Thank goodness it's finally reading week - I plan to catch up with my course work, HOPEFULLY work ahead and also study for a few midterms that happen right after the break. Hopefully I wont be TOO distracted by the Olympics - P.S. WAY TO GO CANADA!! I'm so happy that I decided to do absolutely no homework yesterday (which felt great) and instead got together with friends and watched Alexandre Bilodeau win gold for us - Amazing!
Holy is this semester so much tougher then my last one! I'm taking an extra class this semester but not one that adds a ton of extra work so it's strange that I feel so much busier. I think it mostly boils down to the fact that I'm starting to realize I need to retain all this info I'm learning for longer then just a week in order to write midterms - I need to retain it FOREVER! What a daunting thought!
A&P seems tougher to me this semester, I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around a lot physiology, although it seems like it should be easier. Nursing classes are much more interesting this semester - we're learning things like cardio and respiratory assessments, exciting stuff :) Ooo and now we actually practice our assessment on PATIENTS and then we CHART our findings!! Crazy!
Speaking of Clinical, I LOVE IT! The unit I'm on is a geriatric one and gosh are most of the elderly people so adorable and interesting!! My instructor is super friendly, very approachable and very knowledgeable. I feel really lucky to have ended up on the unit I'm on with the instructor I have - some of my friends weren't so lucky. Thank goodness I'm not on a palliative unit like a few of them - I feel emotional enough with my patients who aren't end stage by a long stretch so I don't think I'd do well on a unit like that, not yet. And my instructor is so encouraging and understand even if we're nervous about doing something, she just offers to come help. Some of the instructors have no patience for things like that, which I think is unfair - come on this is our FIRST clinical!!
My first few days of clincial were the toughest but even those weren't nearly as scary as I'd thought they'd be. The idea of taking vitals seem'd terrifying to me at first but honestly as soon as I spoken to my first patient and he was so willing, almost happy, to be my guinea pig, I felt so much calmer and more confident.
It's amazing how lovely most elderly patients' are with students. They honestly seem happy to be able to help us improve and learn - I think the fact that they get the chance to help someone else for a change brightens up a few patients' days.
Actually being in the hospital, hearing peoples' stories and being able to help them, even if it's just with something small, reminds me of why I ever choose to go into nursing. It's so easy to forget that feeling of excitement I use to have when I imagined what it would be like, feel like, to be a nurse when I'm sitting in classrooms day in day out learning things I can't imagine I'll ever use in nursing (like stats:).
