first job (another late post)

(this is another post, typed up in September, that I didn't 'publish' either, so a couple months later, here it is!)

Praise the Lord!  I received my first job offer, and accepted :)  It all happened so fast!  From the time I had reconnected via email with the HR recruiter until the time of my interview and job offer, only 10 days had passed.

The interview with the nurse manager almost seemed more like a personality test to me.  Questions such as:

What 3 words would you want people to describe you as?
Has there been one event/moment in your life that has defined you?
What's the most common misperception people have about you?
Why do you want to be a nurse?
Do you follow your head or heart?
Do you want a summary or details?
What makes you really angry?
etc.

Overall, it went pretty well, and I'm looking forward to starting on this unit at the end of the month :) Everyone seems very friendly and helpful.  Time to enjoy what free time I have left, and get ready to move!

Grace, R.N., B.S.N. (late post)

(this is a post I typed up in July but never hit "publish"-- so here it is, 5 months later! haha)

So, I'm pretty sure NCLEX is designed to make every person who walks out of that exam room feel like they failed.  Four years of college, 2 years of actual nursing school, plus X hours and 2,000+ practice questions later... you'd think that once you're graduated the actual licensing part wouldn't be that bad.  Nope.  Take the pressure of all the exams of nursing  school and combine it into ONE test.

All I can say is that I'm so relieved and grateful to be done with NCLEX :)

Sunday (the day before NCLEX) I went to church, hung out a little bit afterwards, then came home and relaxed.  I refused to do anymore practice questions.  Thankfully, my test was scheduled for 1pm, so I had plenty of time to sleep in, and at least get a decent night's sleep.  I had a slight moment of panic when I started thinking too much about it and got that feeling of anxiousness that I experienced during my first week of nursing school (chest tightening, a little short of breath).

It was pretty nerve wracking, though I thought I stayed as calm as possible for the situation.  I'm pretty sure my blood pressure and pulse were elevated for most of the day.

It seemed like I had alot of traction questions (material that I was NOT good at at all...)
And these drugs I've never heard of before.  Tolcapone? Never heard of that.
I gotta say, it was as difficult a test as our profs described in school, mainly because of the fact that anything and everything is fair game.  Critical thinking skills are an absolute must.
Thank the Lord I really didn't have many OB/peds questions.
I felt like it was a lot of teaching, prioritizing assessments, delegation, and PHARM.  Sheesh, alot of meds.
and the Select All That Apply questions.... I felt like there were so many!

To conclude my post, a picture from tumblr just for fun:

16 hours until NCLEX

D-day is tomorrow.  *whew* Can't believe it's already here. Today I just went to church and spent the afternoon/evening relaxing.  Whether I pass tomorrow or not, I will have tried my best, and to God be the glory.

Nclex status... postponed

Haha so contradicting my previous post, I did postpone NCLEX...lol

So, originally I was supposed to take NCLEX June 17th, but the thursday before the exam, I was internally freaking out and totally did not feel confident about passing whatsoever.  This is pretty normal feeling, but I really felt that I didn't prepare adequately, as I spent most of my time after graduation at home (where let's face it-- I usually am very unproductive when it comes to schoolwork-related things).  So I postponed it to July 1st, and will use the next 2 weeks to study hardcore, and feel more confident about passing when I enter the testing center :)  We're suppose to have completed 3,000 practice questions before NCLEX, and I am definitely nowhere close to that.  A bunch of classmates took the nclex in the past two days, and I've been hearing lots of positive results, so I'm super happy for them (and it's a good sign for the rest of our class too!).

As far a job searching goes, I haven't heard much yet, which make me a little bit anxious.  Lord willing, I hope to get some calls here soon!  Otherwise, I may be a jobless nursing grad :(  

In the meantime....

12 days until NCLEX

How I feel right now...AGHHHHHHHH. JUNE 17th.  Pray it goes well :)

It's official: I'm a BSN grad

Graduation day has come and gone.  I feel as if I've hardly had any time to process that any of this is happening.  I don't think it'll really hit me until a few weeks from now, when I have no class or homework or studying to do (other than for NCLEX), or until I have my first job interview.  It's been a journey, and I'm sad to see this chapter of my life come to an end, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord has planned for the future.

Til next time,
Grace, BSN
:)

Pinning. Check. Graduation, 3 days!

The countdown to pinning is finished.  It came and went rather quickly, almost too quickly to take in really, despite the fact the ceremony was almost 2 1/2 hours long.  Even afterwards, it still really didn't hit me that I'm done.  Like, done, done with school.  No late nights studying for an exam, no clinical journals, care plans, case studies.  No study sessions at Boston Coffee.  No more hanging out at room 602 in the CON. No more discussions comparing answers to questions in the hallway post-exam. No more refreshing webcourses to see if exam grades are up. No more snacking during class, or laughing at Dr. D's jokes. Is it weird that I will miss a lot of what I mentioned, when I complained about it so often before? Haha. Really, these 2 years flew by.  It never seems like it while you're in it, until you look back from day 1 until now.  I still remember that first day of orientation, when they overwhelmed us with so much information :)  That first week of sort through 6 or 7 syllabuses and feeling so anxious I had chest pain.  The late nights preparing med cards and care plans for all our different clinical rotations, and feeling so anxious when being quizzed by our clinical instructor-- to beginning practicum and feeling more like a nurse. It's kind of intimidating knowing that we no longer have the safety net of the school and our instructors.  Once we get that "RN" behind our name, we're responsible for ourselves and our patients. Well, I will oddly enough miss school, or perhaps the familiarity that comes with it, since I've known nothing else.  3 more days until graduation!

~all glory be to Christ

8 days until pinning. 11 days until graduation. Oh my goodness.

Wow, I think it's finally hitting me that I'm really... really... almost done with nursing school.   That is so crazy.  All the hard work and studying is coming to a close, and a new chapter of a different kind of learning (practical experience) lies ahead.  Feeling a little bit emotional :)  Nursing school really is no joke.  It's definitely the toughest thing I've done in my 22 years of life, for sure.  I'm sure it will only get more difficult from here, but in a different way.

Last week, I finished my practicum in the Emergency Department.  It was a really good learning experience, and I was blessed with great preceptors who were really encouraging and willing to teach, and didn't treat me as if I was inferior because I was a student, but really tried to help me grow as a future nurse, in both my practical skills (IV insertions, catheters, assessments, etc.) and communication skills.  Jobwise, hopefully I will have a chance to talk to the nurse manager of the ED in order to at least get my name and resume out there.  Starting a a grad nurse in the ED is still a bit of an intimidating thought to me, but I've talked to several nurses who started as a brand new nurse in the ED and said it was the way to go.  Wherever the Lord will have me go, whether it's the ED, or med-surg, or wherever, I will still learn and be content :)

Tomorrow is my last written exam (multiple choice style) in critical care.  After that, I have 2 essay finals, a ATI leadership exam, and THATS IT.  Whew.  It's pretty awesome to look back and see how far we've all come.  I fell a little bit short of cum laude, which is kind of a bummer, a couple more A's and I probably would have gotten it :)  In the end graduating and passing NCLEX is all that really matters :)

~Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

65 days...1560 hours...93,600 minutes...or 5,616,000 seconds (approximately)

65 days until our pinning ceremony! It's getting closer!  Can't believe the end of February is almost here.  Seems like it just started?  I guess that it one good thing about being so busy this semester-- it is going by fast. Two months left.  I was just looking at my previous post, and I don't even remember what I felt so melancholy about haha.

I'm almost halfway done with practicum in the ER.  It's been going fairly well.  It's very quick and fast paced... so we're always busy.  I've gotten alot of practice with IVs and catheters, that's for sure.  Having a slow day in the ER is like a breath of fresh air :)  

Thankfully, today is a nice lazy saturday... I can just sit outside in the porch, plug my computer in, play some music, and get schoolwork done.

5 more days until Spring break! woohoo.

Til next time~

Today...

...I feel bleh. Melancholy. Tired. Just wanna eat some ice cream and have a good cry.  Ready for this semester to be over. Is it possible to be tired of nursing before I've even began?  Usually I'm not like this.  Maybe I just have a major case of senioritis.

=(

Well, I've managed not to cry throughout all of nursing school... might as well not start now.

99 days until graduation

Wow, the graduation countdown is now in the double digits...  Crazy.  I start my first practicum clinical day tomorrow in the Emergency Department.  Needless to say, I'm feeling a little nervous about it... hopefully I will just be orienting the first day instead of being overwhelmed.  I'm excited for the chance to practice more skills, though.

Eek... well it's gonna be an early start to tomorrow (5am), so I better head to bed.  Praying all goes well tomorrow!!!

ONE MORE

So I'm not doing a very good job at keeping up with this blogging thing...

I meant to post this back in October:
----
Ahhh so... last time I posted I was 6 weeks into the semester.  Now, it's more like 6 weeks LEFT in the semester (maybe 7).  Time is flying by.  I started my hospital clinical rotation at South.  It's a really nice campus, and I might be there in the Spring for practicum!  I had such a hard time deciding between OH and FH.  Two different hospital systems with pros and cons.  I would love to be able to do my practicum in the NICU, but more than likely I will probably be starting on a Med-Surg or PCU floor, which is fine.  either way, I will (hopefully) be learning alot.

I'm absolutely loving this cooler weather :)
----

Now, today (12/10/12), I have finished my finals and my 4th semester of nursing school.  Only ONE MORE to go!  I have to say, it was kind of a struggle the last two weeks of the semester.  I had zero, I mean ZERO motivation to study for finals.  It's not that the semester was as intense as Spring, although the classes were just as hard (if not harder).  I'm not sure if it was the combination of long 11-hour clinicals 2x a week, plus the beast of a case study (25 pages) for Care of the Adult 2, among other things, that led me to having senioritis like I've never had before.  I got a B in Adult 2, which I'm kind of disappointed in, but I deserved it since I didn't study very much for the final.  Hopefully I was able to pull off an A in psych, but we'll see.  I think I can kiss my "cum laude" possibilities goodbye.  In the end, a bachelor's degree of nursing is the same no matter what GPA you have.  Passing NCLEX would be the really important part.

Let's see if I can go back and try to remember what went on this semester... and give a brief recap:

August/September: School started.  Had Psych clinical rotations with adults and children.  Ran around to different activities for community psych clinical, some of which included attending an AA meeting, an event for the homeless veterans, and a self defense class.

October: Started Adult 2 clinical at South on a PCU.  Don't really remember much else other than classes and exams. Oh. Kiara came to visit me in O-town for the first time :) We went to the outlets and Magic preseason game (Go Magic!)

November: Went to Gainesville for the Roueche wedding. Hung out with the Gville crew.  Good times :)  Had Adult 2 clinicals.  Went to festival of trees with Amy from church, tried Indian food, and went to OGC growth group. Took engagement pics for Jess & Ryan. Went home for thanksgiving, hung out with the family.  Conquered the Adult 2 case study with a 96.

December: Visited Farmor and Uncle Bud and Aunt Gloria in Tampa.  Ate at Backporch restaurant in Lake Alfred with them.  Procrastinated for finals. Finished finals!

Overall, this semester really wasn't too terrible.  Although classes were hard (specifically Adult 2) and clinicals kept me busy, there was definitely a lot more free time. Thanks be to the Lord for bringing me through another semester.  It's crazy to think that in 5 months I could be a working RN!

6 weeks into the semester... ALREADY?

So, 6 weeks into the semester and I'm now finished with psych clincals.  I gotta say, it was so much different from the usual hospital clincals. The differences? Well.

Number 1, the instructors were so LAID BACK and chill. It was great.
Number 2, we didn't have to do anything but sit around and chat or play cards with our patients.
Number 3, NO CARE PLANS, med cards, case studies, etc.!

So, I will kind of miss it, even though we didn't really do anything.  It was interesting to see all the different cases in adults and children, though.  I got to talk to people who thought they were god, or that their nephews were Lebron James and President Obama.  It was really sad at times, too, especially with the children, most of whom came from horrifyingly awful backgrounds. It's no wonder they have mental issues.  I think I can safely say I have no plans of going into the psych nursing field...

We also had to complete 30 hours of community clnicial, which included going to an AA meeting, yoga, different faith service (I went to a Messianic synagogue), and other volunteering activities.  My favorite volunteering experience was probably at Give Kids the World, which is a place for families to visit for free with children who have life-threatening illnesses.  We got to dress up and be a part of the Winter Wonderland parade. (Every thursday there it's Christmas!)

So that was a pretty fun experience :)



So far I've only had two tests, one in psych (98!)and adult 2 (88).  I have another adult 2 test on Monday and it's gonna be even harder than last time -.-  But hopefully with enough preparation I'll do well.  I hear that the exams get harder and harder.

OH! I have 2 junior buddies, which is kind of cool.  They pair up seniors and juniors so they have a mentor or someone they can ask questions or get advice about what to expect, or simply have someone to look to who's survived the first year.  It's weird, cause I feel like I was just there, but at the same time, when I talk to my junior buddy, I feel like I actually know stuff! lol.  We had a junior-senior buddy meet and greet yesterday, so I got to meet one of my buddies. It's pretty nice to feel like you're helping someone out :)

This past Tuesday, I went to a Rays game when I was visiting Farmor, so that was fun :)  I made it to 3 games this season, which is the most I've ever gone.  They're such a good team, but they didn't make the playoffs :(  I mean, they won 12 of their 14 last games!  Unfortunately, too little too late.  I think this was my first season where I followed them the whole year.  I've been following them for the past 4 years, but I watched alot of their games on TV this year.  I don't know what I'm gonna do now :) lol  I usually came home from class or clinical and turned on Rays baseball and did homework.  Ah well... I should get back to studying!

And so begins senior year...

Yesterday was the first day of class... Care of the Adult 2 bright and early at 7:30 a.m.  Hard to believe senior year is finally here!  I'm halfway hoping it goes by kind of slow-- I still feel like I hardly know anything sometimes.  At other times, I look back and see how much I've learned and how far I've come, though I still have a long way to go.  This semester will be tough, but not as intense as last spring.  The workload is lighter but the coursework is harder, if that makes sense.  We have more clinical hours this semester, as well.

On another note, my one month summer break was great.  It was nice being away from the stresses of school for awhile. Our fam was able to take a roadtrip for 3 weeks, going to Mammoth Cave, Fort Knox, Creation museum, Cedar Point, Niagara falls, Connecticut, NYC, Virginia, North Carolina, and Jacksonville for a wedding :)  I finished the break with a family/friends boating/waterskiing day on Saturday, followed by travelling to O-town and dinner at Contemporary resort at Disney (which was ridiculously expensive, but good).

Two semesters of undergrad left! Praise the Lord for how he has directed me and given me the opportunity to  pursue my education :)

I survived!

The craziest semester of college I've had (and probably ever will have) is FINALLY OVER... and I survived (passed) by God's grace. I still have to find out one more grade for my families class, but pretty sure I got a B.  so that's 1 A and 3 B's for the semester.  I am totally happy with that :) Couldn't have done it without the help of my nursing classmates, either.

BIG SIGH.  I can't believe it's over. I feel like I should be studying for preparing for something!  hehe.  It's going to be so nice to relax for 2 weeks before summer classes start :)  

To God be the Glory :)

It's almost here!!!

My first year is ALMOST over... soooo close I can almost taste it... I'm not sure I'll even know what to do with myself! (well, for 2 weeks anyway, before it's back to class).  Nothing to study or clinicals to prepare for! Whew.  We finished 5 exams on wednesday (family and pharm, along with the 3 corresponding ATI tests).  We have 2 more on Monday (adult and patho) and they're both cumulative :(  However, even that can't bring my mood down right now.  Found out I somehow got an A in pharmacology for the semester (thank you Lord!).  Dr. Howe did give us quite a few bonus points :) I was so sure I wouldn't get an A in any class this semester!  Also, I had a great day in the NICU. My nurse's patients were quadruplets. It's amazing...these tiny little miracles!  So cool! and the nurses were so wonderful.  I really liked it, and it's something I would think about in the future, for sure.  Now its off to study for finals on Monday... :)

13 days..13 days...13 days..

I keep repeating that in my head over and over... 13 more days!!! Ahhhhh! : ) Well, there's still a lot to do between now and then, including 3 more clinical days, 8 exams, and a TON of studying.  I spent the weekend at Farmor's, and got very little accomplished school wise, but it was a nice break.  Sometimes you just have to take a step back away from it all, then get back into it feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the the books!

He is Risen

He is Risen, indeed!

Went to church service with the Cubits in the a.m., followed by a fellowship meal.  Afterwards took a long 3-4 hour nap, since I was exhausted.  Now to finish studying for this exam tomorrow, VA interview tuesday, and another exam wednesday, and back to back clinicals Thursday and Friday.  Oh boy.  By God's grace I will hopefully make it through the next 3 weeks without having a breakdown :)  I am so thankful for my CNC group, without them, I don't know how I'd make it through the semester.   It's gonna be a late night...

Clear the stage

 

motivational boost

Soooo, I posted earlier how I was having problems finding motivation to finish out the semester strong... I totally got my motivation back :) by God's grace, got my FIRST A of the semester in Pathophysiology!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I may or may not have done a happy dance around my room and giggled like a maniac =D

Now off to study for Pharmacology exam tomorrow! :) :) :)