Writing the HESI tomorrow

Yes, I'll be writing my first HESI exam tomorrow morning. The second one, a HESI/CAT will be written in April.


I am very curious to know where I'm at with the learning curve for the NCLEX. I think this is a great opportunity to review/plan my learning path for the coming months until June 2015, when I write my licensing exam.


And I must say, for a change, it is extremely nice to not have to study for an exam!!!


Kate

One Step Closer to RN

This week we had to sign a form and let our university send it to our provincial nursing registration college. It was a form that said we allow the school to send our personal info to the college of nursing, so that we will be able to be invited to write our licensing exam after we finish in April 2015.


Yes, please. Bring it on!


I write the HESI test this weekend, to see where I'm at in the learning curve for the NCLEX exam, and more importantly, to see where I need to improve to get that exam passed.  Here in Canada, we only get three chances to write it successfully. So this is critically important to do well on, for my first try.


Six more days of classes/labs/shifts left this semester!!!


I did my first two 12-hour shifts last week, back to back. It was fine, actually much, much better than I expected. I was tired, yes, but not crazy/can't think straight tired like I thought I'd be. So I'll take that as yet another positive learning experience on this crazy ride called nursing school and career change!


Kate

Last Midterm Exam!!!

I think I may have written my last midterm exam last week!!!


I'm not completely sure, as there is a very compressed course next semester. But that course is an entire semester worth of classes, crammed into several 6 hour days over the span of two weeks. It seems unlikely that they'd have a mid-term exam in a course of that format.  However, stranger things have happened. This is nursing school, after all.


Barring an unexpected midterm exam in early January, I think we are f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d with midterms!!!


Now to go and finish my last paper of this semester. The paper itself is done, but there is still the dreaded reference list to write, as per APA 6 norms and standards.  Ugh. Once school is done, I'll be so happy to never have to write up anything in APA format again...until NP school starts, but I'll worry about that later!


Kate

Time Warp!

You've probably already read my vents about this semester's nursing shifts being ALL day shifts...meaning I need to wake up with the birds (or before the birds), at around 5 am. No beloved evening shifts for me this term.


And it has caught up with me.  It seems that my internal body clock has shifted.


Yesterday, I checked the bloodwork results on a few patients, and their potassium levels came back with numbers that mean I had to give them extra potassium, as per the sliding scale on the unit. I mentioned this to my buddy nurse, and she said we'd just give them the pills with their lunches.


I stared at her, not comprehending. Clearly, I must have looked like an idiot, but I thought they'd already had lunch. I'd seen the trays go by. I saw them eating.  I could have sworn that it was already mid afternoon.


I looked at my watch and it said 10:30. AM. (My first thought was that my watch must have stopped!)


I simply could not believe it was only 10h30 in the morning. But then I realized I'd had my breakfast at 5 am, when I woke up. I'd gone for break at 9h30 am, and eaten well...so that was technically my lunch, with the shifted time. So by 10h30, it felt like early mid afternoon, so clearly the patients had already had their lunches, right???  Those were just their breakfast trays I'd seen them eating.


We laughed when I re-oriented myself to the current time, and laughed some more. I guess this is a real welcome to the realities of nursing life. 


And yes, my patients got their potassium at the right time.