Mental health

Well it turns out that mental health is a lot of fun. We have an awesome instructor who is very easy going and the facility is really nice. I'm at the VA and I've gotten to go to PTSD support groups, dual diagnosis groups for people struggling with both a mental disorder and drug /alcohol problem, schitzophrenic cognitive therapy,all kinds of neat things. We are allowed to sit in on all interdisciplinary meetings and it's great to see the admit to discharge process from the beginning to the end. The only difference between the VA and other mental facilties is that people choose to come here, they are not being committed by someone else. The biggest theme that I see in just about everyone there is depression, not to surprising really. It has been nice also that what we are learning in theory correlates with what we are seeing in clinicals. That doesn't happen very often!
I'm also so thankful that we get an extra week off this next week for playing catch up and studying, I did well on the last test and hopefully can do well this next one. Then my stress level will be so much better.

Heading back to the VA

I'm starting mental health tomorrow. I really don't have a feeling one way or the other about it. Right now my focus is on my theory class and all other school events just take me away from my studying. I know it will be interesting, and I'm sure I'll learn alot, it's just that I'm so stressed and can't wait till this quarter is over.

Cruising along

First of all, I have to apologize for all the recent misspellings on this blog, I've gone back and noticed quite a few! My only defense is I am usually in a hurry and rarely proofread what I post. This week is going a lot smoother than earlier in the quarter. I'm done with long term care and have had some extra time to devote to theory. This was really needed, because I was starting to crack under the pressure! The timing has also worked out because next week Chris has half days in school almost all week and they have veterans day off. That would be really hard to schedule babysitting if I was busy in clinicals all week. Work is still going well, and I enjoy it just as much as when I first started.My nurses are so supportive and are really pulling for me to get a recidency when I graduate. As soon as I get some batteries back in the camera, I'll post our Halloween pictures. The kids had fun and got way too much candy! I've been finding wrappers everywhere! Till next time, take care!

Fealling a little better

Well, it's been a long week. My weeks are Thursday through Thursday hense, my week is almost over!I've somewhat calmed down about my grades and with a lot of prayer, I know that things will work out in the end. I think sometimes I work so hard, and spin my wheels and forget to give it over to God and let him take the burden. This week we finished up our long term care rotation and I have one more assignment to complete for that. Mostly it was a boring rotation but full of lots of busy paper work and not a lot of hands on care. I love the hands on stuff, so this wasn't as fun. I guess I'll never be a nurse manager! Now I have two weeks off of clinical before we start mental health rotation. I'm so exited to actually get two extra days next week to study! Tomorrow's the end of life test and I'm busy getting our class presentaion together for that, so it's another full night, but tomorrow after class I'm actually going to relax and watch a dvd I ordered. The Proposal, can't wait!

Feeling like I'm drowning in the work

I may say this every quarter, but this seems like my hardest quarter yet. I have not done well on any of the tests and I can't figure out why. I've never had the thought in my mind that I might not pass a class but I am having those thoughts now. I hoping by the grace of God that I can make it through the next 8 weeks. Her tests are quizzes that are worth 15 points every week. The problem is there are usually 13 questions covering well over 100 pages of reading, and she makes them up. They are not out of a test bank and figuring what she 's looking for has turned out to be difficult. If you miss three, you've pretty much failed the test and the average needs to be a 79% Doesn't seem that bad but with such high stakes questions the stakes are high. I've never had a class like this. I'm just praying, praying , praying and working so hard I don't know what else to do. The constant stress level in starting to get to me and I don't stress out easily.

Few, first test down seven more to go

All in all this was a good week and I'm SOOO glad it's Friday! Our first test was on Thursday and I did okay, not as well as I'd like. I felt like I knew everything and had studied well but some of the questions were worded really strange and of course there are always a few trick questions, fortunately I got those right. As long as I keep above a 79% average for testing, I'll pass the class. Usually I can maintain a 90% average and then count on other projects and activities to pull up the grade to an A so I hope I can do that again this quarter.
I've got work tomorrow and I always look forward to that, it what keeps me going when I get bogged down with school stress, I look around and tell myself, one day I will just have go to work and come home and that's it. I am blessed to work with wonderful and generous nurses who enjoy having me around and don't mind all questions!
This week we were given the opportunity to fill out the sheet that tells school where we what to go for our preceptorship placement. Part of me wants to stay where I'm comfortable, such as a CCU environment. I truly don't want Med/Surg but, I know that I would learn a lot and would be pushed out of my comfort zone. The instructor also mentioned that I should go to a place where I could gain knowledge for NCLEX. She has a point, an area too specialized might not help me when it comes to the test, and that of course is the whole idea. If I don't pass, nothing else matters! So, I've got some thinking to do, until next time have a great weekend!

Starting mental health and long term care

This week was full of some definite highs and lows! The first day back was great, seeing everyone and catching up with how their summer was nice. Then tuesday was our dosage calculation test and clinical orientation. Unfortunately, I missed one extra problem on the calculation test and had one more try to take it which I did today. Fortunately things went well and I got 100% but that was way too close for comfort. If I got less than a 90% I would have to miss clinicals for this quarter and I would not be completing the program with my group, just three months later. While this wouldn't be the end of the world, it would have been devistating to me.
This quarter we will be at the local VA hospital to complete our LTC and mental health units. I sat in line for 4 hours the other day to get my security pass and my fingerprinting done. Now I kind of know how someone feels being booked for jail! Anyways, I've got tons of studying to do and a test on thursday so I better get started, till next time!