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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

 

karma & kismet

Apparently Meeegan's comment-karma did the job, because I only missed 2 points on my exam, despite ignoring the majority of the readings for this unit. (Respiratory diseases are gross, and also similar. Lots o' phlegm is lots o' phlegm, yeah?)

And Miss Kismet Kitty has discovered the joy of napping with her people. Yesterday she napped with R* after he coaxed her a little. Today I came home from class and got into bed for a power nap, and Kismet materialized on my chest about 3 seconds later, and began to purr. When I got sleepy enough that I stopped stroking her, she climbed down next to my hip and curled up and went to sleep. She's getting the hang of being a cat!

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Monday, January 29, 2007

 

whirlwind

I made it through my first full week of clinical with flying colors. I was really nervous, but apparently I have learned something during all this school I've been attending, and it turns out I actually do know how to take care of patients. Last week we had to take care of one patient for two shifts, and going forward we'll have two patients. I'm a little nervous about that considering that a normal load for a nurse on the unit is 3 or 4 patients depending on their acuity... but I suppose I'll manage. I got a lot of positive feedback from my instructor and from the nurses I worked with on the floor, which was nice.

This weekend R* and I went out of town to visit my mom and dad. It was really nice to go to their house and relax and not have to worry about housework or anything for a couple of days. I finished writing my first big nursing process paper. Mom made sure I had coffee and fed us. R* got some work done and played guitar. It was nice. It was also nice to get home, especially because Kismet was so happy to see us. Such a sweet girl.

Now I'm stressed by the fact that I have an exam tomorrow that I really haven't studied for, plus another week of clinical with 2 patients this time. I don't foresee a lot of sleep happening before Friday. I feel like I have a fog in my head!

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Saturday, January 13, 2007

 

third quarter, off and running

This is the end of the first week of third quarter of nursing school. And boy did we hit the ground running. Day 1 we had a brief intro to the instructors and what we would do this quarter, then we had 2+ hours of lecture on testable material! Then we had a 2-hour skills lab as well. I love my skills/clinical instructor - she's very funny and silly, but also really seems to know her stuff and is very protective of her group of students. Tuesday was another 3 hours of lecture. Then Wednesday, we got up way too early and six of us convened at the park & ride to go to Big County Hospital for clinical orientation. We were there from 7:30 until 4:00 - it was a long day. While we did learn some useful things, a lot of it was pretty boring (especially the video about infection control). I know infection control is really important, and the factoid the video gave (near the beginning before I started dozing off) about MRSA and VRE being cultured off of computer keyboards on the floor was certainly an eye-opener, but the presentation method was dullsville. On the other hand, the training on the computer charting methods they use was really fun. As a reformed nerd, I LOVE computer charting. How awesome.

It was strongly emphasized to us that this quarter, we will be the acting nurse for our patients on our clinical shifts. We're supposed to take 2 or 3 patients each week and come in with a plan of care ready. And we're supposed to do all the care for those patients for an 8 hour shift. The example my instructor gave was, "Say you have a patient who has suddenly spiked a fever of 102. Last quarter, you would've gone to the RN and said hey, this patient has a fever. This quarter, you should go to the RN and say hey, this patient has a fever and his other vitals are XYZ and I think we should call the doctor and suggest that we should see if this guy has an infection." Critical thinking, in other words.

I felt really anxious when I first thought about providing all care for two patients... then I remembered that I routinely kept track of 10+ residents at my CNA job, which wasn't as intellectually challenging, but certainly required me to be organized and keep track of lots of details. So I should be fine. Even when I worked on the dementia ward, I was capable of keeping 6 residents clean, dry, and fed - certainly I can take care of two patients!

One fascinating thing about this quarter is that I barely have time to be nervous about clinical - there are only 6 weeks of clinical with 2 shifts of patient each week. And during those 6 weeks, I have 3 different observation days, where I go to observe some other aspect of hospital care (surgery, respiratory therapy, endoscopy) instead of going to clinical on the floor. It just so happens that all 3 of my observations are during the last two weeks of clinical, so I will basically go to clinical for 4 weeks, plus one extra day, and THAT'S IT. Holy crap. As if that weren't stressful enough, we have SIX exams before the final exam, the first one being a week from Monday. I can already tell this quarter is going to be over in a flash.

But you know? My #1 goal this quarter has very little to do with school - it is to NOT gain 10 pounds like I did the last two quarters. It would not be cool at all to graduate from the program 60 pounds heavier than when I started.

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

 

restaurant I want to try

Tilth

I just read a review of Tilth, a new-ish restaurant in Wallingford. It's certified organic and is run by a chef who used to be at Earth & Ocean at the W Hotel downtown. It sounds like they have terrific food and a fun atmosphere - I would love to try it sometime. They even take reservations online!

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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

 

indian music

I've been listening to Indian music this afternoon while I study. Only problem is, it makes me crave mattar paneer and kheer.

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Monday, January 08, 2007

 

another BSN option

University of Phoenix

I did not know until today that there was another option for me to finish my BSN after I complete my ADN, other than the program through UW-Bothell. But look! Univeristy of Phoenix offers an online BSN completion program for working RNs! Neato keen.

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Saturday, January 06, 2007

 

i heart guts

I heart guts

These are the cutest 'lil guts I've ever seen! What a great gift for a nursing student.

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Thursday, January 04, 2007

 

desktop calendar

http://www.parkgallery.org/calendar/calendar.html

This is a small neat thing that I found - this local photographer makes a monthly desktop image that includes one of her gallery's photos along with the month's calendar in the corner. Useful and pretty. I like it.

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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

 

book report: The Known World

The Known World
by Edward P. Jones

This was a hard book to read. It's a novel written in the style of a historical account about a group of slaves, white slave owners, and free black people in Virginia just before the Civil War. I found it painfully honest and explicit about the horrors of slavery, including some rarely-discussed practices such as free blacks buying their own slaves, and free blacks being kidnapped and sold back into slavery.

I believe the title refers to the small area that contains all the characters and action of the book - a few plantations and their slave quarters in one county. Though the geographic area may be small, the depth of feeling and the effect on the reader are enormous.

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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

 

book report: The Brontë Project

The Brontë Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR
by Jennifer Vandever

I didn't love this book, but I did like it. It's about Sara, a graduate student who is trying to track down lost letters written by Charlotte Bronte. She is engaged to Paul, another grad student with a much more workable thesis proposal. They are planning to get married within the year, when suddenly Paul decides that he needs some space to decide if Sara is really the one for him. Sara suspects that Paul was motivated by flirtatious comments from Claire, the sexy French "Diana Studies" expert (yes, that's Diana as in the princess who died in the car accident...). So Paul departs for some sexy research project in France and Sara comes unglued and discovers that a bad breakup removes one's sense of irony. For example, she had never realized what a deep and profound meaning could be found in REO Speedwagon's "Keep On Loving You".

From there the plot gets sort of lame... Sara hooks up with a movie producer, realizes he's a jerk, goes to France to find Paul, blah blah blah. Chicklit ending.

But Vandever is a good writer, and there were several bits of this book that made me laugh out loud. There was the REO Speedwagon revelation, and there was Sara's teenage devotion to "Wuthering Heights" and her therapist parents' response: "Now how could Cathy and Heathcliff used their communication skills to improve their relationship?" If she writes another book, I'll check it out. I just hope she improves her plot-writing skills a bit first.

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