Christmas Break

So far I've really enjoyed the break from all the reading. But I'm also very excited to start the next semester! My break has been good. I'm loving the time with family and friends. I feel nerdy cause I'm excited to use my new bookbag when I get back to classes. My old one wasn't cutting it with our massive books so I asked for one for Christmas. I'm also planning on getting another pair or two of the cargo scrubs pants. I like them so much better than the flares.

End of my first semester

I've finished my first semester as a nursing student with no C's yet and it feels wonderful!! I've loved it so much. Most of my patients have just been great. I've gotten to see a bronchoscopy and a echocardiogram. I've given PO and SubQ and IM meds. I've been an advocate for my patients. I also got to work in with a patient in an airborne isolation room and those gowns are hot! I seriously cannot wait to start next semester, especially family health!

Nursing Concepts 1

So far nursing concepts has gone pretty well for me. I've enjoyed my clinicals and even got to remove a catheter last week. However I did not get to pass meds because my patient on Thursday was discharged and I guess if it's not the same patient on both days you can't give meds. At least not for your first time. So I'm pretty nervous about our skills test tomorrow on meds. I just think I would feel better about it if I had had the opportunity to actually give some to a real person. But hopefully I won't forget anything and will be fine. In other news, I did good on my first test for nursing concepts. I got a 90. =]. Hopefully I will do that well on the upcoming pharm test Monday.

Final thoughts on Fundamentals and a few other things.

I really enjoyed this class. The only thing I wish was done differently were when the slides were posted. I think the slides should either be posted the day before or there should be enough time to write everything down in class. If I can't have the slides printed and can't keep up then I feel like any little thoughts I write down are all disorganized and I won't remember exactly what I'm talking about. That was my only problem.

I'm pretty happy with my grade. I got a B in the class but I'm 0.43 points away from an A which kills me a little. I'm hoping it'll be rounded but don't think they round.

But I'm so excited for tomorrow!! I can't wait to start learning about injections and IVs. I actually got my flu vaccine today and wanted to ask the walgreens lady a ton of stuff about it but decided not to bug her.

YAY!!

I'm so excited to be done with my first nursing class and to have passed it!! I can't wait to get started on the next class. =]

Can't believe Fundamentals is almost over!

Wow time sure has flown by! My clinical went very well this week, much better than last week's. I really enjoyed helping our patient with everything she needed. And I'm so excited to use the med system that TMH has. I think it's so cool! Studying has been going good I guess. I feel a little behind on it but I'm sure I'll be ready come Wednesday. I did take a break to watch the FSU game with some friends last night. What a great game and I'm so excited we're ranked 16 now! Woot woot!

Stressful Clinical this week.

So this clinical wasn't the best one for me. My patient was resting most of the time so I felt like I was slacking cause I had nothing to do. I ended up trying to help the nursing techs. But when my patient was awake she wouldn't tell me what she needed and just asked me to get a nursing tech. And when it came time to do my assessment she said she wasn't feeling good and didn't want me to do it. Ms. Taylor ended up having to do the assessment while I watched which completely freaked and stressed me out. But I'll practice assessment on my roommates to be prepared for next week. Hopefully I'll have a patient who's more willing to have me help. So I've just been sort of bummed out today and something that I was hoping would cheer me up ended up not helping my mood and possibly bringing it down. I just can't wait to start the new week and get my mind off the past 2 days.

TMH Rehab

I enjoyed clinicals this Friday at TMH Rehab. All our patients were really nice and the one we took vital signs on was very excited to have nursing students. I got to practice 2 bed baths and made quite a few beds. We did forget to lower a bed and put up on of the rails on a bed and I had to put back on the isolation gown to go do it. I do wish that there was a little more to do. Our patients were mainly resting or at therapy so there was a lot of down time for us. I am really excited for next week's clinical though, especially because it's the afternoon shift and I don't have to be up at 5 am!!

Midterm Done!

So I gotta say, yesterday before I studied with Nikki I was stressing out a little. I felt like i had so much more to learn and felt so behind. But we went through the Fundamentals Success book that had a lot of questions like the test. I was able to figure out most of them and that really calmed me down. And for good reason. I did pretty well on the test. I think I got an 88 maybe higher depending on if Mrs. Damelio drops one of the questions. I am happy with that for my first test in nursing school. But will definitely start studying earlier for the next test. Tomorrow I have my lab which should be interesting with learning bed baths, brushing patients teeth, and shaving. And I don't have a clinical this week so that will give me some time to work on the paper since my parents are coming into town Friday.

First Clinical Done!

So first off, I am very proud of myself for getting to the clinical 15 minutes early. I am NOT a morning person and also have a tendency to run late. But it helped that I gave myself 45 minutes to get there. I was pretty nervous about meeting my patient but after hearing that some of us would be working with dementia patients I calmed down a little. I think I just had this feeling that I was going to be assigned one and that worked for me since my grandmother had dementia. I am used to interacting with someone with dementia and felt very patient and understanding with my patient. I really enjoyed my day with her and she was very sweet. However, I did have trouble getting enough information to write my paper. I think it'll be a little harder with less information. But with one clinical under my belt, I think I will be a lot less nervous for the next one.
Now on to studying for the midterm. Hopefully I will do very well on it. That would be such a confidence booster.

Vital Signs

So I got to say I was a little worried about doing vital signs. In my Anatomy 2 lab we took blood pressure and I used a stethoscope there and had such a hard time hearing it while everyone else did fine. But today, with my stethoscope, I didn't have much of a problem and got pretty excited to finally be able to do it. I think I'm going to go buy a blood pressure cuff tomorrow so that I can practice some more. The more practice I have at all the vital signs, hopefully the less nervous I'll be come the first clinical. I can already see myself shaking too much to get a good pulse reading! Oh, I did have one problem during lab today, respirations. I keep forgetting to do them while I'm taking the pulse! I think that will be the hardest thing for me.

Nursing for me

When I think of a nurse, I think of someone who is caring, warm, and puts the needs of others first. They are the people who give us encouragement when we can't find any of our own. Nurses help those who can't help themselves and give 110% all the time. If you can't do this than you're in the wrong field.

I can't remember exactly what made decide to be a nurse. I know it was back in middle school and I knew I loved helping people, and science. I think my Aunt Nancy helped my decision. But ever since then my passion for it has grown with everything I do. Besides having kids one day, this is something I want to do more than anything.

Since I decided I wanted to be a nurse, I've known what field I wanted to work in. I have always loved babies and since my aunt told me about neonatal nurse practitioners I've had my eyes set on that. My senior year of high school I got to do an externship in a OB at the local hospital. This only made me more passionate as I loved every second of it. I want to one day work in a NICU and everyone always ask how I'll handle losing some infants. But I've always thought that I was going to be the nurse that put in the extra effort to save all those I could. And you have to remember the ones you helped, otherwise you'd go crazy.

I am taking a little longer route to reach my goal but I could not be more excited to start! I can't wait to see what this year brings!