Homework...before school starts????

Hello fellow nursies. So, today I receive a frantic text from one of my classmates talking about some kind of prep that needs to be done and a presentation. Sounds normal doesnt it? NO! Why? BECAUSE SCHOOL HASN'T STARTED YET :|...Yes, thats right. School starts on Monday for the summer semester and we have already started to receive numerous emails about homework and prep and presentations...ugh, seriously?? I feel as though I'll be on pins and needles until I'm officially registered with CRNBC as a RN and have passed the CRNE. Breaks? Nursing students don't know what those are. PSH. We just work around the clock all year round.....can you FEEL the sarcasm dripping from my fingers as I typed that sentence? I hope so cause it was there in copious amounts. I'm over it. I'm over nursing school. I can already feel that majority of my videos this semester (since I promised to make them more regularly) are going to be me, bitching and whining about how nursing school stole my summer and I'll just sit infront of a camera and cry...but you guys get me. *SIGH* Great....the only thing I'm looking forward to at this point is my orientation to my student nurse position in 3 weeks!! AND MY BIRTHDAY IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS. oh yea. another year older, another year school claimed. holla. jeez....alright well, all of you who will be in school this summer I feel your pain and we can suffer through it together! For all of you who aren't...I hate you. :(

Toodles.

Mental Health Clinicals.

Alright, so 2 days and 2 videos. Whoa. I'm getting too excited. hahahaha. So, along with a pediatric rotation I had a mental health rotation which...left more to be desired. Out of the 5 shifts we had on the psych unit we only had ONE on the actual unit and 4 other "community visits". It was useless. I feel like I didn't really get a feel for mental health, although after one shift I felt as though I had had enough. It's a lot of mental work and not enough physical for me. The biggest shocker? YOU DONT WEAR SCRUBS!! I don't own other clothing..this became a problem. nursing student problems? Yea, I think so. Now, I don't want to step on any toes but I found mental health to be extremely boring personally. I'm more of a trauma/ER girl as you all know. It was just too different for me. I usually go into clinical acting like a sponge wanting to soak up everything but I couldn't do that here. Maybe it was just me. Mental health and I just don't mesh well together I suppose. Either way I made a video about it. Enjoy.
xoxo

Mental Health Video!  

ESN....Whattttt??? Wait...I'm not ready.

Uh yes, that is correct. You don't know what ESN stands for? Here, let me inform you! ESN= Employed Student Nurse. HUGE emphasis on EMPLOYED. Yes, people I HAVE A JOB RELATED TO MY ACTUAL CAREER!!!!!! Time to stop and do your damn happy dance. Cause I just did. I got hired to an ortho floor at a hospital that I worked in previously and I'm SO EXCITED. I won't start until June/July but who cares. Time to make that wonderful switch from the world of crappy retail jobs to a fulfulling nursing career. This also means the end is almost near. :| I won't lie to you guys, I'm extremely terrified of becoming a RN and being responsible for patients all on my own. The very thought makes me want to hyperventilate a little bit. This past semester was also the last semester where we had a clinical instructor always present on site, from now on we are flying solo with only the nurse preceptor there to guide us...yikes!!! There was a professor I had last semester who continued to remind us throughout the semester that we are now moving from "student" to "pre-RN".......it annoyed the crap out of me and simultaneously terrified me as she constantly repeated this to me every Thursday. Anyone else having similar issues? Ugh, Also, along with the new job comes a nice pay raise and less hours being worked due to more money so I will find myself with more free time (to obviously do homework in), no but seriously..it's making me incredibly anxious at the thought of having free time. Free Time? This concept is way too new to me...what is it? I feel as though this blog entry is turning into a bit of nothingness.  Time to sign off and go to bed. Good night fellow nurses!

P.S.
This website is awesome. Especially if you're a nursing student.
http://whatshouldwecallnursingschool.tumblr.com/ 

Pediatricssss

VIDEEEOOO TIMMMMEEE.
I did a Pediatric Clinical Tips video for you guys! Hopefully you are doing your peds rotation now or soon so my tips can be of use to you! I won't list out the tips here but they are listed out in the video :)
So my overall decision on pediatrics? Drumroll please.....

It's alright. I wouldn't want to work here right now but I could deal with it. Playing with all the kids was so awesome and they are so cute!! But also emotionally it was a little taxing seeing children stuck in a hospital and being very sick. Being an emotional person I had my own issues trying to keep my emotions in check. Also the issue of abused children came up throughout the semester and I quickly realized that this was one of my trigger points and that in no way would I ever be able to look at a parent who had in any way harmed their child without wanting to throw them out the window. I would lose my MIND.  It was a very eventful and eye opening rotation and I am so excited for those of you who are going to be going through it. I didn't really have any bad experiences but if you do have any questions just message below, on the video or shoot me an e-mail!! :) Thanks for reading!

Pediatric Clinical Tips Video!

.....Pediatrics and Mental Health too!!...is school over yet :(

OOOKKKKK So, obviously I lied when I wrote that I was going to upload a video/write a blog post the minute that I finished my horrific pediatric rotation..because pediatrics was done 5 weeks ago and I am also nearing the end of my mental health rotation and yet still no blog posts or videos. :( Hopefully I can crank one out for you guys by the end of this weekend! For now I shall recap my experience for both!

Pediatrics & Mental Health
After being in mental health I can confidently say that I would take 2 rotations in peds over mental health any day. I miss Peds right now. Ugh, mental health most definitely is NOT my forte. More power to the people who work in mental health but this is NOT the area for me. I'm sticking to my emergency room. I <3 the ER. Peds really isn't THAT bad.

I changed my mind. I WILL have a video up for you guys by Saturday night talking about peds and mental health :)

On another note, let me share a facebook status I posted a little while ago:

I hate school. I actually hate it. THIS IS TOO MUCH SCHOOL....school is making me bitter and resentful towards the entire world. School sucks. Seriously....eff school. Fuck this. GHASKLHGLGHAWIO;GHWO;GWO;BGA;BG

So, can you tell that school has me a LITTLE stressed out..hehe. Just a bit... Jeez, school this semester has been super crazy and seriously has probably permanently raised my blood pressure and I probably suffer from HTN right now. Great. At this point in time I have one more group project and 1 essay left to write 1 final and then I am FREE until the summer semester...feels good. Graduation is about 1 year away and it seriously could not come any sooner. Anyone else getting fed up with school? :( wah. get me outta here!!  

Semester 5 and exercise? whhaaattttt?

 Helloo! So, semester 5 is making me a crazy person. Too many assignments/too little time. If you guys follow me on twitter ( @mandeepg88) you have noticed that majority of my tweets are about school taking over my LIFE.  Hence that lack of blog posts, and whenever I am blogging it is usually when I am procrastinating on some type of homework LOL.  Another common theme on my twitter page is exercise. I have always been somewhat of a fitness fanatic, but lately I have been in overdrive. I got myself a lovely personal trainer last summer and he is kick ass. One of my videos was about how to keep yourself sane while in nursing school because TRUST ME, you will go crazy, and a big part of me staying sane is working it out at the gym. Nothing like a little bit of sweat to de-stress yourself!

I'm not sure how many of you do 'Clinical Decision Making Models'...basically it's an assignment that you do where you pick a patient and do a write up on them regarding their health status and writing nursing diagnoses, but I hate writing them. They suck...that is what I am currently procrastinating from.

There are 2 weeks left in my rotation in pediatrics! As soon as I am done I will upload a video for you guys talking about how my experience was. It was...interesting....LOL.

Until next time xoxoxoxoxoxox. 

Waiting...takes forever

I applied for a student nurse job. I'm waiting for an interview. This is taking forever. I'm so ready to leave retail behind forever and this interview needs to find its way to me RIGHT NOW! Waiting sucks.
On another note. I'm halfway through my peds rotation and okay I'm not freaking out AS much as I was before but I think pediatrics isn't really my thing. I have a more detailed video about peds when I'm finished my rotation (4 more weeks), but I think I'll stick to surgical or ER. School is also making me crazy. Whoever told me that 3rd year is the most difficult was correct. I've scaled back my hours at work and spend every waking hour either hitting the gym or hunched over textbooks. It's sad. I've forgotten what life before school was like. Boo. Sigh.......I;m currently procrastinating...I need to go write my paper. :( See you guys soon! Hope everyone is doing well this semester!

Pediatrics

So, yesterday I orientated at the big pediatrics hospital in my area.  I was initially very nervous about starting this clinical rotation because of the children. I've worked with adults for 2 years now in my clinical rotations but children honestly scare the crap out of me :| Everything with them is so precise because they are so small! Everything is different...the IV pumps, the med dosages, the calcualtions...I think forgetting and reverting back to my automatic "im taking care of an adult" mode might be to easy to get into and I'm super nervous about it! I'm also extremely nervous about keeping my emotions in check with all the peds patients. I've been known to cry at TV commercials so I don't know if I can hold it together infront of a child. Kids aren't supposed to be sick! They are supposed to run around and be healthy. Seeing sick kids kind of freaks me out....I do one 12 hour shift a week so yesterday was my orientation and next Tuesday will be my first full working shift on the unit. I.Am.Terrified. :|

Year 2 Complete!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to all of you! Hope you had amazing holidays filled with lots of love and family and whatever else you wanted! I am now officially a 3rd year nursing student!! I can't even believe I am a 3rd year student.  There are so many things I have learned in the 2 years I have been a nursing student and so many amazing experiences I have had that I can't even begin to imagine what the rest of my nursing career has in store for me. I made a video for you guys talking about my second year! Hope you like it! Enjoy! Until next time xoxoxoxox

Year 2 completion video!  

Overstuffed Brain?

Hellloooo boys and girls!  There was a comment posted on my wall about remembering procedures and various disorders and illnesses and the nursing care associated with these so here is my response. :) 

When it comes to pathophysiology I do my best to understand the disease holistically, meaning that I look at the overall picture and how it affects the body and the person.  I study for exams and then I feel like the information kind of disappears. The only way information seems to stick is when I do it in clinical. This the same for patho as well as skills. The more and more I do them in clinical the better it sticks in my head. I def have my moments where I'm in clinical and asked a question and I just stare at the teacher like..WHAT?!?!?! Never fear, happens to everyone, but the nice thing is once you know the answer to that question you won't forget it! I feel like once I have learned about a disorder (ex. diabetes) it's hard for me to visualize it until I care for a patient who has diabetes and can put my care plan into action. Clinical is where most of my learning takes place and sticks.

I also find that it helps if I do specific reading prior to going to clinical. For example I recently just completed a rotation on maternity (video coming soon!), before going to maternity I brushed up on post partum readings that I would need to be responsible for. Example, knowing complications of a vaginal delivery and a c section, knowing what kind of assessments need to be done and how to perform them, how to care for a newborn and how to assess newborn, what kinds of things to look for on the newborn. Very basic breastfeeding..etc.etc..anything you feel would be relevant just come prepared. You also learn things on the unit as well which will help pull all your theoretical learning together. I  brush up on skills before going into every semester especially if I feel like a certain skill is more likely to come up that I haven't performed before.  I hope this rambling helped answer your question 'It's Me :)' Have a great weeks guys!! xoxoxoxox. .