Interview for Peoria News about Accelerated Nursing Program

Last Semester of Nursing School (INTERNSHIP ON ONCOLOGY UNIT)

Hey Beautiful People,

Again, I apologize for not posting as frequent as I should or should I say as I like. I have been overwhelmingly busy finishing up my last semester of nursing school. Looking back to the time I started in January 2010 till now, the time has flown by quickly.

I will post a couple more times to this blog sharing with you my joyous experience of graduating. I will give a detailed view of how I studied for the NCLEX and the whole testing for the NCLEX just so others can take from my experience and apply it to their nursing experience in some way.

Bringing everyone up-to-date, I started my final semester on May 24 and the classes that is required of us are Nursing, Trends, and Issues which discuss different trends in nursing, such as, how nursing has evolved from the Florence Nightingale days up until now; and how accelerated nursing programs are becoming very popular. Also, it talks about the issues of nursing such as ethics, legal, nursing licensure and the code of ethics. Finally, it talks about how nursing can be a rewarding career for those who chose it as a profession.

The other class thats required in the final semester is Internship. In this class, we meet to do practice NCLEX questions, have guest speakers from Human Resources talk about how to write a resume/cover letters and they provide interviewing techniques that prepares us for landing a job as an RN. Along with this course is a scholarly project that is done with a group.

The internship class is apart of the actual internship, which is on the Oncology Unit. I started my first day of internship shadowing my preceptor and watching how she organizes and develop a time management plan for all of her patients. This day in particular, my preceptor had 4 patients, I noticed that she was not only very well organized, but she was a great team player. Whenever call lights would go off she would answer them and help out other nurses if they needed it. At the end of the day, my classmates all would leave the unit an hour early for post-conference to discuss our experiences on what we observed and the plan of action the following day when we would be taking care of all of our preceptors patients.

Let me fill you in on how the internship works, its every Saturday and Sunday except for the weekends of July 9 & 10 and July 16 & 17. The start time is 7:00am, but we have to report to our units at 6:45a.m. we end our day at 6:00p.m. I decided that I would print off time management sheets, because I saw how my preceptor was so organized the day before, I had to make sure I stayed on top of each patient having their medications on time. Initially, we we're to start off with one patient, but I decided that if this is what I will be doing in 3 months or less on my own, I need the full experience of taking care of 3-5 patients on my own.

I had the experience of taking care of a Bone Marrow Patient and I also had the opportunity to hang platelets for a patient who had Leukemia. I have had a range of different types of oncology patients from lung cancer, ovarian, myeloma, BMT, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and the list goes on and on. I love my preceptor she is very thorough and explains everything about the patient and things I need to know that will help me better take care of the patient. I like that my preceptor is with me every time I administer medications, just in case I need to ask questions. I also find that my assessment skills are improving each day with all of my patients. I have to agree with all of my previous clinical instructors, that assessment skills come with experience, the more assessments yo do the better you become.

I had the opportunity to start an IV on a patient, but I was unable to get a blood draw. My preceptor said that with chemo patients, getting a good vein can be challenging. After I tried and could get a blood draw my preceptor tried and couldn't get a blood return as well. The hospital nursing supervisor was called to try and get a blood return and she was unsuccessful with her attempt. After all of that I didn't feel bad that I couldn't start the IV, but I have had the chance to start a few on my own during the internship.

I am finding that the internship is very valuable and I am very thankful that my school has made it a requirement for the second degree curriculum, because this allows for the transition from student nurse to graduate nurse a little more easier.

I know that I may sound like a broken record, but I will try to post and update you all on my final 3 internship clinicals. My final day of classes and internship is August 6 so I will do my best to fill everyone in on my last few weeks of nursing school.

Peace & Love

Approaching the End of the 4th Semester

I apologize for not staying up to date with my blog I have a valid excuse. I have been consumed with clinical paperwork, exams, quizzes and clinicals. This semester has flown by and I must say that I enjoyed every bit of the learning experience. Bringing you all up-tp-date I had OB rotation where I anticipated on seeing a cesarean or natural birth, but didn't have the chance to see either one. I did however see a baby boy get a circumcision. I assisted giving the baby a little drop of "sweet ease" on my finger tip and in the baby mouth to calm him down. As painful as it appeared it seemed as though the sweet ease overtook whatever pain, if any, the baby may have had. I also enjoyed the Post-Partum Mother/Baby portion of the rotation. I had the chance to do a full assessment on the mother's as well as their new born babies. I found that I wouldn't mind working as a PostPartum nurse once I graduate. At the end of the first 8 weeks of OB, our class moved on to the Pediatric rotation portion of the course. I have a heart for babies and little children. Even though Im not a mother as of yet, Im finding that my maternal instincts are heightened since starting this clinical. One patient I had was an 11 month old baby boy who has endocarditis(enlarged heart) and dextrocardio(heart on the opposite side) that has only been home 1 week of his life. After I was assigned to be his student nurse, each week I find myself going back checking on his status to see if he will go home soon. I didn't expect that I would become attached to wanting to know the final outcome of the child's progress, but again, I guess those maternal instincts tend to get the best of us. Switching gears to community nursing class. Im finding that I love community nursing and I have an interest in wanting to reach out to my community to teach them how to live healthier lives. I was surprised to find out how many people are not aware of medical/health resources within their community due to the lack of education and not enough health educators are in the community teaching people, especially of vulnerable populations about their access to healthcare and all of the resources.
I have 5 more weeks left in the 4th semester and today I registered for the last 2 classes of the final semester, which is the internship and trends in nursing courses. I am in a state of unbelief that the time has come that I will soon be a Registered Nurse. I continue to take in every moment and live within each moment so I don't miss out or overlook the importance of the learning process of becoming an RN. I know that with all the hard work and a million papers that I had to write, I can take all of what I learned and apply it in the work-world of nursing. I will be back within the next couple of week to discuss the ending of this semester and what I expect out of the internship at the start of the 5th & final semester in May. Oh By the Way I ended up getting on the Oncology Unit for my internship. I'm super excited I will keep you all up-to-date on that as well.

Blessings~

Third Week of the 4th Semester

This week starts off the fourth week and it is a blizzard outside. Classes we're cancelled today and the school is closed tomorrow so I am catching up on organizing, finishing up clinical paperwork and catching up on much needed rest. This past weekend I did community and OB clinical rotations. In community, which I am finding that I love, took place at the American Red Cross. Our group of 10 went to a class to train on how to teach others, in the community, about donating blood and plasma. Our assignment is to go to 4 different locations, set up and present to a minimum group of 2 people, and discuss the importance of giving blood. We we're told that it is a shortage of blood donations so our instructor thought that it would be a good idea for us to start off within the community, teaching the importance of blood donations.

The next day, which was this past Sunday I was at OSF Medical Center for OB clinical rotation. I had a patient who was 23 weeks pregnant and had the Prune Belly Syndrome. It's a syndrome in which the kidneys, liver, or some organs don't develop well in the fetus; which causes the mother's belly to wrinkle up like a prune. I never heard anything like this before, but it was interesting to learn about it. My patient was also pregnant 4 years prior with the same complications, except the baby only lived 25 days. My heart went out to her and her husband because she expressed that she would do whatever it takes, this time around, to save her unborn child. During this clinical rotation I was learning more about how to do the paperwork and navigate through the hospital's computer system.

Im finding that I enjoy both my clinical rotations in OB and Community/Public Health Nursing. In community this is where the nurse gets out and interacts with different people and apply certain teachings to a community. Whether its teaching teens about obesity and eating healthier or doing cholesterol and blood pressure screenings. Its a feeling of gratification when a nurse is able to reach out and touch someone within the community and make a difference in their lives.

In the next couple of weeks my school is holding a blood drive and cholesterol screenings I will be back to discuss more on those experiences.

--Be Blessed!

The Start of the 4th Semester

I start this semester off with OB/Peds Lecture the instructor believes that as adult learners we should read the book, listen to the audio CD that comes with the books, read as much as we can, & if we cant find any information, we should exhaust all of our resources trying to find them. Hey, Im not mad at her for pretty much allowing us to teach ourselves, since this has become a habitual pattern in nursing school. Now that I have a PRN job working as a Nurse Tech, I can see why the instructors have us seek out our own sources, because RN's do it everyday. I'm learning that unpredictability is predictable in the hospital, things can change at any given moment so be ready to adapt to it. I have a statistics class that I am forced to take this semester as well. Right now, Im thinking of all the negative things to say about statistics, but Im not, Im going to start off this semester in positive mode with positive thoughts. Statistics should be doable considering that I already had 2 research classes, so a lot of the material is familiar. However, this isn't one of my favorite courses but, I see the light at the end of the tunnel; I graduate in 7 months. I also have an online course in Health Policy & Leadership I find it interesting. We watched a video on the different cases of deaths due to hospital errors. Watching this video was truly an eye opener, which made me become more aware of how I should follow hospital protocol & work together as a team with my classmates. Human error is inevitable, but when you have 2 or more heads coming together(Doctors, Nurses, RT's, CNA's, NP's) to save lives, the percentage of hospitals errors can decrease. I have community nursing this semester but, we haven't had our first meeting which isn't until Saturday. I will follow up again on my thoughts of Community Nursing next week. I'm finding that the closer I get to graduating nursing school, looking back, I think of when I began and where I am now. Nursing school has shown me more of who I am as a person; I have learned more about myself through each course. I understand why the Neumans Model of Nursing is heavily focused upon in our program. Nurses need to understand themselves wholistically before they can assess a patient on a wholistic level...I must admit I definitely I CHOSE AN AWESOME PROFESSION ; )

I was moved by this poem and wanted to share this on my blog..warsan shire.: poem eleven

warsan shire.: poem eleven: "- for women who are 'difficult' to love. you are a horse running alone and he tries to tame you compares you to an impossible highway to..."

Ending of Semester 3

Semester three was the most challenging semester I experienced so far. Having Complex Med Surg and Nursing Research together was like mixing oil and water, they don't mix well together. Complex Med Surg was exactly what it was "COMPLEX". I learned a lot and the material is still embedded in my brain. It's strange how the most difficult courses are the ones that you remember the most material, but I guess thats a good thing. Even though my calling is in Oncology I wouldn't mind taking a chance working in ICU once I finish school and become a Registered Nurse. The complexities of ICU are intriguing to me, so I am open to working in Oncology and ICU. This semester ended with my final undergraduate course in Nursing Research. I learned alot in this course, however, I have no desire to become a nurse researcher. This course was all quantitative research and Im not a math person, so that could be partial reason why I didn't enjoy the course but, its over, I passed, thank GOD, moving on. I enjoyed Mental Health a great deal I was also intrigued with learning about human behavior and how the mind works when there's a chemical imbalance. I have come to have a great deal of empathy for mental health patients. There has always been a stigma on working in mental health and fear of mental health patients. Mental Health is a disease of the mind that one have no control over. I see the frustration of the patients wanting to get their point across to others who don't understand that they are human with emotions and feelings like everyone else. I found that this clinical rotation was rather humbling which forced me to shift my paradigm and view mental health in a positive way instead of a fearful or negative way.

The semester ended on December 16, 2010 I made it through this challenging semester and now its on to OB/Peds, Community Nursing, and Health Policy and Leadership courses for Semester 4 starting January 16, 2011. I will post again when the semester starts; I don't want to sound like a broken record but, I will "TRY" and post more frequently to this blog to keep my readers informed on what my experience is like in an accelerated second degree BSN program. I was forwarned that it would be intense, yet I find it all very gratifying and rewarding.

Nursing School Week 7

Again, I apologize for not blogging about my day to day nursing school feats. Its obvious that I have no time to sit down and do any form of leisurly writing, unless Im taking a break to post a status on twitter(my social life for now). Bringing you up-to-date..As of today, Its the final clinical rotation on the respiratory unit and Im saddened. For starters, I love my clinical instructor shes awesome! I haven't been doing as well as I'd like in Complex Med-Surg theory. Im maintaining a low B average, but again the class is literally COMPLEX. As for Mental Health, I have grown to have empathy instead of fear for these patients. They were born with a mental illness just like a person can be born with Multiple sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy or develop Cancer. Its all out of their control and THEY CANT HELP IT! God loves them just as equally as he loves you and I. I no longer place the stigma of them being "crazy, weird, or eccentric" they are human beings, and I see, respect & treat them as such. As for Nursing Research, I do not like this class. However, I do understand that research is needed in the medical profession, but I just cant seem to bring myself to enjoy this course, even with me having an A average, I JUST DONT GET IT! As I mentioned earlier, my last clinical rotation on Respiratory was today and I had the sweetest patient. She had COPD exaceberation and a history of conjestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, Diabetes II, hypertension and a plethora of other illnesses. One thing that I appreciated was that she was very independent. I assisted her with a bed bath and changed her linens. The doctor ordered her to be discharged so I removed her Foley Catheter, and Telemetry, and administered her flu-shot. I loved that she was very patient and allowed for me to take my time assisting her with AM Cares and Medications. I thought that I wouldnt like working on a respiratory unit(Coughing, Hacking, and Oral Secretions are not my favorite) However, I love helping people reach their level of wellness. On the next blog I will talk about my next Complex Med Surg rotation on the Surgical/Burn Unit. I will try to post back within 2 weeks, if I dont you know that Im busy with school or just socializing on twitter : )

3rd week of the 3rd semester

I'm sorry I haven't been posting as often as I should or should I say as often as I like. I'm still getting readjusted to this fall schedule. I practice having good time-management skills. If I can give any advice to a first year nursing student I would tell them to have good time-management skills. Nursing is about prioritization and nursing school is the perfect place to practice prioritization with all your assignments. Once you get into the workforce as a nurse, thats when prioritization will be part of your job description. I have to have a large wall calendar/planner and a pocketbook planner that I carry with me to every class. For the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been writing in my planners exam due dates, quiz due dates and any misc. assignment dates. I have to keep track of every little thing, or else I will focus all my attention on one assignment and forget about all the others. Enough about time-management, Im eager to share what I did my first day of clinical on the respiratory unit. I was paired up with a classmate to work with a patient, who was an elderly woman suffering from pneumonia. This patient was fairly independent so there wasnt much for us to do, but take her vitals and do an overall head to toe assessment. My instructor came to us and asked which one of us would like to change her dressing & start up a new IV for her. We both agreed that I would do it and deep down I was eager to start an IV. My classmate and I went into the supply room gathered up all the supplies needed to change the IV port & all the sterile equipment that was needed. Once my instructor was available, she came into the patients room with me to watch me. When it came down to inserting the needle into the patients hand, it did not draw blood. I was a little nervous but I knew this patient would be a hard stick because she had rolling veins. After I moved the needle around a few times seeking a spot within the vein, nothing came out. At this point my instructor gave it a try, she too put the needle in the vein and no blood was drawn. My instructor did exactly what I did, search for a good spot to draw blood, but no blood. Secretly, I was glad my instructor didnt get a blood draw, it made me feel that I was not the only one who knew what they were doing, but couldn't get a blood draw because of rolling veins. So that ends that with my patient. As we all are about to wrap up and sign off with our patients and nurses and head to lunchand begin our post clinical conference meeting, the nurse manager comes to me and ask if I would start an IV for her. I was excited all over again thinking, maybe, just maybe, I can get a blood draw from this patient. I gather all the materials needed to start an IV and I go into this patients room. This time it was a gentleman who was having pain all over his body. He was very cooperative and patient with me starting his IV. The first time I inserted the needle I pushed too soon so I had to remove and start over. Yeah I know I was a little too eager. I got another needle and I inserted it into the vein and I saw blood...At this point I could have done 2 backwards cartwheel splits, I had never been so excited to see blood drawn before in my life..lol...Then I proceeded to tape down the IV site to the patient's arm and secure it with a covering and initial and date the site. Furthermore, the nurse asked if I wanted to start his Vancomyocin via piggy back, of course I didnt refuse. I hung the bag and inserted the port into the patients J-loop port that is connected to his arm. I set the IV pump to run over 1 hour 250/250 and he was all set. I was so ecstatic all day of starting an IV Im even more eager to start more in the upcoming weeks. I will keep you posted on my new experiences on the Respiratory unit

Complex Med Surg Clinical

Sorry that Im just posting 2 days after the first day of clinical. I'm living the life of a typical nursing student, busy trying to organize my planner's & utilize my time management skills. I will start where I left off and that was sharing with you all the first day of complex med-surg clinical. We arrived at 7am and the clinical instructor had gone over the clinical policies and what her expectations are for the 7 of us. We took a tour of 7-Cresent which is a Respiratory Unit.It had a comfortable feel, a relaxing ambience, and a very clean unit, with lots of alarms, bells and whistles going off every 2 minutes. The one thing I like that Methodist Medical Center does is play the song "Take Me out to The Ball Game" to alert the staff that its time for a patient's 2 hour turn. That was a great idea, however, they need to change the song to something more up-to-date. Anyway, we toured the unit and the instructor made us aware that starting this semester, we will not have 1 patient to tend to for 6 hrs, they upped the ante to 2 patients, which means more responsibility. After we toured the unit we returned back to the Learning skills lab to practice IV insertions, which we used a manikins arm that gushed out fake blood. I really enjoyed learning how to properly insert a needle into a patients arm to set up the process of an IV. Once lab was over we had Complex Med-Surg lecture. Our lecture covered Fluid, Electrolytes, Kidney Disease and Urinary Functioning. It took me a minute to kind of grasp all of the material, but with the use ATI modules and the continuous practice of NCLEX questions, It should all come together soon. We meet again for lecture on Saturday and Clinical on Sunday. In the meantime its study, study, study. Next time I will discuss Mental Health Lecture and Nursing Research.