Officially finished with 2nd semester!

So I was finished with finals a week ago...but the grades are now posted, so I consider that official.  Mental Health - A (98%...BOOYAH!), Research Methods - A, Med-Surg - B.  Wish I could have gotten that 3rd A, but all things considered, I'll live with the B.

And by all things considered, I take into account that our program offers Med-Surg as one class, in one semester, for 8 credit hours.  I sat in lecture for 3 hours on Mondays and 2 hours on Wednesdays, clinical for 6-7 hours on Tuesdays, in addition to the 10-15 hours each week I spent on clinical work (pre-clinical prep, post-clinical worksheets, care plans, and journals) and the lots of hours of reading the textbooks and ATI chapters.  And the fact that 3 of our 16 class members did not pass Med-Surg and will not be moving on with us to 3rd semester.  :-(  So hell class from hell, plus some classmates not doing so well...that B I got is acceptable.

So I guess I'm officially a 3rd semester nursing student!  I'm a college senior!  Again!

I'm on break until January 9th...nothing school-related that needs to be done.  Well, other than seek out and order textbooks and hound Blackboard to find out what I need to pre-read before classes start.  But that's nothing new.  It honestly feels really strange to have nothing to do, school-wise.  Since August I have been spending hours on end doing something - reading, writing careplans, looking up drugs, writing up study guides, memorizing lab values or toxicity levels - and to quit cold turkey is kinda weird.  I'll be sitting in my recliner and kind of panic, thinking that I should be doing something...but then I realize I don't have to.  I think I'm traumatized or something.  PTSD r/t recently completed semester of nursing school aeb random moments of panic from feeling like reading, studying, or learning content needs to be taking place.

So while I'm doing nothing, I may not be around here much either.  Not that that's a huge change from when I was in school.  My poor bloggit- blog has gotten neglected the past few months  :-(  But those in nursing school or who've been in nursing school...y'all know that's perfectly normal.  Nursing school consumes your life.

On that note, good luck to those who are still working on finishing up another semester...congrats to all those who are finished with another semester...SUPER CONGRATS to those are graduating!  And if I'm not back before then...have a very Merry Christmas!!

Later gators  :-)

Procrastination-insomnia post

So it's approaching 0300 and I have an exam at 0900...and I still need to get some sleep.  So what am I doing?  Last minute review?  Sleeping?  Nope, I wandered over here to check in.  :-)

I'm here but just a moment, but I'm still alive and halfway through my horrible exam schedule.  2 ATI exams under my belt - Level 3 on Mental Health, Level 2 on Med-Surg - and now just a 4th exam for Med-Surg (covering cancer, integumentary, renal, repro, and musculoskeletal...yikes) at 0900 and the comprehensive final on Wednesday.  Then I am DONE!  FINISHED!!  No school to deal with for a month!  And...I will OFFICIALLY by halfway through nursing school.  BOOYAH.

But I'm still in seclusion for the next  60 hours or so...studying, studying, studying.  And maybe some sleep in there.  But in 60 hours, I will be DONE!  FINISHED!!  Not looking forward to it or anything, either.

Study hard, fellow nurslings....we're in the homestretch for fall semester 2011!

5 weeks in...and I seem to have disappeared

I haven't, really...just been consumed by this somewhat demanding entity in my life that is nursing school.  The concept of insane busy has ramped up a whole lot more this semester...to the tune of spending at least 10 hours each week for my Med-Surg clinical pre- and post-work, not counting the 7-8 hours of actual clinical time on the floor.  And that's just clinical for one class...I have plenty of work for the other classes.  I've decided that if I didn't need to sleep or eat, I would have a lot more time to get things done.  Unfortunately, my overall health and wellness don't really go for that, at least not on a long-term basis.  And I now have better knowledge that "long-term basis" refers to more than 1 night of not sleeping at all, and probably 3-4 nights in a row of minimal sleep (like, 2-3 hours).  Nursing school educates you in so many ways!  *sigh*

Things are going pretty good.  I've gotten a few clinicals under my belt, getting more confident around my patients and providing their care.  Still not a fan of the content area, but Mental Health clinicals have been interesting, both at the childrens' psychiatric hospital and at the various sites out in the community.  I really can't elaborate much, but I will say that humans can really, really suck sometimes..especially the parents of these kids we see at the psych hospital.  Especially when some of the kids get to doing better at the hospital and are released back into the hellhole that is their normal lives, and end right back up at the hospital.  Hello, people, YOU are what's wrong with your kiddos.  :-(

Med-Surg is probably my favorite, despite the crazy workload and the...umm, tribulations...with the new instructor.  We're all still in the learning curve, trying to find the best balance...and that's probably all I should mention about that.  Loving clinicals despite the crazy amount of weekly busywork to do.  Our time on the floor has doubled from last semester, we're more involved in the direct patient care process (as skills allow) and we're actually getting to do some procedures other than passing PO meds.  IV meds -- usually PRN morphine into peripheral IV's, but one classmate gave some scheduled meds into a central line (and the meds this patient was getting q2hr would have killed a horse...and not only was she not knocked out, she was talking coherently and walking around the unit.  Umm, yeah, OK...), lots of blood glucose testing and insulin admin, plus someone pulled a PICC line, someone pulled a Foley cath...and I'm saving this one for last...*someone* (ahem...ME!!) got to put in an NG tube.  And I have to say it was pretty darn cool to do it.  It was a textbook insertion on a non-textbook patient...in that he couldn't follow directions to swallow on cue.  Regardless, I hit the esophagus and stomach on the first attempt and my instructor said I did an excellent job.  I didn't give PO meds that day, but I think the NG tube insertion more than made up for it.  That was a week and a half ago and I'm still all jumping-up-and-down-excited from it.  Imadork.

First Med-Surg exam is under my belt -- got a good solid B on it, I'm happy with it -- and first Mental Health and EBP exams are coming up.  I'm trying to keep up with my text and ATI reading, hoping it helps with semester exams as well as the ATI testing at the end of the semester.  And other than that...just trying to keep my head above water.  Two more weeks of classes until fall break, then we're on the downhill slope of the semester.  Awesome possum.

Oh...and after almost a full year battling it...I finally "passed" my HepB titer and I'm now clinically compliant.  It took 6 vaxes and 3 titer checks, but I'm in the clear.  After all I've been dealing with this thing, that's almost worthy of a celebration...lol

'Tis Friday, which is my day "off" (ha...as if I really have a day off...), so after I get kiddos on the bus and delivered to school, I'm heading out for a much needed solo walk/run.  I do believe I'm going to have Frank accompany me (Frank as in Sinatra; accompanying as in his lovely voice from my Zune to my ears)...because I'm in an Ol' Blue Eyes kind of mood.  Then I have some cardiac reading, some psychiatric pharmacology reading, and some topic research to get to work on.  Yay, stuff to do.

Happy Friday, y'all...enjoy your weekend!