Long two weeks

As you can see, I haven’t written anything in two weeks! So, I’m going to start where I left off. Of course I’m not going to write about each and every day, but I’m going to write anything I remember, so it may get somewhat messy.

One of the last things I said is that I did my Math/Pharmacology test and finished with the class. Well, thanks to God I got an “A” on that class. I also did my Business class test that same Monday and also got an “A” on it. On my Fundamentals of Nursing test I had gotten a “B”, but then the teacher made some mistakes, so she changed it to an “A”. So far, so good.

In my clinicals I’ve been doing good. We have been doing care plans and assessments on the patients, as well as practicing critical thinking and care plans for our final test. I got to do an inital assessment on one of the patients at the hospital. Now, I’m not sure if last Friday was going to be the last day on the floor because our teacher wants us to practice with the care plans our last day, and since we don’t have class this coming Friday because it’s Thanksgiving, then we’ll have to do our care plans the Friday after the next. It’s only one more Friday to go on site and then the test.

On both my Health Assessment class and my Fundamentals Skills lab, we already took the last test. I passed them both. We are still going to have classes for the next two weeks, but we’re not going to be tested on those topics individually. It’s all going to be included in the Fundamentals of Nursing final exam. Thanks to God the semester is almost over and I’m doing good in my tests.

Today, I took my third Fundamentals of Nursing test, the last one before the final. This test was horrible! It had almost nothing to do with the power points that my teacher sends and nothing to do with the topics we see in class. My teacher expects us to know things that maybe she hasn’t even explained or mentioned in class. The test deals more with critical thinking and logical answers to questions of real life situations. The problem with those questions is that if we don’t have guidance as to what to answer, then the answers can be relative to what anyone thinks is best. Well, I thank God for helping me like always and just hope to have done well. After taking the test, I came home, ate, and did some calls that I needed to. Then I went to the post offcice to send a payment (long story), and then I went to my business lab, where the only thing I did was to examine the Champions League games for tomorrow and Wednesday so I could change my fantasy game players. After that, I went to my business class and then came home.

Last week

I haven’t written anything in a long while, since last week! So, I’m going to start with last Monday. That day I had a test on my Fundamentals of Nursing class. I thought I did well. In my Math/Pharmacology class it was our last day of class, so some students brought breakfast to share with the class. We ate while we had the lecture. After that, I went to my fundamentals test and then I came home. I went to my business class in the afternoon and I think that was it.

On Thursday, I had my Health Assessment class at 8:00am and we got to use the otoscope and ophthalmoscope for the examination of the head, ears, eyes, nose, and throat. That was cool. After that, we had a test for my fundamentals skills lab about medication administration. I did well. After that, I went with some classmates to the hospital to pick up the assignment and do the homework. This time I really dressed well, and my assignment was a lot shorter than the one last week. I stayed there until like 5:40pm though. I came home and then went to music practice.

On Friday, we went to the hospital and also had the opportunity to do a health assessment on a patient. We also had the opportunity to draw blood samples for lab tests and to start two IV lines. I didn’t get to start the IV lines because my teacher gave that opportunity to two of my other classmates. So, my teacher took me to draw a blood sample, but the lady didn’t want to get stuck by needles again because she said that some people had already tried and they had stuck her many times. My teacher explained to her that the IV line that she already had was not made to draw blood, so it was difficult, but she was going to try. She tried a lot and then finally got the blood out, so I only put the blood into the test tubes and learned that process well. After that, we did the glucose tests again and then we went to eat and then post-conference.

Today I had two tests. My final Math/Pharmacology test was today at 7:00am. I think I did well. It was pretty easy. After that I went to my Fundamentals of Nursing class, and I was falling asleep yet again. She gave us the grade for our last test, the one I thought I did well. I didn’t do as well as I thought I did. I got a “B”. I want to see the key to that test because I got many wrong answers. I don’t know why. So, I want to double check that. But well, after that class, I came home and studied for my Business class test. I ate, studied, and then went to take my test at 5:00pm,  but I got there late because I hadn’t finished studying. Then I went in like at 5:10 and finished my test at 6:40pm. I came home like at around 7:00. I think I did well on the test, plus I had some extra credits. That helped. After that I came back home, ate, and came to the computer.

Real hospital work

So, I haven’t been able to write all this week since Monday because I’ve been running everywhere and doing everything this week. On Thursday I had my Health Assessment class and we had a test. I didn’t even know we had a test that day. I thought the teacher had moved the test to next week because she didn’t go over one topic in class, so I thought I heard her say that she was going to move the test for next week. Apparently, she didn’t move it, so she tested us on Thursday. It was easy though. We only had to do a complete abdominal examination on a classmate. After that, I went to the hospital with some of my classmates to start the pre-assignment for the clinicals. I started my care plan by studying my patient and writing his history on my care plan. I thought I was going to have trouble because right before leaving, the doctor told me that the patient was going to be transferred to another hospital, so he wouldn’t be there on Friday for me to examine him. I thought I was going to have to do everything over again with another patient. So, we came back to school for our fundamentals skills class, and she went over medication administration again. We only stayed for a short while listening to the explanation and asking questions. After that I went with some other classmates back to the hospital because I hadn’t finished my pre-assignment and I thought I needed another patient. Fortunately, when I got there, my teacher told me not to start over with another patient, but to do both patients in the same chart. So, now my care plan is all mixed up. One part belongs to one patient and the other part belongs to another one.

On Friday, I went to the hospital, and we already started the real job. We had to do a complete health assessment on a patient, document our findings, and help the care partner with the patient care. We also learned to do the glucose test for the diabetic patients. Each one of us got to do one glucose test on a patient. That was cool. After that, I finished writing up the information for my pre-assignment and I got home really late and really tired. It was a long day.