Friday, September 24, 2010

Survival 101

One thing that I have come to learn in my past five weeks of nursing school is that there is one thing that is VITAL to passing the classes. It's simple. Make friends in your classes. In nursing school, it is so important to have a group of friends who are in nursing school with you. They are going through the same stuff you are, you can study with them, bounce questions off of them and be each other's support groups. You need people to support you, so that you know you're not the only one struggling through the storm. They will cheer you on and help you. Make sure you are choosing the right people, not the people who are hoping for you to fail, but the people who want you there the whole time, who want you to PASS. Have study meetings with a group of friends, even if you're all just going to sit there quietly and study to yourselves. It's nice to have some company once in a while. Today I am going to study with a group of friends from school. These friends have been great. This doesn't just go for nursing school. It goes for any type of program. People are so used to studying alone, but we don't need to stick it out by ourselves. There are others doing the same thing. Take advantage of that and create a little circle. It will benefit you more than you may think.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

You Can Acheive Anything If You Truly Believe

The title of my latest post may confuse you. Maybe not, but I want to send a message out there, to everyone. If you really really want something, then you will get it. How do people achieve their goals? How do people get from point A to point B? It's simple, when you want something badly enough, you will get it. That doesn't mean that you can just sit in your recliner and wish as hard as you can to be an olympic skater, it's not that easy. You have to actually work towards a goal. Today my twin sister found out that she was accepted into the top University in Poland. How did this happen? How did she go from an average student in high school to one of the best students I know now? Because this is what she wants. She has been working so hard to get into that school for about a year now. She excells in school and its because she tries. One can't get by in life without trying. If we didn't try, we wouldn't have all the literature there is in this world, the beautiful buildings that surround us, the political leaders that we have in our world (good or bad). These things as well as everything else came from effort. What I'm trying to say, is that you can't get what you want just wishing for it. You have to work for it. The same goes for a test. Lets say you have an exam in a week. You can't just sit around hoping for an A, 9 out of 10 times doesn't help. You have to put the work in, you have to give effort. Frank Lloyd Wright said "I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen."

Monday, September 20, 2010

Numbers

Today was my first dosage calculations exam. Math has always been a stronger subject for me, but the fact that I haven't taken a math class since high school made the dosage calculations difficult for me to comprehend. It's basically all algebra. Algebra is easy, but taking a dosage that a doctor ordered and looking at what the pharmacy gave you, and then figuring out how many tablets/mLs/units/grains that you have to administer to a patient is a little difficult. I may have been stressing a little too much of my dosage calculations but I believe it was for a good cause. We had to get a hundred percent in order to pass the test. Thank goodness I did get a hundred. Otherwise I would have to do it again, but before the test I was stressing out. It didn't help that about an hour before, I was trying to figure out a problem and one of my classmates was yelling the answers at me and trying to dumb me down. I wasn't the only one who felt that way. She wasn't even explaining the method in the correct manner. Impatient people with huge ego's really shouldn't try to teach their classmates the material. I would have done much better without her help. Stress-wise anyway. I'm not the type of person who doesn't mind being yelled at by someone who thinks they know every answer in the book. It's just not fair to treat people as if they are beneath you because they aren't understanding a subject. There is no way I am ever going to study with that girl again. Thank you very much. Okay, enough of my venting. The exam is done and over with. I passed. That's all that matters!

Thank you for reading!!!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Nursing Philosophy: Draft I

We had to write a nursing philosophy for class. I thought I would just share mine with you. :) It's not very good, but I will revise it sooner or later.

Nursing Philosophy
by Nancy O'Toole

My nursing philosophy is based on four concepts. These four concepts are the person, the environment, health and nursing.
The person is a unique individual, who needs an individual plan of care. A person should be looked at as a holistic individual. They are not only made up of the physical body, they are also looked at as spiritual, and mindful. A person is individual, but is also influenced by the environment that surrounds them, including their environment, their family, and their situation. The person is made of the mind, body and spirit. The goal for an individual is that these three aspects work together harmoniously. To achieve this, each unique individual needs unique care. A person is not defined by their disease or condition. A person is defined by their history, a person is defined by their beliefs, by their habits, and by their actions.
The environment is what surrounds every being. An environment is constantly changing. The effects that the environment has on a person are constantly changing as well. An environment can have good influences or bad. Stress is a part of environment that will always be prominent. A nurse should know what kind of stressors have been in a person’s environment. Stressors have a lot to do with a person’s health and the effect it has on their future health. The environment the surrounds a person includes the weather, the living situations for a person, the people that surround the person, and the religious beliefs that the individual knows. All of these surroundings affect the person and their outcomes. It is the duty and responsibility of a nurse to provide a safe, stress-free environment for a person. The safer and healthier the environment in which a person is placed, the better the outcomes for that person.
The health of a person is unique to each individual. What may be healthy for one person may be different to another. Health is when the mind, body and soul are in union. The mind body and spirit are at peace together. When these three aspects are out of balance the health of a person is being compromised. When a person is ill, usually their physical health is weak. Illness can also affect a person’s mental health, and lastly it can affect a person’s spiritual health. Usually the physical health is under stress first. Around the same time, the person’s mental health may waver. The spiritual health of a person is usually the strongest, when a person has a reached a terminal illness, they may start to question God or rely on their beliefs even more. Each person’s physical, mental and spiritual health is different. The levels of health and the way they perceive them are unique to each individual.
Nursing is a unique career. It is an art as well as a science. A nurse must know how to bring the person, health and environment together. A nurse enables a person to regain their fullest potential. A nurse has the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. They have the ability to make choices that can help a person become as healthy and independent as possible. A nurse also has a responsibility. They have the responsibility to make critical choices that will affect a person and impact that person’s environment. A nurse is autonomic, and while they have autonomy, they are also caring. They care about the outcomes of the person; they care about the environment that surrounds that person. A nurse will look at the person as a whole, they will not define the person by their condition. They will see and treat the person as a human being. A nurse will help a person gain full potential and will educate that person in what they need to know. A nurse will release a person from suffering. A nurse is a caregiver who cares for each individual as uniquely as possible.

Thanks for reading!!! Namaste!!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Make It or Break It

I took my first Pathophysiology exam today. It was difficult!!! Ugh, I don't even know how to say how frustrated I am with this whole school thing so far. I am happy to be in the program, I'm GOING to pass, but getting there is so hard. I feel like hitting my head against a wall. Every time I feel like I'm ahead, I realize that there are ten things that I still have to do. I am so behind it isn't funny. I know that probably everybody in the program feels the same way. I finally got in touch with my nursing mentor today, she is going to help me learn how to do my Med Pass. I feel bad because she was trying to get in touch with me, but I have been so bad with checking my school e mail that I never got back to her. She was a good teacher, although, I'm sure that I got super annoying. I constantly ask questions when I am learning. I have to know all the details in order for me to understand any kind of concept. So, today in my lab class, I went over passing meds with my mentor. It's scary, only being in my fourth week of class and I already have to know how to pass medications!!! I feel a headache coming on from all this thinking... I need to sit myself down and come up with some kind of checklist. I spent so much time studying for my patho test last week that I neglected my nursing lab class. I realized today that there was a worksheet that I was supposed to have done, so I thankfully was able to get that done in about an hour before class. *sigh* I will get through this!!! I can't believe I even have time to go to my Yoga class tonight. But, like everyone says, we need to make a little time for ourselves.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

All the Studying Paid Off!!!

Well, needless to say, all that studying paid off! I got an 87% on my first nursing exam!!! Go me!!! I am super happy! Now I need to get back to my Pathophysiology books. :/ Not so fun.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Back to My Beginning

These next two years are going to change my life. I can just feel it hanging over me, a new outfit, ready to envelope me once I am finished with the NCLEX (the nursing licensure exam). I know that I am going to have almost no free time during these next few years. People keep saying that all I am going to be doing is studying, that's pretty much all I am doing besides work, and the occasional distraction. But I also think, that as a nursing student, I cannot neglect myself. Yes, school is hard, it is stressful, I am going to have to study a lot, and yes, study group will be my social life for a while. But it is important to give myself a break. Why have a stopped doing yoga as much as I used to? This stress that is surrounding me, all these stressors, are wearing me thin, THIS is the time for me to utilize my breath, to go back to my Yoga practice, to find my solace on the mat once again. It could be just 15 minutes of Yoga during a break from studying. But it is so important for me, so I need to keep it up. It will help me keep things off my mind, and focus more on my school work. Starting next week I am going to go to a Yoga class once a week. The class is a an hour and a half, and I think that is great. It will do me a tremendous amount of good. When I was thinking about things to stop doing while I was in school, Yoga never crossed my mind. This is an essential part of my life, of my well being. For you other readers, I recommend that you choose something that you love to do, that calms you (not drugs). Give yourself a break. It's just as important as studying every little detail of nursing, or whatever it is that you are persuing.
Thanks for reading!!!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Nursing Exam #1

Today I took my very first nursing exam. Let me tell you, I studied a lot this weekend, well, I could have studied more, but sometimes distractions are much more to my liking than the studying part. I studied a lot for this test. The exam was on Nursing theory, Nursing Philosophy, and some evidence based practice, and some nursing history. I got to the testing area twenty minutes ahead of time, made sure I had two pencils, read the rest of my twenty five page packet on Neuman's System of Nursing, and waited for the test to begin. The test was only seven pages long, and I don't think the material was very difficult. It's just the way the questions and answers are worded that is difficult to understand. When you are in a biology class, the answers to a question are pretty much black and white. In nursing, the answers can be very similar, so we have to choose the best possible answer. There were a couple of questions that I mused over, but I just decided to keep going. I'm not one of those test takers who likes to double and triple check. So, I was the first one finished with my test. I'm wondering whether or not that is a good thing. I don't like to stress over the test afterwards and discuss it with the rest of my peers, to me that is torture. What is done is done, it can't be changed, so I am refusing to discuss my answers until I get my exam back, and see how I did. I really am not sure how well I did. It's making me nervous. But now I have to crack down and study for my Pathophysiology exam. There is no time for fooling around. I have a feeling I am going to make enemies with these next two years, I will curse the nursing program for limiting my life. But I know that it is well worth it. To anyone else who is about to take a nursing test and who has already taken a nursing test. Good luck! We will all make it! As always, thanks for reading!