About Me

undergrad RN
I'm a twenty-something Canadian student. After stumbling through a few years of college, I finally managed to get into the nursing school of my dreams, where I hope to graduate in 2012 with a nursing baccalaureate degree. I want to offer an honest look into how a modern nurse is educated, both good and bad. Eventually I hope to compare my education to my day-to-day career and see how it holds up. Whatever happens, it should be somewhat entertaining. Find me on allnurses.com!
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Monday, October 4, 2010

Third Year!!

Yes, it's official! I have made it past the halfway point of my degree. So far it's been a great start; I have been keeping (mostly) on top of my (incredibly massively huge amount of) readings.

My schedule is kind of light this year due to my attempt to do one class by correspondence, which means a no-group-work win, and my advance credit for the elective.

Don't even get me started on the ethics of elective requirements. I don't see why I should be REQUIRED to take Greek Mythology or its ilk. It's a thousand bucks that I'd sooner keep to pay rent with. Post-secondary cash grab, anyone? Is that even a surprise anymore?

Anyhoo, I am taking a mere 3 (!) courses this term:
  • HLST 354: Healthy Populations
    • This class is, more or less, HLST 152 all over again! The book is OUTRAGEOUSLY mind numbing. I thought I had a handle on reading dry material. This book is so dry it's practically incendiary. Once you slog through all of the verbosity, though, the content is kind of interesting. Chapter 1, the History of Public Health, will make for some entertaining drunken rambles, I'm sure :)
  • NURS 370: Nursing Care of the Acutely Ill Across the Lifespan
    • aka "When Bad Things Happen To Basically Good (if you're a humanist) People"
    • Unlike 270, this instructor is fun and engaging, and, well, interested in the material
  • NURS 372: Nursing Care of Families With Young Children
    • I don't think there's ever been a more potent contraceptive than an Obstetrics/L&D class. EVERY SINGLE DAY I am cringing about Something That Could Happen To A Vagina Near Me.
    • I don't have any desire to ever be an L&D nurse.**
**This may totally and ironically backfire when I am on my clinical rotation and decide that I have found my calling as an L&D nurse.
    I have a paper due immediately following Thanksgiving (this weekend! boo) and another paper, and a group project. No big. I really feel in control this semester, and it's almost midterms! That's a first...

    I applied for The Persons Case scholarship on September 30th. I hope to hear good news in December. The scholarship is up to $5000!

    N370 & N372 both have 2 hour lab components. The labs are scary fun. N370 is awesome to me because it's getting into the really interesting kinds of care. So far this term we've covered complex wound care including irrigation and packing, chest tube management, and tracheostomy care. 

    Packing a wound. I thought it looked
    uncomfortably vag-like... lol
    Needs Moar Suction!




    Placenta pillow anybody? It even comes
    with some amnion....
    N372 scares the shit out of me because I know absolutely NOTHING about kidlets or pregnancy or anything. I am the baby in our family and I don't hang out with moms much/ever. In fact the majority of my exposure to children involves them screaming and me hating their parents. So it's totally and completely new material and that's kind of fun, actually!

    So far this term we have learned CFAM and CFIM, genogram mapping, and very basic prenatal care. Last Friday I attempted some Leopold's maneuvers. We had these (epically hilarious) fabric abdomens with a little dolly inside that could be flip-flopped all around to approximate various fetal presentations. I had one I was palpating and was pretty sure it was RSA (right-sacral-anterior). We opened that thing up and I was sooooo wrong. Babies everywhere, be afraid!




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    Thanks for your thoughts :)