Essays, Midterms and Finals...oh my!

We are halfway through our second week!  This week has been different from last week.  We were split into two groups for lab.  I am part of the afternoon lab.  The morning group goes to campus at 8am for lab, we have lecture from 11:00-3:30 and then the afternoon group has lab from 4-6pm.  Well, then it gets all thrown off, like tomorrow, when just have lab for 4 hours!  Good thing I have a detailed schedule to follow.  Tomorrow in lab, we will continue to practice preparing for our final next week of a head to toe assessment on our lab partner.  We will also be tested with our partners on our vital signs.  (could I say lab five more times?!?!)

Yesterday, we all received an email asking us if we had a carpool buddy (or 2) that we would want to be paired up for clinical.  I am lucky to have two car pool buddies!  It will be so beneficial to have two nervous, anxious students to travel to and from clinical with.  That was a piece of advice from the current students too; it was helpful to decompress with fellow students after a 9 or 12 hour shift!  It is so crazy to think that in a few short weeks, I will be working with patients!!  We get to order our uniforms one day next week.  Our clinical uniform will be white, leather shoes, navy blue scrub pants, a navy blue T-shirt with the school emblem and a white short sleeve lab coat.  It is quite an improvement, I am told, from the uniform just a couple years ago.  It is a HUGE improvement from the uniforms back in the 70s and 80s, which are on display in the school of nursing.  I would NEVER want to wear a dress to work in a hospital!!   A classmate also found a little shoe store where the owner has agreed to give us a discount on Dansko nursing shoes.  I love discounts :)

This week we have already had two writing assignments.  We have to prepare narratives based on the assessments we are learning and performing on our lab partners.  I feel lost and overwhelmed!  They say that is how we are supposed to feel.  We also have a patient needs essay to research and write up.  So, tomorrow, we have two written assignments due, a lab midterm, a lab quiz, a 4 hour lab, thankfully no lecture and then we have to prepare for our lecture midterm on Friday morning!  Whoa!
I am so glad my wonderful Erin made us a delicious grilled dinner.  Now I am full and ready for the few hours of work that await me.