ended up being a really great Birthday. I took my Pharmacology Final and ended up with a 90%! Not my best score but it meant I still got my A for the semester!!
• I also found out on my Birthday that I got switched from clinical group ABC to group DEF which is now just group DF and I'm in the D section. One entire section of clinical was dropped cuz that many people have dropped/failed. That really sucks. I'm so thankful I'm actually getting to go to 2nd Semester. I will now have clinical at St. Micheal's Hospital and I won't have to go to St. Joseph's until the Middle of April. HUZZAH!!! I get to save some gas for the most part this semester!! The best part? No driving to Marshfield in January!!!
• I have been stressing and freaking out about my final final which was Fundamentals. The bane of my 1st Semester Existence. I was hovering at an 82.5% exam average and you need that solid 80.00% to pass, 79.99% is not good enough. That's failing. Well I was basically shaking all the way up to it this afternoon and I knew that this was the make it or break it part of my semester. Pass this one and I move on, fail and I stay behind. Hearing things about it from it being easy to being difficult I began taking it. It wasn't so bad. After going through the 80 questions I had 11 left blank. I filled them in and stared at 2 questions and finally decided and went to hand it in. I had to ask my prof what the answer to that one was and she told me. Damn, that one was wrong. Now time to sweat. Grades were to be posted by 6pm.  One of my classmates texted me around 4:30 saying that grades were posted. I was shaking, my heart was pounding, I was literally crying cuz I knew my fate was posted on a simple computer screen. I looked at my final grade: B-. Okay, but what's my exam average? OH. MY. GOD! I got an 89% on the Final. I not only passed that beast, but I did better on it than all my quizzes and my midterm. I had shown tremendous growth in that class. I have absolutely no idea how I did it but I passed that test. Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!!!!!

17 Weeks (but it sounds better as 1 Semester) down! 3 Semesters to go!!!!

Almost Done!

The end of this week brought to a close 2 of my classes. Skills Lab and Clinical. By the grace of God, countless prayers and an unknown mystery of how I got this far have allowed me to accomplish this feat. It is huge, but I still have so much more to go.

• I had one last thing to do in Skills Lab. That was my final physical assessment. I brought in my little brother Cory and assessed him. I ended up with a 99%. I had lost two 1/2 points. One half point was cuz I didn't have my hands positioned correctly while doing a Thyroid Assessment and the other half was another position error, while percussing the Patellar Reflex. All in all I was very happy with my score. It ensured my A for the semester in that class. YAY! My prof was so impressed by my exam that she said she wished she could've taped it for future semesters cuz it was so well done. Not to gloat, but I was proud. Take that Dr. Divis!!
• I finished out Clinical with a blue paper of death. On Thursday I took my Pharmacology ATI test and all but 2 people walked out of it with the blue paper of death. Which means:  YOU FAILED!!! I got a 58%. Whoops! It was so frickin hard! To fix the problem I had to practice at home then retake it. I did that right away on Thursday and finished it.
• To finish off Clinical about an hour and a half after receiving the blue slip of death I had Simulations! Sims is the greatest way to make you crap your pants. In 1st Semester you actually get your scenarios and can practice. Not so in the other semesters. Well I had Mrs. Sugar who couldn't breathe and needed insulin. I kinda flubbed up a bit when I was drawing up my insulin and contaminated my needle, but threw it out and got a new one. Then I totally forgot to do some education. I ended up losing 4 points with a 90%. My reaction when I was told: "Works for me." I ended Clinical with an A- for a final grade. Not too shabby!
• Pharmacology gave me my last quiz. 98%. I also submitted my final worksheet. Of course there is one messed up question where you can't get it right and it ticks me off. Oh well. Just a final left in that class and I'm done.
• Fundamentals will make or break my semester. I have an 82.5% test average, which means if I don't get at least an 80% on my Final, I'll most likely fail the class. If I fail, I will have to retake it, not move on to 2nd Semester and not be guaranteed to get into 2nd Semester next fall. Pray for me. It would suck to get this far and fail. I've got a lot of studying to do.

I have 2 days of classes left. 2 days of taking 2 finals. I need to do this. Otherwise I'll be a FAILURE!!
Oh and Happy Birthday to me! I'm really old now!

It decided to snow yesterday. Yuck!

16 Weeks Completed! 2 Days & 3 Semesters to go!

1st Semester Clinical...Check!

From the title you can see that I have checked my 1st Semester Clinical off of my list! Today I had my last clinical day. The last clinical day where I only have one patient. My last clinical day at Riverview (at least until possibly March). My last Clinical day with this group of women. My last Clinical day with 3 different instructors (or I hope to God it is!) The day I got to do my first real Saline Lock! The day I actually knew all the meds I was administering and what they did (minus one) when I was asked about them! The day I didn't want to be at clinical but I was glad I went cuz I need all the Clinical hours I can get! The Semester is winding down and with that my work load (thank God!)

• Skills Lab is over! That actually makes me really sad. I love skills lab. I'm gonna miss my skills classmates, we were like the perfect group together. I'm gonna miss my instructor, cuz she was awesome! I learned so much in there as well as had many scary moments, especially when I had to test out on stuff. 
• On my last day of skills lab I tested out of my last two skills. Those were IV Piggyback Meds (crazy name, right?) and regulating an IV Pump. I passed with flying colors! I also took my last Skills quiz and it was harder than hell. I got an 87%, whew!! I thought I bombed that one!
• Even though class is over for Skills Lab, I still have my Physical Assessment. I'm taking my little brother Cory with me and I get to assess him. I'm hoping I do alright on that. It would be nice to put one last good grade in my gradebook for that class. I do that on Wednesday, practice, practice, practice!
• If you couldn't tell, Clinical is over!! However, I still have to do Simulations or Sims for short where there is a practice dummy that talks and has a heart beat, breathes, throws up, etc. I am given a scenario and I have to go in there and act like I'm his nurse and in essence make him better. I'm nervous as hell! 15 minutes of sweating and heart pounding fun, that's on Thursday. I also have to take a Pharmacology ATI test Thursday morning. That will suck major balls!!
• Speaking of ATI, I took the Fundamentals exam on Wednesday and all my practice ones were really good, then I take the real one. I felt like a dumbass, cuz it was harder than hell. I passed it but just barely with an 82%.  Which is awesome cuz otherwise I'd have to retake it until I pass it.
• I also took another pharmacology exam in Clinical and our instructor gave us a review which she said if we knew the information she presented in the reveiw, we'd be golden for our exam.  And then I got the test and yea, I felt really ill prepared. I don't know how I did it, but I managed a 95%, one wrong. I guessed right on about 6 or so questions. Glad that one's over.
• I got my graded care plan back and like a dumbass, never attached my bibliography. So I lost 3 points on that, and with the other couple of errors, I got a 93% on it. Oh well, when I did that thing at 3:30am, I was just glad to have it over.
• Oh and I got my 23 page Physical Assessment paper back. I knew it was graded and I could've looked at my grade online but I didn't want to on account of my brain coming up with 2 nightmares while I slept that I bombed that thing. So I just waited until I got the actual paper back. I got (drum roll please.............................) 98%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I almost crapped my pants! I WIN!!!!!
• Last weekend I was lazy lazy lazy. Kassandra and I also went to see Breaking Dawn Part 2. It was awesome cuz what I wanted to happen in the book actually happened! Everyone started fighting and most of them died!!! Of course it was just one of Alice's visions, but it was like YES!!! Something is actually happening!! The movie was a nice break and got my mind off of school. This weekend I will be busting my ass off learning my physical assessment stuff, sims and pharm practice. It will be a fun time. NOT!!

I now have, my friends, 15 weeks completed. I have 2 weeks (well actually 5 actual class days) and 3 Semesters to go!!

Thanksgiving!!!

Whoever was the ass that decided to extend the semester past thanksgiving is an ass. With that said, I did enjoy my short week of classes!

• Thanksgiving is early this year. It is screwing with me. I feel like I have either no time left in the semester or Thanksgiving wasn't supposed to happen yet. Well it's happened and made me really lazy with school especially since I had off of work this weekend.
• I had to take a pharmacology quiz on Friday, that was fun. Not! haha, no it was fine I just hate quizzes. I was supposed to take a fundamentals one too, but something screwed up when the prof posted it, so I get to take it late!
• I only had 2 days of classes, and no clinical. It was a nice break!
• I finished testing out of trach stuff this week and we started IV's, I can take out IV's and spike/regulate them. I took a quiz too but I don't remember what I got on it. Oh well.
• Not much to report this week, since it was short. Sorry!

14 weeks down. 3 weeks and 3 semesters to go!!!!!!!!

There's a Light at the End of This Tunnel...

As you can tell the end is near. I can't believe I've made it this far. I'm very close but the pressure of the 1st Semester is starting to move in with all the crap that I still have to do!

• Clinical was kinda mellow this week. I did however get to administer insulin! I did it right this time!!! I WIN!!! Friday was the first day I did not give an injection at clinical. Oh well, my patient left right after 10am so I had the rest of the morning to accumulate my information for my big paper.
• Oh Lord, the BIG PAPER! Which I totally slacked on, pulled an almost all nighter on. It ended up being 23 pages long. I don't think it was longer than my exegesis I did for PBS II, but it ranked among the top. I have no idea what my grade will be but I'm hoping at least an 85%. That concluded my papers for the semester! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
• I had another quiz in skills lab. An 80% for me. Either I'm getting stupider or they're getting harder. I think they are getting harder. I tested out flushing nasogastric tubes and giving meds in them. I also tested out on tracheotomy suctioning and replacing the dressing on them. Those were supposed to be scary skills but they weren't that bad.
• That's all I have to say about that.

13 weeks down! 4 weeks and 3 semesters to go!!

Slacking on the Blogging...

I'll admit it, I'm blogging a little late. I will try to remember the key elements from the last week!

• This was the week that killed me. Literally. I was so ready to die. Over the weekend I had a sore throat and a stuffy nose. At first I thought that it was allergies but oh no! I got the full blown flu! Flu shot my ass! If anything, that GAVE me the flu. Nursing majors have been dropping like flies and I was one of them. I worked the weekend then Monday. Monday night I was working on my Pharmacology Worksheet and I pretty much passed out. My bones were cold, everything hurt. I ended up staying home on Tuesday. I missed skills lab and pharmacology. I missed a quiz and testing out of skills. It sucked. Needless to say, Wednesday I went back to school but felt so much better cuz I NEEDED sleep.
• So in skills lab I retook my quiz from Tuesday on Wednesday and got a 79%. That quiz was really hard. Then I had a second one that I took and got a 95% on it, whew! I also tested out of skills for irrigating a urinary catheter, obtaining a urine specimen from a catheter, irrigating a colostomy and placing a new colostomy device. Lots of stuff but I got it all done!!
• Clinical meant giving 2 more subq's of Lovenox! I am getting to be a shot expert, well, in the stomach.
• I also had my process recording to write for clinical. I have to admit that that was the most retarded paper I've ever written. I had to have a conversation with a resident from long term care then write it out verbatim and comment on the non verbal language. Then I had to write what I did well in my communicating and what I needed to improve it. It was beyond stupid and I got a 92% on it. Thank God that's over!
  
  12 weeks down, 5 weeks and 3 semesters to go!

Sterile Technique Gets Me Everytime!

I still can't believe I'm on the downward slope of the hill! And what I can't believe about that is I'm so far passing all my classes! There are so few weeks left, however those few weeks pack a HUGE punch. I have more assignments, tests, papers, test outs and craziness than all of the 11 completed weeks combined! Just one day at a time!

•  The best thing that happened this week happened in Fundamentals.  We got our Midterms back, as in we got to see the test and look at which ones we got right and wrong and not just a percentage.  As I looked it over I realized that one of my answers that I had right on the hard copy of the test was marked wrong on the scantron. Either I messed up filling in the bubbles or the scantron messed up. I told my prof that I'm mad at myself for screwing up, and she said, "I'll give it to you!" I was like "Seriously?! I PASSED!!!!" So I bumped my score from a 78% to an 80%. I passed the midterm! I was very pleased!
• I had a paper due on a case study for Fundamentals. I didn't get it back yet, but according to the grade book I got a 97%. I'm happy about that!
• I didn't have any quizzes in Sills Lab this week. PTL!
•  In clinical I got to give my first Subcutaneous Injection!!! (or 3!) Everyone else in my clinical group only gave oral meds. I also got to watch an MRI and a GI Endoscopy. So I had a great clinical week!
• I finished my week off by writing my entire Cultural Assessment Paper, a Care Plan, and Journal. It takes sooooo long to do these clinical busy work assignments and when you add working the entire weekend to the mix, you are ready to die!  Mostly because I'm sick so it just makes everything 10 times worse.
• Now the worst part of me week: We tested off on inserting and removing catheters! I failed this skill. Skill wise, it was flawless, however I touched the outside of the carton with my sterile glove, twice. I knew I did it, and if I would've said something like "I touched the carton, I need to change my gloves" I would've passed. But dummy me didn't say anything and I failed. That meant I had to go into skills lab and retest out and I did fine. All three skills so far with Sterile Technique, I've flubbed somewhere, but this time it got me. Now I'll never screw up on sterile technique again.

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