Freaking out, freaking out ♫

When I was in high school, my friends Matt, Eric and I made up a "Freaking out" song to the Spider Man theme for Matt. We used to sing it to him every time he would freak out about girls because he was 16 and that's what boys do. Sometimes when I'm freaking out about things I find myself singing it in my head and then laughing, which makes me feel better.

Anyway, my current freaking out is because we have our third and final practicum on Thursday. This practicum is a random body system draw, which means on the day of the practicum we randomly draw one of 12 body systems out of an envelope. Whichever doby system assessment we draw out of the envelope is the one we have to perform. So basically we have to be prepared to do any one of these assessments. Not that there's a lot of pressure there or anything. We had a practice day all day on Thursday where we got the full three hour class to practice doing all of the assessments. I feel so overwhelmed by how much we have to learn. But I guess I don't really have an option, so I guess I have to be a big kid and study.

Fake boobs and knee exams

So I haven't updated in a while because I went home this weekend to get my yearly fill of high school musical theatre. So let's see what has happened since the last practicum, other than turning in my paper. Ah yes, breast, abdomen, genitalia and anal exam aaand musculoskeletal exams. I've said it before, and i will reiterate it now: Nursing school is GLAMOROUS. Not really. The day after our practicum we did breast, abdomen and pregnant abdomen. We walk into the room and there are these little bags on the table that look like lunch boxes. So one really thinks about what they are until we start talking about the breast and she tells us to get the breasts out of the bags. That's right, fake boobs, in a bag. For those of you who were concerned, we do NOT in fact practice any of the breast, genitalia or anal exams on each other. We're close, but we aren't that close. Megan and I had a serious lack of focus on this day because it was the day before spring break and we were super geeked to go Vegas :) The following Thursday we did the genital and anal exam and that was super hilarious because we had testes in a bag for this lab. And manikin models of male and female pelvic areas to practice on. I think most of the class had a serious lack of focus on this day too. At least everyone around me did. Friday we did the musculoskeletal exam where we check all the joints for strength and range of motion. This was actually a relatively fun day because our professors had us all pair up and teach the class one of the joints. Me and Jenna rocked out the knee joint demonstation (which is the largest joint in the body, by the way). Other than that my nursing life has been pretty uneventful. We registered for classes this week, cultural presentations started today for seminar but my group doesn't go until next week :)

Side note: next week is going to be brutal. Pharmacology quiz Tuesday, Presentation Wednesday, Practicum Thursday, LEI Health history/ecomap/genogram due Friday. Holy wow.

And If I Perish

Today our Nurses in World War II paper was due! I'm so glad that it's over with and I can finally stop thinking about it. I really liked my first two paragraphs so I thought I would share them :)

The American holiday of Memorial Day was established to commemorate the men and women who lost their lives while in the military service. With the arrival of the last Monday in May, Americans band together to raise flags to honor the soldiers who sacrificed their lives defending their country. Children in schools color flags and write letters to soldiers currently serving our county and they hear stories of the brave men and women who fought for this country’s freedom. There is one group, however, that is noticeably absent in being honored and recognized during this holiday. The strong, brave women that served as military nurses throughout history have been a crucial component in America’s success, yet they are frequently overlooked. Children are not taught of their bravery and skill, and flowers and flags are rarely placed on their graves. These nurses, however, were an extraordinary group of women that deserve their own place in history.

Many people today, as well as during World War II, imagined military nurses serving overseas in short white dresses, white paper caps and high heeled shoes. Many picture women without a hair out of place, nails flawlessly painted, and legs that can only be compared to a pin-up model. For several individuals, nurses had the image of perfection. It so often seems that Americans painted a picture of nurses applying bandages, whispering words of encouragement, and acting as the object of soldier’s lust and affection. It is through recent research that I have truly come to understand how far this image was from reality. I previously had the opinions that nurses who served in World War II were simply glorified women with skills no greater than the average mother’s intuition. I assumed that the majority of medical assistance provided by nurses was limited to bandaging wounds and controlling bleeding injuries. I have learned that these military nurses were, however, so much more than this.

I actually really liked writing this paper and I felt that it really did give me a lot of insight about how amazing nurses in WWII really were. I think I would have enjoyed writing it more had I not waited until the week before it was due. When was it assigned you may ask? The first day of class. Boom city, I am such a star student.

Done and done.

Good news, passed my second practicum today. It was not nearly as bad as I had thought it was going to be. And basically, I rocked it. End of story. The only funny parts of the day were when I forgot to cut my nails, but luckily Dan forgot his shorts so when he went home to get them, he also got me nail clippers :) And the irony of today was when Dan and I got paired together because of course we were the only combination of partners that never practiced together. Also, I was a GIANT suck up today and volunteered to be the patient twice so someone else could make it to class on time. Brownie points? I think yes.

Also, today I realized that I get abnormally excited each month when the Bagel Beanery gets a new coffee flavor of the month. Up this week: Irish Cream. Bonus. I plan to be all over that tomorrow.

Also, today I figured out how they water the giant jungle of plants in the CHS lobby. They use this enormous water tank on wheels. I tried to take a picture of it, but there was no one else in the lobby and I thought the lady watering them would be on to me. So, for all of you that are hanging on the edge of your seats, I will try to creep a picture of the magic watering machine someday.

Worst. Patients. Ever.

Today for seminar we didn't have ANY prep work (For the first time EVER). I know this may not seem that exciting, but it really was. Instead in the seminar folder this week we had a message that said:

[No formal prep required for this seminar. Seminar time will be spent in hands-on learning activities and student participation will be essential. So come to seminar and be prepared for anything...]

Funny right? So I'm wondering what kind of cheesy cliche activities our professor would have planned for us. I got exactly what I was hoping for. Hilarity ensues ("I hope they serve Beer in Hell" reference, anyone?) Well if you've read it you will laugh, if you haven't....READ IT. I'm very off topic again. So we got into groups of 4 and took turns being the patient, nurse and observers. The patient had to go in the fall where they were given a situation to act out. I honestly feel like we have played this role playing game in seminar like 6 times. I'm over it. But this round was pretty funny. The first scenario we did patient was very off topic and no matter what the nurse asked the patient had to revert back to only talking about one thing. Amusing, but not nearly as good as the next two. The next one the patient had to be a drug addict. I should have know that my class would go all out with this. People were climbing over tables, falling out of chairs, smashing "spiders" on the walls. I was crying because I was laughing so hard. The next one that patient had to be attracted to the nurse and being overly flirtatious and hit on the nurse. So everyone was moving their chairs closer to the nurse, touching their legs, invading all personal space and being completely inappropriate. It was honestly the funniest seminar ever.