It's hard to believe how quickly this is all going. It seems like just last week I was starting nursing school; now here I am, almost finished with my second quarter! The pace of lecture and assignments is intense. We are constantly juggling multiple projects and homework assignments and seem to be always getting ready for the next test.
We took another ATI predictor test and according to the results, both my husband and my self have a 99% chance of passing the NCLEX. Wow! I'm in disbelief that I could have even a 10th of the knowledge necessary to perform as a RN.
Last week was our first week of second quarter clinicals. We are in the LTC setting again, I believe this is the last time we will be in LTC as we move to the hospital in summer quarter. This time we are being allowed to perform more nurse like duties. We can change dressings, insert or discontinue foley catheters, take blood glucose readings and give insulin and we get to do one med pass. I was challenged to work as a team with another classmate, and our assignment was 2 very heavy care residents and one fairly easy resident. By the end of this assignment, we were both exhausted and feeling much more nurse-like. And, although I went home both days completely worn out, I really loved every minute of it. This week helped silence the little voice in the back of my head that wondered if I was really headed into the correct career.
Today I head back to the LTC facility to pick out new residents for the rest of my second quarter clinical experience. I'm passing meds on Monday, so I was instructed to pick one resident with a nice long list of meds! I'll be spending the rest of the weekend looking up that long list of meds in my drug guide, and trying to get my project due this week finished so I don't have to work on it after clinicals.
We took another ATI predictor test and according to the results, both my husband and my self have a 99% chance of passing the NCLEX. Wow! I'm in disbelief that I could have even a 10th of the knowledge necessary to perform as a RN.
Last week was our first week of second quarter clinicals. We are in the LTC setting again, I believe this is the last time we will be in LTC as we move to the hospital in summer quarter. This time we are being allowed to perform more nurse like duties. We can change dressings, insert or discontinue foley catheters, take blood glucose readings and give insulin and we get to do one med pass. I was challenged to work as a team with another classmate, and our assignment was 2 very heavy care residents and one fairly easy resident. By the end of this assignment, we were both exhausted and feeling much more nurse-like. And, although I went home both days completely worn out, I really loved every minute of it. This week helped silence the little voice in the back of my head that wondered if I was really headed into the correct career.
Today I head back to the LTC facility to pick out new residents for the rest of my second quarter clinical experience. I'm passing meds on Monday, so I was instructed to pick one resident with a nice long list of meds! I'll be spending the rest of the weekend looking up that long list of meds in my drug guide, and trying to get my project due this week finished so I don't have to work on it after clinicals.
