Week 9 as a level 3 nursing student

This week has been incredibly...over whelming, to say the least. Self-induced stress, though, I suppose. We had an immunology midterm on Mon, and a pharm midterm and mental health final exam on Thur. I also decided on a whim on Monday to throw myself a bake sale on Thurs. In retrospect, what was I thinking. Haha.

Oh well, I made it through, smiling and alive - well, breathing at least! :) I kid.

Lessons this week:

Orientation day was Tuesday and reading lists were released on Monday morning. There wasn't much time and the amount of information presented was pretty hefty. I feel as though I put a lot of pressure on myself to know everything - but I just didn't have my A game on Wed at clinical. On Tuesday, I made cue cards on some things, but per Murphy's law, I didn't have one made for the questions she was asking. That's ok, it only serves as motivation for me - just have to keep pushing myself. I won't always have the answers, but for me, the key is to keep on trying and just look up what I don't know. That's the answer for me because I hate feeling confused, and I guess with factual, concrete information, it's easier for me to grasp and make cue cards on than for something like reading the dynamics of a family.

Family theory is actually very thought stimulating, for me. The themes of dignity, feeling helpful/appreciated, connecting with ppl, and phenomenology were emphasized yet again. I feel as though the activity we did was pretty well executed - we all shared a memorable nursing memory to a partner who in turn, shared it with the class. Our partner was to extract one memorable quote to put up on the board. It seems as though this class pushes us to be highly self-aware. We shall see how everything unravels :)

Something I put on my learning plan was to be more self-aware and to understand where my triggers lie. When my clinical instructor was telling us about some stories of abuse, I found it very difficult to sit there and even listen to without having a look of horror on my face. The truth is, though, I'm going to have to be unbiased in my care when the time comes for me to deal with a situation such as that. Tying in from the family theory course, what my ideals for a family are not the be-all-end-all of family dynamics. Just because I think that a family should be loving, unconditionally, that isn't the case, this is just how I interpret it.

A pretty big group of us went into open lab today to practice IV therapy, injection landmarking, and other level 2 skills. I found it both daunting and helpful. Daunting at first, because I was super rusty, helpful because I got to practice the skills hands on! It's going to be a weekly ritual, so it'll be great, especially for Bangla!

Weekend plans: finish PBL paper, make PBL handouts, DO MY OB READINGS, maybe go for a run again!