This is my journey from S.N to R.N

So there’s this girl I work with. And she’s in nursing school.
Before I begin, let me tell you- she’s a bit dim.
She thinks she knows it all…but, nevertheless, there’s some empty space up there. And I’m not trying to be mean by any means. Please don’t think that.

It’s just that this really topped the cake. Fresh icing. So, I will talk about it here. Because I don’t want to be catty and talk about it to people who actually know her.
Once again, she’s in nursing school also. She’s already got a degree so she is completing the two years for nursing stuff.
I asked her this morning how school was going.
Everything was going good apparently. Great!

Then she told me she’s only been in school 3 weeks and already has an exam on fluids and electrolytes.
Reasonable, I thought.
But then she said she didn’t think it was soon enough to have a test yet and what could they possibly test on??
Confused, I thought…well, you could have a whole test on just fluids and electrolytes. That’s a lot of information right there.

Before I could say anything, she continued.
“Yeah, and you know my health assessment class is kinda slow. I don’t feel like I’m learning anything. We learned how to give a bath and make a bed.”
I explained how the first semester is usually Nursing Aide stuff and it can be slow when you want to learn a bunch of skills. But you still have assessing to learn anyways.
To which she replied: “Oh yeah, they spend a lot of time on assessing. I mean, our end of the semester exam has a full head-to-toe assessment.”
I told her our school had that for a check-off at the end of the first semester also.

But THEN she said:
“It just seems like a waste of time. I mean, do nurses even assess anyways?”

And my head exploded.
Do they even assess anyways?! I don’t have enough font or capitals or colors to reasonably express, without being annoying, how far my jaw dropped to the floor. Do nurses assess? Really. Seriously.
Do you even know what you are going to school to learn how to do? What, exactly, do you think nurses do all day?

I stammered and quickly recovered.
Yes! Nurses assess! That drives everything. It’s the very basis of our care. We assess without realizing it. But you have to know how to do full head-to-toe so that if you know what’s normal, you can find what is abnormal. You assess even when you’re just talking to a patient and seeing their LOC (level of consciousness).Yada, yada, yada.

She responded:
“Oh. Really? Like assessing skin when giving a bed bath. I get it. Huh. I really thought it was, like, the nurse practitioner’s who assessed.”

Whatever else could explode, did. Little blood vessels I think.

“Yeah, but that’s that. But I was watching [insert name of night nurse] get out the blood and put it in the little bottles to send to the lab and I was like, man! I wish I could be doing that! You know, instead of boring head-to-toe assessments.”

There was nothing left of me, but a little puddle of shock.

I just…I don’t even know how to finish this post.

Love,
Laney

It’s hit or miss some mornings, but most days, my windshield is frosty.

I’m so terrible about going out and getting the car started before I’m ready. I mean, it’s a Catch-22 right? Can’t go out cause I’m not dressed yet and it’s too cold. By the time I’m ready enough, it’s time to leave. And then, by that point I’ve gotta go to avoid being late.

On the rare occasions I get out to my car early, by the time I get out there…the window is still frosty!! It always clears faster if the car is actually moving. But you can’t move if you can’t see, right?

The other day in class, a peer of mine started talking about how he drives to school looking through the frost.
Hey, me too!
He had the same reasoning even.
Awesome! Someone understands!
Even down to the bending over and looking through the little cleared part on the bottom.
Wow, long lost twin!!

Just glad to see I wasn’t the only one.

Another classmate walked by saying “Oh wow! I do that too!!”

[I know my mother will probably be mad at me if she reads this so here is a pre-emptive apology]

Thanks for understanding.

Love,
Laney

Just working at the PICU today.
Haven’t written because of exhaustion. I’m pleased to share, however, that clinicals is done with and I’ve only got a couple of days left.
I’m working on my 33rd of 36 hours needing to be logged from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, needless to say, I am not terribly coherent.

I promise to update over the Thanksgiving Break.

(PS- one of the nurses insisted on playing a radio station with Xmas music on it. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet! What the heck!?)

This update is for the Dutchman. I have to admit I have been pretty awful at updating lately. I went on Fall Break starting not last Friday but the one before. I worked that weekend and then lolligagged all last week playing Rock Band and watching movies. I worked yesterday, today, and then will tomorrow as well.
I’ve got to get some reading done because I didn’t do squat the whole week before break which means I’ve got a couple hundred pages of reading to catch up on.
The plan for the rest of fall break:
-Homework at some point
-Finish ‘evaluation’ paragraph for Case Study project (which I plan to get done today)
-Wedding dress shopping on Monday with/for my friend A.Clark
-Spending the night in Charlotte on Tuesday and seeing Blink-182 in concert
-Hanging out with my sister at my house
-Going to Pilot Mountain for an overnight camping trip
-Spending time with my family
-Working a bunch

This semester has FLOWN by. And not because time flies when you’re having fun. It’s just been so busy. And nursing school is not necessarily what I would call fun.
After I get back from break (Oct. 19th), there will only be a month and a half left. How awesome is that?
And then I’ll be a senior.
Can’t wait.
I’ve just got to do well on my tests. I’m riding the edge right now in the testing category. It’s so weird. When we pow-wow in clinical and they ask me the questions from the testing book, I get them right. It’s just the structure of sitting down at a timed test that everyone gets ridiculously anxious over where I test poorly. Out of the four answers I eliminate two and always choose badly on the last 50-50 chance. Arhghsdopjfdsf.
I will not fail this semester. I cannot afford to repeat because I am not rich by any means.
I have to keep reminding myself that- it helps me keep my focus.

Oh and my midterm clinical evaluations were stellar. “Your potential is limitless” said my Oncology instructor who happens to be a NP (nurse practitioner). I was also told that if I keep up this pace, I could probably have two patients by the end of the semester. Which would be super.

I had to schedule myself at work all the way out to Feb. 6, 2010. What shit is that?? [pardon my french.]
But that’s all the way deep into next semester. How do I know what days I’m open.
If I went to a normal 4 year university I wouldn’t even know my school schedule.
What ridiculous-ness.

Interesting Things (to me) At the Moment:
[which may be uninteresting to you, so I won't be offended if you stop reading. I bolded the main points though]
There’s this TV series you should watch. You have to start from the beginning. But Ishaq and I were totally hooked. It’s called Jericho. It’s only about 35 episodes long so it’s like a really looong movie, but it’s amazing. It’s about nuclear bombs going off in the United States and what happens in the aftermath.
Another one, if you like British humor, is The IT Crowd. It’s the computer department made up of two nerdy guys and their female boss who knows nothing about computers. It’s absolutely hilarious. If you like British humor.
The new Paramore CD rocks my socks. I love them.
I’ve also been listening to A LOT of Smashing Pumpkins lately. I got re-addicted to them when I was making a mix CD(or playlist rather) for Ishaq. It had all this alternative rock music which is his favorite.
Two TV shows that are new this season: FlashForward and Glee. Check them out. They’re two totally different shows.
The first one is where everyone in the world has a blackout and are unconscious for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. However, we know that 2 people, and only 2 people, in the whole world were actually awake. So this group that is part of the FBI are tryng to figure what caused the blackouts and why. Also, during the blackouts, everyone had a “flashforward” and saw what they were doing on April 29th which is 6 months in the future. It is v. cool.
The second show is a comedy about glee club in high school. It’s a musical kind-of, but the singing is AMAZING. Forreal forreal. And Jane Lynch is the antagonist and she is hilarious. She’s been in loads of stuff including two and a half men and role models.
Apparently, the new trend for fall is plaid. I’ve always loved plaid, so I’m pretty excited at how easy it has been to find clothes I adore.
I also cut all my hair off. I was needing short hair. It was down to near my belly button and it is now shoulder-blade length. I had actually cut it to my shoulders a couple of weeks ago, but it’s already grown about 5 inches.
Oh, I finally caved and splurged on some North Face jackets for Ishaq and I. We have never had jackets where we’ve actually been really warm. And yesterday was cold. Really cold. I had to use the heater in the car on the way to work. And it’s only the beginning of October. Usually it doesn’t get remotely chilly until way later. Which makes me think it is going to be a cold winter. Hence, the splurging. But I got them at a great deal and saved about 30 dollars on each jacket AND got free shipping which made the savings about $70. HOORAH!
Last, but not least, Rock Band is awesome. I kick butt on the drums. Just so you know.

I think that’s all for now.
I’m sorry that was horribly long. In my defense I hadn’t posted in two weeks.

Last 24 hours:
-Went to clinical, successful skills lab, great clinical feedback, got dismissed early, went home, watched TV, research online, ate dinner with husband, got in argument with him, made up/fell asleep, woke up, went to work, worked, did bills in downtime, waiting to clock out [in a half hour], will go to in-laws house for dinner/tea then head home to build new website and hang out with husband.

Ishaq is so creative. He came up with yet another website idea which we actually bought the domain for today. It’s a tad silly, but we’ll see. More info after its up and running!

Today was a great day in the PICU. Only 2 admits and 6 discharges!!! Huzzah!

I am uninteresting today. Sorry, folks.