Update, school, job, and family tree

Well thought I better give an update. I am five weeks post-op today. Doing well. I have what I think is my last post-op appointment tomorrow. Next week I am supposed to be able to put my arms up and start doing arm exercises if I want as well as wear underwire bras. I have to go bra shopping and start trying on my clothes to see what I am keepig or not.

I am also still job searching. I think I have put out around 45 applications without the hint of even an interview. It is very frustrating especially when I am not used to this kind of job searching. I had no problem getting my last two jobs.

I am also about one month away from completing my first semester with WSU to get my Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. Not sure if I will be taking 6 or 8 credits for summer. Probably 6 since it is a shorter semester. I will be taking three more semesters with either 6 or 8 credits to finish my last 20. Should be done May 2011. I have to take at least 6 credits at a time to get the financial aid. Just starting taking out loans I am going to have to pay back. That is somewhat disappointing, but I know that most have a lot of debt to pay off already so I am actually doing rather well in that arena. Just need that darn job to start paying things off and of course buying things too. :)

Yesterday I also started to work on a family tree. I have been wanting to do this. I really am pretty ignorant when it comes to family. Being in my Plateau Tribes Indians Health class has also made me decide to do this so I know more of my heritage. It is definetly going to be quite a project, but hopefully interesting at the same time.

Finally, I am working on selling my car so that I can get something newer. Nothing too exciting just something I am having problems with here and there and something that I can own and not pay payments on. This way when I get a job I can worry about paying Josh back, school loans, buying furniture and such, and moving out.

I should also mention that we have been watching a Boxer named Lilly for someone my dad knows. She has definelty grown on me. I will miss her when she leaves on April 3rd and goes home wherever that may end up being.

Well that's all for now.

NCLEX take 1

So I guess a lot has gone on since I posted last. I still don't have a job nor have had any interviews. I applied for others like dialysis clinics and vascular and general surgery at SHMC. HFH got back to me and said they filled a position I applied for internally. So no luck on the job front yet.

I have found out that Brandon S. will be coming to Spokane for a few weeks before he goes to Everett. That is something to look forward to. Kinda been in a blah down mood the last couple days. Today didn't help that.

I took my NCLEX licensing exam to become an RN today. WOW. worst test of my life. I basically knew nothing about almost all of the questions they gave me. There was a drug question about every 3-5 questions. I suck at drugs and don't know why they expect a new nurse to know information about drugs they haven't worked with yet. We are expected to look them up when we don't know what they are before we give them. So we should be able to during the test. Anyways there were also questions about a bunch of procedures that I hadn't heard of either. Long story short I am about 99% sure that I failed the test. Not in one of those "oh I failed" feelings where people actually did good. I don't see how that could be when I knew nothing about the test. I basically got all 75 questions about stuff I had never heard of. 75 questions is the minimum amount you can get. The computer can go to 265 questions. It determines as you go. It gives you a question. If you answer it correct it gives you a harder one. If you answer it wrong it gives you an "easier" question. It goes about this and shuts off when it has determined whether you have passed or failed or you have reached 265 questions or gone past your 6 hour time limit. Mine shut off at 75 and i felt clueless the whole time. I FAILED.

Ok, so I won't technically know till about Saturday, but I hate to say I am pretty glass totally empty at this point.

In other news.....I am officially a Washington State university student. I am taking 10 credits online. Four classes. N360, N365, N405, and N478. I am actually pretty overwhelmed already. I guess I am just have to really work on not procrastinating cause if I get behind in any class during and given week I will be screwed.



So on that note I better get back to trying to finish up the third class' week's assignment so I can work on the fourth class' assignment. Lots of reading and posting and figuring out APA formatting to do.

ACLS course

I did the Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) course today through SCC. There were about nine of us in the class. Yesterday I was lucky enough to have gotten to practice for five hours with Brandy's husband. He is a flight nurse with Medstar as well as an ACLS instructor. It was good to get the practice. It made today much easier. Especially since we are doing the course in one day instead of two.

We watched videos and then took a written test. Afterwards we had to go through a megacode simulation.

I passed the course. The instructor, Brian Lee, also told me I should contact Becky at the SHMC ER and tell her he said I should contact her. Maybe it will give me an in to the ER. He said they have positions that they don't always post. I'll have to try that.

Nursing Club end of Quarter Lunch

We had our lunch today at Chili's. It was nice to eat lunch with Steve and Raul. I was a little disappointed though. Stasia has always brought the Club officers a gift when they are graduating to the last lunch. I didn't get anything. :( Not sure what that was all about. Anyways, I have to get home and pack for Vegas. Leaving in the morning.

GRADUATION!!

So I graduated from Nursing School today. I was up till 1:30 this morning writing my speech. I was still not feeling too good about it. I met up with Camey, Bekah, Jen, and Tammy today at the Lincoln Center at 9am so we could decorate. Got that all done and had to go to school to get my second TB test read for WSU. I worked on the ending of my speech and re-wrote/finished it. I was feeling much better about it.

My parents and I went to dinner at Anthony's. They gave me a Journey Diamond Necklace for a graduation present. It's really pretty.

We went to the Lincoln Center and I got ready. It was fun. My speech went really really well. I got caught up in some of the words, but everyone laughed and gave me a ton of compliments afterwards. Kara recorded it so I will add a link to YouTube later. Here it is in written form.

We have come to the end of our shift here at SCC.
So as we all know it is time to document.
Let’s start with our I & O’s.
Our Intake and Output.
Our Gains and Losses.
The things we have taken in and things we’ve given out.

We have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about nursing.
Even if sometimes we felt like we had lost our minds.

We have gained confidence in ourselves during clinicals.
Though we lost many hours away from family and friends.

We have gained new friends, and mentors.
And lost a few peers along the way.

We have gained a huge stack of textbooks.
And lost many hours of sleep studying from them.

Some of us have gained a lot of debt.
Though hopefully we soon will be gaining income.

We have all probably gained some weight….yes even me.
But at least we gained some great memories doing it.

And finally we have given out a tremendous amount of care and love for our patients.
Which I hope we never lose.

Remember it’s not only your patient’s I & O’s that matter.
It is important to measure our own gains and losses.
As we all know it is important to maintain balance and homeostasis in your body and in your life.
We all know what happens when things get off balance.
Seizure, coma, death.


Next let’s document our last set of vital signs.

Our blood pressure is probably the best it has been for the last twenty months. I’m sure we have all had spouts of hypertension with tests, quizzes, care plans, and papers.

Our pulse has slowed to a nice range between 60-100 beats per minute. While at times we have been tachycardic with unsure situations in clinical and waiting to get our grades.

Our oxygen saturation is at 98% on room air and respirations are at 16 breaths per minute now that we are no longer hyperventilating over how you really format an APA style paper.

Our temperature is normal. We are no longer hot and sweating during a clinical simulation test.

Finally we are at a 0 on that pain scale. All pointing to the happy face on the chart with the anticipation of graduating.


The last thing we document for a shift is the nurse’s note. So here is what it reads.

The students started off the shift nervous and excited with signs of confusion. As time went on anxiety levels rose. They were given Ativan in the form of knowledge. The Ativan was effective as the students were less anxious as they realized how much they actually did know. The students were put through many tests to help diagnose their knowledge levels. The tests were all within normal limits and showed no signs of abnormalities. Follow up with an NCLEX test is required to be sure the knowledge has been retained.

The students will be discharged this evening upon completion of graduation with newfound confidence and knowledge.

Finally we can hit F12 and log off.

As we log off and get ready to go let’s remember the Good parts of our shift, not dwell on the bad, and carry our new information and experiences into our next shift of life wherever that may take us.

Congratulations Class of December 2009. We made it!



Later, some of us went to the Season Ticket for drinks and so I could meet Juston who Camey and Owen are trying to set me up with. After that we met up with more people at Zola's. It was a fun night. Great for graduation.




Oh and by the way I also get to go to Vegas Friday morning with Josh! His friend Leah couldn't go so I get to. I am making out like a bandit this last week and a half. :)

Final

So I had my final today. Felt like the test danced around everything we studied. I hate that. The questions seem to not correlate. Oh well I know I didn't fail.

I still haven't written my speech. I keep putting it off. Better get started.

Oh and I also put off writing my speech by making a lai for my graduation cords to go with and decorating my hat. I bought snowflake garland and Kara brought her glitter over so I could do my hat. I put RN 2009 in glitter and glued jewels and jewel snowflakes on it. I made mini nursing hats to go on the snowflake garland too. I also bought mini LED lights that were battery powered and wrapped them around my hat so I could turn them on as we were graduating. It was awesome.

Graduation Practice/ Test Cramming

So today we had practice for graduation. Went down the the Lincoln Center and ran through the production. Still haven't finished writing my speech. Technically I haven't even started. I have ideas sorta written out in a list, but that's it. Yep, I'm still a procrastinator. And as another example of that I had not started studying for my final tomorrow. When we were done with graduation practice some of the girls (Camey, Tammy, Bekah, Jen, and Anna Marie) were gonna go do a study group. Camey invited me and so I decided to go. Otherwise I knew I would go home and clean or do something instead and put off studying till later. I am glad I went. We went to Jen's house. It was nice. We studied for nine hours. It was nice cause I also got to know some of the girls better. The funny thing is that I had not previously participated in a study group. This was my first one and ironically the last test. Oh well. Wish I would have done it sooner.

Sadly during the study session, Tammy, who works at SHMC, told me that she was told the float position I applied for was only hiring currently licensed nurses. Not new grads without licenses yet. Damn. Now I am down to hoping for the Cardiac. Guess I have to get looking again for other positions to apply for.

Oink Oink H1N1

So yesterday I volunteered at the Health Department's flu clinic for H1N1 at the North YMCA yesterday. The YMCA is a beautiful new facility by the way. Anyways I was glad I went though I was tired in the morning. Paige, Camey, and Bekah and I all had fun. It wasn't a shot clinic. We were doing the live virus nasal spray. I also got my flu vaccine today since they had some left over and it was free. Probably better than a shot, especially since my nose didn't hurt later like my arm would have. Maybe I will get time to volunteer at the flu shot clinic at school and do some more shots this year. I don't know though since I have a paper due at the same time.

Graduation Speech

Well it's offical. I am on the schedule to give a speech during graduation. I have a few ideas for my speech so hopefully it will go well.

Clinical- stroke and dementia

So today I had clinical again at Holy Family. I was up on the ACU floor. My patient had a stroke the previous day. She also had dementia. It made for a very tiring day. She was in restraints because she kept trying to get up being that she didn't recall she had a stroke. It was very tiring to keep her in bed especially when she had to go to the bathroom. She insisted she could get up to go since she did not remember she had suffered a stroke. The stroke had small symptoms so I think she was lucky in that respect, but she of course already had the dementia. Her family was really good though. The patient also ripped her IV out. We were lucky she had another one except it was anticubital and kept making the IV pump think there was a distal occlusion when she bent her arm. Anyways it would have been an easy day if I/we didn't have to "wrestle" the patient. I definitely give kudos to her family for still taking care of her. It must be hard at times.

Fall Festival at SCC

So the Nursing Club, which I am the president of, participated in the Fall Festival at school tonight. We did a booth where kids would Pin the Band-aid on the Boo Boo. Kinda a spin on pin the tail on the donkey. Parents and kids seemed to really like it. Here is a picture of the booth before band-aids were pinned all over it.

I didn't get an after picture cause it was being cleaned up too quickly. It was pretty covered in band-aids though. We were gonna keep the monsters for future nursing clubs, but the dollar store band-aids actually stuck pretty well.
The festival went from 5:30-7:00pm. It was a pretty quick whirlwind. Two of my volunteers were sick or hurt and unable to come. I am glad Kim was there and that Stasia, our teacher, showed up and helped out too. It was so busy I was unable to get pictures of us doing the booth in between. Maybe I can track down the one that student council took.

Cardiac Midterm

So today I had a cardiac midterm in nursing school. Didn't do too great though better than I thought I would. I missed like eight. As long as I do well on the rest of the quarter I should graduate in December. I am not worried, but every once in a while the thought crosses my mind.

I also had a Nursing Club meeting today. Still not much participation. I don't know how else to get people to participate. I know that today there weren't really people at the meeting because they were attending the NLN accreditation meeting. So my school, Spokane Community College, did not receive accreditation from NLN. Oh well. Hopefully it won't impede on my career choices in the future. As long as I finish my BSN through WSU it won't matter.

Well Halloween is coming. I have a couple parties to attend. I am going as a cadet girl. Kara is going to do my hair like a fifties pin-up girl. I'll post some pics later.

Clinical in Holy Family's ER

So today I was in Holy Family Hospital's ER for my clinical day. It was somewhat uneventful for most of the day. I gave some IV pushes, took vitals, and tried to start one IV. The most exciting part of the day was when a motor vehicle crash victim came in and I got to do the chest compressions for the code. I was going to stand in the corner out of the way like a good student, but one of the nurses said I could do the compressions since I hadn't done any before on a real person. Unfortunately, we could not save the man. He had suffered quite a heart attack before which was the cause of the car accident. He did not live. I am glad however, that I did ge the chance to see how it felt to do the chest compressions. You do it faster than you did while practicing in CPR class and I did break some ribs. I heard them break.

For a lighter change, it is flu season and that includes the swine flu this year. One of my other patients had caught the swine flu.........



He caught it from Miss Piggy of course. :)

I couldn't help but get a picture with him.