I can write all these things now that I am officially done with school for a while....till I can I received my 'unofficial'
NCLEX results showing I passed. What a relief to have this finished and get to work as a Registered Nurse.
The past 2 years were pretty eventful at Texas Woman's University in their BS-Nursing program. (Yes, its a Bachelor of Science Degree,
not a
BSN, which makes it differ than its counterparts...not bragging, just clarifying). Doug and I got married a few weeks before school started. I was a newlywed, just moved out of my parent's home, and eager to complete the next 2 years of my degree.
I remember our Dean saying, "Look to your family members and say 'it's been nice knowing you. I'll see you again in 2 years'"...none of us realized how true her statement was. The first semester I had the
maximum load, since I opted to not take
pathophysiology that summer prior. I only had one day a week at Methodist
Hospital, so I finally got a touch of what it was like to shadow a nurse. Finals came around and I had four exams scheduled M-Thurs. Doug got mugged at
knifepoint after my first test. Finishing was tough, but I got it done with lots of prayers (along with my families').
The second semester was
alot of fun with more time in the
hospital, and more interesting subjects. I was at The Women's Hospital on Wednesdays and Methodist again on Saturdays. Internet classes were
not fun that semester. Nearing the end my dad got rushed to the hospital for what we thought might be a heart attack. A tough time for my family since we're all relatively healthy people with no
real hospital stays. My grandfather was very sick throughout the semester, and wound up dying near the end of April. Very hard on all of us, and especially with the added stress
again of finals right around the corner.
That summer I took another online class. I continued working at Memorial Hermann Hospital in the research department-- I'd been there prior to even
being accepted to
TWU. My grandmother had a stroke, so again my family was faced with more medical problems. She continues to show permanent affects of the stroke she sustained. :o( We also lost Doug's grandfather Manning this summer. We spent a few weeks going back and forth to Arkansas, but the worst part was seeing Doug's mom and grandmother hurt so much.
My friend Ashley joked that I was not one to just accept the stress of school at the end of each semester. Instead I had to have some
major drama occur to just see how hard I could make thing on myself. What an understatement...
My last two semesters really had us feeling like we were close to being 'real nurses' in no time. I heard that they would offer 10 student the opportunity to be
precepted for all 3 of our different
clinical subjects. I knew it would be something really great to do this, so I said "I'll do
anything, just please let me do this". Well
anything meant taking 12+ hour night shifts. I shortly discovered that I was 5 weeks pregnant!
Wowsers. I told myself it was
ok because "I'm pregnant, I won't be able to sleep anyway" and I wound up having heartburn/nausea 25/7 so I got a nice,
long taste of those pregnancy woes...
I spent entire shifts on my feet at night at Texas Children's Hospital, Park Plaza Hospital, and in the "ER for Psych Patients" at Ben
Taub Hospital. Along with that, I couldn't just settle with 3 days in the hospital-- I added an OR elective at Methodist Hospital where I would be on my feet again for full-shifts and it was
very important to not get nauseated because I was scrubbing-in during surgeries!
I wound up juggling so much that sadly I had to resign from my job. They were so
accomodating to me the whole time I was in school but with 53+ hours either in lecture or
clinicals at night there was literally not enough hours in the week for my 'office hour' schedule. I did learn SO MUCH from getting to just work with one nurse for each of my clinicials, making some great contacts and really getting to practice plenty of clinical skills! That semester was a long, extremely difficult one, but once again God is good and we survived! Oh yes, I forgot to mention my 'drama' during finals...we were signing the papers for our first home. Nothing to stress over, right? Ha.
Here we go...last semester. We quickly moved into our house and knew I didn't have much time to 'nest' since school started right away with
clinicals 2 days a week at Memorial Hermann Hospital in the
Neuro Intermediate Care Unit and one day a week doing 'school nursing' over in
Tomball. 3 days a week didn't sound like much, but it lasted from February till the end of April. Yes, I was literally 38 weeks pregnant when I finished my last day of clinical. Scary for me, my clinical instructor, and my nurse preceptor at times.
So the
drama of this last semester was obviously the birth of my son and the completion of finals in order to graduate on time. I feel so blessed to have gone though this journey. Doug, my family, and friend were with me every step of the way and I thank them for their patience everytime they heard "I don't think I can come...I have a big test the next day...I have to stay up to get some more studying done...I have to go to sleep early, etc." It was so hard to turn down invites to family functions because my family is SO CLOSE and we celebrate everything together. Now I can breathe a sigh of relief that I can sit down and enjoy a movie or just veg out with my husband.
Texas Woman's University is a challenging school and I feel so to blessed to have been accepted on my first attempt. I am grateful to the faculty and friends I've grown so close to. There were some awesome gals (and guys) who I'm so excited to see 'in the real world' as nurses.
I had my first day on the floor I'm assigned to, the Children's Special Care Unit (CSCU) on Wednesday. I got was there like 'a real nurse' working the 12+ hour shift 7A-7P. I have a "Clinical Coach" named Patricia who I met and will be shadowing for the next couple of months. Memorial Hermann has a very well-planned schedule for orientees like me, who are either new graduates or nurses making a move into a new specialty. There are classes for me to attend each week, shifts to work with my clinical coach, evaluations by the Pediatric Educator, and all kinds of paperwork to fill out about my patients after each shift! Its like being in school again...almost. There aren't real grades or tests but knowing I have a child's life in my hands is even more important and mind-consuming! The unit is situated in pods, so 1-2 nurses are assigned to a pod with up to 6 patients. I just happened to be in the pod closest to the Pediatric ICU, which is normally reserved for cardiac patients, since there are times such a fragile diagnosis could be rushed right away back to the PICU. I'm on the 9th floor of the Hermann Pavilion, and our doors literally open to the PICU. Very humbling...
This will just be short and sweet. I'm hoping a pal of mine Melissa will help me iron out a minor 'novice blog' user issue I'm having. [Melissa has the coolest blog, you can see hers under "Sean & Melissa (and Twins)" under the blogs we follow.]
