Sunday, December 17, 2006

Scrapbook

What does everyone think of starting a scrapbook for nursing school?
I've never made one before, so it would be a new hobby. The only thing is that I don't have a lot of pictures from this past semester, so I don't know. Suggestions?

Thursday, December 14, 2006

FINISHED!!!

Final grades:
Fundamentals: 92.4% B
Clinicals: Satisfactory
Physical exam/assessment: 95% A
Pathophysiology: 97%A

WOOOOOOO

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL TODAY (AFTER TWO FINALS OF COURSE)!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

You're know you're in nursing school when/if...

The other week during our presentation, something really made me look around and laugh.
We were all eating pizza, with various toppings while watching a powerpoint presentation on cervical cancer. It was filled with pictures of the cervix, cancer, and other images that no normal person in their right mind would want to see when eating pizza, but damnit--I looked around and everyone was chowing down like it was no big deal.
It was awesome.
Gotta love nursing school.
After yesterday's HESI, I feel like I need to step it up a bit even more for next semester. I mean, I did study extremely hard this semester, but I can't even imagine what the MS-HESI will be like if Fundamentals was that torturous.
I plan on buying my books for Spring on Friday. This way, I'll have them all Christmas break and when I have nothing to do, like when Mirza is working or practicing, I will knock out some chapters. They already posted the psych chapters for the first two days of class. Everyone says that Pharm sucks too, so I better get a start on that as well!
blaaaa
I should really be studying for Patho and Physical assessment right now.
I am just bummed that my 92.4% is staying as it is and my final grade for Fundamentals is a B. 0.6% away from an A.
If I get A's in the rest of my classes though, my GPA will stay the same as it was before nursing school--a solid 3.7.

Monday, December 11, 2006

HESI

I don't give a shit what anyone says, that HESI exam was hard.
First of all, it had questions about the size of needles and shit, which we never ever covered--it sucked!!

I got an 899, which is a 78%. I got the highest out of my group, which is good, I guess. People were getting like 50% and shit.
It says that an acceptable score is 850 and a recommended score is 900, so I was one point away from "recommended."
The average score last semester for Fund was 821. And the average score for the nation was 826, so I did better than 62% of the nation's nursing students, while only 38% of the nation's students had higher scores than me.

THIS BLOWS though because my grade in fundamentals is a 92.37 and I need a 93% for an A!:(
I hope they can somehow throw out questions or something!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Finals week

I have been studying like a mad woman for this Fundamentals HESI. I am going insane. It is now almost 10pm (despite what the dumb time says on my this blog) and I don't know how I feel. I am nervous. The information isn't even hard really, it is just the way they word the questions so DUMB and confusing! arghhhh.
I started studying around 10:30 this morning once I noticed a professor posted an outline of "what to know," which took me until almost 4 to go over . Then at 6 I went to a study group.
I don't know what else to do!?
AAH.
I think I will do a super quick review of all 40+ chapters and then go to bed, wake up at 6:30, review all morning and finally take the dumb thing at 12:00.
I need an 85% to get an A (93%) in the class, which means I can miss 8 out of 55.
Watch me miss 9!

Friday, December 8, 2006

Elder Abuse



Did anyone watch Primetime the other night on ABC ?
They had this thing where they would have someone talk really loud on the phone in a restaurant to see how people would react, or have children be realllly annoying.
One scenario involved a 90 year old man in a wheeelchair with his caregiver (one in scrubs and then one in regular clothes, like a family member) in the park. Then they had the caregiver abuse the old man physically and verbally when someone walked by (he would smack his hands when someone looked away or push the old man in the wheelchair).
Holy crap. It made me really sad. Even though it was fake, I still felt so bad for the old man because you know this type of thing happens all of the time. It made me want to go out and be a gerontologic nurse, haha.
They said out of 100 people, 75 people walked by and only 15 people actually did something, either telling the man to stop or calling 911. Isn't that horrible? I know people can say, "oh yeah, I would do something," but when you get in the situation, it's difficult because for one--the caregiver was a man, so if you're a woman, you might be intimidated. Also, people do not like to get involved with conflict. However, I honestly think I would have done SOMETHING. I mean, GOSH!! It was horrible!!!
As far as the cell phone thing, I probably wouldn't have done anything, except sit there and be annoyed, but for this, I can honestly say something would have been done on my part.

From abc.com: What do the experts say?


The experts agree: Do something. Anything.

"If you're uncomfortable, call police officers or get involved," Gelles says. "Go up to the person on the receiving end of the abuse and say, 'I'm uncomfortable with how you're being treated. … Can I help you?'


If the victim responds, Gelles adds, follow his lead. If he's not capable of responding, turn to the caregiver. Tell the caregiver you're really uncomfortable with his or her behavior and ask for the name of the caregiver's employer.

The caregiver may not recognize that his or her behavior is abusive, Keating says. She suggests approaching the recipient of the abuse first.

"Smile and try to defuse the situation, or direct conversation toward the elderly person. Make the elderly person. … A person," she says.

"If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem," Gelles says. "If you walk away from social injustice, you become part of the social injustice."

I'm bringin' nursing back!

Today felt SOOOOO long.
I got 100% on my patho quiz! That means I will have an A if I can make a 74 on the final, which should be pretty easy, so I am almost guaranteed an A.
I came home around 7 and hung out with Mirza for awhile. Now it is 1:35 and I should sleep. The weekend will be full of studying...oi.
I am thinking I will sleep in a little though because if I start too early then I burn out later and I feel guilty when it's evening time and I am not studying.
For my own self, tomorrow I will:
-Finish physical exam notecards so I have them for next week
-Order all my patho cards to coorelate for the 40 chapters, pick out the ones he chose.
-Organize a study plan for Fundamentals for the next 3 days by chapter and questions, etc.
-Take out chicken to defrost.
Weeeeee!

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

How it went

I just got back from presenting my case study. We were presenting from 9-2...felt like forever! It was cool though because our instructor bought us pizza, woo, she rocks. I got 100% on my case study. She wrote,""Excellent presentation --an under diagnosed and understood disease. Quiz was good interactive creative tool!! Thanks."

Glad that is over and done. Now I need to sit here for like a half hour and do nothing (lol), followed by extreme notecard making.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Case study boredom

The semester is coming to a close. I can't believe how quickly it went. It seems like just the other day I was posting about my acceptance into the program.
Currently I need to be finishing my case study for clinicals--it's on Ovarian cancer and I'm really not that interested in doing it at all. I want to STUDY, not do stupid projects. We have to give a 20-30 minute presentation on it, but that is definitely not going to happen. It is due tomorrow at 9am. I only have about 11 slides. I should really be working on it. Right now it is 11am; I want to have it done by, let's saaaaaaay: 3.
Edit: It is now 1:30 and I finished it!!!!:):) It totally sucks, but I don't care.
After that I need to make about 500 notecards for Patho.
Then I'll probably go over Mirza's to play the Wii, if my car starts okay. I really shouldn't go over his house because I have to study. ughhh, it's so hard to just NOT GO!!
This is what I have coming up:
-Tomorrow: Case Study
-Thursday: Patho quiz covering 8 chapters
-Monday: Fundamentals HESI EXAM (aaaaah!)<--need an 85 to get an A in Fundamentals, which means I can miss 8 out of 55!! -Thursday: Physical exam final <---need an 87 to get an A because it is worth 40% of my grade. Patho final THE END!! CHRISTMAS BREAK!! Cannot wait.
Wish me luck.