Week 1 of Semester 2 is officially under our belts. It was very public health-heavy, thanks to a 3-day workshop to introduce us to the basic concepts of public health. And I loved every second of it! With my degree in anthropology and 4+ years of working in social services-type jobs, this is right up my alley. Not to mention hospice nursing is considered part of public health nursing. So I’m tuning in carefully on this one. My parish nursing rotation starts this week – I’ll be at a large Lutheran congregation in a suburb of the city.

Then there’s Med Surg II – we focus this semester on complex health problems (renal failure, heart failure, etc.), and end the semester on trauma and critical care. Our professor is a hoot – a southerner who loves to tell stories. It’ll be an intense class, but I think I’ll enjoy it. Friday we learned a “tic tac toe” method for interpreting ABG (arterial blood gas) results. After practicing a few hundred times, I think I’ve finally got it. And I REALLY like one of our clinical projects – we have to watch a film featuring an end-of-life situation and put together a care plan focusing on the non-physiological needs of a character (either the patient or a family member). After going through such a traumatic end-of-life scenario with my own father, I am all about speaking up on behalf of families. This assignment will give me an opportunity to do just that.

But boy will I be glad when that monstrous Med-Surg ATI text is a thing of the past.

Well there were moments when I wondered if I’d ever be able to say this….

WE MADE IT!!!!! 

I just got home from my LAST clinical shift of the semester.  It’s unbelievable how quickly the past 6 weeks have gone.  My classmate and I ruminated today on how we’re starting to actually feel like we know what we’re doing.  And in less than a week, we’ll all be 25% RNs.  Craziness!

Last week was a flurry of ATI exams and unless I heard wrong, we all passed all three of the exams!  Go us!  And next week is a flurry of final exams.  Thursday afternoon I’m headed to the airport to fly home for the holidays.

We also got our clinical assignments for next semester.  My first 6 weeks will be my community health rotation and I’ll be doing parish nursing, which I am absolutely thrilled about.  The only downside is that I may lose some Sundays to do programs at the parish where I’ll be located.  So scheduling visits with S will present a challenge, but we’ll figure it out, I’m sure.

Then I move into my second Meg-Surg rotation, also on a neuro floor but at a different hospital.  Not sure if it’s a coincidence that I’ll be doing neuro again or if they wanted some continuity so we could handle more complex patients right off the bat.  Either way, I’m both excited that I’ll actually know what I’m doing and a little bummed that I don’t get to try something new.  And admittedly it’s rather bittersweet – my dear father was a neuropsychologist and he would have absolutely LOVED to hear about my experiences with patients who often might have ended up in his office.

Going to go soak my tired tootsies in my brand new massaging foot bath.  Very smart use of my birthday gift card at Target, I must say!