Monday, February 23, 2009

School Update

Well, my first official day of clinicals went pretty well. We didn't really do anything. We had to meet at the facility at 7 am. I am SO not a morning person! I set my alarm for 5:50 am. I think the last time I was awake at that time, it was because I had not yet been to sleep! And that has been a looooong time. Anyway, I ended up making it there on time. Actually, I was there before my instructor, so that's all that matters. ;)

So we got settled in there and then split up in pairs and did a scavenger hunt to find a list of things like med. carts, shower room, fire extinguishers, dining area, etc, just to get us acquainted with the building. After that, we sat back down with our instructor where he just went over the kinds of things we'll be doing while we're there. We were done and out of there by 10:30 am. Next week is when we will be getting into actually interacting more with patients, taking blood pressures, and all that.

This quarter seems to be flying by, which is a good thing, but there is just SO much information being passed in such a short amount of time, and I'm so scared that I won't remember everything I need to know! I have an exam in Anatomy and Physiology in the morning. This is the third exam for this class, and the first one for which the teacher did not give us a study guide. I hope that I can figure out what to study and get a good grade on it. I'm so nervous. Wish me luck!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Bummed!

I was supposed to start my nursing clinicals today. We all met at school this morning, had a short meeting, and then split up into about 7 different groups. Each group has their own instructor and their own nursing home facility to go to. We all sat down with our instructors and got to know them a little bit before heading out. My instructor seems like a really laid-back, nice guy. He's younger than I am, which makes me feel a little old, but it's alright. :)

Well, we got to our site only to find out that we couldn't stay! It's a little unclear to me as to why they didn't want us there. Before we left the school this morning, we were told that there were issues with one of the student nurses from our school last quarter at that clinical site and that the nurses and staff there did not want us to come back.

When we got there, the instructor had us wait outside while he talked to them. He came back out telling us that they were jumping down his throat saying that he looked like he was about 12 years old, telling him they didn't want our school's students there and just being completely rude to him. They also said that they had been cited for a few different things, and they couldn't have any student nurses in there until at least May so they could get their stuff straightened out.

So, I'm not sure if the issue is because of the student nurse from our school, or because they are in trouble for their wrong-doings. Either way, my group did get to have our clinical today. I'm bummed because that is valuable hands-on time and experience that I missed out on. They are looking for another clinical site to send us to tomorrow, which is apparently not easy to do. I really hope they find us a place and we don't have to split our group up to join other groups!

**Update: We got a new clinical site aleady! Woo!

Monday, February 09, 2009

Happy Birthday!

My baby girl turned 9 years old today! I don't really have anything else for ya, and I need to leave and take her to basketball practice, so I'll leave you with a picture I just took of me with her on her big 0-9!

Photobucket

I love you, baby!

Monday, February 02, 2009

Feeling the guilt

I just found out that my son's preschool is having a craft day this Wednesday, during class time, where the moms are going in to make Valentine's crafts with their preschoolers. I will not be able to go to it because I have a lab Wednesday afternoon, and can't miss it. I'm feeling really guilty and totally bummed out about it. I feel even worse that my grandma, who watches my son most days while I'm at school, cannot go in to take my place as she cannot leave my grandfather alone anymore. It breaks my heart to think of him being the only kid there without a mom or grandma to make crafts with.

On top of that, on April 8th, they are having mom's day at preschool, where mom's go in and spend the day at school with their kids. I will just be starting Spring quarter on the 6th of April, so I doubt I will be able to miss classes that day either. I feel so bad that I'm going to be missing out on these things along with, I am sure, several other similar opportunities!! (Great...here come the waterworks... sigh.)