Holding steady...a great place to be

March 10 was two days ago and it occurred to that I am 9 months from pinning (which will be December 10 at the Crest Theater in Sacramento). Nursing school is kinda like being in a high risk pregnancy, except the labor lasts about 9 months. Some days/nights, I miss seeing the kids for entire days because they are already in bed by the time I get home. Some days I feel like an early Alheizmer's patient suffering from dehydration. Other days I feel like a meth addict spiked up on caffeine. But enough about clinical.

What do I do when I am not in clinical?

Now that things have ramped up quite a bit, I can't post to "training wheels" nearly as frequently as before. The clinical weekends are quite long- due to the prep and polish time for care-planning plus the pre & post conferencing we do with our group prior to and after we get off our assigned floors. Care planning keeps me up late but it is getting a little better (thanks for the tools Comrades X & Y)

We basically have (4) courses now.

MCA-I theory is like the prime rib of nursing theory. It's the foundation for everything we do, but we only get 3.5 hours per week of lecture on the material and that includes an NCLEX style exam. This is heavy only because the theory chapters are extensive. Week one included the nursing process, complete health assessment & physical, stress & pain management + comprehensive management of the respiratory system. Week 2 included a cargo ship on management of comprehensive cardiac disorders, reading EKGs and peripheral vascular/immunology problems. Week 3's menu featured an exam on fluid/electrolyte imbalances, arterial blood gases, hemotological disorders, wound care & the inflammatory process. This last week we are all about perioperative stuff (pre-op-post) including a comprehensive final exam on all of the above. We had a very nice guest lecturer from the med center (an OR nurse) come in and show us all her toys. I loved it.

Your main question probably is, how do you squeeze all that into 3.5 hours of lecture each week? Well you don't. You cram all the chapter key points into your head, memorize lab values and abnormals and all the classes of drugs that you used within those systems. You practice hundreds of NCLEX style questions within those body systems to get a feel for what to look for on the exam, and then you wing it, baby, wing it. Week 1 (77.5%), Week 2 (95.5%), Week 3 (80%)...so you can basically tell that I am a perfect bell curve for MCA I. I am learning to settle for C's and B's (especially with all the effort I am expending to stay above the water) and am grateful when the periodic 'A' shows up. (old faithful friend)

My second course is Health Assessment II: I am a little irritated with the amount of time we are investing in this course when we really need the MCA I time. I guess what I am looking for at this juncture is skills. The roadies already outlined the whole textbook and we are doing head-toe and focused assesssment on our hospital patients, so when I get lectures on learning theories and nutrition, I want to shriek because we already mastered these subjects prior to entering our accelerated program. I suppose that if I hear the word Piaget one more time, or if some instructor asks me how many kilocalories there are in ETOH, I am going to the nuthouse. We really need a certain level of skills training.

Clinical is my 3 days of darkness because the days start in the dark and end in the dark. I love it because it feels like nursing. The prep time makes the days run together though. This last weekend I prepped on (3) patients. I am doing accuchecks now and full assessments. More on that in the next post. The good news is that I can pass meds this weekend. The reasons are a conglomeration of love from family, friends and help from on high: 1) Comrade X plugged me into a web tutor, Trudy did some dimensional analysis with me 2) My parents prayed for me and I gave a shout out to St. Joe 3) and I figured out that mg and mcg are the difference between 1 and 1000 (rocket science I know). I am learning to weigh my patients in kilos and I know how to read medication labels. I went from abject failure to 100% on my medication exam - so thanks Mom & Dad & Comrade X -I book marked your website and gave props to God & St. Joseph since they helped out too. Thanks to all for the leg up.

We are one week out from finishing MCA I - our final exam is next Wed. We have case study projects too. I have to do nursing research on the subject of rhabdomyolysis and since I have had some experience with that, that's my piece of the presentation. In the midst of all the this, there are quizzes mashed in there somewhere, like pieces of garlic that bite you in the ass.

Did I mention that in addition to weekend clinicals, Health Assessment II and MCA I, I have a very interesting gerontology class called Healthy Aging? Trudy and I are doing face to face meetings with a couple in my neighborhood as part of our gerontology project. Considering I am 19 years from my own gerontology status upgrade, I don't feel too far from home. I actually love this course; kinda like dessert.

With 272 days, 9 hours and 38 minutes left, it is important to think positive, be positive and stay positive. So, as of March 12, 2009, we are holding steady and it is a great place to be.