Final Semester of Nursing School!

Hey friends,

Man has it been awhile since I have posted! Do not worry, I have not abandoned the blog. I got a little to carried away with my fall semester and trying to finish out the semester, but my studying really paid off.

Last semester I took a leadership nursing course with an ICU preceptorship. My preceptorship, to me, was not very challenging. Although I was in the ICU, the only drip I ever dealt with was insulin. My hospital had a policy of checking blood glucose and readjusting the drip every hour, so that kept me busy. Instead of just sitting around, I took the time to talk with patients or the nurses and learn more. I encourage all of you to do that during clinical. I especially had things to talk about with the nurses because I was trying to learn how to write a nursing narrative since the hospital only had paper charting. 

It is amazing to me to look back on those 144 hours because by the middle of it I was caring for patients by myself. I was taking the initiative to give medications or provide treatment. I also had to remind myself to chart in real time. Surprising enough to me none of my patients ever needed direct actions from the doctors, so I only talked to them during rounds.

My leadership class was also interesting. The main focus of it was evidence based practice and assertive communication. We learned about Lewin's Change Theory and the eight A's. I still have it memorized in my head. 

Looking back at how well my first semester went, I am excited to see what my final semester holds. I am taking my community rotation which includes public health and mental nursing. As a freshman, I always thought mental health sounded daunting. Yet, as I go through orientation and we hear from speakers, I realize they are normal human beings and I probably have things in common with them. 

Now I am beginning to look forward to starting clinical. My favorite aspect of nursing is the relationship you can form with people. I think mental health nursing might really fill that for me, but we will see. 

I plan to go back to regular posting (on Sunday) and I have some exciting content that I want to write about (past clinical experiences, being present with patients, therapeutic communication, favorite scrubs, etc.).

Let me know how this semester is going for you or what you are looking forward to,