Sunday, April 16, 2006

 

Random Amusing Bumpersticker

What if the hokey pokey IS what it all about?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

 

1/4 of the month from h, e, double hockey-sticks is over


This weekend was the first weekend of my preceptorship. 12 hour night shifts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Not exactly my idea of a good time, however, it is something I need to do.

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. My preceptor is an amazing nurse, and is extremely good with his patients. Not only that, he seems to honestly enjoy his job and has fun while at work. What an unusual concept! It is a very different experience being precepted versus the normal clinical group. Being the only student around (there was another student nurse from another school in town there Saturday and Sunday night, but her preceptor was on the other end of the hall, so I did not get to talk with her), the nurses are much more open with their opinions and attitudes (or maybe this is a function of being on nights). I was able to see a lot more of the dynamics among the nursing staff. The unit I am on is fairly large (it can take up to 35 patients), so the staff is pretty large. Typically, there are 9 to 11 floor nurses, 4 to 6 techs, a unit clerk and a charge nurse. (Of course, a low census means that people will be floated out or reassigned to other jobs if needed). Needless to say, there are LOTS of interpersonal dynamics at play. Welcome to the real world.....

On a much more fun note, over at Emergiblog, she posted a really cool link: Create your own South Park Character. The picture above is an example of my handiwork from that site. I call him Student-Nurse-On-Night-Shift-With-Day-Job. Note the double handful of caffeinated beverage. Nno, that is not a beer in his left hand (alcohol and patient care do not mix, no matter what my psych clinical instructor may think), it is some kind of triple shot, high fat, high chocolate espresso drink. I have decided that caffiene and chocolate are proof that there is some sort of kind and loving higher power, and that she might actually like us!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

 

Another bulk update

Geez, I so need to keep more up to date with this whole thing.

Let's see, what has been going on during the last couple of weeks.

The major thing going on in my life has been the HESI test. Nothing like a test over a year and a half worth of class material to soak up some time. Of course, the fact that we can not graduate unless we pass this test with a certain score. Noooooo, absolutely no pressure there! So last Saturday morning, I found myself waiting outside one of the testing centers on campus (the one run by the Test-Nazi's, but that is a whole different story) waiting to see if I can graduate or not. A hour and a half and 165 questions later, I found out I had a high enough score to pass (I scored 1155, and we needed an 850). If you believe in statistics, according to this score I have a 95% chance of passing the boards when I take them. However, that is horse of a different color. Check back in July to see how that goes.

The HESI over and done with brings me that much closer to graduation. Next, I just need to get my preceptorship finished. In a way, that kind of starts today. Effective today, I am working 12 hour shifts at my paying job (I sooooooo am not looking forward to spending 12.5 hours a day sitting at this desk) and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday night doing a 12 hour shift in the hospital. Definately a very full schedule, but it will only take about a month to get my preceptorship done. This will leave me May to focus on finishing up my theory work and preparing for the NCLEX.

Last Friday, our new matress and boxspring were delivered. Sear's seems to have messed up our order and we did not get a new frame with the bed. The new bed is the same size as the old one, so we could just use the old one. One slight issue with that. The old bed was an oldfashioned mattress, no pillowtop. The new mattress is a little thicker (17 inches versus the old 5 or 6). All put together, this means the new bed is much higher. So high in fact, that I have to literally climb into it. A little scary, but it is so much more comfortable than the old bed, it is worth it.

Yesterday, Buster and I took a little roadtrip up to a suburb of Cleveland. Buster has applied for a job up there so we went to drive around and look at the city and see what it is like. Seems like a nice enough place, if not a little on the conservative side. We'll have to see how this all works out. Luckily, I am almost done with school, so I will be looking for a new job right about the time we would be moving if he gets and takes the job. One very good thing about being a nurse is that there are jobs just about everywhere, and the places there aren't nursing jobs aren't real likely to have jobs for Buster either.

Okay, enough for now. I will try to keep this more up to date, but we'll see how the next couple of weeks go.

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