One more down!

I passed ACLS today so now I think I’m really done with classes… at least for this month, I have bioterrorism training next month but that’s not nearly as stressful.

So without further adieu, tomorrow begins my official hard-core-boards-studying. I’ve taken a few notes over the post school months of major concepts I know I need to review (insulins, critical lab values, certain meds, certain diseases) so my plan is to pack up some info tomorrow and reread portions of text books and outlines. Then start with the questions. I have 3 NCLEX books (only two of which I like though, the other one I’m not a fan of) and 4 NCLEX question CDs for the computers. So after a 1-2 day review of major concepts I intend to hit the questions pretty hard.

My big internal debate now is when should I take the test… looking at my work schedule over the next month… and I’d like to take it early in the week so I don’t have to wait the whole weekend for results…. and I’d like to get it over with ASAP but not too ASAP to feel like I didn’t really get enough questions practice. I’m contemplating the 16th…. that’d be good cause that’s not TOO far away, plus it’s just before Hubbin’s birthday (the 20th) and before my friend comes into town the following weekend (distraction!) …. but that only gives me about 6 days of full-on-home-alone-study-time….. Is that enough?!

I guess I’m trying to walk a balance between enough study time and not enough time to get worked up about it.

In other news.

Our exchange student is alright, not too bad, just started back to school. I’m still wishy washy about keeping him past the welcome 2-3 week period but I envision that he’s going to end up staying with us. We’ll see.

Yikes!

I got my authorization to test today! Now I’m officially freaked out because there is a concrete time frame… I’m authorized to test from tomorrow through Nov 17th. Holy shit! I better start studying! :-/

I finished basic arrythmia today and only missed 1 on the final! 99%!

Next up advanced cardiac life support! (little nervous about that too!)

1st 24.

So I’m pretty sure if I were our exchange student I would be packing my bags right now and moving as far away from us as possible.

If you were an exchange student moving to a country where you had never been before, moving in with people you’ve never seen or talked to before what would be your nightmare scenario in the first 24 hours? Aside from accidentally decapitating the family pet it would be clogging the toilet with poop wouldn’t it? Don’t lie, I know that’s what you were thinking.

Our new 16yr old resident, who seems nice normal and personable so far did just that this afternoon. He went upstairs to do his business and nothing seemed amiss. Until 2 hours later I peed in said toilet, used 3-4squares of toilet paper appropriate for urinating and flushed. Only it didn’t flush, it filled. With brownish water? This cannot be good. Hubbin (painting in the bathroom at the time) looks over with horror. Hubbin, who says the student asked him where to put the toilet paper (hubbin said the toilet) must have used paper towels instead. Student says not so.

For whatever reason we don’t have a plunger… I SWORE we did, it has to be hiding somewhere. Hubbin fortunately found the snake in the garage after a few failed attempts to grab the toilet paper with a hanger. Hubbin proceeds to snake the toilet and finds that the toilet appears to not be clogged with paper afterall, but his snake keeps bringing up more turd nuggets. Student and I are watching. (poor mortified student) Hubbin then begs me to please come take the snake from him because he’s going to throw up. Now that the toilet is declogged there is a nugget stuck in the bulb at the end of the snake and for whatever reason this throws hubbin’s fragile constitution into an uproar.

Not so strong of stomach.

So I took over (with gloves, thank you) and ended up using the hanger to get it out! Lol… I said “Tomorrow instead of pancakes for breakfast we’re having mandatory cracklin’ oat bran!” We need to get some more soluble fiber into this kid! I would have died but the student seemed to handle himself very well and Hubbin gave him a few reassuring speeches in both English and Ger and assured him there was no problem (but please next time do a courtesy flush in the middle, as she is an old house, with old pipes, and old plumbing)

I think I’d curl up and die right there….

and PS

and PS, we pick up our new 16 year old “son” tomorrow…

Boards

Genuinely I was not too worried or worked up about boards. In our NCLEX prep class they told us you should consistently get above 75% on your practice tests before taking it. I’ve always done at least that well on our big ATI tests, and I got middle-high B’s the whole way through school, so it’s just something I wasn’t too worked up about.

However. Now that I’ve started my position as a GN in the ER, along with another GN and I’m going through orientation with all the other GNs I’m getting more freaked out.

I took basic arrhythmia this week and in that class were two other GNs I knew, one from school and one from research. They both took their boards last week and both passed and both were absolutely bursting about how they could not believe how many choose-all-that-apply questions they got. I HATE choose all that apply. Those are my WORST questions. They give you a little scenario and then 6 or 7 options and if you miss one of the 7 then you get the question wrong.

For those of you non-nursing people who read this blog, the big deal about the NCLEX is it’s a “smart test” so every time you get the answer correct, it choses a harder question until you start getting them wrong. You have anywhere between 75 and 265 and it keeps asking questions till it’s sure you’ve got a passing or failing score. For both of these girls it shut off after 75 and they were both sure they failed because they had so many choose-all-that-apply (both went out to their car and cried). My ER friend took her test monday and she also passed but was completely freaked out because she counted FORTY choose all that apply in her test of 75 questions.

So now I’m all up in arms.

If you’ll recall my original goal was to take the NCLEX at the beginning of June so that I could go on our honeymoon knowing I’d passed. I couldn’t even pick up my graduation letter from the school till the middle of June though, and I picked it up when we got home from our honeymoon. Obviously I didn’t study on the honeymoon so I didn’t want to take it right when I got back. Then I decided I should wait till after all the orientation classes figuring taking PALS, ACLS, Basic Arrhythmia, and Basic ER Nursing might offer even just a glimmer of extra knowledge I could use on the test. So I decided I wouldn’t even bother till after orientation (not to mention I’m a little overwhelmed at work with all the new stuff I’m trying to get the hang of). Then, while I’m sure I could if I had to, I think it will just be a lot easier to study after Hubbin’ goes back to work next week and I’m home alone some days… Now though, I’m totally regretting not taking it before everyone else so they couldn’t be freaking me out with their stories!

I’m trying to keep confident like I was before they all started telling me about having 40 choose all that apply and keeping the right mind set. But when I think of how much I’d rather die than go to work and have to tell everyone I failed….. I start getting worked up all over again.

Right now I’m still waiting for my Authorization To Test (ATT) from the state so I can’t sign up for the test even if I wanted to. I think the way to go about this though is to start studying now so when I get the ATT I can pick a date that’s really soon (preferably like the next day, lol) and not give myself time to work into a frenzy.

Chapstick

So I was getting changed at the gym and taking everything out of my scrub pockets that I didn’t want washed with them and as I set my chapstick on the locker shelf, I noticed my chapstick has an expiration date on the bottom. And it’s next year?!

Isn’t it essentially just petrolium jelly?

I had no idea petroleum jelly had an expiration date. How can something that’s sole purpose is to be solid and greasy have an expiration date?! What happens if you’ve used expired petroleum jelly? Because I swear to you the vaseline in my parents medicine cabinet is from when I was a newborn. I mean can chapstick really go bad? Honestly?

16 years old

Did I tell you we’re getting an exchange student? We get him starting next weekend and we’re a “welcome family” for two weeks. We have the “option” of keeping him the whole year if we all get along, but since we’re only a welcome family, we’re only obligated to the first two weeks.

-not my idea-

Hubbin’s been BEGGING for an exchange student from Germ. for at least a year and I kept saying “no.” “no.” “no.” but he’s our school districts foreign language coordinator with the regional exchange program so clearly he has some backdoor means to do things.

I’m not old enough to have a 16 year old living in my house?…

Anyway… we pick him up next Saturday and I’m very skeptical about the whole thing.

PALS Certified

So I’m on ER orientation for 6 weeks and for those 6 weeks there are all sorts of classes I need to take. So for the month of August I’m only actually working with my preceptor about 7 times. (obviously I’ve negotiated to extend my orientation period)

Last week I got certified in PALS which is pediatric advanced life support. I was really nervous before I went A. because I heard it was hard but also because B. our educator sent out this terrifying letter (which she swears was a form letter from the heart association) with a whole pre-course checklist that we had to complete. You had to know this -or you might fail- you had to know that because they weren’t going to teach it -or you might fail- and so forth.

Plus I was pretty sure that my score on the pretest (a 68%… and I took it twice) indicated I shouldn’t be working with children regardless.

Overall the class wasn’t as bad as I thought, I really felt like I learned a lot. I passed the case study portion where you’re the team leader and direct the team during a code. I was also really proud that I did so well on the written portion getting about the same scores as some of the vastly more experienced nurses. Considering I still haven’t had basic arrhythmia training (that’s next week) or ACLS (advanced cardiac life support, that’s next month)  I thought that was pretty impressive because some of the information from those was in this course. For instance, all the cardiac drugs you really only ever give in a code situation… no experience there.

So I am now PALS certified and I do feel much more prepared to handle an emergency involving a child who may happen to wander in off the street, which is really rather empowering!

(Although in all seriousness people, a world renowned children’s hospital is 5 blocks away, please take your sick kid there)

Justice

I was driving home a backway the other day and there’s this one part of the 2 lane road that’s 25mph. I’ve never in my life seen people observe a speed limit like they do there, so I generally make a point to actually go 25 through there.

This day there was a guy in a white car with tinted windows behind me who was already riding my bumper before we got there. So I slowed down like usual, maybe even a little extra just because I couldn’t even see the front of his car he was so close to my bumper. Major major tailgating.

Well. I’m half watching him get frustrated in my rearview when I see the cop car hidden in the bushes. I immediately look back and see that he is still millimeters from my bumper and still hasn’t seen the cop. As were passing the cop I see the guy see the cop and immediately back off my bumper.

We pass the cop. The cop pulls out and follows us for about a mile. Then the road widened up and the cops put his lights on and pulled the guy over.

I was so excited