Week one.

Woah, a new post already? It's as if I'm serious about this whole blog thing or something... & at possibly the busiest time in my life. 

Go figure.

Let's do a recap of the past week, shall we>

First off, here is my schedule:

Mon: Patho 3:30-4:50pm

Tues/Thurs: Pharm 8am-9:30am

Nurs 270 11am-12:20pm

Nurs 252 12:30pm-1:50pm

Nurs 272 2pm-3:20pm 

Wed: Nurs 270 LAB 10am-12pm

Patho 3:30-4:50pm

Fri: Nurs 252 LAB 8am-11am

So since my last post I have officially had all of my classes. Let me just say... second year is no joke. This semester is going to be I.N.T.E.N.S.E! I'm pretty sure all of my profs joked about our workload at one point or another.

Wednesday started off GREAT! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my lab instructor. She is everything I would ever ask for in a lab instructor if I had the ability to send in all of my lab instructor requests. She is the epitome of what a teacher should be, IMO.

She is all about making our experience the best it can possibly be & was very clear is saying that she is there to help us learn & wants us all to succeed. Typing this out, it seems silly that this wouldn't be the norm for all teachers. But sadly it is not. LUCKILY, she is not my only fantastic instructor this year. I am feeling very fortunate. :) I actually enjoy ALL but my Nurs 252 instructor. Anywho. Lab was fun. We did some crutch walking & a review of documentation. Nothing too exciting, but I still loved it. The next class was the one I had previously been SOO excited to have switched! Turns out, that wasn't the best idea. I went to the earlier class & it was full at capacity. Which would be fine, but the same teacher teaches the very next class which is 3 buildings over. So she would never have time for questions after that class. Plus, she told us right at the beginning that the later class only had 16 people in it! SIXTEEN! So I promptly switched back into my original class the next morning. (Which I had today & boy am I glad I made the switch!!!) 

Thursday was the same as Tuesday. I can't remember anything special that happened except for getting heap tons more readings for homework with no end is sight.

Fridays I only go in for a 3 hour morning lab. 

I absolutely love this instructor. She has such a fun sense about her. I feel like she will be a big part of my success this year in Health Assessment. We have a LOT to cover in 10 lab sessions & at the end we will be doing head to toe assessments on "actor" patients. 0_O This makes me incredibly nervous. But at the same time I truly believe this instructor will make all the difference. Plus, with 3 hours, we will have plenty of practice time if we use it well. For the first lab we reviewed vital signs & I am SOO much more confident in taking blood pressures now than I was at the end of last year. I have found my rhythm... & it sounds an awful lot like a heartbeat. ;) Heh. I LOVE cardio!!!! <3>

That brings us to today! The only class I have is Patho on Mondays, but I decided I would make use of my mornings & just go to school at the same time as the other days to get caught up on readings & assignments. The class was nice & small. I found it so much easier to concentrate. PLUS, I had questions about review questions she had assigned & was actually able to ASK her about them.. since she wasn't running to get to another class! :) 

That's all for now. 

I have a pile of books calling my name.

Time to go get lost in them.

& because pictures always make everything more fun... 

This is the view I had from my campsite this summer on the coast. *sigh*

First day of Second Year..

I'm officially a second year nursing student... & boy does it feel good. Today was the first day back & although exhausting, it went quite well.

My pile o books for this year.... o_o

Breakdown.

I started my day at 8am with Pharm. I was pretty nervous going into this one because I had heard quite a few bad reviews on the prof, but I really liked her. Today anyway, we'll see how she is further down the road. I tend to take reviews of all kinds with a grain of salt. To each their own & all that. I am VERY excited about this class. It seems like it will be tough, but hella interesting. 

Pharm ended at 9:30 at which point I went up to the Nursing office to try and get a class switched. Which was successful & I am THRILLED!!!! I originally had Patho on Mon/Wed from 3:30-5pm. Which was horrible since it was my ONLY class on Mondays & 5pm puts me right into the thick of rush hour traffic. Talk about a sucky trip into the city for one class! Anywoo, I got it changed to the class right before, so I now have Patho 2-3:30. MUCH BETTER! :D & I got the last spot! So I am glad I was on top of things & didn't leave it.

The next class I had started at 11am & was NURS 270 - Nursing Care Across the Lifespan. This was very reminiscent of NURS 170 from last year. I think it will be an ok class. I'm having a hard time remembering the prof, tbh. I don't know how that's possible since it was only hours ago.... but I just can't seem to picture her AT ALL! It's very strange. I guess I was just overwhelmed with the excitement of  a new year & all the new classes. Anyway, I'm excited about the LAB component for this class most of all!  We get to learn IM injections, surgical dressings, IVs, foley caths!!!! FUN FUN FUN!!! I am going to make a special effort on Thursday to really look at the prof. Goals: I'm setting them high! /end 12:25.

Next class was NURS 252 - Health Assessment Across the ......zzzzzzzz.... Lifespan.
 -_-  

It starts at 12:30 & goes until 1:50. I'm proud to say I stayed awake. I honestly like the prof. I do. She is sweet & has a twisted sense of humour, which I both appreciate & can relate to. She just has the most monotone voice & talked right off of her slides, which drives me nuts. It sucks because the info we will be learning in this class seems awesome & the LAB seems scary as hell (they are having "actor" patients come in for us to give head to toe assessments for 30% of our final mark O_o). Point being, I NEED to learn this stuff, & know it well. It's something I will be taking into the real world of clinicals when I am faced with patient after patient, each of which will need full assessments done on them. I'm hoping this class will get better... it was just the first day after all. These are just my first impressions here... SOoo I have two classes in the same room back to back...  3 hours in one room, after the first hour & a half with this prof I thought there is NO WAY I am going to make it through this day week after week, TWICE a week! BUT THEN....

I was hit with a gust of fresh air. My last class is NURS 272 - Mental Health Nursing. I was indifferent about this class. I dealt with depression for a long time with someone very close to me & it is not an area I'm interested in working. But the prof for this class is so refreshing. I loved her from the moment she walked in the room. I WOKE UP! I now know that I will be able to make it through 252 to get to the good stuff in 272. I honestly believe she could change my mind about working in mental health. But let's not get ahead of ourselves... Her teaching style is right up my alley & her assignments seem like they will be really enjoyable. 

So that was my first day. I must say, having 3 NURS classes back to back all in a row is not ideal. I would def make changes to that if I had any scheduling  authority. It's draining & today was just intros to everything. But it is what it is & I shall make the best of it. 

Well, I best get started on some readings. I've got about 34859724865 10 chapters to read for Thursday. :) 

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL TO ALL THOSE WHO HAD THEIR FIRST DAY TODAY!  :D