Haven't been around much...

...but I'm still alive and kicking.  Keeping busy with my externship, the kiddos, and just life in general.

The externship: I'm a little over halfway done with the 10 weeks (already?) and I'm still enjoying it. I've changed colostomies, put in straight caths, emptied hemovac drains and foleys, changed surgical dressings, and other very much un-glamorous things...but the one thing I hate the most?  CHARTING. I understand the necessity of it, but OMG, I just hate it. I'm a lot faster at it than I was before, but still...it's monotonous and boring and the one thing I do not look forward to at all each shift.

Regardless of how much I dislike it, learning Epic and having to do the charting each shift will definitely help me out with precepting in the fall, plus with my job after I graduate. And I think about my classmates who aren't externing this summer...they are going to be so behind this fall! For the past 3 semesters in clinical, we've cared for only one patient, have had limited IV/PICC experience, haven't gotten to do many procedures, and haven't really had a chance to set a good routine. Thanks to being tossed right into the fray by my preceptor this summer, I now know how to manage up to 5 patients a shift, I've gotten a vitals/assessment routine down, I've learned a lot of pharm, know which drugs require additional assessments, have become a pro at almost anything related to IV meds (well, as far as getting them set up and going), know how to draw labs from a PICC and change the caps, plus have learned a few new skills. And I know how to handle 12-hour shifts, deal with night shift, and can do back-to-back shifts. Yes, I've had some rough shifts, some patients (and family members) who aren't my favorites to deal with...but I still feel like I'm right where I belong, doing what I really am meant to do :-)

As far as academic school stuff....erm...yeah. Haven't opened a book this summer at all. Guilty as charged. Maybe I can read a little in the couple of weeks between the end of my externship and the start of classes...

BUT...I found out I didn't make the Dean's List last semester...instead I made the Dean's Scholar List! WOOT! And I can apply to graduate starting July 15th. And you better believe I will be on the school's website on July 15th filling out that information! I GRADUATE in just a smidge over 6 months! And that means I take NCLEX in probably a little over 7 months!

On that note, I'm off to enjoy not working tonight :-)