Yesterday I left my house around 7am and parked by 7:45am. Class didn't even start until 8:30am, so I was really early. I parked far away to get a little exercise in. I get to the building and sit in an upper level class before realizing its the wrong class haha... Still before class starts though. I grab a seat in the front row only because I saw the girl I was talking to at our orientation.
We were greeted by the dean who gave us a little pep talk..then our two instructors came in, introduced themselves and gave us their personal phone numbers. I felt a sense of trust with them already because only a select few professors had done that in the past.
The first few hours were spent going over the syllabus, and the course itself as well as clinicals. An hour into class, I started missing my baby like crazy. It was my first time leaving her with someone who wasn't family :( but I was told she did good. I did call and check on her once and texted the babysitter once. I hate to hover but that's my baby girl.
Anyway, our instructor taught from chapters 1,2,4 and 5. I wish I could've had the reading assignments a week before hand to try to get in as much reading as possible. I only got halfway through the first chapter before class an didn't retain much. So not only do we have to read those chapters for yesterday's class, we also have to read 2 or 3 chapters for Monday's class as well.. All in about 3 and a half days. They weren't lying when they said there's a load of reading in nursing school. I've never liked to read tiny print textbooks but it has to be read. I tried taking notes as I go but I seem to write everything only paraphrasing the content. I don't know how to pull the most important parts, so I printed the instructors notes and just started adding onto hers. That's a better system. I also started doing the questions in the back of the chapter and reading the rationales to put everything into perspective.
I've been reading since 9am... I'm sleepy now and as you can tell, I'm a slow reader and took many breaks to tend to my beautiful. Signing out to sleep for a few hours before waking up to do it all over again. Ha!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The Day Before First Class
Tomorrow I start my first nursing class YAYYYYYY for Fundamentals Ha!
So in the spare time I had today, I tried to read the entire first chapter... I'm only half way through. I would've been more excited to read if only my instructor posted our syllabus online. I'm guessing we're going to get a print out in class tomorrow. And the first chapter focuses on nursing history, the education required to become a nurse, changes being made in the nursing professional degrees etc. I'm telling my mom this morning like I started reading, but I don't think we're gonna be tested on the history of nursing. She's like well you need to know the history, who's the first ever nurse? She tells me Florence Nightingale which I had already knew. I'm just thinking to myself, she's been a nurse 35+ years, you remember that? Ha. So I kept on reading throughout the day... AND taking notes. I'm trying to get a good start on things because I am a procrastinator.
Besides that, I spent my day trying to clean house and arrange things for the babysitter. Laundry is calling my name.. blah. Luckily I still have this weekend to get things in order before the real stuff starts.
Last night I took my fiance and my baby out to eat. I was starting to get too overwhelmed, scared and anxious. I just wanted to not think about school and enjoy the little time I have left to just freeload.
A great tip I got from someone on allnurses was to organize the binder by weeks. I have a major issue with organization, and I'm always losing things, so I'm hoping this will work out well for me. I'm going to also try the same thing for my lab binder. On the back of my binder is my acceptance letter and the front are pictures of my baby.. my motivator..!!
On another note, still don't know how to get my blog out there.. hmm.. oh well, it will be neat to go back and read my experiences in nursing school and see how much I grow.
So in the spare time I had today, I tried to read the entire first chapter... I'm only half way through. I would've been more excited to read if only my instructor posted our syllabus online. I'm guessing we're going to get a print out in class tomorrow. And the first chapter focuses on nursing history, the education required to become a nurse, changes being made in the nursing professional degrees etc. I'm telling my mom this morning like I started reading, but I don't think we're gonna be tested on the history of nursing. She's like well you need to know the history, who's the first ever nurse? She tells me Florence Nightingale which I had already knew. I'm just thinking to myself, she's been a nurse 35+ years, you remember that? Ha. So I kept on reading throughout the day... AND taking notes. I'm trying to get a good start on things because I am a procrastinator.
Besides that, I spent my day trying to clean house and arrange things for the babysitter. Laundry is calling my name.. blah. Luckily I still have this weekend to get things in order before the real stuff starts.
Last night I took my fiance and my baby out to eat. I was starting to get too overwhelmed, scared and anxious. I just wanted to not think about school and enjoy the little time I have left to just freeload.
A great tip I got from someone on allnurses was to organize the binder by weeks. I have a major issue with organization, and I'm always losing things, so I'm hoping this will work out well for me. I'm going to also try the same thing for my lab binder. On the back of my binder is my acceptance letter and the front are pictures of my baby.. my motivator..!!
On another note, still don't know how to get my blog out there.. hmm.. oh well, it will be neat to go back and read my experiences in nursing school and see how much I grow.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Lack of Attention
Okay so im very new at this and have no comments or visitors... BUT that's okay because I have hope.
I don't know how to network my blog but it's all a learning experience.
Maybe I should condense my posts to a minimum, but I like the in depth detail of every little thing, but I notice everyone is not like me.
Im confident someone will start following my blog, and when that happens, ill be more amped up to keep goin strong.
Wish me luck as I figure out how to make my blog tasteful.
I don't know how to network my blog but it's all a learning experience.
Maybe I should condense my posts to a minimum, but I like the in depth detail of every little thing, but I notice everyone is not like me.
Im confident someone will start following my blog, and when that happens, ill be more amped up to keep goin strong.
Wish me luck as I figure out how to make my blog tasteful.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Orientation
My orientation was July 9th and was supposed to be from 9am-2pm, however, it ended early around 12pm. It was pretty straight forward and to the point. I got there about a half hour early and the waiting area was pretty packed with people. I walked in and everybody was dressed in business attire. I started to wear jeans because my dress wardrobe is slim to none, but I borrowed some of my mom's slacks and kept it moving. Glad I changed my mind or I would've felt like an outcast. I scanned the students and only saw one other African American and got extremely nervous because I hate being a minority. By the time they opened the doors to the forum, I noticed it was about 6 or 7 of us, out of about 80 students. The ages varied entirely, definitely a diverse group of students. I saw none of my classmates, so I'm guessing they weren't accepted or hadn't applied yet.
The program head used a powerpoint to go through orientation. The first thing she started with was our anticipated graduation date which I thought was pretty lovely, and thought to myself, that's not that far away. 2014! We went through what our semester would be like... 8 week classes: Mondays and Wednesdays are lecture classes from 8:30am-2pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays are labs/clinicals. She made sure to tell us with clinicals, the program takes what they can get as far as time slots so we can be at a 12 hour clinical once a week or a 6 hour clinical twice a week. She had someone from financial aid come in and talk to us. Also, someone from an organization who gives grants came in. She had three students from the Nursing Student Association come in and invite us to a one day camp to get to know those in our cohort and ask current students questions. I'm shy, but I'll definitely be attending. We went over the book list which I chose to buy from amazon and save a few hundred dollars than to buy from the bookstore. We filled out paperwork and more paperwork. She gave us a uniform order sheet for the bookstore, but I bought my uniform from the uniform website because it saved me $20. Nursing school and preparing for nursing school is so expensive, I'll order from amazon to save $1 if I have to.. every little bit helps :) especially since I'm not working.
Let's see, my orientation was very brief so I'm trying to remember what all she covered. She talked about the grading scale. I think it's a 6 point system now, reminds me of high school. We went over a few points in a handbook. A lot of students had repetitive questions ughhh... just pay attention and listen! We were also advised to get our home duties in order now and learn organization... etc. etc. I've heard of some orientations having current students come in and give their prospective on the program and all sorts of other things. My school was very bland. That's about it regarding orientation.
The program head used a powerpoint to go through orientation. The first thing she started with was our anticipated graduation date which I thought was pretty lovely, and thought to myself, that's not that far away. 2014! We went through what our semester would be like... 8 week classes: Mondays and Wednesdays are lecture classes from 8:30am-2pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays are labs/clinicals. She made sure to tell us with clinicals, the program takes what they can get as far as time slots so we can be at a 12 hour clinical once a week or a 6 hour clinical twice a week. She had someone from financial aid come in and talk to us. Also, someone from an organization who gives grants came in. She had three students from the Nursing Student Association come in and invite us to a one day camp to get to know those in our cohort and ask current students questions. I'm shy, but I'll definitely be attending. We went over the book list which I chose to buy from amazon and save a few hundred dollars than to buy from the bookstore. We filled out paperwork and more paperwork. She gave us a uniform order sheet for the bookstore, but I bought my uniform from the uniform website because it saved me $20. Nursing school and preparing for nursing school is so expensive, I'll order from amazon to save $1 if I have to.. every little bit helps :) especially since I'm not working.
Let's see, my orientation was very brief so I'm trying to remember what all she covered. She talked about the grading scale. I think it's a 6 point system now, reminds me of high school. We went over a few points in a handbook. A lot of students had repetitive questions ughhh... just pay attention and listen! We were also advised to get our home duties in order now and learn organization... etc. etc. I've heard of some orientations having current students come in and give their prospective on the program and all sorts of other things. My school was very bland. That's about it regarding orientation.
Let Me Introduce Myself
To all who visit my blog, ::waves:: Hello!
My name is Ozella. I'm starting this blog to document my journey in nursing school while being a mother to an infant. I'm new at this so please bear with me.
I graduated from high school in '07 and went to a university for a few years majoring in criminal justice. After realizing there was no place for criminal justice in my future, I transferred to a college to major in business before ultimately deciding that nursing what truly my calling. So I spent a good 2 years or so taking prerequisites to apply for my school's nursing program. Despite its reputation for being difficult to get into, I was accepted on my very first try. I start my program on August 23.
I'm somewhat nervous, anxious and scared. I didn't know I was capable of experiencing all those emotions as once ha. I'm nervous because I just don't know what to expect. I can read all the blogs I want and ask nursing students all the questions I want, but I will never know what my experience will be until it's actually happening. Anxious because the healthcare field is so exciting and the hands on aspect of it is what I'm most looking forward to. Scared because being that my daughter will only be 6 months when I start, I'm not sure how I'll be able to deal with being away from her so long and having to discipline myself enough to seclude myself to study... on top of the fact that I breastfeed her.
Sometimes I wish she was still inside of me so she could go wherever I go. This past fall semester, I was in my third trimester taking Micro and Anatomy with labs along with three online classes and managed to pull straight A's that semester. I don't know if that was pure luck or straight inspiration from my, at the time, unborn. Everything I do now, I do so my baby can have a better life than I had... and I like to say I had a pretty good life.
I won't bore you already, so I'll end this here and post another entry about orientation.
Good day people!
My name is Ozella. I'm starting this blog to document my journey in nursing school while being a mother to an infant. I'm new at this so please bear with me.
I graduated from high school in '07 and went to a university for a few years majoring in criminal justice. After realizing there was no place for criminal justice in my future, I transferred to a college to major in business before ultimately deciding that nursing what truly my calling. So I spent a good 2 years or so taking prerequisites to apply for my school's nursing program. Despite its reputation for being difficult to get into, I was accepted on my very first try. I start my program on August 23.
I'm somewhat nervous, anxious and scared. I didn't know I was capable of experiencing all those emotions as once ha. I'm nervous because I just don't know what to expect. I can read all the blogs I want and ask nursing students all the questions I want, but I will never know what my experience will be until it's actually happening. Anxious because the healthcare field is so exciting and the hands on aspect of it is what I'm most looking forward to. Scared because being that my daughter will only be 6 months when I start, I'm not sure how I'll be able to deal with being away from her so long and having to discipline myself enough to seclude myself to study... on top of the fact that I breastfeed her.
Sometimes I wish she was still inside of me so she could go wherever I go. This past fall semester, I was in my third trimester taking Micro and Anatomy with labs along with three online classes and managed to pull straight A's that semester. I don't know if that was pure luck or straight inspiration from my, at the time, unborn. Everything I do now, I do so my baby can have a better life than I had... and I like to say I had a pretty good life.
I won't bore you already, so I'll end this here and post another entry about orientation.
Good day people!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)