I fired off an email to the department for the ACCN certificate, asking when I could theoretically begin some of the coursework.

Their reply: "You would need to be in your final Year (4th year) of your Degree program to take the ACCN courses. You would be able to take some of the theory course prior to graduating."

Okay, so I have a year to consider my options. This is good. I have an ICU theory term and clinical rotation in the coming year, so I can make a more informed decision at that point.

A lady at work yesterday saw me reading my latest textbook for my correspondence class. It's dry stuff, but at the same time interesting. The current chapter is examining paradigms and methods of scientific inquiry. It is making me wonder how on earth I'll ever get to the point that I can identify a knowledge deficit and choose to research something real and relevant. This is something I'm going to have to tackle in a Master's program. I guess that's why they want me to have a year's experience in my specialty before applying. But I digress...

She asked me how much longer I had to go in my program. "2 years!" I cheerfully replied, and then we were both a little surprised at how fast the previous 2 years have gone by. A lot of the ladies at my work are very old-school (I am one of the youngest people there, by like 20 years) and they seem to have a real reverence for my being a student nurse. It's a little unnerving. No matter how much I tell them that I actually don't know anything, they want me to shed light on various medical concerns they have - my office has a LOT of medical concerns. In fact I have been clamouring for them to get an AED there specifically because I work with a lot of overweight older adults.

However I was actually able to provide some good information to a co-worker whose dad was in end-stage cancer, receiving palliative care. He lived in another province. She was pretty distressed and didn't want him to die alone in a hospital bed. I told her to inquire about home care nurses in that area.  A few months later she told me that home care allowed him to die peacefully in his own home with his own family present, and she was very pleased with the supportive environment. I was glad that I had managed to pick up SOME little tidbits from Med-Surg, lol :)