More Skills and More Good Grades!

Happy Spring Break! Yes, it's that time and I couldn't be happier! I am looking forward to having next week off and getting to catch up with some friends, watch all my Tivo'd Oprahs since January, celebrate Easter in Kingwood, and yes unfortunately, I also get to catch up on some school work.

So far, March has been a good month. The week before last, we started giving medications during clinical. The first day, we only gave PO meds (PO meds are oral meds, liquids, pills, etc). Then we got to the good stuff...injections! I had a diabetic patient who had an order for sliding scale insulin. Basically that means that we check his blood sugar with a finger stick (my first blood! i know, i'm weird for thinking that's cool) and then based on the blood sugar level, we give him so much insulin. I got to give 3 units of Novolin R Insulin in the patient's right arm! woo hoo! My instructor pretty much walked me through the entire preparation process (drawing up the insulin in the syringe) and let me tell you, she is sooo intimidating! It's much different than practicing in the Skills Lab and injecting mannequins. Everything went well and my very nice patient told me that it didn't hurt at all! :)

Our instructor also had to observe us checking vital signs and performing a complete physical assessment on our patient. I got all 50 points on it! I had such a nice gentlemen for a patient that day...he was also the one who was my guinea pig for injections...thank God for nice and patient patients!

Gradewise, I am doing well. 82 on my second Theory test and a 90 on my Skills exam. This week, we had another one of those scary skills evaluations (remember medication administration?). This time we did Nasogastric tube insertion and removal. Made a 99!

I also came down with a bit of a respiratory infection/head cold last weekend which lasted into this week. I managed to suck it up and get to clinical and class (such a change from the old me!). There's just no room to miss anything in nursing school.

After Spring Break, we only have about 6 weeks left. Wow, where did the semester go? I am learning so much and doing so much but I know the last 6 weeks will be the defining time of the semester for me. With that said, bring on Spring Break!