It has taken me some time to wrap my head around going to school all summer long, but with the first few weeks under my belt I feel good about the balance between school, work and fun in the sun. During the summer all the accelerated students take maternity for half the summer and pediatrics for the second half as well as chronic illness and aging all summer long. I am currently in maternity and doing my clinical at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. It has been an amazing experience so far, I have seen two births, taken care of infants just one or two days old and helped educate nervous parents about how to care for their tiny new additions. Each summer session is very quick and I am sad this Thursday will be my last clinical day in maternity before switching over to pediatrics. I will be doing my pediatric clinical at The Children's Hospital and I am very excited!
The summer is definitely a little less demanding as far as time spent in class and clinical. We still have a fair amount of studying and a number of papers to write, but with class only on Monday and Tuesday nights and only one 12 hour clinical I find myself with a little more free time. Yesterday I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather in Ipswich on Pavilion beach. I planned to do some reading while sun bathing, but instead just enjoyed the day and put it off until the sun went in. I can have a bit of a procrastinating problem at times, but I know in this program it is important to keep up with your reading and work as much as possible.
Getting experience in all the different fields has really helped my consider which track I would like to pursue as an NP. I had originally thought I would like to be a Pediatric NP but upon working with other populations I realized I wouldn't want to miss out of woman and even older adults as patients. After my pediatric clinical rotation I think I will be sure. One of the advantages of the program here at Regis is it allows you to wait until you have finished your BSN before you have to decide which NP track you would like to pursue. This way you have worked with almost every patient population and you can make an informed decision about what you really enjoyed most.
The next big checkpoint is in sight. In September we start our preceptorships, which means we shadow a nurse, give medications, take care of patients and eventually take on a patient assignment of our own with the supervision of your preceptor. I am anxious to find out where I was placed and who I will be spending a lot of time with this fall.
Until next time - enjoy the sun!
