New Year's Eve 2009....

Not time for a year in review post yet? Or maybe it is... This year is ending a bit the same as it started. Can't wait to see it go and here's hoping that 2010 will be better.

Cookie for your thoughts?

Revisiting

So I have been rereading a few books that I haven't read in awhile. Talking to people I haven't talked to in awhile, & just plain catching up on what I have been missing.

I am waiting for the funds to come around to send in my application for the NCLEX and well with 1 income and Christmas, $500 doesn't come around fast enough. So I am in a holding pattern until perhaps the 15th or so of January. I have to also register for my spring classes and it seems weird that the girls I hung around with this past year will be moving on without me. Wonder how they will get along without me to fall back on to help them next semester?

So it turns out that nearly half of our remaining original class of 30 are moving on. There were 3 fails this term. So in total we lost 9. So not bad odds I say, I hear programs with 50% or more failure rates. Of the 21 remaining about half are going to be about a semester behind the rest r/t lack of space in the next Block and/ or lack on pre-reqs. I fall into the later catagory of course!

So I am in limbo just waiting for the next step. I think my spring classes will start on the 25th at this point... I shall keep you posted once I get my test date. At this point it will probably be sometime in February... I HOPE!

Shopping, Tires & Rest

That has pretty much been the order of the week since the semester has ended. I feel "weird" like I should be studying or should feel different or should be doing something. But all I am pretty much doing on the school front it waiting for money. I need to register to take the state boards but I need the money, I need to register for next semester's gen-ed classes, but alas I need the money.... Soooo where is my money going?

Well what little we have coming in right now is having to go to the usual bills, the small Christmas we are giving the kids and f'ing TIRES!! Its a good thing the kids haven't asked for much and are not wanting for much because the car repairs have been numerous. Well in two weeks we have had to replace two tires on car and of course there is still something wrong with the money pit of a Jeep that has made driving it a game of chance.

So to maintain my sanity and to get some quality time with the kids before the NCLEX studying and the inevitable job hunt must commence... I have vowed two weeks of no studying! As a result I am entranced in a new series of marathon reading with the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon and have been working pretty hard at house breaking a very "dumb" puppy!

It's O...V...A.... ova

Clinicals DONE!! Its official!!

Wow Peds sucked. I felt bad for the Instructor at the end because I couldn't stand her from the beginning, if that makes sense. But needless to say when you think a skinny little baby could possibly have DMII, and have no idea of the mechanism/patho of Diabetes Insipidus, think Narcan in the antidote for Mag, I doubt your clinical competence and knowledge. Then when you make me hunt down beds/cribs to make to seem busy during my only Peds clinical time when I could be hanging feeds or doing trach care or something that isn't done by fucking HOUSEKEEPING (as it was at this place) instead of doing new nursing skills that I NEED to be able to perform on an actual breathing human being, makes me doubt your teaching abilities. So yeah sorry about that evaluation I wrote... well not really!

Not that there weren't some nice things, but it really was not my favorite clinical. Not a place where I want to work or a field that even interests me. Besides it makes me upset what the deal is with some of those parents. It'd be pretty tough to bite my tongue that much. The facility was pretty crappy overall the equipment to even take vitals was lacking, sheesh get a thermometer that works, actually they will because I am buying them one and bringing it in tomorrow. The one they were using was about as archaic as a glass mercury one! So even though the place was crap the nurses were great as were the kids! So since it was a it a day of CNA work with a few dressing changes and alot of tube feed hanging and flushing with the fun od checking placement... whoosh... that's about it!! 24 and a 1/2 hours. I am sooo tired!

So until January 1st I am NOT studying! Its all about getting things done in the house, reading for fun and the start of heading out to the gym. (we'll see how that goes... lol)

Check it out- A web novel work in progress

Another side of Christine. A web novel that I have been inspired to write. Its still a work in progress but the creative juices are flowing and they haven't in a long long time!

Of course I can't figure out the linking part... urgh!!

But copy and paste into your browser if you please.

http://windsofchangewebnovel.blogspot.com/

Pinning Part 2

It was actually more than I had expected even if it was pretty quick! The slide show was really touching and funny and although my husband did not manage to get but 1 picture of the whole thing, there will be picture from the experience from the offical photographer. I'm very glad I went.

Pinning!!!

Today is pinning... I am heading out soon to pick the kids up and head the hour out to the location. Perhaps I'll have pictures to share. Then its off to dinner with the hubby and kids to celebrate the fact that as of today I am a GRADUATE NURSE!! I will not just be a Nursing Student!!

I can't wait to walk onto the floor and say... My name is Christine and I'll be your Nurse today. Or when the Pt family asks to speak with the nurse I don't have to go and get her... it'll be ME.

So in case you didn't know finals went very well and although I did not manage to get my A for the semester, I will settle for a 91.5% for the semester and the B that it is. I did manage to get a 95% on my final so it was a 95, 96, 97 gradebook. All A's on the finals.

So about half of my graduating class is heading on to the RN blocks in January and the rest of us are heading into the RN blocks in August.

Now time to study for NCLEX and get ready to start my last Gen Ed. semester!

Final Today

The Comprehensive Final! The end of the PN Blocks. The start of what? Two years ago when I made my decision to get off my ass and go back to school the economy was supportive! Nursing jobs included bonuses and there were plenty to go around. Now who knows?

Two years ago I had planned a different path, a path that lead directly to RN. However, that plan was derailed with the acceptance a semester before I was ready into a program that I had only thought to be my second choice. Guess things happen for a reason.

So... here I am about to graduate the PN program and two classes short of the requirement to roll directly into the RN portion in January... yet with many paths ahead of me. I had planned to drown myself this semester in over 20 credits of accelerated online class but I am glad in a way that I didn't, but disappointed none the same.

So... to pick the spring classes or not to pick the spring classes? Should I take a semester off? Do I continue on the ADN path or do I really want to go the BSN route from here? If I do take spring classes, right now it looks like I'll have: Microbiology, Chemistry, Critical Reading & Introduction to Cinema.... lol cake walk compared to Nursing school right? LOL

So I guess the answer will come with the JOB I suppose!

In the meantime its time to start getting ready for the NCLEX (where I am going to pull $450 out of my butt I have no idea)but that's the next chapter on the Journey through Nursing School & beyond!

Pot Roast, Carrot Cake & Shrimp Scampi Penne

What do these things have in common? Well apparently they can all be made by me instead of studying for tomorrow's Final!! I sense a theme... comfort food? I am a classic stress eater and when I feel stressed I feel like CARBS!!

An Arizona Christmas Tree

Options

You know I hate having too many directions available.
When I have so much to choose from I can't seem to make a decision.
When I make plans, I change them.
Hummm.. life is crazy or maybe its just me.

IV Class

Is in the books with a 97%. I am now officially certified to start and maintain IV therapy. Of course that doesn't really mean much at this point, but hopefully seeing that on my resume will boost me a bit higher as a new grad applicant.

Pinning is on Wednesday and after much thought and back and forth I came to the conclusion that... I FREAKING DESERVE TO GO!! So I am going. Its my graduation after all and although it is not the ADN or BSN diploma portion just yet... it is still a program I worked damn hard at and had to sacrifice alot of family time and financial stability, and a year of living with the folks,to do. So even though I didn't spend the $50 on the school pin I am still getting pinned with this one:

All in all I can't wait for the cap & gown portion in the near future... because it would be my first one!

In honor of my 200th post... HESI exit exam results!

I scored in the 96.32 percentile for the NATION of Nursing Students who took the HESI-PN test in the last 364 days!

Ok after the nightmare I had the night before of getting a 736... where the hell the randomness of that score came from I will never know... and waking up at 03:30 because of said nightmare I was freaking myself out over this test. It is worth 30 points yet my score got me 28 of those points. I'll take it!

We get in the testing computer lab at 1:00, people are freaking- the tension is so high the bad vibes are all around. It was so bad at one point this one girl couldn't even enter the password correctly 5 times! So as I log on and hit the start exam button my hands started to actually get shaky. But I calmed down after the first few questions. If this is what the NCLEX is like I can only imagine how I will feel... I mean throughout this whole thing, I was like " Where the heck did that question come from?" I was the first person finished... was that a good thing? I took my time, even really debated a few questions, refused to change my answers, even though of course I should have, but when I hit submit and saw the 1037 I couldn't believe it. The class average was 853. Sooo there are a few not too happy people. I found out that I actually can matriculate into the BSN program at ASU instead of the ADN program if I so choose. Not that it changes my plans at this point. I am still going to need to get a job before considering continuing on. I think it just means that I can take a test and I reallllllllyyyyy hope that what HESI says is true... that I can and will pass the NCLEX on my first try!

Well I have 1 test and 2 finals left and its Graduation time! So off to study for tomorrows final in IV therapy!