RnLife.com

Hey Everyone,

It’s Tuesday! I hope everyone’s week is going great. Mine has been pretty good. School of course has been pretty crazy and busy. It is so cold here in TN. It is actually right now according to my weather bug only 29′F and that doesn’t include the wind chill. I can hear the wind blowing outside so it has to be colder than that. I am so cold right now. I have a heating pad on my feet and candle lit to help with some heat lol. I am cheap! Today I had to go and do a presentation this morning and it was snowing so hard. I was so excited because we barely get any snow anymore so guess what I did….I took some video of it. I know I am a nerd and don’t have a life. So here is my video of the snow:

I almost died walking on campus today because it was so cold. I looked like an eskimo today hehe. I have been spoiled with this warm weather. I think this winter we are going to get some major snow though. Like I said, I had a presentation today……it was on gastric-bypass surgery and my group members did great (shout out to Yazz). I am always glad to have presentations over because I get nervous during them. Monday I have a huge presentation that I have to present to all of my nursing class (almost 100 people) and my professors. Wish me luck on it. Then after that I am free for the week because it is Thanksgiving Break. OOOH YEAH!!

OMG guess what…..well we all know Thanksgiving is coming up right??!! Ben and I are doing our own thing this year because our families have decided to not really do anything. So Ben and I get to make our own feast. I am so excited about it because I absolutely love cooking and finding the best deals out there because you can find killer deals on turkeys. Today I bought a turkey at Krogers after class and guess how much they were charging for it a pound? Only .39 cents I got a 15 lb turkey for only $6.30 tax included. That is a awesome deal. It was regularly $19.38. I was so excited (it doesn’t take a lot to get me excited as you can already tell). So if you live near a Kroger (I think they are USA wide) go and get you a turkey. I will post pictures of it next week after I cook it.

Tomorrow I am going to visit my grandparents which I am very excited about. I love my grandparents…they are really like my parents. I haven’t seen them in like 2 months which is a longer time for me. I use to visit them every week but nursing school has kept me very busy. They are excited I am coming. My mamaw said she is going to cook us some dinner….she is the best cook ever!

Thursday is going to be a busy day. I have a clinical exam and a health fair to be in (fun fun). Then I have class Friday and it will be the weekend woohoo TGIF!! I can’t wait for this semester to be over. I hope everyone has a great week!

I am closing with a picture of snow……of course (it’s in the back of Ben’s truck)

Until next time,

Sarah

Hey Everyone,

Sheeew…I have been so busy! Remember it is crunch time for me. Today was officially my last day of clinicals for this semester…YAH! I can’t believe it…school is flying by and I am so loving it. Monday of course I had class. Tuesday for my care of adults clinical I was on a cardiac step-down unit and it was fun. I got to access PICC lines and give medications through a PEG tube by gravity. I also got to do A LOT of full body nursing assessments and I seen my first case of pitting edema. I really had to look for it…I always thought it would be really easy to spot but the only reason I found it was because I was feeling for pulses in the feet. It is so cool. You press hard on it and it sinks in. Its like the pt has gel under their skin. My pt had pitting edema 2+.

Wednesday was my day off and I studied the whole day. However, I did manage sometime to go and do laundry at the laundry mat which is another down side of living in an apartment without washer and dryer hook-up. I have been doing my laundry at the laundry mat for about 3 years now and I am so ready for my own washer and dryer darn it. Each load of laundry costs $1.75…it use to be $1.25 but inflation increased it.

Today, which is Thursday, I was at the Primary Care Clinic where I drew blood all day and gave flu shots. I had a wonderful time today. I think it was my favorite clinical by far. I feel so much more competent in drawing blood and it is actually really fun. There is nothing like finding a good vein, sticking it, and seeing a blood return. I swear I get excited every time it happens LOL. I also gave like 50 flu shots today. That was really fun too. I did have some patients that were wasted away and didn’t have much muscle in their arms and the needle did hit the bone…..however they didn’t complain. I haven’t got my flu shot and I don’t know if I will??!! So as of today I am done with my clinicals for the semester WOOHOO!!

Tomorrow I have class from 815-1115 for care of older adults. Oh yeah I got my test results back and did really good on it. I got a 92 on the test YAH!! I have another wretched test on Monday over renal system and heart…it is going to be a doozy! I hope everyone has a great week!

Until next time,

Sarah

Hey Everyone,

It’s Sunday and back to the grind tomorrow! I swear the weekends just fly by way too fast. But hey it is almost over for me. This week was busy but overall a good week. I got another older adults exam out of the way and it actually wasn’t that bad. However, I am very ready for school to be over forever…just one more semester!! Tuesday I had clinicals in the ER. It was an interesting day and definitely a learning experience. I think I have decided I don’t want to be an ER nurse though. BUT you do learn so much during your time there. I got to start so many IVs (everyone who comes in gets one), perform full body assessments, IV removals, and medication administration. The nurses there were AWESOME! They are very intelligent and knew what they were doing. Plus they were so helpful and were all about me getting some experience. I got to see some interesting cases. I seen a drug overdose pt & a twisted ankle from a dirt bike accident….very cool.

Like I said earlier, the nurses there were very helpful and they pretty much let you do stuff on your own which was great. I have been in nursing school a while now and I feel comfortable with IVs and medication administer. However, during clinicals I am use to the nurse I am with being at my side the whole time while I’m do everything and guiding me while I am doing it. Well I got to see how it was with out a nurse being by my side during my ER day. The drug overdose pt came in and everyone swarmed in to start doing stuff and the nurse looked over at me and said “start her IV access” and then starts doing something else. I have never had a nurse say here do this on your own. I was so nervous! It was so crazy in the room…everyone moving around doing stuff. I was like okay and I felt really nervous. However, I managed to get through it and start the IV. I think at that moment it made me realize how it will be in about 6 months. I am so use to be the nursing student who is a newbie and doesn’t know much. However, after that I felt like “hey I think I can do this stuff”.

Wednesday was my day off……I spent the whole day studying for my test I had on Friday. Thursday I was at the outpatient Oncology Clinic. This is where patients come in to get chemotherapy for their cancer. They give the chemotherapy through either IV access or an implanted port under the skin. Pretty much they are getting a poisonous drug that goes in to target cancer cells. The drugs for cancer have advanced and some of the drugs just target cancer cells but others target all cells and this is where you get hair loss..etc. I thought that the patients would be all sad and it would be a gloomy day but it actually wasn’t. Those patients were the nicest patients I have ever came into contact with. They were so positive and so nice and thankful for everything. I guess may be the reason they are like that is because they don’t want to take anything for granted since they have had a brush with death. Kudos for them!

Friday I had my test. I came home and did nothing! I watched Ugly Betty online, ate, and slept. I was so tired. I still haven’t heard any thing about that darn job I went Tuesday and talked to her again and she said that she was waiting on me (I think there was some communication mistake) and she said she would call me Wednesday and get me set-up. Also, what else is weird is that she said that I was pretty much was hired and all I needed to do was do the paper work BUT she has never called. I think she is very busy and just hasn’t had time may be?? Oh well I would really like to have it but I will wait to see what happens. Today Ben and I went to the grocery store! It was crazy there…try to avoid Sunday’s for grocery shopping! I hope everyone has a great week!

Until next time,

Sarah

Hey Everyone,

I hope every one’s week is starting out great. Monday’s are always so tiring but hey at least we are getting closer to Friday right? So today my Senior Practicum clinical was announced. This is my very last clinical that will start in January……ooooh yeah and then it is graduation baby! Well we had to pick our two areas that we wanted for this clinical and our nursing professors decided who got where based on our HESI score last semester. My first pick was ICU Step-down Cardiac and my second one was just Medical Surgical. Guess what I got…….Cardiac ICU Step-down at my favorite hospital which is like 5 minutes away from where I live…what what!! Sorry but I am very excited because I thought I would get something terrible but I didn’t. Also another great thing is that if I get my nurse intern job it won’t be in conflict with my clinical rotation (we aren’t allowed to have worked on the floor where we get to do our Senior Practicum)  I am going to be on 2100 and the clinical coordinator said that as long as I won’t be on 2100 I am all good. I think if I get my job as the nurse intern I will be working on 2300 or 2500…so that is awesome. By the way, they still haven’t called but I am not worried because tomorrow I am going to go by her office and make sure she got my application.

Tomorrow I have clinicals from 630am-400pm and I am in the ER aka ED. I am not to excited about it but I will live. I hope everything goes well and I get with a good nurse. Wish me luck tomorrow. I will update you on how it goes. I hope everyone have a terrific week! Oh yeah I had the cardiac quiz today….I think I did okay on it but I did get confused on one of the questions.

Sarah

Hey Everyone,

The election is almost here and I can’t wait to find out who wins. I think both candidates have worked their butts off and who ever gets it deserves it. I have been keeping up with the election….watching all the debates, reading all the news, and this can get really boring. You always see the serious side of the candidates. So it is nice to see that they have a sense of humor!

I have been watching Saturday Night Live aka SNL with all the presidential spoofs and I thought this was the funniest one of them all. I watched the one with Sarah Palin and it wasn’t that funny but this one with John McCain is so funny. Even if you don’t like John McCain he did a great job on SNL last night. Here is the video of John McCain on Saturday Night Live:

Enjoy! Until next time………

Sarah