Not so tough after all
And just in case you were wondering, no I haven't been gone for the last week because I injured myself trying to staple things with my left hand. That was only a minor injury. :) I've actually been studying and my clinical has been pretty uneventful, which is why I was trying to find new ways of stapling papers. I've also found several different techniques for the extremely important task of placing a pillow inside a pillowcase. And I was worried that this clinical would be a waste of valuable time!
What goes up must come down
Crazy world?
I won't even begin to tell you what I think about this because I agreed to keep my site family friendly when it was featured last year. I did get to watch a student from another nursing school as she started several IV's today. I don't think I could have possibly been more jealous than I was while watching the nurses teach her how to do IV's. I think I'm going to ask if I can come in after my clinical rotation is over and have her teach me- I don't see how my instructor would ever find out. Ohh... I'm such an evil nursing student, planning to come in to get extra clinical practice behind my teacher's back! Should I feel like I'm breaking the rules by wanting to learn? LOL.. it's a crazy world. Or maybe it's just crazy instructors? I'll let you decide.ER!!!
Congratulations Graduates!
Send me your graduation photo (it does not have to be from nursing school or even recent) and I'll post it here. lilk8tob3@yahoo.com
Helen
Mary
Susan
Jean and Judy
ICCC Nursing Grads
Michelle
Great study tool
On the main screen click on "Test."
Select "Nursing Topics" in the top box on the next screen.
Choose a specific area you need to focus on, or click "Select all" in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Click "Next" at the top right of the screen.
Good luck!
Clinical dread
Dallas nurses?
Also, just in case you didn't notice, they changed my site address. I'm sure they will redirect you if you type in the old one, but just in case, you might want to bookmark this new one.
Random thoughts
~ I will never understand why people with expensive cars have tinted windows. When you spend that much money on a car, don't you want people to be able to see that you are the one driving it?
~ Something I should be banned from using:
~ The reason:
~ Making students spend sixty-four hours following a nurse manager around is completely ridiculous!!
~ Even more ridiculous is forbidding them to use the word "shadowing" to describe their experience, even though shadowing is all they will be doing.
Instructors
We have a few instructors who are truly wonderful people. Unfortunately, they should not be nursing instructors. We have had these two instructors for the last few weeks who are both community nurses. Talking to either of them one-on-one, you can tell how friendly and caring they really are. But when they get up in front of the class, they have no idea how to teach a group of accelerated nursing students. Instead of having lecture these last two weeks, they have tried to have lots of group discussions. When I say "group discussions" I really mean that we all sit there and listen to two of our classmates as they share their stories. We were supposed to have a lecture on handling a disaster. To be honest, it is incredibly hard to listen to anyone hired by our school as they talk about disaster management because obviously our school cannot handle their own disaster- their faculty, administration, and curriculum. So already having one strike against her, the instructor started class by asking, "Who here has been in a natural disaster?" Now, if this were just a show of hands type question, I wouldn't be upset. But she actually had students spend ten or fifteen minutes of class talking about the natural disasters they have witnessed. Is knowing that Vicki was in a tornado going to help me triage my patients if I am ever in this situation!? Every one of our lectures over the past two weeks has been run this way. Our lecture on being a nurse manager basically consisted of questions such as, "What qualities make someone a good leader?" Every response given by the students was "correct." How is this educational? Maybe it's just my personality, but I need facts and answers to learn things, not just group discussions where nothing gets accomplished. This left me with two options: lose what is left of my sanity, or skip class. I'm not going to incriminate myself by saying that I skipped class, but I will just say that these new jeans look much better on me than a straight jacket would.
Interview tips
My friend John came up with these suggested responses to interview questions:
1. Why did you pick this hospital?
a) I like the cafeteria here better than at other hospitals.
b) Given the quality of nurses I've observed here, I figure I'd be a superstar in about a week.
c) My parole officer says I have to work in Missouri.
2. Why did you choose nursing?
a) Free drugs, why else!?
b) I like seeing people naked.
c) Dr. Jack Kevorkian is my hero, and this is as "close to him" as I can get.
d) Too many of my patients were dying when I was a CNA, so I thought I could do better as a nurse.
3. What previous experience do you have that will contribute to this job?
a) I worked at the zoo and learned how to clean up poop using a shovel.
b) My years as a drug dealer taught me about dispensing drugs to people who really need them.
4. How do you work with others?
a) Great! I was elected "Miss Congeniality" when I was in the psych hospital!
b) Great! My years as a professional dominatrix taught me how to boss people around.
c) I do really well with the unconscious patients.
d) Is that important or something?
5. How do you problem solve a situation (patients, visitors, staff, etc.)?
a) When no one is around I pee in the coffee pot.
b) If things get difficult I just go pull the fire alarm.
c) I find I have few problems with others if I just stay drunk all the time.
d) I go into the restroom and write on the wall, "For a good time, call....."
Are you serious?
I find myself making the same promise after every single test that I take: I will never do the assigned reading again. And yet the weekend before each test, I end up reading every single assigned page. This leads to an extreme amount of frustration when the test questions are poorly worded or just plain ridiculous and there is no difference in scores between the students who did the reading and those who did not do the reading. So why do I keep doing the reading? I'm not sure, but it probably has something to do with the same insanity that led me to an accelerated nursing program. Anyway, after every test I leave angry that I wasted my entire weekend reading. This morning's test was no different, and it put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. A few hours after the test, we were given the details about a large community project that we have to complete by next Thursday. Everything seemed overwhelming but acceptable until the instructor got to the last page of the instructions, where it stated that we would evaluate our group members on their participation. At first this seemed like a great idea- I have worked with several people to whom I would gladly give a zero for their lack of participation. The catch, however, is that we had to actually RANK the people in our group. The top person would get 15 points (the project is worth 100 points total), the second best 14 points, etc. Our group has 11 people!! This means that whoever we put last would automatically have a B as the highest possible score for the project. Are you serious? What an idiotic idea!! Remember, one of our classmates was kicked out for being 0.01% too low, so every point really does matter! Being the calm and respectful class that we are, we all started arguing with the instructor. People were shouting their objections to this grading plan and it was a chaotic scene. While I was sitting there listening to everyone argue with the teacher, something suddenly clicked in my mind. I raised my hand and said, "According to the assigned reading for the class on successful managing practices, an evaluation system requiring people to be ranked against their peers can be detrimental to group cohesion." The smirk on the instructor's face was priceless. She slowly started nodding her head as my classmates started clapping and cheering. Well, we will no longer be using the ranking system, and for the first time I can actually say that doing the reading has paid off!
No hablo español
And the results are...
Click HERE to see my HESI exam results.
Although it says 99%, I didn't just miss one question. I actually missed 16 out of 110 questions. I am very happy with this score, but don't think that it has anything to do with how much I know. I am an excellent test taker. I don't know what it is, but when I read a question about something I don't know, I can somehow figure out what the right answer is just by looking at the choices. When browsing through Mike's architecture licensing exam study guide, I was able to get a lot of the questions right although I know nothing about construction documents. Unfortunately, if I ever have a patient having an allergic reaction to their medication, a little box will not pop up above their head that says, "Your patient is experiencing these five classic symptoms. Which of the following will you administer to this patient?" I won't have a one if four chance of guessing right- I'll just have to know it. And to be honest, I don't know much without seeing the answer choices. In three months I will graduate. Yes, my school has prepared me to pass the multiple-choice licensing exam. But have they prepared me to be a good nurse? I feel like I have four years of stuff to learn before then. I've been told by several nurses that one day it will all just click. I'm impatiently waiting for the clicking to begin...
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