High Acuity Final. TOMORROW

It's a good thing I've waited until now to get a bad case if the "I don't wannas" because this is my last bricks-and-mortar class final.

(I have a couple of online classes to contend with, but that's somehow different in my mind.)

My instructor sent us the blueprint, so I at least will know where to focus my energy:

"The breakdown of questions for the final exam will be as follows:

Number of questions / Topic
17/Neonatal material
41/ ECG (Multiple choice-there will be strips on this portion also)
7/ Sepsis
9/ pacemaker
5/hemodynamics
3 /Heart surgery (CABG)
3 /Heart Surgery (valves)
3 /IABP
3 /Transplantation
5 /Mechanical ventilation
3 /ARDS
3 /Shock

Have a good weekend and I will see you on Monday at 9 am. Mrs. X"

So now you know what I'll be doing today (/have been doing for the last few days). :-)

How to Become a Nurse in One Year.

I'm still figuring that one out, actually.

My local University has a one year Accelerated program for people who have a bachelor's degree already. Pretty competitive, so imagine how excited I was to find out last summer (Memorial Day weekend 2010) that I had  indeed made the cut!

Twenty-four people out of 80-something applicants got that happy little letter. :-)

It's pretty tough at times. So tough, we lost 2 people in the first 2 semesters; Summer and Fall I. (oh yeah, I should mention, it's year-round school, too).

So as long as I pass my final in High Acuity Monday, I've about got it "whooped."
(no worries, I'm a big study geek. Well, some worries, this crap REALLY sucks. The sickest of patients and a whole semester of learning in 3 weeks...!)

May is two online classes, and June and July are 3, 12 hr workdays ea. week with a preceptorship squeezed in somewhere. They transition us into the workforce; my fav part of this program. I'll be managing 5-6 patients a day after the first couple weeks, so I'll be ready for the real world!
Clinicals up until this point have been 2 patients, max.

I am almost an RN. Wowza.

Oh yeah, did I tell you I want to be a Nurse Practitioner? ;-)

Tater has claimed my temp storage solution.

Recent Honors

I was invited to Phi Kappa Phi, the oldest academic honor society (non-departmental).  Pretty cool.

But *GIRL SQUEEEE!*   I was invited to Sigma Theta Tau, the “International Honor Society of Nursing!”  (STTI) YAY-YAY-YAY!  I have worked SO hard this year towards that goal.  And I thought having that one ‘B’ in nursing would exclude me, so when I was notified…wow.

The way that all happened, though, was a bit sad. Several of us were sitting at a Filipino restaurant in another town after the first part of a Nursing Research Day at Private-Beautiful-though-Church-affiliated University.   Each one of us around the table got an email…except one. *sigh.  We graciously put off the celebration until we were not with that person, but, STILL.  How on earth the stars line up for us to all get in but her?

Anyway, it is the top third of the class, and in a class of only 22, the spots are pretty limited…and coveted.

Induction into the societies are the next two Monday nights…yay!  I could not be more excited and humbled to be a part of them.

Musical Honor:

 I have been a guest singer with a band as of late.  As kind of a long story, one of my dear friends who is a Psych Nurse Professor at my Podunk U is married to the lead singer/bassist.  (She isn’t one of my teachers, so we get to be friends.  Can’t wait for a few more of my teachers to get to be friends, too, but I digress).  Anyway, the band was doing a wedding, the bride wanted Carrie Underwood’s “Mama’s Song,” and the band wanted a chick singer.  We had all hung out one night, they heard me sing a couple of bars to the Enzyte commercial (lol, another story) and I was asked!  I was really nervous, but now I LOVE it.  It went really well, and I was even tipped $100 to sing it again at the end of the reception night.  I sang it with them at a bar again the other night.

They guys gave me an open invitation to learn some more of their stuff.  FUN.

And I’ve joined a community choir that is working on the Brahms Requiem in English.  Quite a contrast from country music, huh? (that is the ONLY country music that both I sing or the guys in the band perform, btw.)  It is weird to be back in the professionally trained singer world, too.  But it is challenging, and it is good for me to work on something besides nursing all the time.