Back to School aka Crap You Need.

Back to School Shopping

or

Stuff that I *NEEDED* to get me through School/Clinicals/Life this past year

Stuff I bought, borrowed, and otherwise acquired, and would recommend you do the same…..

As a Student:

• ·         Netbook computer with added RAM (that’s memory for you non-geek types).
• ·         Open Office (word processing suite) that is a free, safe download if you don’t have free Microsoft Office available to you from your University IT Department. My U also provided me with a free copy of Windows 7.  Ask around and see what your exorbitant tuition might include.
• ·         Smart phone
• ·         Smart phone apps, such as Davis’ Drug Guide (which comes free when you buy the book), Epocrates, and Resident Helper.  Resident Helper has all the normal lab values and what the different labs tell us.  REALLY great.
• ·         Wireless mouse for the Netbook.  Ups your productivity by at least 50%.
• ·         A free account with Dropbox or Box.net   Both of these are online storage in the cloud.  Put another way, quit carrying around your antiquated, easily lost flash drives, jump drives, thumb drives, memory stick, etc.  Store your files in the cloud where they cannot be lost or stolen (well, not too easily anyway) and if you’ve got internet, you can access all your files EVERYWHERE.  You won’t even realize how important that is until you start using them.
• ·         Springpad.  Also free.  This is the best task manager, to-do list, place to upload important documents AND tag them for easily searching for them again later, and it all resides in the cloud.  Springpad takes a second to set up, I’ll be honest, but you can make it as complicated or as easy as you want.  I would NEVER have made it through nursing school without it reminding me of when everything was due.  I set all my reminders to the day before.  They even push notifications to your iPhone, and I’m sure to Droid as well.  Free.  We like free, don’t we, poor-nursing-boys-and-girls?

Stuff you need for Clinicals aka actually getting to practice Nursing:

• ·         Okeeffe’s “Working Hands” hand cream.  A little dab is enough.  Latex-compatible (if your facility is stupid enough to still use latex).  Very important to keep your skin in good shape, just like we do for our patients.  Too many buggies in the hospital, just waiting to invade a split in a fingerpad or abrasion of the palm.
• ·         Littman Lightweight II SE stethoscope.  Cheap. I paid <$50.  I can hear pretty well with it. Doesn’t break my neck when it is resting there, and doesn’t hurt my ears when I’m doing my assessments.  I’m even sticking with it after school.
• ·         Ryka tennis shoes for women.  Very nice for we girls and our typical over-pronation problems.  Check ‘em out.
• ·         DANSKOs.  These aren’t ‘comfy’ shoes.  They have a very rigid arch.  But if I don’t wear ‘em, at the end of the day, my feet, knees, and back are killing me.  They just take a little bit of a learning curve.  Completely different than what Americans are accustomed to, shoe-wise.
• ·         Non-stick bandage scissors.  Look on Amazon.com  About $15.  Wish I’d had them all year long.
• ·         Your own pair of hemostats.  No, you’re not going to be clamping vessels.  But you are going to see how handy they are for disconnecting IVs that have somehow clamped themselves to the pump.  Or taking pesky tubing off the IV still in your patient’s arm when they need “hep-locked” for a bath or for PT. Or Or Or.
• ·         Rewetting drops for you contact lens wearers.  When you are running up and down the halls at top speed as you will be doing during clinicals, your lenses will catch all that air and dry out.  Or invariably, something will get between your eye and your contact.  Have the stuff in your kit. Seriously.
• ·         Burt’s Bees chapstick. Even comes in colors now.  Nice to have a hint of color without having full makeup on.  I’m not against full makeup in the hospital, but…many nurses you work with will look at you pretty suspiciously if you come too ‘pretty-girl.’  A little mascara and a hint of color on the lips is enough, and is professional.
• ·         Imitrex.  That is gold for you migraine-sufferers.  I’ve had ‘em for the last, I dunno, 15+ years.  Keep one in your pocket.  Don’t broadcast it.  If you start to get your warning signs or aura, go to the bathroom and take it.  You can’t miss clinicals, and your instructors don’t need to know you’re taking meds.  It’s not a narcotic, for god’s sake, and it will keep you acting as a safe nurse, instead of a headache-impaired-nurse.

Stuff that I just like, in general:

• ·         Toms shoes.  Aren’t they fun?  And our materialism is slightly mediated by the donations they make, so yay!
• ·         Burt’s Bees Milk & Honey lotion.  Fab Fab Fab!  And any other assorted Burts products are generally on my fav list.
• ·         Germ X hand sanitizer.  I like that brand because it smells good.  Not all of them do.
• ·         My Keurig coffee maker.  Can’t get through nursing school without a daily caffeine infusion.  I love Newmans Own in coffee and Celestial Seasoning’s tea.
•  

And Oh yeah…get an Amazon Prime account!  Totally important.  And they give it to you free or cheap when you start school and sign up with your school email addy.  Do it.  Textbooks are cheaper on Amazon than at your bookstore.  You can have a textbook shipped to you in only TWO DAYS for free after your Prime membership fee.  Or OVERNIGHTED for only $4.  This will save your ass sometime, trust me.

Happy Back to School Shopping!

Nursing school updates and "Scared Straight"

Howdy. :-)  So I'm now in 3 days a week, 12 hr day clinicals.  I have one online course I'm taking ("Professional Role) and lots of papers and paperwork with Clinicals.  I'm SO like...really? on the paperwork with clinical. But whatever.  I graduate in approx a month and a half. Double yay!

I'm applying for jobs too.  And for the life of me, I applied to a Pediatric Oncology position at a major children's research hospital.  I don't know why.  I have never felt like Peds was for me, but when I saw the job, I just thought I had to apply.  I have pediatrics this week in clinical (well, 1 day PACU and 2 days Peds) so maybe that will add some clarity to the whole thing.

That hospital is 1 hour away from home.  I guess I can commute.  My niece lives 35 minutes beyond the hospital. Who knows, maybe she'll allow me to rent a room 2 nights a week?  The husb better get ready to take care of the fur-babies, then, huh? ;-)

Hmm, what else...?  I got an 'A' in both of those horrific online classes I took in May.  WhewThankGod.

Went to our State Board of Nursing to see a hearing last week.  Also required for our program.  Kind like the show, "Scared Straight."  Keeping the new nurses on the straight and narrow, lol.
Well, the only woman who showed up was in contempt of her SECOND probation.  And they did not revoke her license.  They listened to her, gave her stricter criteria, and extended her probation.

Really? You can keep your license after failing a drug test during your probation?  This lady actually had extenuating circumstances.  She is prescribed an amphetamine for her fatigue due to MS, but she did test positive for alcohol, which she explained was Nyquil.  *shaking my head.  I dunno.  That is a hard call to make.

Two other people were 'tried,' but they didn't bother to show up.  So they were suspended.  AGAIN, not revocation, but suspension.  I just don't get it.

So some of our class asked at the end, when we were allowed to talk to the board.  They pretty much just said that revocation is FOREVER and so they are extremely reluctant to revoke.  Wow.

In other news, I'm doing the Dukan diet.  Down 2.6 in 2 days - Yay for me!

What's up in my online world?

Wowza are these online classes ever full of busy work!

Not sad anymore...been seeing some of the local friends at the Library and The Edge Coffee Shop, so I don't feel as disconnected.  My Husb has been on the road for a week solid, so I've been a little lonely, but my days have been busy.

I'm about to have to diet again.  I diet for awhile, I quit for awhile, and when I start hovering around the magic number 150, I diet again.  I'm about 148 these days.

Let's see...what else...

I'm stressed every time I schedule my online bill pay.  Every time I take money out at the ATM.  My loan funds are getting smaller and smaller.  I hope I can find a job right after graduation.

And to that end, I am putting feelers out.  I have an interview with a total-senior-care, interdisciplinary-team-approach place in my town.  There isn't a specific job opening at the moment, but I am very thankful to the Exec Director who has agreed to meet me.  That'll be sometime next week; she gave me her number to call for an appointment, yay!

I am very thankful that the Husb has been blessed with a lot of work recently (it's contract kinda stuff).  One of my dear friends in our program just had to sign up for assistance.  I know they are under a LOT of pressure at the moment.  God bless 'em.

Think I'll go drink with my friend Psych-PhD.  Her husb is in a band.  They let me sing with them occasionally; it's a blast.  I still get a bit nervous, (I used to get REALLY sick-nervous back in the day if I had to sing...like only a couple years ago) but now it is more fun than not.
Psych-PhD is getting to teach the next group of accelerated students.  She would've been great to have as my teacher, but I'm really glad she wasn't, because we get to be friends this way!  I have 3-4 other really great teachers that I can't WAIT to be done with school so I can be their FRIEND, not STUDENT.  Professional boundaries, and all that jazz.  It's cool; I totally get it 'cause I've been on the other side of that fence before.

Diet Mt. Dew Voltage...ugh, how gross.  Wish I hadn't of bought a 12 pak. ;-)

Online classes; no stranger.

I've taken a disproportionate amount of online classes. My first BS and MS degrees (bs...ha!) were from the best online college, Western Governors University.  (they really are the best; they keep winning awards to substantiate that claim.)

So I knew that these classes, Health Care Admin and Research, had great potential to be huge pains the ass.

Well, they are. :-)

You really end up doing a LOT more work in most online classes. Where an in class discussion would suffice in the brick-&-mortar world, online you get a project.
X 5 days a week (seriously) & then X 2 classes. A lot of it is busy work, too.

But I do like Health Care Admin because it is the business side and, well, up until this year, I've known nothing but business.

I was asked to take the Myers-Briggs personality test. (its a Carl Jung test, really.)

I LOVE stuff like this, and I've taken it before, so I couldn't wait to see who I was NOW.

I took it twice. *blush
I was ENTJ and then ENFJ. ENFJ is what I was the last time I took it. I feel like that is probably me.

I'll post info on what that means next. I'll post a link to the test, too.  REALLY cool for self discovery and for understanding others. I really believe in the stuff.

Well, I'm off for now to look up a clinical research article, write a paper on the ORID method, and join discussion board debate on delegation of an LPN.

Not-So-High-Acuity

Double yay for the last day of High Acuity. My final exam didn't go as well as I would have liked it to. *sigh    
But at least I am done.

I will unfortunately have a B for the course.

And with the closing of one door, comes the opening of another door. We started orientation to our next class; Research. Done it. *snore

There has been much hope that there will be much beer at the end of today...Celebratory beer.

So I might have texted my good friend in class today. I might've said something like "my liver is growling".

And my friend, well, I heard him silently panicking about how he was uncontrollably laughing. And then he might've proceeded to text me back, "oh my, I think I may snort."

Dear reader, a coughing fit could *not* cover up how hard I was laughing.  I had to run out of the room, coughing and pretending to be choked.
Good times!
So a bunch of us are going to our local pub later, to have a *really* good time; well deserved.

And then I have a rehearsal with the community choir that I'm in. So I may go a little drunk tonight, LOL. Brahms Requiem will never have sounded so good!

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? ;-)

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.

What an Accelerated Program is.

Just what exactly is an Accelerated Program, you ask?

A program in which:

• People who were brilliant enough to get in, can't hack it and get kicked out.
• People who don't make anything but 'A's now make 'B's.
• People who have never quit anything in their lives have to discontinue.
• People who have never had mental illness find themselves dealing with depression and anxiety.
• People go on Paxil and Xanax to make it through.
• People get divorced. Or hopefully just have to start marriage counseling.
• People struggle with tiptoeing around 'too much' alcohol.
• Sleep deprivation is the rule.

Because it is a whole year of crisis. And mental health is Never challenged more fully than in a crisis-state.
I had the ego to think when I joined, "*I* won't feel that way. Maybe THEY just didn't know what they were getting into."
Nope, they were right, and I hadn't a clue as to what *I* was getting myself into. ;-)

Dear reader, I'm still hacking it. Proudly. I haven't made all A's. My marriage has come out of a dark November-December. Some of my dearest friends in the world (dearest as a result of this program) are having some of the other points stated here.
I think it is the bootcamp of nurses, an Accelerated program. And this one is just a year, so it's just that much more tight.
Any other program, especially a 4 year program, though, would be exceedingly boring.

My Back and Almost Finals Again

Back - I swung my backpack around and under some stairs.  Small strain from bad body mechanics, is all.  A little less pain today, and probably better tomorrow.

Hurts right over my mid-to-low ribs on my Right back. 

Studying now for an EXAM tomorrow, can you believe that?  They are making our last clinical day for this semester a 1/2 day and then giving an exam.  Pooh.

So I still have all the night-before planning at the hospital and the diagrams to draw (CONCEPT MAP) before being there tomorrow, and a test! Thank God it turns out I am very, very good at concept mapping. 

Oh, well, that's just this program  And I seem to adapt pretty well to whatever they throw.  For the next 3-4 days, it will be all about finals.

Sent from my iPhone

Here's a lady like me! (Note to Mom)

She thinks like you, totally absorbed in it.  Only Thing different is her family, that is unless you include your furbabies☺☺☺

How is your back today? and what did you do??????

Love you, MOM

----- Original Message -----

From: Me

To: Mom 

Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 12:37 PM

Subject: here's a lady like me! Really MORE of a go-getter!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbnk5mIR3A 

Sent from my iPhone

Oncology Clinical I

Hoo-boy.  I just got up from my post-clinical-crash.  As I've previously posted, what makes us so unbelieveably tired is that we go to the hospital at 4pm on Thursday, write down pertinent info for our preplanning paperwork, and then stay up til 12 or 1 AM doing the preplan. And concept map. And med cards for each. Med. On. The. MAR. (medication administration record).  I get it though; we need to be totally prepared to provide really good care to our patients.  When we are knowledgeable, our patients accept us as students much more readily.  They trust us.

And then we are at the hospital all bright and shiny for report at 6:30 AM at St. Big Dog's Hospital. (I'm done with Hospital-of-Changing-Church-Affiliations for now.)
Clinicals are done at 3pm, ahem, 1500.  Last night, my preplanning ran out before my caffeine did, so I was in bed at 12:45 spinning out and tossing and turning about getting up in 5 hours.  By 1:30, I had downloaded an ambient-sounds-maker App for my iPhone to listen to, to distract my mind.  Guess it worked; I awoke at 2 when ‘sounds of the ocean’ shut off, unplugged my headphones and awoke to my alarm 3.5 hours later.

Three of us tag-teamed a bed bath for an independently living  88 year old little-old-lady.  When my cohort was scrubbing her rear end and privates, she asked the patient, “Now I’m not hurting you, am I?” to which said patient replied, “No, that feels good.” Bwah!hahahahahaha.  I think she meant the amount of scrubbing force was good…not that she LIKED it, LOL.  Completely professional, the three of us exchanged knowing glances with one another, never cracked a smile, and filed that one away in the “things to laugh about in post-conference” drawer.

My actual patient today has Breast Cancer that a radical Left mastectomy failed to cure, mets to everywhere (aka it has spread. BAD.), and malignant ascites (cancer in a belly full of fluid where fluid doesn’t belong) blowing up her abdomen like a balloon.  Lower pitting edema  (swelling) 3 or 4+, (not sure due to my inexperience), and almost liver failure. As many of my patients who have already faced their mortality, she was a dear.  And you know what my big nursing interventions were today?  To teach her to not let pain become intractable, because when pain gets out of hand, it’s tough to stop, and speak up about getting pain meds.

Tip:  she was over 60 years old.  To those of her generation, you MUST teach this-- you will NOT become an addict if you start pain meds when you actually have pain!  Bless her heart; accepting a couple of Tylenols was really difficult for her today, even though she rated her pain on the high side with a 7 out of 10.  What a tragedy—to be dying in pain.  Teach your loved ones, too.  Even tolerance and physical dependence related to PAIN will not an addict make.  People become “addicted” in an unwholesome way when they take meds for which they have unequal levels of pain.  I had to convince her it wasn’t a bother either—those things are usually already on your med sheet for ‘just in case.’

She could not sit up in bed without becoming short of breath.  Most people can’t lie DOWN when they’re having breathing troubles.  Her pain of her swollen belly and the pressure from sitting up made it almost impossible for her to sit up any higher than 15 degrees.

…and then she had rectal bleeding today.  Which is a new thing for her.  And it scared her—a lot.  After the primary nurse showed me, and was gone, I was tucking her back in because she had been SO cold, and I could tell she wasn’t good.  I asked her if she was upset about the bleeding, and of course she said yes.  And then I used good ol’ nursing therapeutic communication and asked her, “Want to tell me more about that?” and she opened up and just cried and cried about the uncertainty of her future.  I dabbed her eyes with a tissue, tucked her in even more securely, and wanted to tell her that everything would work out.  But I can’t give someone false hope; never-ever.  Especially for her.  I stayed with her a few more minutes, patted her knee and told her that we would just get through the next hours, hour by hour.  She told me how great I was.

When I left for the afternoon, I made my way back to her room to say thanks for letting me care for her and goodbye.  By that time, her family was at the bedside.  I told the family “You’ve got a special lady here!”  They said they knew. J  I introduced myself to the family, who asked if I was a med student or a nursing student?  I told them “Nursing.”  The sister said, “Good!  You seem to actually care about your patients.”  They wished me luck.  I wished my patient luck.

It was a good day.

Ready to be done

I am SO ready to get down the road 7 months to the part where I know what the hell I'm doing and am done with bring a student.
More details to follow.
Sent from my iPhone

Stuff that hits me right

So I’m talking to Goatee Man this afternoon.  As I am oft to do, I’m talking about everything I love about being in nursing school, about being a nurse, yadda yadda.

And I told him, even though I can’t hone in on what I *do* want to go into at this point, I can at least cross some stuff off my list:

No OB

No Operating Room

No One-Day Surgery

No PACU

To which he replied, “You love nursing so much, you basically don’t want to do anything you’ve learned thus far.”

Much laughter.

In other news, Goatee Man has probable early pneumonia.  Nice urgent care doc (Urgent-Care-Affiliated-with-Hospital-of-Changing-Church-Affiliations) today who works at a nearby VA.  Xrays have been sent to radiology.

No tellin’ what other stuporous pearls he’ll have for me the next day or two until the antibiotics kick in. J

Flu Clinic Day

I got to participate in our Community Flu Clinic at El Humongus Arena of Podunk U.  I don’t know why we weren’t busier, except that it was poorly marketed.  I don’t think enough people knew about it.  All in all, I did give about 40 flu vaccines today, so not too shabby.

Another beautiful memory:  One of the clients that I’ve worked with a lot at Big Mental Health Day Service (where  I’ve been at for my Psych rotation) came to me today for his flu shot!  Bless his heart, he was nervous and was holding the LPN’s hand who brought him for dear life, but wanted me to be the one who did it.  He did great.  My heart overflows with all kinds of gushy emotions. J

By the way, I’m loving my Psych rotation.  They day service I’ve been at the last couple of weeks is awesome.  So awesome, I’m even considering a career in Psych.  And I never saw THAT one coming.   My problem, as usual, is I like everything.  Well, at least I know I won’t be an OB nurse.  Don’t think that one is for me, though I did have a successful rotation.

I digress.

My Community Health teacher took me and a couple of the guys to a couple of our ritzy/eclectic/cool shops in town today to give flu shots, too!  So we were the traveling flu clinic service today.  We gave a bunch of shots at a florist/boutique owned by a lady…then went down the street and gave shots to a bunch of guys at a Music/Guitar/Guitar Lessons shop…owned by her husband!

So when you give 40-50 shots in a day, you’re bound to hit bone.  Yup, bone.  I did…a few times.  I am glad they prepared us for the possibility because it makes you bounce back the first time you do it.  Stream of consciousness: “ok, little stick…needles going in great, see that wasn’t so WHOA WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”  It’s like hitting a brick wall.  And amazing that the patient doesn’t know it.  Of course, I hate it when it happens, because you never know what kind of soreness someone may have later, but it often cannot be helped in thin arms and in the emaciated.

We used these cool needles today that retract when you give a little more pressure on the plunger at the end of the injection.  All in a blink, it withdraws the needle from the skin and retracts into the barrel.  Because most needle stick injuries happen after you withdraw the needle, ya know. J  So we were taught.  Every 8^th one didn’t retract as it should, so we had to discard of it in the usual way; carefully.

Hmmm, what else?

I’m doing Weight Watchers again to get off the 10 pounds I gained as a Bank Trainer and the 5 I gained as a Credit Analyst before that.  Almost 8 lbs down the drain so far.  WW is a great program for teaching boundaries, eating healthy foods, getting in your dairy and veggies, etc.  It is also great because it teaches you to have NO taboo foods.  Which is great, because other ‘diets’ I’ve done have created cravings out of deprivation.  Now if I want birthday cake, I have a piece of cake coated in Lard and Powdered Sugar!  And I count the points honestly, and budget my balance for the remainder of the day.  It just works for me.  Calorie counting doesn’t.

So this semester, Pharm is great, albeit hard.  Mental Health’s teacher is from New York and puts off a lot of my classmates.  I had a boss years ago from Boston and she’s much like her.  I ‘get’ her and we get along great.  She is dumpy, though she can be pretty, has a decent limp, and is overweight.  And I feel very at home with her. J  She let me help her lead a stress class in Group Therapy at Big Mental Health Day Service this week – yea!  Community Health is good—it’s Dr. Community Health that took me and the guys to the florist and the music shop.  She is…brilliant.  And Californian.  And odd.  I think she has breast implants.  No condemnation here; I love plastic surgery.  She is very different, and I think I will like her.  She is super dry, so it is hard to get a read on Dr. Community Health.  So 3 classes and 2 clinicals right now.

That’s all for now.

email to Mom

I went and saw the Nurse Pract at the Student Clinic on Monday.  She agreed with me that it was either a virus or allergies and wrote me a script for Zyrtec (which I already had OTC) and Sudafed (in case I had trouble getting it.)

Really, I went to see her so I could stay home!  I felt too bad to be in class, but you have to have a REALLY good reason. :)

I have been taking lots of Vit D and using my Nasopure (nose irrigation), and I bounced right back.  I'm still blowing gross stuff out and I don't SOUND great, but I feel fine.

I got to start my Mental Health rotation today, and it went really well!  I just felt like I was doing ministry work with the Bus Ministry, or half of the folks that used to come to church, LOL.  No problems at all with that.  Woot for Group Therapy, Pizza, and Uno!

There's a LOT of money in Psych Nursing...who knows?  I get two more 8 hour days to see if I really like it or not.  Then on to Community Health!  Which will be the Health Dept and the Church Health Center and places like that.  I'm REALLY excited about that one!

the Facebook Wall Says it all

Facebook status updates from Fall I say it all:

(both my own personal and from friends at our Accelerated Nursing private group page)

hey everyone....Elizabeth and I are going to the Coffee House at 6 to study for a few hours if anybody wants to join. if you need directions just let me know

Well I finally got the correct time for Wednesday class.....now if I can just find the correct classroom...... :-)

what are retractions? i forgot.....

Do y'all think that everything but the EFM stuff will pretty much be multiple choice?

 

one more question, do stork bites disappear when crying, or deepen in color? because i read both....

 

Grades are up!

 

I forgot how to get to the OR the front way.... can get there the back way from PACU, but am thinking that will look kinda silly.

 

Hey, here's some APA help. I used it a TON my last go-around. Thought you might like it since we are getting into Journals...

 

i just feel like i'm gonna blow the assessment for the final. and don't even get me started on the advanced assessments!

 

Would anyone with a scanner mind to email me the diabetes handouts? I just remembered I never picked them up!

 

Is it just me or does the diabetes chapter drag on and on and on ......

oh and which sets of meds did she say to know real good?

 

someone just shoot me now! i'm totally sucking at these health assessment chapters. esp cardiac....holy cow!  Honestly, I don't feel much better about the OB test.....

 

Thanks in advance to everyone who sends their Childbearing notes to Stephanie. :)

 

I had a good day with *ONE* baby, but I don't forsee me becoming a Nursery nurse. :)

 

so is tactile fremitus good or bad?

 

OB Notes have been sent to everyone's email.

 

"Marijuana cigarettes, that's not right, uh joints, and smoking that meth, hoffing, uh huffing..." Laughed out loud in the library computer lab, even though y'all warned me it was coming. Love that Ms. Miller!

 

Y'all! This is going to be a disaster.

 

I went ahead and emailed everyone the typed Perioperative Questions from class today cuz i didn't know who was taking notes or not. Lemme know if i accidentally skipped anyone :)

 

Reminders:
Do G&D module questions for School Age and Adolescents on Blackboard
Tomorrow's exam will cover Labor & Delivery (Physiology and Care of Laboring Patient), 5 questions about Neonatal transition (CV adaptation, respiratory adaptation and jaundice), and 10 G&D questions. It will NOT cover Nutrition (this will be on the final).
8:30 a.m. Exam in 602
Lecture will follow (9:30-11:20 & 12:30-3:20) Need these notetaking outlines and ppts: Bleeding in Pregnancy, Hypertensive Disorders - HELLP AND DIC, Preterm labor

 

 

Um...anyone else think that the G&D questions are super hard to find?

 

let's all take a minute to pray to the OB gods...

 

Dilatation!

 

Freakin' overwhelmed!!!!!

 

so which pelvis is BEST for vaginal delivery? 

 I know she said it like 10 times in class, but I never filled in the blanks of the first sentence in the myometrial study guide.. Can someone help me out?!

 

BRING YOUR CALCULATORS TOMORROW since 'all good nurses have a calculator on them at all times' or whatever she said, LOL

               Ladies, I will pack 2 extra! One is solar powered...hope it works there in the cave! It should. :)

 

there must have been several item analyses. anybody else pleasantly surprised to see your grade for OB?

 

when I get upset I buy things. Bought myself a shiny red calculator today.

 

Hey Guys, Lori from the lab has given us the awesome opportunity for the chance at some extra lab hours for practice. 

 

Whaddya know? Ms. Miller's not in bed yet! :) Grades posted!

anyone know what's on the clinical exam next week?

 

Confirmed with Dr. Owens today that we do NOT have to wear uniform or lab coat on Wednesday when we do our BSE & TSE teaching check-offs. "You can dress as you usually do for class."

 

med surg exam 3 grades up in case you missed the email.

 

Ok, so what did they say was going to be on the Health Assessment quiz again? Equipment and what? 

 

Miller-ism: [on cerebellar functions] "...and this is where things start getting FUN, if somebody is drunk."

 

Can someone please tell me the lab hours?

 

Well kiddos i hope you all appreciate that this is our last full week of Fall 1!!!! I'm super excited!

 

Can someone help me with remembering which exams are comprehensive?

 

so...how is everyone studying for this Health assessment final on thursday? i'm looking for suggestions....

 

So for Cranial Nerves tomorrow...are we just needing to know what they innervate, or do we need to know how to test them?

 

which cranial nerve goes with vomit?

 

The health assessment quizzes are due by 5 pm!!!

 

Are there any study groups meeting tonight? I'd love to study with someone. Let me know!

 

can someone tell me what cards i need to make for the clinical drug test? i know of witch hazel and benzocaine, but what others? I'm confused.

 

Are y'all memorizing which spinal nerves elicit which deep tendon reflexes?

               NO.  nope, not memorizing those either. *crossing fingers w/ hope

 

so since i skipped on the test review, were there any controversial questions that came up?

               She told us she would tell us the answers, but would not debate

 

only 2 more Nursing Diagnoses & I'm done with my Clinical paperwork for the semester

 

not exactly feeling chipper after reading through the grief/loss powerpoint. boo for dying

 

health assessment final grades posted (shocker!) glad that one's out of the way!

 

Can anybody enlighten me on how the basic assessment by itself is supposed to be worth 80 pts.?

 

can anyone please motivate me to start practicing health assessment. my brain forgot that check-out time isn't until AFTER finals.

 

Can someone please post the day, time, and location of each test this coming week just to make sure that we are all on the same page.

 

do we wear our scrubs and etc for the check off's tomorrow?

 

I cannot WAIT for tomorrow's return to be over. That is all.

 

she did say we could premark our landmarks, rights? Cause poor Tim looks like he has a serious organized fungus with all the black marks over his body.

 

What advanced assessment did everybody pull? Hope you all did GREAT!

               blurry vision with no head trama...

                    Sinus problems and lymph nodes...

                    Kirsten did liver palpation! I was her videographer

9 a.m, right?

 

clinical grades up, well at least mine is

 

what's the hold up on the other grades? they act like they are busy or something ;)

 

OB Final Exam grades went up 5 minutes ago!!

 

And finally:  We're ONLY covering 12 chapters our first week of Patho-Pharm!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Done with Fall I!!!

OB in an Accelerated Program is HELL.  Especially when your teacher is also known as the Warden.  *sigh

Thank GOD that’s over.  On the plus side, there was absolutely NOTHING that they threw at me on the floor at Hospital-of-Changing-Church-Affiliations during OB/Newborn exams or Fetal Monitoring Strips that I didn't know about. (of course not experienced in it, but nothing I didn't already know about!)
Fall I semester-- I completed Health Assessment, Health Assessment Practicum, Med Surg I, Childbearing Family (OB with a couple of kid development quizzes thrown in), and my OB Clinical Rotation/PACU/One-Day Surgery.

And this semester, Mike the astronaut’s got nothing on you babe…na-na-nathing on you babe…ok, so nothing on ME this semester.

I finished this semester with a pocket full of ‘A’s.    I have never worked harder.  Or had to work so hard in…my…life.

The class before us told us at our orientation that if we could just make it through Fall I, we would have smooth sailing.  I now know, that was her way of telling us that if OB doesn’t kill you and once you adapt to the study schedule, you can do this.  Well, one of us couldn't do it.  She didn't have a 75 for OB and she's out.  That's two gone from our original 24.  Sad shit.  The plus side is that she was admitted into the traditional program, but she can't jump in until January, because we're ahead of the trads!  Or the 'generics,' as some of our teachers call 'em, LOL

Health assessment, we made videos.  It was GREAT.  It made me much more confident, because for my Assessment, I felt like I was teaching on a video instead of being inspected in a Practicum return by a bunch of teachers. (which I still was…by video.)  In exchange for getting to make videos, we agreed to the use of our videos for future teaching! 

So, here’s the final:  Do a basic head-to-toe exam on your partner, and draw out of a hat a scenario for an Advanced Health Assessment.  So we had to know ALL the advanced health assessment things, like deep tendon reflexes (where and how to assess), testing and naming all the cranial nerves (which I could already name; I loved Anatomy.), proper use of ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes…let’s see, what else?  Hearing tests with tuning forks like Weber and Rinne.  Sight exams like Snellen and Rosenbaum.  Lymph node palpation and their names.  Inspection, Palpation, Auscultation, and Percussion of chest, lungs, and abdomen.  It is really cool all of the assessment techniques I’ve learned.

So I had to know it all so I would be able to draw a scenario out of a hat and be able to assess for the scenario.  Loved it!  I absolutely adore Health Assessment.

I like Med-Surg a lot.  We got to do a lot about Diabetes, Electrolytes, and Fluid Imbalances.  That was the majority of Med-Surg I, which is pretty important shit. 

OB.  That rotation was pretty cool.  Got me feeling like a nurse.  Really pissed me off seeing my first episiotomy/first live birth which was on my last day of the OB part.  I couldn’t even enjoy the childbirth because I was so pissed at the cutting.  The baby was not having trouble; why are all these doctors so cut-happy?  I know there are two sides to this divide:  Those Who Like Episiotomy and Those Who Don’t.  I am of the “Those Who Don’t” persuasion.  I think a tear is injuring what was necessary, where an episiotomy is quite possibly more injury than was necessary, but we won’t ever know BECAUSE YOU’VE INFLICTED IT ALREADY.

OK, so there are times and places for being cut.  But the docs at this particular hospital LOVE to cut.  Boo. 

Also, I hate the nursery.  HATE.  It felt more like babysitting than working with a patient.  This medical center is not set up for sick kids; they all get packaged and shipped to a higher level 2.5 hrs away at a BIG children’s hospital.

My most memorable experience in OB was the day I got to stay with one patient from pre-op, to wheeling her down to surgery holding area, to surgery, WATCH the surgery/baby born/Daddy cry, and wheel her back to her room afterwards.  Really cool to be there for her throughout the whole experience.  As we were going back to her room, one of the ‘real’ nurses was talking about the rest of the day’s events, when the patient interrupted her.  “Where’s my nurse?”  The nurse talking to her stated, “Hon, I’m right here.”  And the patient said, “No, my NURSE.”  She meant ME!  That made me feel unbelievable. J  The ‘real’ nurse kinda scoffed, “Oh, you mean your STUDENT nurse?” but it didn’t matter to me at that point.  The point had been made; I was a good at taking care of  my patient, she trusted ME, and ‘student’ status be damned, I am good at this.

*happy sigh

One Day Surgery.  It was a great experience…except for at the very end.  Which soured the whole day.  So let me explain.

I got to get SEVERAL patients ready for their various surgeries that morning.  Had to be there at 0530…woo, that’s early.  So I got my first IV (woot!) but the nurse I was following was kinda in the middle of it too.  She thought she had enough pressure on the site (which she DIDN’T) and I was trying to work AROUND her, and my patient bled everywhere.  I’d been fine if the nurse would’ve just let me do it.  So then, we finally get her hooked up to her LR and now I’ve got to clean up blood that is all over everything.  *sigh.  That lady was really nice.

So I set up lots of tubing and fluid kits and antibiotics.  I started 3 or 4 more IVs and had to have help ‘getting’ about half of them.  So I’d miss and my nurse in charge of me would salvage it.  So I’m not really happy with my performance there just yet.

Then there was the patient that just whined and cried and belly-ached when I stuck her.  It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes.  What I WANTED to tell her was that I was using a 20 gauge and that the folks in the OR wouldn’t even like THAT because they want an 18! (bigger, for you non-medicals, in case they need blood).  God, what a fucking baby.

I started an IV on a 17 year old an hour later, and even though said over and over before I stuck her that she hated needles, once I actually did it, she was really pretty good with the whole thing.  Faced her fear and all that.  I just kept her talking about playing clarinet in band.  So how’s that for therapeutic communication, eh?

So the sour part.  The really GREAT nurse that let me come assist (ahem, observe) with a bronchoscopy, and who had let me do all kinds of great stuff all morning used tape on the end of an IV.  And was written up for it.

The back story:  she and I both went to another floor to pick up the fairly demented patient for her procedure.  We were going to take her down, and the cap was somehow no longer on the end of the IV tubing.  I even had another CAP in my pocket that we tried to use, but it was for a different set.  So, instead of scrapping the tubing, she taped it.  With my tape.  Yeah, I felt sick, because it didn’t seem correct.  Like Jo says, if you have to fuck with it, it’s wrong.  Well…tape is NOT STERILE.  Had we plugged the lady into that, it would have been a possible portal of infection. 

So my assigned nurse got an ass chewing and a write up by her other associates in that area.  Well, there’s a lesson I’ll never EVER have to learn firsthand.

Know what? When you act like a nurse, everyone treats you as a nurse, and I’ve found it quite easy to take on the role.  Most people found out at the END of their time with me that I was a student, and that is good. 

The upside to my 8 hrs on One-Day was that I got to do discharge on the Bronch patient, and it was gratifying to get her dressed and wheel her downstairs to her awaiting brother-in-law’s truck.  She told me she hoped to see me at Walmart or somewhere out shopping, and never here again.  And I told her I’d love to see her out shopping and never here again either!  …Bless her heart.  We were looking for mets to her lungs on a cancer that had almost taken her once already, and it was looking promising for good news.

So that leads me to now.  I’ve just come off a very lovely Fall break in the amount of 4 consecutive days off with no homework, assignments, or tests to study for.  I am now in Fall II and I am taking Mental Health, Community Health, Mental Health rotation, Comm Health rotation, and Pathopharmacology.  Hmm.  I think that is it.

I like it all so far.  I missed the first day back to my first cold of the year.  To be continued.