Spring has sprung?

Happy Spring! Finally! This semester has been tough and the cold weather was not helping. Now I can get outside with the dog and get some fresh air to break up the studying. The last few weeks have been really hard! The semester seem to start out a little slower and after spring break everything was kicked up a gear and it is just test after paper after clinical. We had a test in Acute Care last week we all thought was hard and didn't do as well as we usually do. In most nursing schools, as it is here at Regis you have to get better than an 80% in all your classes to pass  and move on to the next class. So naturally any grade we get under an 80% sends us all into panic mode. We have 5 tests, 1 paper and several other grades that make up our complete percentage so one bad test with a score below an 80% is not going to hurt your average too much as long as you do well on the other assignments. So you can have a bad test or a bad day, just not too many of them! Our professors were very supportive, we all discussed the test and many people went to their office hours to go over it. But the main thing is it's over and we all have to stop being  bummed out about it and take on the next assignment.

I just finished my last lab simulation day today, which we all of course complained about being added to our schedule, but they are actually very helpful. This semester we spent three days in the lab on campus learning the skills we would use in clinical and doing patient scenario simulations. Today we had a patient with an NG tube, a patient having an asthma attack and a patient with type 1 diabetes. We had to work together and act out the scenarios as if we were nurses in the hospital. Most of us get a little performance anxiety, but it is amazing to see how much better we are at talking to patients, patient education and medication administration now compared to the beginning of the semester and last semester. The professors always say, "what happens in lab stays in lab," so it is a great place to practice. We usually have a good time with the simulations whether students are acting as crazy family members or the patient (with our professor's voice as their voice) is telling us interesting or funny symptoms.

Another week and a half and we will all welcome a short break for Easter. The semester is going by fast, but lately I really feel like I have no free time! I think I took on too much this semester with working 15+ hours a week, a new puppy, clinical and class. If you can hold off on working too much 2nd semester I would recommend it! A flexible work schedule is definitely a must with this program!

As a farewell to winter here is a video of my sledding puppy!