an insider's look...

Another week down... it is all starting to blur together! But I am loving it. The information is so pertinent to my future as a nurse, so I am trying to soak it all up. I actually love what it is that I'm studying, so I find myself actually WANTING to study! It's amazing. haha. So... I'll let you in on the life of a nursing student...

Mondays and Wednesdays are my longest days of classes. I am getting into a good routine during the week - I wake up and get to school by 6:30 so that I can study and collect my thoughts. I love all my professors (another first) but they expect us to be awake and on top of the material by the time class starts, so I like to be mentally prepared before I walk into class at 8. My first 3-hr class on Monday is Foundations of Nursing, and it correlates with our clinicals - our first quiz was this past week, and it was on communication and interviewing. It seems like this would be based on common sense, and for the most part it is, but there are certain techniques that we are instructed to use and then certain phrases and methods that we are told to avoid. We base a lot of our assessments off nonverbal information that the patient provides, in addition to the subjective information that they are sharing with us. I'm a little nervous about putting this into practice, but that is what the clinicals and labs are for. After FON, I head into Principles & Applications of Nursing Practice for the next 3 hours. This class is more focused on patient care - this past week we focused on mobility, hygiene and comfort. We learned how to assist patients that are more immobile, and then how to care for patients that are might be confined to beds and chairs, and who might not be able to care for themselves (ie, making an occupied bed, giving bed baths and massages). Our P&A lab follows our lecture (for another 3 hours) and we practice what we have just learned. The lab part is what I do appreciate - it's great to walk out of class and make a physical connection to what we have just learned about. JHUSON is wonderful, also, because our lab groups are small - only 5 of us to one faculty - so we have more opportunity to practice and receive direct feedback on what we are doing right or wrong. That's how I learn best, so I really appreciate this exposure. After all is said and done, I leave campus on Mondays around 6pm... it's exhausting, but I have to go home and start reviewing the information that we have gone over that day.

Tuesdays are my clinical days at Good Samaritan Hospital. There are 7 of us with our clinical instructor, and we have been assigned to a rehab unit. This past week, Amy (my roommate) and I worked together and were paired with a wonderful older woman. I can't go into much detail about her situation (per HIPAA rules) but we had the opportunity to talk with her and follow her to her PT and OT appointments, and kept her company for the morning. I really enjoyed spending time with her and listening to some of her life stories (our goal for the day was to get a condensed patient/family history). It was a fun experience, and I'm excited to go back next Tuesday. Clinicals end around 1, so Tuesday is now my designated nap day! haha. I came home so wiped out this past week that I passed out for a few hours, and it felt AMAZING. Then it was up to study some more! Of course.

Wednesdays are similar to Mondays, but our first class is Nursing Trends and Issues. The focus of this class is to study the history of nursing and the evolution of the profession and how it impacts the health care system today. I actually do love this class, and I feel a special connection with all the faces of the nurses and students that have walked the halls of JHUSON and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. There is so much history here - JHH was one of the first to incorporate a nursing school into the hospital setting, back in 1876. And now, this school ranks 4th with the #1 hospital in the country. How lucky am I to be studying in such a prestigious environment? I feel honored. And I hope to live up to the precedent that the nurses who have come before me have set. We also learn about the importance of nurses and our role in the health care system today, and this past week we were informed of the reality of the status of health care in our country and how that affects us. A bit of a reality-check, but I appreciated the information. After Trends, I have P&A lecture and lab again, and am done by 6.

Thursdays we only have Health Assessment lecture and lab, but it's still a long day... class starts later, but I like having the morning hours to study, so I'm still there by 6:30am. Our professor for HA is from Boston, and she is hilarious. I love her lectures. This class is pretty straightforward - we learn how to perform focused health assessments on the various body systems. This week we learned skin, hair, & nails and musculoskeletal. Basically, our job as a nurse is to record our observations and list all the subjective information that the patient shares with us, and then take necessary action to accommodate the patient's needs. I'm really enjoying HA, because it is such a crucial part to the nurse's job. The abnormalities that we are studying are quite interesting as well... I do get a bit anxious about being able to recognize it in real-life situations though. I know we aren't diagnosing patients, but we are expected to be able to recognize such things as ringworm, in order to better care for the patient before the doctor sees them. So that is my challenge... being more comfortable knowing how to apply the knowledge that I have.

Fridays are a bit more relaxed... we have another HA lab in the morning, and then a 3 hour lecture after -- thankfully we have an interesting professor, because by that time I am so burnt out from the week that my brain wants to shut down and go into weekend mode by noon (which is when class starts)... so she tries to keep us engaged until we are free. The class is Issues in Aging, and we are learning how to better care for older adults, and things to be mindful of as our patients get older. One of the big issues that we are preparing for is the Baby Boomers getting to senior-status and having more and more health complications. It is going to be busy for us in the coming years... and, interestingly, the generation below us is also going to require more and more health care because of the obesity crisis. So basically... we are going to have our hands full. It's going to be interesting... the nursing shortage is going to greatly increase in the coming years. I guess it's a comfort to know that I will always have a job! I just hope that I will still have time to be able to provide high-quality care!

After these long weeks, it's nice to wind down and try to go out and explore Baltimore. Last night, Amy and I went with 6 other girls from our program that live in our neighborhood to a restaurant that serves Afghan cuisine -- it was delicious! We had a great time sitting and chatting for a couple hours about life and school... I am really starting to feel a "home" here. And today is a new day, and I need to get going with it! I have to enjoy my last day as a 24-year old... I will officially be in my mid-20s tomorrow... quarter century old... really?? haha. Until next time, take care all!