The New Semester

Yesterday was officially the first day of the new semester. On Wednesday I had to attend this mandatory laboratory orientation, which was really quite pointless seeing as nothing has changed! Well, except for the fact that they are going to start charging us $25 if we have to redo a skill...just another way to nickel and dime us to death. We also got our health totes with our IV start kits and central line dressing change kits for our first skill in Advanced Skills. So yesterday I had my first two classes...Complex Health Alterations 1 (CHA1 as we call it) and Advanced Skills. I'm now in my 3rd semester of a 4-semester associate degree nursing program. This is the hardest semester out of all of them, so if I can pass this one, I'll be home free baby! Woot! There's 60 students left in my "group" out of 120 that started. It's that hard...yea. Unless you're a nursing student you never realize how difficult it really is. People laugh when you say you spend 40 hours a week studying and practicing new skills, but let me tell you, it's TRUE! Just ask my mom! :)) You spend so much time studying and doing homework and taking notes, and spend even more time practicing in the skills lab so you are confident when it comes time to actually do the skill on a real live person (unless the skill is an assessment which we practice on each other). I bust my ass working so hard at this and yet I see bimbos who can talk their way out of an apocalypse that pass with ease and it makes me so angry. Anyway, it's going to be a really hard semester...and LONG! On Mondays I have two classes- race, ethnic and diversity, and mental health...Tuesdays and Wednesdays are Intermediate Clinical Practice, which is 8 weeks of med-surg, 4 weeks "off," and 4 weeks psych rotation. and Thursdays is CHA1 then Advanced Skills. Thank God I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to recover! :D My Mondays and Thursdays are 5 and 6 hours long, I only have a ten minute break between classes. Then clinicals for the first 8 weeks of the semester are from 3p to 9:30p...PM clinicals, YAY! No more silly o'clock wake up for me... until the last 4 weeks of the semester, then my clinicals are from 7a till 1:30p. Yea I know, complicated schedule! It's a wonder how I stay organized let alone anyone else I try explaining this all too. LOL. Anyway yesterday in Advanced Skills was pretty fun. We did blood draws and IV starts, so that was exciting although I already knew the skill pretty well, legally you can't do it as an LPN. I got my authorization to test the other day, now all I have to do is schedule my NCLEX-PN exam so I can get my LPN license! WOO HOO! :D It'll be a good thing to have in case I fail the rest of the RN program, lmao. Anyway I'm a little pressed for time and I'd love to stay and type all day, but I have to get back to my stress relief therapy...drawing! :D