So... Now into week 5... We had our first exam last week. I did well, I managed a 90%. The crazy thing about nursing school is, that's only a B. It's funny how I say that it's "only" a B. As if I didn't study, read rationales, and do every applicable NCLEX style question I could find (our tests are all NCLEX style- our main instructor used to serve on the committee that writes the questions). There were some students that did better, and some that did worse. Overall, the faculty is FLOORED with our scores. Apparently no one failed and the new curriculum is looking good. I do feel sad for some of the students that are a semester ahead of us- there were some students that scored a 36%. No, that's not a typo. A thirty-six percent. Which I totally DON'T get, because I think if you actually showed up and stayed awake during class, and with the test being NCLEX-style, you could score at least a 50%.
Guess not.
I looked at the teacher a little sideways and asked "36?! It's only the first exam! How would you even pull yourself out of a hole like that??"
She just looked at me and said, "Exactly."
Yikes.
I never want to be that guy.
This week, we learned about sterile fields and foley catheters. So! Sterile procedures and sterile fields are like a superfun OCD game, with all the silly rules (that really aren't silly at all). Examples: hands can't drop below elbows, can't touch outer 1 inch of sterile field, nothing can fall below the waist.. Etc, etc. It's so fun! I hate the idea of the OR, but I love the sterile fields game! The best part is that when I win, the patient wins too. Inserting the foley is the easiest part- the hard part is keeping sterile. Oh and finding landmarks on actual people. I haven't seen a huge variety of perineal areas, so this is going to be a bit of a shock, I'm sure.
I'm starting to have issues with some of the girls in the class. I don't mean drama and arguing, but more like they irritate me so much, I'd really like to knock some sense into them.. There's only 3 out of the entire class of 30, but they orbit one another like the moons of Jupiter, and fuel each other in a way I wish didn't exist. They sat near our group at lunch, and literally it was 60 minutes of the most foul, inappropriate conversations I can imagine. They talked about getting drunk, or as they so delicately put it "Fu**** Up" on a regular basis, and how well they drink and drive, and also in general how stupid everything was, and how fat another girl was. The conversation was sprinkled creatively with profanities. We were in uniform today. I get that their lunch was "their" time, but when they wear that uniform, they represent the entire nursing program. They also had a lengthy conversation about how they are willing to "mingle" with classmates, but everyone else is a loser, and they are way better than the rest of us..
These are not 19 year olds, these are mid to late 20something women with husbands and children. Ridiculous, right?
Then, while some of the other students were getting tested, or being tutored with sterile fields and foleys, they sat and had similar stupid conversation, just without the profanity. The rest of us did our assigned readings and studied. They had the nerve to talk about how stupid it was, and how they don't appreciate their time being wasted like that. Really?? Who sat around and gossiped instead of studied? YOU chose to be unproductive, and therefore YOU wasted your own time. Time to study is a gift, and I take advantage of it every chance I get.
The worst part is, they are not dumb. They do well on exams, and in lab. I don't see them failing out. Hopefully they will transfer. Our program allows transfer within any of the other 6-8 programs they have at other CC's within the district- as long as there is space available. Fingers crossed, these chicks are getting worse by the day. I'm a pretty easy to get along with person, I like to see the good in people. But I don't see much good in these girls. For going into s helping profession, they are toxic.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
I Hear You Calling
Today was our first Sim lab.
If you haven't started nursing school yet, or haven't heard of Sim lab, it's short for Simulation Laboratory. It's basically a big room or series of rooms set up to look like a hospital (or clinic, whatever your school does). It has a central area with one-way glass, where some instructors sit. They control the super duper high tech mannequins (Sim men) that are in the hospital beds. The Sim men have programmable temperatures, respirations, heartbeats, everything. There are microphones and speakers in them, and the instructors behind the glass can interact with you through the Sim man.
Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Oh, except for the part where six or seven instructors are scrutinizing you.
This is a pic I found of a Sim person.
This is exactly what mine looked like, except my Sim man was actually a man. The instructor made him incontinent, which wasn't really a big deal, except they put a melted Snickers bar in his depends and then made fart sounds through the microphone while I cleaned and changed him. At the time, I was thinking WTF?! But even I have to admit, it's pretty funny. Instructors 1, Students 0.
I guess this is the year for big changes in my school's program... They got rid of the Fundamentals and Med-Surg 1 teachers at the end of last semester, so our Fundamentals teacher is new to the program as well as new to us. I heard that the HESI scores and overall performance for the block 1 and 2 (first two semesters) wasn't up to par, so they retooled it for my cohort. The result is that we are 3 weeks into the semester, have already written our first care plan, and actually did well on our first Sim lab. I've heard that the prior cohorts didn't even get introduced to care plans until halfway through the first semester, and didn't get a Sim lab until then as well.
What this means, only time will tell. But the early indications are that our instructors really knew what they were doing, and we are on the right track for success because of it.
Also in 8 weeks, my rehab clinical rotation starts.. First one with real people and not Sim men! One small caveat is that the facility I am assigned to is kind of a SuperFacility here... They are one of the larger networks and a lot of people want to work for them. I have an online orientation that is ridiculously long, as well as the in-person orientation. My hubby's friend's wife is an RN but they hired her on as an LPN making LPN pay (she held both an RN and LPN license)... What bothers me about that, isn't she held to the care standard of her highest license? Like if something went wrong, she would be negligent if she didn't act as an RN. So it seems to me that the facility is taking advantage of her skills by paying her at a lower rate for LPN work, but knowing that she has to pitch in if they understaff the unit and the crap really hits the fan.
The more I think about it, I realize I don't want to be involved with a company that makes that its practice. I may be the only person in this rotation not interested in working for this SuperFacility. No thanks, I'll gladly go work for County.
If you haven't started nursing school yet, or haven't heard of Sim lab, it's short for Simulation Laboratory. It's basically a big room or series of rooms set up to look like a hospital (or clinic, whatever your school does). It has a central area with one-way glass, where some instructors sit. They control the super duper high tech mannequins (Sim men) that are in the hospital beds. The Sim men have programmable temperatures, respirations, heartbeats, everything. There are microphones and speakers in them, and the instructors behind the glass can interact with you through the Sim man.
Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Oh, except for the part where six or seven instructors are scrutinizing you.
This is a pic I found of a Sim person.
This is exactly what mine looked like, except my Sim man was actually a man. The instructor made him incontinent, which wasn't really a big deal, except they put a melted Snickers bar in his depends and then made fart sounds through the microphone while I cleaned and changed him. At the time, I was thinking WTF?! But even I have to admit, it's pretty funny. Instructors 1, Students 0.
I guess this is the year for big changes in my school's program... They got rid of the Fundamentals and Med-Surg 1 teachers at the end of last semester, so our Fundamentals teacher is new to the program as well as new to us. I heard that the HESI scores and overall performance for the block 1 and 2 (first two semesters) wasn't up to par, so they retooled it for my cohort. The result is that we are 3 weeks into the semester, have already written our first care plan, and actually did well on our first Sim lab. I've heard that the prior cohorts didn't even get introduced to care plans until halfway through the first semester, and didn't get a Sim lab until then as well.
What this means, only time will tell. But the early indications are that our instructors really knew what they were doing, and we are on the right track for success because of it.
Also in 8 weeks, my rehab clinical rotation starts.. First one with real people and not Sim men! One small caveat is that the facility I am assigned to is kind of a SuperFacility here... They are one of the larger networks and a lot of people want to work for them. I have an online orientation that is ridiculously long, as well as the in-person orientation. My hubby's friend's wife is an RN but they hired her on as an LPN making LPN pay (she held both an RN and LPN license)... What bothers me about that, isn't she held to the care standard of her highest license? Like if something went wrong, she would be negligent if she didn't act as an RN. So it seems to me that the facility is taking advantage of her skills by paying her at a lower rate for LPN work, but knowing that she has to pitch in if they understaff the unit and the crap really hits the fan.
The more I think about it, I realize I don't want to be involved with a company that makes that its practice. I may be the only person in this rotation not interested in working for this SuperFacility. No thanks, I'll gladly go work for County.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Ok, so I need to get better about updating the blog. I get that.
The thing is, I'm having some trouble juggling everything.
I am halfway through my second week of my first semester of nursing school. So far:
We've covered nursing process and theory, dosage calculations, medication administration, insulin and heparin pharmacology/administration/calculations. And in lab (which is really pre-clinical work to make sure we don't screw things up with real patients), we've covered: bed making like a nazi, infection control, medication administration and preparation. All in 6 days.
Interesting things I've learned: "adults" who get pissy when someone else sits in "their" seat are in for quite the shock... They have some growing up to do. The funny thing is, the youngest person in the program is early 20s. These are full-on, established adults..
Also, I've discovered that I'm not scared of giving injections, and I actually like doing the dosage calcs.
Giving a bed bath freaked me out a little bit. It was about a million times worse because the instructor observing me is a Nazi and is very intimidating. She scares the crap out of me. She's not outwardly mean, but I wonder why she teaches because she isn't very patient, and has the attitude that we all suck, and hurry up and figure it out. I'm pretty lucky that my personality allows me to handle criticism without taking it to heart. I just accept it, process the changes, and do it again.
I keep telling myself that she will make me a better nurse in the end (even if her criticism isn't procedural, but personal preference), but she still scares the hell out of me.
The pace of lecture is so fast, even if I were inclined to take notes by hand (I'm not), there's no way I could keep up AND retain anything. So, I've started printing out the PowerPoint lectures, and highlighting the super very most important things, and adding memory triggers or short examples to the sections by hand. I skim the chapters in advance (which doesn't sound like much, but we're assigned 20-30 chapters a week, no kidding), and it doesn't seem like I'm missing anything yet.
I'm not sure how else I can study, or any techniques that I could add or change. A lot of people seem to make flashcards, but that's never worked well for me. I'm not going to bother, since the time investment is huge, and the payoff so small. I started out wanting to follow an SQRR method, but quickly figured out that I cannot go through 20-30 chapters multiple times. And it would be silly to outline, when an outline of the lecture is available from the PowerPoint. I'm open to suggestion, if anyone cares to share any tips with me..
How do/did you study? What would you have changed about it in hindsight?
My caffeine is officially wearing off.. So I'm going to take full advantage.
:-)
The thing is, I'm having some trouble juggling everything.
I am halfway through my second week of my first semester of nursing school. So far:
We've covered nursing process and theory, dosage calculations, medication administration, insulin and heparin pharmacology/administration/calculations. And in lab (which is really pre-clinical work to make sure we don't screw things up with real patients), we've covered: bed making like a nazi, infection control, medication administration and preparation. All in 6 days.
Interesting things I've learned: "adults" who get pissy when someone else sits in "their" seat are in for quite the shock... They have some growing up to do. The funny thing is, the youngest person in the program is early 20s. These are full-on, established adults..
Also, I've discovered that I'm not scared of giving injections, and I actually like doing the dosage calcs.
Giving a bed bath freaked me out a little bit. It was about a million times worse because the instructor observing me is a Nazi and is very intimidating. She scares the crap out of me. She's not outwardly mean, but I wonder why she teaches because she isn't very patient, and has the attitude that we all suck, and hurry up and figure it out. I'm pretty lucky that my personality allows me to handle criticism without taking it to heart. I just accept it, process the changes, and do it again.
I keep telling myself that she will make me a better nurse in the end (even if her criticism isn't procedural, but personal preference), but she still scares the hell out of me.
The pace of lecture is so fast, even if I were inclined to take notes by hand (I'm not), there's no way I could keep up AND retain anything. So, I've started printing out the PowerPoint lectures, and highlighting the super very most important things, and adding memory triggers or short examples to the sections by hand. I skim the chapters in advance (which doesn't sound like much, but we're assigned 20-30 chapters a week, no kidding), and it doesn't seem like I'm missing anything yet.
I'm not sure how else I can study, or any techniques that I could add or change. A lot of people seem to make flashcards, but that's never worked well for me. I'm not going to bother, since the time investment is huge, and the payoff so small. I started out wanting to follow an SQRR method, but quickly figured out that I cannot go through 20-30 chapters multiple times. And it would be silly to outline, when an outline of the lecture is available from the PowerPoint. I'm open to suggestion, if anyone cares to share any tips with me..
How do/did you study? What would you have changed about it in hindsight?
My caffeine is officially wearing off.. So I'm going to take full advantage.
:-)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Taking Care Of Business
Well, I finally resigned from my job. In the end it was pretty simple... It all worked out well and that made me feel pretty lucky.
I finally managed to get my health and safety paperwork together. That wasn't so easy.. The NP at my doc's office ordered the wrong titer. I'm not sure how that happened, as I was very clear about what I needed and even handed her the packet to read over, which also listed what was needed clearly. So when I got my titer results, I was fairly confused when one of the tests said I was negative for an active case of Hepatitis B.
This was not news to me.
I hate having to do things at the last minute, but my life has apparently began to revolve around the last minute.
On that note, I went to orientation today... We spent most of the time with our 1st semester instructor. She's friendly, approachable, tough, and fair. I feel pretty lucky to get someone like her. I've heard so many horror stories.
I did not buy my books yet, as they add up to $1200 along with the nursing tote filled with supplies. Financial aid thinks $450 is a good amount for books, but the Nursing director said she worked it out with them to allow our book advance to be $900 instead.
Naturally, I only have $450 pending. I did send an email asking for clarification, and I suppose I will call tomorrow, because I bet they ignore the email as long as possible.
I signed a ridicuous amount of documents today, but in the most notable one, I promised to not use the supplies in my nursing tote on any real people or animals.
I also learned that I need to take a statistics class and update my math class before getting accepted to the BSN program my college partners with. Math is easy peasy, but the stats makes me want to cry a little bit.. Guess I am taking a summer class or two in 2012..
On the agenda for tomorrow: financial aid, drug test, and hopefully a nap.
I finally managed to get my health and safety paperwork together. That wasn't so easy.. The NP at my doc's office ordered the wrong titer. I'm not sure how that happened, as I was very clear about what I needed and even handed her the packet to read over, which also listed what was needed clearly. So when I got my titer results, I was fairly confused when one of the tests said I was negative for an active case of Hepatitis B.
This was not news to me.
I hate having to do things at the last minute, but my life has apparently began to revolve around the last minute.
On that note, I went to orientation today... We spent most of the time with our 1st semester instructor. She's friendly, approachable, tough, and fair. I feel pretty lucky to get someone like her. I've heard so many horror stories.
I did not buy my books yet, as they add up to $1200 along with the nursing tote filled with supplies. Financial aid thinks $450 is a good amount for books, but the Nursing director said she worked it out with them to allow our book advance to be $900 instead.
Naturally, I only have $450 pending. I did send an email asking for clarification, and I suppose I will call tomorrow, because I bet they ignore the email as long as possible.
I signed a ridicuous amount of documents today, but in the most notable one, I promised to not use the supplies in my nursing tote on any real people or animals.
I also learned that I need to take a statistics class and update my math class before getting accepted to the BSN program my college partners with. Math is easy peasy, but the stats makes me want to cry a little bit.. Guess I am taking a summer class or two in 2012..
On the agenda for tomorrow: financial aid, drug test, and hopefully a nap.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
I Don't Wanna Work, I Want To Bang On The Drum All Day
Less than a month until I (finally) start nursing school, and I've hit a few snafus already.
I can't figure out how to put in my two week notice at my job. Should be a fairly simple task, right? Letter of resignation on city letterhead, check. Supervisor or manager to hand it to? Not so much.
Both supervisors were out of the office this week for training and will be next week as well. The manager has been out of town (I think), and his office is dark and locked up tight. Sliding the letter under the door is looking like a better option every day.
Perhaps a better option is to just completely circumvent the "chain of command" - which by the way, is something insanely frowned upon in any police department, and just taking it to HR and let them deal with tracking down supervisors. And so I think to myself (while giggling) "What are they going to do, fire me?"
Tee Hee!
Wanna hear how my day went today?
Let's see: I accidentally told an officer to switch channels to "window" (instead of "info") - wtf, right?
Called a "complainant" a "complainer" on the air (accidentally)
And, I dispatched a call for a dog locked in a vehicle in 113 degree heat. It's our policy to respond to those calls, and the officer was being a smart ass and said "Checking 10-13?" Which is a fancy way of asking for the weather conditions- like he didn't know.. He's the one who's been in 113 degree heat all day wearing kevlar. My reply was: "it's HOT. I'll show you en route."
Yes, and then the other dispatchers laughed until they cried.
It was magical.
Now if I could just manage to resign...
I can't figure out how to put in my two week notice at my job. Should be a fairly simple task, right? Letter of resignation on city letterhead, check. Supervisor or manager to hand it to? Not so much.
Both supervisors were out of the office this week for training and will be next week as well. The manager has been out of town (I think), and his office is dark and locked up tight. Sliding the letter under the door is looking like a better option every day.
Perhaps a better option is to just completely circumvent the "chain of command" - which by the way, is something insanely frowned upon in any police department, and just taking it to HR and let them deal with tracking down supervisors. And so I think to myself (while giggling) "What are they going to do, fire me?"
Tee Hee!
Wanna hear how my day went today?
Let's see: I accidentally told an officer to switch channels to "window" (instead of "info") - wtf, right?
Called a "complainant" a "complainer" on the air (accidentally)
And, I dispatched a call for a dog locked in a vehicle in 113 degree heat. It's our policy to respond to those calls, and the officer was being a smart ass and said "Checking 10-13?" Which is a fancy way of asking for the weather conditions- like he didn't know.. He's the one who's been in 113 degree heat all day wearing kevlar. My reply was: "it's HOT. I'll show you en route."
Yes, and then the other dispatchers laughed until they cried.
It was magical.
Now if I could just manage to resign...
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Hi, My Name Is...
Hi there,
I'm Stefanie.
Nice to meet you.
I've been on a waiting list for a nursing program for about the last bajillion years. I've tried to talk myself out of going back to school more than a few times. Come on! I'm 30, have 3 youngish children, and definitely do not want to add to my lovely student loan collection. But (and it's a HUGE but), I kind of completely hate my job. Trust me when I tell you that it is not fun or rewarding or special to be a 911 operator. People call you names you've never heard in real life. They threaten you and tell you what a moron you are for doing your job properly. I've been doing this for 7 years now, and here's what I've learned:
Nice to meet you.
I've been on a waiting list for a nursing program for about the last bajillion years. I've tried to talk myself out of going back to school more than a few times. Come on! I'm 30, have 3 youngish children, and definitely do not want to add to my lovely student loan collection. But (and it's a HUGE but), I kind of completely hate my job. Trust me when I tell you that it is not fun or rewarding or special to be a 911 operator. People call you names you've never heard in real life. They threaten you and tell you what a moron you are for doing your job properly. I've been doing this for 7 years now, and here's what I've learned:
1. Common sense is not so common anymore.
2. For the most part, people create the situations they find themselves in.
3. A good 60% of the people I've talked to can use anger management classes.
4. Excedrin migraine is the best OTC pain relief for work-related headaches. Not sure if the liver agrees.
About four years ago, I had a huge wake-up call at work. I was up for a promotion and lost out due to some sticky politics, and possibly due to a pregnancy. That part I can't prove, but I have my suspicions. It absolutely infuriated me that I am basically in a dead-end job. I hit the glass ceiling, and big-time. Call me an idealist, but I want to excel on my merits, aptitude, and talent. I saw the need for an exit strategy: nursing.
So here I am.
I'm running around in a tizzy trying to get everything in order before I start nursing school next month.
And I still haven't given my notice yet to my current employer, because I'm not entirely convinced they will take it well. I'm praying my flaky mom doesn't flake out on her promise to watch my two youngest (2 and 4) while I'm in school. I'm lamenting the fact that my oldest (6.5) will be going to the enrichment program at her school until I can pick her up every afternoon. My kids have never been to daycare, and this breaks my heart a little bit.
We're all going to have to adjust to this new me, the student nurse me.
We're all going to have to adjust to this new me, the student nurse me.
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