Sunday, January 31, 2010

Thoughts from the past.


So Jessica Bickford wrote on my wall today. This prompted me to read our "Wall to wall" convo, where I found a funny comment that I had written on her wall on November 23, 2008. This was at the time in my life where I was having a mid-life crisis, decided I was changing my major, dyed my hair, got a tattoo, etc. It said:

[Yeah, I think im over being a nursing kid. I'm gonna be a health professions kid and go to grad school for PT. That's the new plan. Nursing is just not my thing anymore.

I think I'm having a life crisis.

I miss your face.]

Looking back, its funny to remember when I was so fed up with the nursing program that I was ready to just quit and change my major because I thought I would never make it into the program. The point is that I'm so glad that I stuck with it because I know that it's going to be worth it in the end. I am always telling people who are pre-nursing to stick with it because it will be worth it and that they can make it. It's funny to remember that I was also ready to give up on it. So here's to NOT giving up on nursing :)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The many lessons of House


So I admit that House is not exactly the reality of our lives, but I love it all the same. I think that in real life, Gregory House and I would probably be besties. Sure he's a cynical asshole, but he's amusing and oddly attractive. I like the medical aspect of House a lot also. I like that as I watch it now I can actually understand a good portion of what they are talking about. I guess three years of physiology, anatomy, biochem, Nutrition, etc have actually taught me something. Who knew? Anyway, there is one episode of House that I think is one of my faves of all time because it has lot of insight and great quotes in it. I just watched an episode of House, not the one I'm talking about, but it made me think of this one. This episode also really makes me see how much we as nurses and doctors can learn from the people we care for. Ok so the story is that there is a woman in the hospital who used to be a world famous cancer researcher but she decides to give it all up because she isn't happy. She wants to do things that make her happy so she starts taking cooking classes, going on vacations, etc. Dr. Taub is one of the doctors taking care of her and he can't understand why she would give up cancer research to pursue the things that make HER happy. He says that he is unhappy and he doesn't know what to do. She then tells him that "the only wrong thing is to do nothing." I know, deep right? The quote below is one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE QUOTES EVER. Yes, that is in all caps like an over-dramatic 12 year-old, but I really wanted everyone to understand how much I love this quote. I do. A lot.

"I always worry on my death bed that I'll think I didn't do anything really important." -Taub
"You're gonna spend one day of your life on your death bed. The other 25,000 are the ones we should be worrying about." -Patient

I tried for half an hour to find the episode on Youtube so I could post it, but no such luck. When I am unprepared for lab tomorrow, know that it's because I waste time looking for touching House moments online.

ALSO I PASSED MY FIRST PRACTICUM TODAY. GET EXCITED :)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Twas the night before testing....



This is the customary "freaking out before my first nursing practicum" entry. As per usual I am super nervous and freaking out about everything in my life, more specifically about vital signs testing tomorrow (Oh yeah and my Pharmacology exam that is also tomorrrow. Why don't all of my professors telepathically know when all of my other exams are?). I know that I need to calm down and stop worrying so much because I'm sure it will be fine, but I'm still insanely nervous. I guess because I don't really know what to expect and I don't know if I'm going to get in the room with my professor and just freeze or forget stuff or not be able to find my partners pulse. I feel like I've done a lot of practice though in the last few labs and on my sisters. This week I enlisted my sorority sisters my "patients." Sarah K, Katie L., Tiffany, Jackie, Steph Peck, Nadia, and Emmy all let me take their pulses, respirations, and blood pressure on Monday so I could get some extra practice. It's days like that that make me remember how much I love my ASA sisters :) Today we had seminar until 11 and then had time to kill until LEI orientation at 130 so we all went to the lab and got in some more practice. Then we ate lunch and studied our flashcards. My lab section = SUPER STUDIOUS. In other news, we got our LEI clients names and contact info today and we can contact them as soon as next Monday. It was a lot of information at once and I'm still not entirely sure that I understand what we are supposed to do at our visit but I'm sure I will figure it out. I'm pretty excited about it. Nervous, but excited. That seems to pretty much describe how I feel about the nursing program in general. Nervous but excited. Say your prayers for me to not freak out tomorrow! :)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The second entry about coffee


I think it is important to note that after only a week and a half of nursing school, I already went out and bought a coffee pot. And have already used it twice since yesterday. I really really like coffee for a few reasons.

1. It keeps my insides warm when it is VERY cold outside.
2. If I use a crappy cup, it also keeps my hand warm when I hold it.
3. It tastes delicious and since I use Splenda and skim milk, has virtually no calories!
4. It wakes me up with it caffeine goodness.
5. It makes me feel like an adult.

So pretty much I love coffee a lot.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Grey's Anatomy is the reality of our lives.


Today in seminar we got to watch a 5ish minute clip of Grey's Anatomy. We've been reading about cultural competency this week and this episode was an example we used to see what was done well and what wasn't. In the episode a Hmong woman needs to have surgery but her father refuses to allow her to have surgery unless she comes home first. Derek and Merredith try to convince her to go ahead with the surgery against her father's wishes but because of her cultural beliefs she can't do that. It turns out that her father felt that she was missing one of her souls and they needed to have a shaman come in and find it before she could have surgery. Moral of the story, they had a shaman flow in by helicopter (okay so that part is less realistic) to find the lost soul :) It was a great way to see how cultural competency applies in real situations, and it ALSO proves that Grey's Anatomy IS the reality of our lives.

The song "I hear the bells" by Mike Doughty was in this episode and i'm a little in love with it. Everyone should download it. Go.

Or listen to it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plDNCnCik6c

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Clean hands and coffee breaks


This week was my first week of NURSING SCHOOL, and fun, laughs, good times were had. But let me backtrack a little so I can complain about the bookstore/buying books. The Sunday before classes I came back to GV pretty early in the day so I could go buy all of my books in a timely fashion and not be a slacker on the first day. I went to Brian's in an attempt to save some cash money. So I walk in and think of what sections I need to go to to find my books. Being the five year old that I am I clearly go to the nursing books first, because after 3 years of pre-nursing hell, I'm pretty pumped for these books. I was quickly knocked off my excitement high. If you're wondering how many books I need, the answer is seven. If you're wondering if they cost over $550 the answer would be yes. Add that to my books for my three other classes and you arrive at my grand book total of about $700. It's fine, who needs $700 anyway?

If you aren't familiar with the GVSU nursing program it has a couple of parts. The first thing we have every week is seminar, this meets once a week on Wednesday mornings. I was pretty excited for my first seminar but also pretty nervous (How seventh grade right?). We already had a lot of stuff that we needed to print, read and bring to class. Since I clearly am not back in school mode after a week of glutenous life on a cruise ship, I was less than thrilled to already have work to do. But I decided to not start off the semester by being behind on the first day, I sucked it up and read everything. I basically learned to not be late to anything...EVER, to be comfortable being examined half naked by people of the opposite gender, and to do all of your work (good advice for a group of students who needed 3.7 GPA's to even make it into the room). The professor teaching seminar is Dr. Washburn, who has been my advisor since I was a freshman and I think she is super nice, but everyone else tells me she is sort of a bitch. So I'm waiting for her to dramatically peel off the mask, super villian style, and turn mean. I guess we shall see. We essentially did nothing in seminar on the first day.

Thursday and Friday are my lab days, and by days I mean mornings because my lab is from 8-11am. This means I need to leave my apartment by about 720 to be there on time, aka before the sun is awake. After spending what seemed like several hours navigating the Nursing 315 Blackboard site, I learned that we had about 100 pages of reading to do for this week. Now you may be wondering "I wonder what kind of awesome nursing skills did you get to learn the first day?" Answer: How to wash my hands. I guess I should let me preschool teacher know that she failed me. But to be serious, I really really loved my first two days of lab. There are only 16 people in each lab so I feel like I've already gotten to know over half of the class already. On the first day we did the cheesy introductions game, but it was so different in this class than in any other class. Everyone was really outgoing and seemed comfortable and I think we are going to have a great semester together. My class has already bonded over our love of coffee breaks. I've met a few girls that I know I'm going to be good friends with by the end of the semester. The second lab we got to do practice taking each others temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure. It was really fun to actually be able to practice things that will actually be pertinent to our careers, instead of memorizing amino acids, chemical reactions, and fifty types of bacteria. After so many years of that, its great to actually be directly working towards our goal. So here's to being one week closer to being a nurse.

PS I picked up my uniforms this week, brought them home and tried them on like a second grader on the first day of school.