That's All She Wrote

Hello, and welcome to my last blog of nursing school!

I have officially graduated. There was pomp, and there was circumstance. And a metric ton of pictures. But I did it! Graduated cum laude, inducted into the nursing honor society, which is truly the coolest honor. It's amazingly rewarding to have all my hard work over the past year and a half recognized.

The job search still continues. I've revamped my resume, so hopefully that will help get my foot in the door. It's a troubling market still, but I'm determined to find something!

My NCLEX test date is set for June 16th. I'm ready. We prepared for 16 months, though we didn't realize just how much practice we were getting. I'll probably do a few hundred (maybe 200-300) by next week, but just to work on the types of question, rather than content per se.

And now we've reached the end of this journey. But here I am, standing at the starting line of the next one, ready and raring to go!

Last Class

We had our very last class of nursing school yesterday. I have to say, it was kind of anti-climactic. However, there was a little more celebrating happening after Caitlin and I handed in the final draft of our scholarly project (Informed Consent for Epidural Analgesia in Labor and Delivery: A Checklist to Guide Nursing Practice).

I have to say, on one hand I'm very excited to be done. I'm looking forward to working, having a life again, and being able to do more of the things that I've been wanting to do but couldn't because my time was not my own. I am SO happy for all of the friends that I have made, many of whom will be staying in the area after graduation. I've learned so much in the past 16 months, and I feel like I'm ready to actually be a nurse. My last clinicals and practicum shifts really made me feel that I'm going to do well, even though there is still so much to learn (and I haven't quite chosen a field yet).

On the other hand, I'm nervous for many of the same reasons! I'm nervous that it's time to be out on our own (maybe it's more anticipation, but still). I'm going to miss seeing my friends every day, although I have many promises of hanging out. In general, I'm nervous because I can't figure out which way I want to head. I'm still waiting to hear on jobs. So far I do have an interview at the WHC, but INOVA is taking a looooooooong time to let me know about trauma ICU and the OR. I think when it comes right down to it, I would love the heck out of either job, but I'm nervous about having to choose one.

Well, there's really no use in worrying at this point. I still have two groups papers to turn in and three finals to complete. I have to keep my focus for about 10 more days, and then it's time to practice NCLEX questions! I'm hoping that everything comes together so that I can get my license and start working ASAP... but there I go worrying again!

All in all, I'm in a very happy place. I'm about to be a nurse!

Graduation.... is when!?

I'm not sure how I lost so much time, but I haven't posted since February and here it is April... and now graduation is literally around the corner! I officially have less than a month left of this crazy ride called nursing school.

So, where am I now? I've started the application process, although I suspect I won't hear anything real until I actually have my license in hand (the job market being such that it is). So far my interests have been narrowed down to: trauma, cardiovascular ICU or step down, and OR (generally cardiac or orthopedic). I'm finding myself drawn back to trauma - once upon a time I was an EMT and dreamed of working in the ER taking care of trauma patients. After our trauma lectures, I've re-discovered my love of all this traumatic (much to the dismay of some of my classmates, who all groan "ewww" while I squeal "cool!"). So I'm going to push toward starting in trauma ER or a trauma ICU, and maybe come back to more general (or more cardiac) stuff later. I guess we'll see who decides to hire me though. INOVA has a trauma RN internship/fellowship that I'm crossing my fingers for. I think that would just make my day! And since they haven't yet turned me down, I am going with the hope that it means I may yet be in the running for the internship! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

In the meantime, there are projects and papers galore. I managed to get through the vast majority of stress-inducing work, so I'm breathing a bit easier these days, but there is still a ways to go before I can just focus on studying for finals. In fact, there is roughly two weeks left until I can really delve into finals studying. I guess that's the good thing about having the last few weeks in April pretty much wide open!

So ladies and gents, we are drawing to a close on this blog, but I plan to start a new blog once I get out there in the world of nursing. I'll keep you posted!

A Decade with the Genome Sequence...

I thought it worth noting that NHGRI came out with a Nature paper about the last 10 years since the human genome was sequenced, and about the future of genomic medicine.

www.youtube.com/genometv has the day long symposium posted.

http://www.genome.gov/SP2011/ Has further information.

Yay for the genome!

Final Semester

Well, it's here. Actually, we're about a month into it. The final semester of nursing school. It's time for interviews and studying for the NCLEX in between a chaotic classwork schedule. The good thing is there are NO MORE CARE PLANS!!!!!!! (phew). The bad news is there is a metric TON of other work to do.

I'm feeling really good about this semester. Had my first interview and it went very well. Still thinking about the NIH program and interviewing with INOVA. I start my practicum hours next week in the Fair Oaks ICU, which sounds like it's going to be awesome. At some point, I want to shadow in the ER so I can see if it's something I'd like to eventually do.

In the meantime, I'm trying hard not to be a slacker. I need to work on something every single day in order to keep up with it all. The readings alone are already overwhelming, but the good thing is we're working on all the advanced stuff - we've been learning EKGs, heart attack stuff, trauma, and emergency type information. I'm LOVING it.

I'll try to keep this as up to date as I can, but blogging is sort of a last priority right now, to be frank. I'm so eager to get going with my career so my life can stabilize again. I don't regret going to school, but it's been tough. Now I'm ready to be a useful adult again.

Soon!!

Third semester coming to a close

Well, once again I'm way long on updating. I've been going pretty much non-stop this semester. Randy has dubbed himself a widower, that's how little we see each other! Ugh.

So I got my practicum requests in, but the more I think about it, the more I kind of wish I had gone ahead and selected something in peds. I know, I know. That's pretty much the last thing I expected myself to say at this point. I came into this program thinking that I was really not going to enjoy peds (despite how much I love kids), but the more time I spend at my peds rotation the more I love it! I really enjoy the hospital too, so maybe that plays into it, but I'm really facing some interesting thoughts these days, and most of them revolve around wanting to stay in peds or work with neonates. So we'll see... maybe after working a year with adults, I'll go ahead and make the switch. For now I guess I just have to make the most of the rest of my clinicals.

Which are: complex and public health plus practicum. Ooooooo. For complex we'll focus on more critical care, which I am SO excited about. We'll get a chance to (finally) see the ED (which I know some people have seen but I have not so I'm looking forward to that a lot), and we'll see some ICU stuff. Clinical is going to be at Fairfax, which is also where I requested my practicum, so I may get more of Fairfax than I was expecting, lol.

Um, I don't have a count-down or anything. I am just getting the last assignments done and trying to keep my focus. Seems like it took me a long time to get it this semester, so I need to hang on to it for dear life. I'm really trying to end strong.

That's pretty much it. I'll update at the end of the semester!

Long Time No Post!

Whoops, it really got away from me for a while, didn't it? I've been crazy busy. Let's see if I can recap.

My clinicals have been going along pretty wonderfully. Peds started out in the clinic - and I got to rule out walk-in clinic nurse from my list of potential jobs! LoL, not that I hated working with the kiddos, not at all. But if the only thing I do with a bachelor's degree in nursing is take vitals and admit patients all day (with the very occasional PPD placement), then thanks very much but I'll pass. It reminded me way too much of working in the pharmacy - people come up angry that they've been waiting, which is completely understandable. But, sir, if your child has bug bites and nothing else wrong, then don't you think an appointment would be a good idea? Yeah, not so fun. Then giving shots - oh man. I never want to make my kids have 9 shots at once! People, for the love of everything holy, pay attention to vaccinations and when they're due! Would YOU want multiple injections in one go? No? Didn't think so.

Going up to the GI rehab floor was something else entirely. I really enjoyed working with those kiddos - and I got to do lots of stuff with the nurse I was following! She really made me explain what I know, and let me give meds. It was a great experience. And the kids I got to work with were JUST awesome. Couldn't talk yet, which made it challenging to know exactly what was wrong when they fussed, but.... well let's just say that I am pretty sure I could be a peds nurse in that kind of setting.

Maternal health clinical has been awesome too. Our instructor is just so enthusiastic, it's really pretty cute. She's convinced I'm going to be a labor and delivery nurse, but I'm going to work with adults first before I consider specializing like that - but more on that in a minute. I saw two c-sections and got to put in my first Foley catheter! Man what pressure. I had my nurse with me (keep in mind this is a super aseptic technique because you don't want to give her an infection!), and then I believe 4 other people trying to tell me how to do this. I would have been perfectly fine if they'd let me do it my way from the start, but I got so nervous with all these people telling me what to do that I had to kind of stare at it all for a minute. Luckily my nurse told everyone else to back off and let me do it the way I was taught. I had perfect sterile field the whole time... hopefully the next time I'll just block everyone else out and do it the way I know how. Oy.

Classes in general are... well they're going. I was incredibly frustrated with peds because our first exam was on material that we actually never covered in lecture (unless we got information in the one class I missed because I was sick). I was going to say something to the prof, but it appears that from here on out we're being taught, rather than having all kinds of guests like the freaking resource librarian (I swear if I see her one more time during lecture time I'm going to pitch a fit). That first exam didn't go as well as I'd like, so I'm currently trying to improve my approach - my hope is that between my oomph and the lectures we're (finally) getting this one will be better. Maternal health is the same deal except the prof is an awesome teacher. So I'm just kind of searching for my footing. I don't have bad grades by any means, they're just not good enough for my standards.

Now, on to the decisions. I've been keeping tabs on what I want to do, and more importantly, what I don't want to do. Mental health is a no go. Peds clinic is a no go. That's all well and good, but that leaves a LOT of open space - and I have to choose my practicum! I've been pretty nervous about making a decision that I don't feel informed about, but then I got a chance to sit and talk with several nurses and I feel better now. The gist of those conversations is this: unless I KNOW that I want to work as a NICU nurse, or even with kids in general, or laboring moms, or any pretty specialized area, then starting out in one of those won't do me any good as far as long term move-ability. However, if I start with adults and master my assessment skills, THEN specialize, I have way more options. So basically, I'm hoping to start for a year or two in adult ICU - unless I have to I'm not starting med-surg, because I hope to go back to school before Randy and I have kids. Accordingly, my choices for practicum are: ICU, OR/PACU, or interventional units (these are my INOVA system choices). My hospital choices are Inova Fairfax, Inova Fair Oaks, and George Washington Hospital.

SO! Now you're pretty much caught up. And now I have to get ready for my one class today. Next time, we won't be scheduling a single class on any one day... un-cool.