Last Day of the Second to Last Clinical

Today was my last day in home health and I have to say I am very glad.  I was one of the unfortunate students (my partner and I) who were ALWAYS the last two documenting on our patients.  This means we were the last ones at the agency with the professor, not because we were slow, mainly because we had complicated patients with many medication issues and also the other students had the professor check their documentation before us.  Oh well, it's all over and done with now!  My professor actually said something today that stuck.  She observed me in my home visit today, so I rode with her (and another student...not my usual partner).  She explained how as student nurses, we only have one short visit to get all we need to get done with our patient.  When you are a home health nurse, you have multiple visits and a lot more time to reach goals and educate and provide service to your patient.  With all that being said, I am still thrilled to be done with home health!!  Maybe it's because it's the second to last clinical I have to do in this program :)

This week already seems a bit less stressful compared to last week.  On the other hand, I have one of the worst stiff necks of my life.  It started Saturday night, in the middle of the night.  I woke up about 75 times with shooting pain starting in my neck and going down my right shoulder and back.  I used a heating pad and took ibuprofen and thankfully fell back asleep at 6am until 8am.  I took a Motrin 800 later that day and started using an ice pack, which did seem to take the edge off.  Today, I still do not have full mobility, but the intense shooting pain has thankfully subsided.  The pain is starting to make me nauseous.  I went to our chiropractor today, and I am now feeling worse pain.  Maybe it has to hurt more before it gets better?!?!

Tomorrow I just have lecture.  I really am not looking forward to heading to school.  I just want to be DONE!!!  I also have an Ethics presentation this Thursday, which seems to be slowly coming together.  It's stressing me out.

We finally got our exam grades back from Thursday.  I didn't do great, so that is motivating me to pay better attention in lecture and study more before the next exam.  Sigh, we have two more exams in this course.  Wait, I may only have two exams left in this entire program!!  There are no exams in ethics (just a presentation and a long paper), my next course is Trends and there is only a presentation, no exams.  Woo hoo!!  I can do this!

Ok, back to icing my neck and working on Ethics.


35 days!!!!!!