A Chapter Complete

My friends and family, I have now completed a massive portion of my college life: Nursing Clinicals. This weekend was a whirlwind but I did it!

I had my last two 12 hour shifts for my leadership clinicals in the STICU. It was a good weekend. Learned some new things, as always! I feel like I went out strong. It was a weird feeling walking into the hospital for the last time... my friend Lauren (the other student who works with me there) and I decided to get the nurses some donuts from Sweet Stella and write a thank you card to thank them for all of their effort to teach us, encourage us, and help us through the semester.

It was seriously a wonderful experience. The nurses were just the best. They were excellent with patients and they were fabulous with Lauren and I. They wanted us to learn as much as we could and allowed for us to sort of "run the show" with our patients. We were able to direct the care that we were given and act as true RNs. Of course, they supervised our delivered care. The nurses were easy to approach if we had questions or needed help with anything. The most important thing about the semester is that we learned a ton and had fun!

I feel so blessed to be able to have this leadership clinical experience. It was simply incredible.

I got my patch from my uniform inserted into a Tervis cup! I love it!

Today, I wrapped up my last clinical total. Yesterday, in the STICU, was my last 'hospital clinical' but today I shadowed a high school nurse. I've been shadowing this nurse on mondays for about a month. It was a neat experience. It is a completely totally different type of nursing. I got to see a variety of conditions handled and treated through the means that a high school nurse is able to provide. It is so different than the hospital because she has significantly less at her disposal. It's a headache of a process for kids to be able to take medications at school. Mostly first aid is given like bandaids, splints, ice, and rest. Rest is probably the biggest treatment that is given.

These clinicals were really neat to experiences a totally different type of nursing. I really think that it would be fun to be able to substitute for a school nurse sometime in the future. Apparently, it's hard to get good school nurse substituent. I think it would be something fun to do for a change up in the schedule.

My clinical group from all of junior year; such fun!

So as I walked up the stairs to my apartment this afternoon, I was just tired and thankful. Thankful for the many experiences over the past four years of nursing school. This program has been absolutely outstanding!

I have some other updates since it has been forever since I have blogged because it's been a crazy couple weeks. I think most of them are nursing related because it's been my life for these couple weeks.

I am now certified in ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and PALS (pediatric advanced life support). These are a huge benefit to my career. These certifications allow me to run or be the head/director of a code if a doctor is not in the room. I can reasonably read EKG rhythms strips and identify the medications and dosages necessary to treat life threatening situations in the even of a code. We went through treatment for rhythms like atrial fibrillation, asystole, ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, torsades de pointes, supraventricular tachycardia, heart blocks, atrial flutter, and some junctional rhythms. We had to run through a code for each course and be the director of it to be able to receive this certification. We also had multiple choice tests for each.

Critical Care Certificate Program group; incredible friends!

I passed this test we have to take called the ATI RN-Predictor which means that I'll have a 98% chance of passing my NCLEX the first time I take it. Woot! Praise Jesus!

I have completed and turned in my senior thesis, which is one of the most incredible feelings in it self. This little bugger has been hanging over my head since I entered the Honors Program freshman year. I've been working on this little research paper for a year and a half. So YES it's wonderful to have it done. For those of you who don't know and are interested... my title and my subject were, "A Social Controversy: Autism Spectrum Disorder's Correlation to the Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination."

DONE. That baby is D-O-N-E. Hallelujah!

In a completely different turn of events, the golf team boys won our division companionship. They are now Big South Champions for the second year in a row! They will find out in a couple weeks where they will play nationals this summer. Jordan wasn't on the team that went and played but I am just thrilled for the boys! They've worked so hard all year long. :)

Oh also, I've gone running with my friend Hope twice. It's been wonderful. We've done 4.5 and then 5.6 miles downtown Lynchburg along the James River. It is a beautiful course that she introduced me to! It's been super fun to have a running buddy to get a long run in once a week. We're headed down there tomorrow too! It's been delightful and a good ole kick in the butt!

I think that kinda sums up the gist of my past couple weeks. I have missed my blog!