It's Official!

I'm a freakin' licensed registered nurse!

For REALS!

*image blatantly stolen from my friend Dani's blog - because it's so darn cute!

Jeesh a lot has happened!

I have been remiss in my updates lately. There has been a ton going on! A metric ton, even! The week of finals (May 2-5) was crazy, starting with my lovely Jamie coming down with croup (of all things!) and needing to be at Primary Children's for 18 hours for treatments and observation. Poor thing's airway was nearly closed-off  --- it was a touchy situation. Thankfully, she's completely fine and there were no complications. And, thankfully, this happened AFTER my high acuity final exam, so there was really no impact on the rest of my finals which were that morning and the next day. If this hospital visit had been a day earlier, I'm quite certain the rest of my week would have ended very differently.

With that scary but nicely-resolved-issue out of the way, the rest of the week was filled with final exams for me, preparing and administering one to the students of the teacher I work for, my dad and company coming up to see me (and the girls of course!), and finally, the week culminating in the pinning ceremony. Wow - what a whirlwind!

Initially, I was reluctant to participate/attend the pinning ceremony. I thought it might be cheesy for someone my age to go - like this was something that only younger peeps got a kick out of.  But, I did go, and, as the speakers spoke and I thought about my experience since it all began in the summer of 2006, I realized something that changed my perspective about the whole thing. I realized just how much I DID during that time. This was not some silly accomplishment that really just anyone could do. Because I tend to minimize everything I experience (in order to deal with it - the 'big picture' is just too overwhelming) or do - break it into pieces, go week-to-week, test-to-test, etc - I minimized what I achieved. Sure, getting an associate degree (the third one, no less) from a community college is not the same as a PhD from Stanford. For this reason, the fact that I was attending a community college kind of made me feel lacking in the educational department. But, this was a registered nursing program - the same as would be at any university. In fact, this school's pass-rate of the NCLEX is incredibly high - higher than many universities in this state. So, the program is excellent. And I've gotten over my snobbiness of having attended a community college to get to this point. I am as much a RN as someone who graduate with a AS from Stanford :) And, because I did well in my program, I'm continuing on at the University of Utah in August to earn a BSN in 4 part-time online semesters. Which means I can eventually continue on for an advanced practice degree at some later date.

Basically - I realized through that pinning ceremony that what I did was no small potatoes. And, what I did, I did not do alone. My darling daughters have gone without SO much while I have pursued this degree. True, without it, they would continue to go without so much for an indeterminant amount of time since I'd have no means to provide them with anything. However, when I think about how I was too tired to attend Moms and Muffins, volunteer in their classrooms as room moms (or whatever they're called), or this-that-and-the-other; I would realize at 8pm while studying for yet another test that I hadn't fed anyone dinner and then find out that they'd gotten themselves a bowl of cereal (again); when I would look at the clock, panicked because I heard nothing but silence, went to investigate, and saw that they had put themselves to bed; when I'd get home from a long day of class and they'd greet me with happy little faces, proud to show me that they'd straightened up the living room. These are the troopers that really sacrificed for this accomplishment. They have put up with an incredible amount of crap for me to become a registered nurse. My parents also sacrificed for me. My dad funded many things, helped me out of financial jams and allowed me to repay him - my mom also assisted me as she was able. Neither of these people are Midas and swimming in fortunes. I am not a teenager requiring their support - but they did anyway. They have been my cheerleaders from afar and their contribution is incredible. My neighbors - holy cow - I can't even count how often they have lent a hand when it came to watching one or both my girls, running one or both somewhere, pitching in last minute when I had car problems or whatever inumerable problem popped up, for letting me bring my little Jessica to their house in the wee hours since I had clinicals that began hours before my daycare opened. For the lunches and assistance and just everything. It is incalculable and invaluable. I am inspired because of all these people and hope to make it worth it to them that they did this awesome thing for me and my children.

And that was just the first WEEK of May! Ha ha!  The 2nd week was work getting ready for the summer term and the teacher I work for as well as registering with DOPL in order to get a test date for the NCLEX. The third week consisted of the summer term starting AND doing a Kaplan review course four days that week. This third week is when I'm taking my NCLEX (tomorrow! 2pm!!! eeeeeee!!!!), my baby 'graduates' from Kindergarten, and since I know my test will be fine, officially becoming a *Licensed* registered nurse by week's end. Oh - and I just received my acceptance letter from the University of Utah to begin the RN-BSN program this August.

Lot's of things happening. I forgot to mention the weather that is experiencing some PMS or something - very very mercurial indeed! I'm hoping it will settle the heck down by June. Which is NEXT WEEK! Aaccck!!!!

End of Days

Today was the last clinical day as a student nurse. All in all, it was a great day. I was assigned to a great nurse who was also precepting a newly orienting graduate nurse. For reasons I didn't think worthy at the time, he was impressed to talk to his nurse manager about me. She, in turn, wanted to speak with me about possibly coming to work for her unit in the Respiratory ICU. She asked me to send her my resume (which I told her I would do tonight) so that she could pass along to me the job posting number she is going to list in May. She advised me to take the NCLEX as soon as possible as she would like to be hiring in June to replace the 3 nurses leaving the unit at the end of summer.

How freaking awesome would that be? RICU is not my first choice of employment, but a job in critical care would open MANY doors for me down the road, and not even in the too-distant future. This would enable me to really do wherever I wanted to go as well as really prepare me well in nursing, unlike a regular med-surg floor nursing position would do. The staff at the RICU are the most companionable of the ICU's that I experienced, which really sets the overall tone of the unit. Anyway - it's not the only position I would apply for, but if it was my 'in' for IHC so that I could eventually go where I wanted with the advantage of in-house job listings and what-not, I'd be a fool not to go for it.

Otherwise, this is the last time I have to wear these darling blue scrubs. Though I love the color, I'm happy to repurpose them. Some people burn then, throw them away, donate them. I am going to cut it up and make a pot holder or small blankie or something. Add it to the swatches of other 'loved' fabrics that I can make into a quilt, perhaps. I'll do something with it - just not wear it ever again! :)

Looks like I'll be getting a B in high acuity (critical care) and A-'s in community and managment. *sigh of relief* It was an intense semester, but it's been a good one, too. I feel like it really came together this semester, and though it makes the end of the term somewhat hectic, I do enjoy having our clinical days at the end, rather than the beginning, when I feel like I know what I'm doing somewhat.  Now for the last careplan to submit and three final exams and onto the NCLEX prep and test itself. The end is so near. I can feel it!

22 Days and a Wake-up!

Yay! Almost there! Two more class days! Two more weeks! Two more ICU clinicals, one of which is in the ER! Super fun!!! Two more OB days delivering babies and feeling more like a real-life nurse than I will post-graduation given the terrible job market for new graduate nurses! My parents all coming to Utah to see me! Yay!

I am blessed.

Gosh I hope I can find a job fairly quickly.