Second round of midterms are finished!!! Yay!
I am in much need of a break from studying. So far, every Sunday you’ll find me at a coffee shop for the entire day. Just studying. You’ll also find me at a coffee shop on Saturdays after I get off work. Studying.
Midterms haven’t been letting up. We had our first round of midterms that started mid-September with one a week, one week without midterms last week, and then second round of midterms started again with one a week until second week of November. Think you finally get a break? Nope, finals are in three weeks! Don’t forget any assignments and presentations that are due in the interim!
https://instagram.com/p/8eK_wIpaXy/?taken-by=chiseenpaw
More than half-way through level 2!!!
The past 9 weeks have literally been one of the hardest 9 weeks in my life.
Read More→
A month into level 2 and I’ve hit my first real resistance.
Level 1 was challenging and required a lot of trial and error to figure things out, but level 2 is really hitting me hard.
I wondered if it was because I was still stuck in holiday mode and wasn’t back in the groove of things yet. I’m really excited about all the new skills we’ll get to practice in clinical this level. And the course load so far isn’t too bad. Similar to how it was in level 1 with less papers to write.
I didn’t even realize how stressed out I was until a week or two ago. I wasn’t even this stressed out in level 1 and everything was new to me back then. For a split second, I was asking myself if nursing was worth all this stress. The reason why I’ve been so stressed out is because of this one instructor that I have this semester. I realize this, so I’ve just been telling myself. 12 more weeks. I just need to get through these 12 weeks with this instructor and everything will be fine. It will be so worth it. I know I’ll love being a nurse. When interacting with patients in clinical. The days when I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off are the days when I feel like I’ve made a difference in someone else’s life. And then, no matter how tired I feel at the end of the day, it’s worth it and I feel wonderful.
I’m trying to be positive. Keep myself organized and try to front load as much as I can. I feel thrown off.
Week 5 just started.
I just need to get through the next 12 weeks.
I can do this.
After an exciting and fulfilled summer, it has now unfortunately ended. Last week was the first week of Level 2. I’m a mixture of excitement and nervousness. While I’m excited to learn all these new skills they keep telling us about, I’m also worried about if I’ll be able to do it and grasp these new concepts.
I am totally still in holiday mood though. While I know that I need to front load and do as much of the prep/reading that I can do NOW, I am still in denial. Still making weekend plans with friends. Wasting hours in front of the computer doing non-school work related stuff….
On another note, found a new job over the summer. AT LAST! I have escaped the retail world and hello, office job. Woot! I’ve been at my new job less than 2 months? It’s amazing so far. Love the job, love the people I get to work with. đ It’s much more relatable to my studies compared to a sales job, so I feel like I’m actually learning useful things at my job. I’ll still be working part-time during the school season. So I really need work out my time management skills now before school hits me like a ton of bricks. This is another reason why I’m worried about this level since everyone’s been telling me how much work level 2 is and how much I will learn.
My clinical placement this semester is in the hospital close to where I live. So even though we have 6:30 AM starts, I shouldn’t be one to complain since I live so close. XP
Let’s try to update this more frequently this semester. I think it’ll be a good way to reflect on and de-stress. Hopefully. Haha!
It’s been a while since my last entry about school…
There’s less than a month left until summer vacation! Man, do I need a break!
Tickets and accommodations have been booked for my trip in May. I’ll be going to Hawaii!! I’ve never been so I am super stoked. I have a month to get in shape so I’ve been trying to eat healthier and change my eating habits. Perhaps more on that in a later entry… XD;
Going into the program, everyone tells you that the first 6/7 weeks are the toughest and most intense. To me, I felt it wasn’t so much that it was intense, but needing to get used to the different learning environment and the schedule. I cannot stress how important being organized and on top of things is (especially when there’s all these assignments and presentations you need to do and are due on different dates). Its still something that I need to work on. And front loading! When you have time, try to get ahead. Instructors will tell you during the beginning of the semester to read through the syllabus and information regarding the assignments and midterms and to not leave it till the last minute. But do you listen? Most likely not because neither did I. Haha! But read them! At least skim through them. Because a lot of the assignments require you to reflect back on things that you have done in past clinical experiences. If you have an idea of what you need to look for early on, you will know what to look for and be more likely to pay attention to things that you otherwise might have overlooked or forgotten. So when the time comes by to write that paper, you will have more experiences to go by.
I have a patho midterm coming up on Monday that I am totally unprepared for so I will leave this entry here.
Time to cram!
And that signals the end of week 2. At the start of this week when I was carpooling to school with my friend (a fellow school student but in a different program), I commented on how it’s only been a week since school started but it felt like I’ve been in school for a month already! I knew only one week had passed but it felt like we’ve learnt so much already and gotten to know so many fellow nursing students in our cohort quite well already. At the progress/speed we were going at, it felt like the equivalent of a month’s time in your usual undergrad program.
So this week was all about washing your hands and your first day of clinical. Once you’ve got that over with, next comes perfecting that full head to toe assessment, learning how to use that brand, spanking new stethoscope, and transferring patients. Peppered in between are communication skills, PBL, and chances to self-reflect/evaluations. Read More→
Managed to get through the first week of nursing school.
This week felt so long but also passed by in a blur. They posted our schedules online the Friday before school started with a separate one for week one. It was quite confusing at first as you had to go through a different class list for each course to find your name in order to figure out what time your class was being held. As an entire cohort, we only have one class together and all other labs/seminars/PBL courses we are split up into small groups of 8 or 24. The good thing about that is each level you will be with the same 32 people for the entire level and you will get to see another group of 32 people in the labs and seminars were two groups are combined. It’s like high school all over again. Read More→
