Let the madness begin!

Well, I passed my first week in nursing school! I have decided that I will need to celebrate even the smallest of victories to keep positive throughout this challenging and exciting journey I am beginning.

As I was driving to my first day of classes on Monday, my stomach was turning in knots and my hands were a bit shaky. Why am I so nervous about school??!! Turns out, so was everybody else! All 10 of us in my clinical group were discussing our jitters which I think made us all feel better too, that we weren't the only one freaking out! For me, I think I was just so anxious to begin doing what I am meant to do!

For the first 3 weeks of classes, our clinical group will meet on campus before we head off to North Hills Hospital to terrorize our poor patients with our lack of confidence and ability. haha! :) (I'm sure those nervous feelings will return again then.) We have started working on "dimensional analysis." It's basically calculating dosages for patients with all sorts of fun math and conversions. Yuck! During the 5th week of the semester, we will be given a 20 question test in which we have to make a 90 or above to pass and if we fail it twice, we are out of the program. Makes sense though- do you want a nurse giving you meds who failed the test on how to calculate the proper dose? Now I was really worried about this test as I have never been a straight A math student, but our instructors are doing a good job in helping us learn and practice. The bad part is that we are tested on this all 4 semesters!

As for skills, we're basically learning how to be a nurse aide at this point, learning vital signs, giving patient baths, changing bed sheets in an occupied bed, moving patients correctly, etc. The funny thing is that even though experienced nurses usually don't like doing stuff like that (and I'm sure I will be that way too), it's so exciting and new to me that I love it! Poor Jason has to pretend to be interested when I come home from school and demonstrate to him how to put on sterile gloves! He's such a supporter!:)

As for my theory class, we are learning about the "Nursing Process." (Assess, Diagnose, Plan, Implement, Evaluate, in case you were wondering) Something I didn't realize before this week is that nurses have their own diagnoses they work with on a patient. A nursing diagnosis is different from a medical diagnosis in that a medical diagnosis is usually the major problem (diabetes, cancer, etc) and the nursing diagnosis is usually all of the causes of the problem (hypertension, edema, etc). Now, nurses are still to help treat the medical diagnosis based on a physician's orders but they have their own problems to solve as well. Interesting huh? I imagine that, based on where a nurse works, this particular responsibility varies. My theory class meets once a week for 4 hours at a time which I thought would drag on forever but our instructor does a good job of keeping us busy and again, it's all so interesting you want to listen! Such a change from the old Mary!

My other class is a Skills Lab. This is where we will be learning various skills and procedures that we will then have the chance to use in the clinical setting. Injections, venipuncture, and foley catheterization are some of things we will learn. Now, we may not get a chance to try out our new skills in the first semester...my clinical instructor said that only 2 people last semester got the chance to try their hand at foley insertions...is it sick that I hope to be that lucky?? I kind of feel like Dr. Yang on Grey's Anatomy, how she's always jumping at the chance to get in on the nitty gritty surgeries. That's the best way to learn though!

Sorry for the long initial post...I think this blog will also help me study as I write down a review of what I'm learning...You might be getting more of a nursing education than you asked for! Thanks for reading...Check back soon! Have a fabulous weekend!