1 down, 4 to go.

I had a wonderful first semester of nursing school and an even better Christmas break! I have two weeks left of my 5 weeks off, but pretty soon I have to start reading for next semester. I am jumping into next semester with my head held high and hopefully I will not fail. Last semester did have some bumps but I have learned a lot.

1) Stay organized. I am the most unorganized person ever. I throw papers around my office. As long as no one touches them I remember exactly where I threw each specific paper. Of course people/dogs always touch my stuff so that is rarely helpful. I have a planner, a dry erase calendar, my printed school calendar, binders, shelves, folders and all kinds of things to keep me organized. Hopefully next semester I will refine my process.

2) Stay prepared. I make me coffee the night before so I can have iced coffee in the morning. I lay out my clothes down to my undies. It is dark at 4:45 in the morning and I try not to turn on the light and wake Ryan up so I get everything the night before. I pack up my backpack. I make sure I have my penlight, stethoscope, shears, and all my of paperwork. I have breakfast and lunch already made. Well.. usually. Even though we are allowed a 15 min break during clinicals at the hospital I do not count on being able to take it. I am prepared for a few easy patients and for cranky frazzled nurses who are working day 5 of what was supposed to be a 3 day work week. I am prepared for discharge, death, new patients and scrambling to learn new medications that were not prescribed the previous day. I am NOT a morning person and this is the only thing that has kept me from showing up late, in my PJs without coffee. I just need to figure out how to pre-make smoothies/juice without it getting funny overnight.

3) Do not judge anyone. I made this mistake last semester even though I tried not to. Sometimes I can be too trusting too soon, and sometimes I use one encounter to prejudge someone I do not even know. I am not perfect. No one is. This also ties in with no drama and no gossip. Working with a group of 60 students, mostly female is not easy. I have never enjoyed working with women but if everyone just leaves the drama at home, we are fine.

4) poo is smelly. We were asked to speak to a group of potential nursing students about what school was really like. Even though I did not talk to them I thought about what I would say. And I would tell them that if they really cannot handle things like poo, blood, pee, snot and other bodily fluids then this is not for them. The first few weeks we were in a nursing home learning how to bathe, change and clean up patients. Most of this involved bathroom type stuff. Not glamorous. When were we going to set bones, hang Ivs and run a code?! The majority of the things you will be doing as a student nurse is making sure your client is safe, clean and well assisted during the "bathroom stuff". And guess what… poo is smelly.

5) Aint nobody got time for that. No I am not taking about my house burning down while I have bronchitis. I am taking about EVERYTHING else. I have had to bail on my friends, tell my family I was not coming home for christmas and ignore my boyfriend. I have to read before class, do homework, study for lab, study for tests, prepare for clinical, design care plans for patients and lean a ton of medicines. This does not include the time actually spend in school, lab or the hospital. My time is filled with nursing. I am constantly reviewing lab values in my head. If I do go out I am thinking about the basics. Bed down, side rails up, remember to ask about pain, water, bathroom, comfort. I think about what I need to get on my next 4 tests to maintain my grade, I am thinking about the 15 + steps I have to memorize for skills lab. Some things come easy to me and some things do not. The things that do not are always in the back of my head and I feel like I cannot give 100% of my time to anyone. Until the end of the semester that is. At that point I just do not care. Sure lets go out, sure lets have some drinks, sure lets watch that movie. Which brings me to...

6) Make some time for that… I have yet to learn how to properly juggle school and social life. When I do study, I am not efficient so it takes me longer. If I could learn to study for a solid 4 hours (with breaks) then I could enjoy the rest of my day. But I study, then do something else. Then look at my book then watch a tv show, then study then play with my dog, and this takes me all day to study one chapter. While becoming more efficient and staying organized I can make time for things. I miss playing roller derby like crazy. I could still go to two practices a week but I feel guilty for not studying. Hopefully this semester I will get everything all figured out.

7) Nursing school is fun! I have made new friends with similar interests. I enjoy learning about the human body and I enjoy taking care of patients at the hospital. This is the only time in my career that I will be able to spend one on one time with my patient and be able to talk with them and spend meals with them. I have already met some really interesting people.

All in all I had a good first semester and I am sure next semester will be even better. Last semester my clinical group went through a lot. There were deaths in the family, funerals, fights, funny moments, a good trip to Daytona, and discovery of new life growing in one of us. And we all agree we hate group projects. So here is to a good second semester of nursing school!!