So I passed my testing although it could have gone much better.
I made silly mistakes that I don't normally make in my patterns. I messed up on the second and fourth patterns. Little mistakes but still. They're not mistakes that I make. It's amazing at how being sick messes with your concentration.
I went in with that foggy head feeling which is never good. My saving grace is that at that point, I thought I was starting to clear up. I wasn't coughing and my nose had stopped running for a bit.
We started with patterns. They weren't my best, as stated above. I feel alirght about them though. As we were starting our patterns Mike started to give me a hard time about something and then Mr T (Michael) jumped in on it. It was a good time. It gave me an idea for a new comeback. haha!
Next up were our kicks. This is where I was really starting to know that I wasn't at my best. I was giving it all I had to make them look good. Afterward I was talking to my husband and he said it looked like I was just hopping instead of jumping. While I was doing the kicks it felt to me like I should be jumping. I had a couple of good 180 back kicks in there. The rest were just meh. They didn't feel as good and smooth as they typically did for me. I know I'm capable of much better.
After this we broke out into several different areas. First up was splits for me. I ended up being right where I thought I would be. I had made a goal at my last testing to get to 180 degrees on the machine. I made it to 170 which is actually not as far as I had gone on my last test. Needless to say, I'm still working on that goal. Last testing I was at 172.5-ish.
Required knowledge was next. No worries here.
Last up out of this part of testing was breaking. I really enjoy breaking. A lot. My breaks were a jump turn kick and an outward knife hand. This was the only area I felt confident in yesterday. I was able to perform both breaks on the first try. My jumping turn kick was either high or low. I'm not sure because I didn't look to see how the boards landed when I broke them. I'm wondering if I went a little high from where I measured. The outward knife hand went really well. That one I broke straight down the middle and across the knot in the board.
We all regrouped one last time to do our pushups, situps, and squats. I was nervous about this one because of the pushups. I wasn't worried about getting them all in, what I was worried about was going down far enough. I feel like I'm getting better and stronger at them but still have some room to improve. One thing I can say is that I'm thankful for all of the pushups I've been doing while at work. They felt easier this time around. I had to do 35 of each in 2 minutes. It was close on the pushups because I was trying my hardest to go down as far as I could. I heard the 30 second buzzer go off and just did 5 real quick to make sure I got them in. They were 5 really crappy ones but I got it done.
I surprised myself on situps. At the last testing I was required to do 30 and I remember just barely making it over that in 2 minutes. This time I did 44!! My goal for next testing will be to do 50+ in two minutes.
Squats went OK. Apparently I had a real odd form going on them. Not surprising since I wasn't feeling well. I don't even know what I was doing but I remember people around me telling me to not bend my back. I'm wondering if I was arching it or something.
All in all I did pass. I could have done better if I weren't sick so I'm not fully satisfied with this round of testing. The good part of it is that I gave myself a lot of room to improve for when I go for my blue belt so I will have to excuse to show progress.
Now this cold can go away any time.
I was not the creative one who came up with these. I found this in a post on http://www.allnurses.com/.
ENJOY!!!
A couple of us felt the need to change the lyrics to some Christmas Song Favorites---hope you enjoy!
(To the tune of Oh Christmas Tree)
Oh CBI, Oh CBI, how rapidly you're running!
Oh CBI, Oh CBI, how rapidly you're running!
The foley still is cherry red...
The patient thinks he's nearly dead...
Oh CBI, Oh CBI, When will you stop your clotting!
(To the Tune of Deck the Halls)
Wreck the halls with urine & stool!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Clean the patient like a fool
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Get the rectal tubes a-flowing...
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Seems like everybody's going!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
(To the tune of Winter Wonderland)
Call light ring
No one's listening
Someone screams
"Stop his *******!"
It's normal at night
To cry out "All RIGHT!"
Working in a midnight wonderland.
Patients Yell
Gimme Pain Meds
What's that smell?
It's the same bed!
You're running the halls
Cuz everyone calls
Working in midnight wonderland.
In the middle there will be a Code Blue
Then we found out that he's a DNR
We'll have fun explaining all of this to
The Person who's in charge of all of us!
Later on, he'll expire
Then we'll call the house doctor
Who sleeps in his room
Don't call him TOO soon!
Working in a midnight wonderland!!
(To the tune of I'll Be Home for Christmas)
I'll be home on Christmas
Don't you dare call me!
I don't care
If no one's there
It's my day to be free
Christmas Eve I'm working
'Til the sun comes up!
And I'll be home on Christmas
So sooorrry---touch luck!!!!
And finally...
(To the tune of Silver Bells)
Poopy Bedpans
Smelly Trash Cans
Dressed in bright yellow gowns
In the air it's a feeling of C-diff....
Patients crapping
Nurses Laughing
Clean up bile after bile
And in all nurses' stations you'll hear.....
Saggy B*alls
Saggy B*alls
It's time for scrotal support!!
Ringaling
Hold up that thing
Soon they will be on the floor!!!!
(To the tune of The Dreidel Song)
We have a vial of Haldol
We use it every day
And if our patients go crazy
You'll surely hear us say
OHHHH Haldol Haldol Haldol
We give to you for sleep!
Haldol Haldol Haldol
You will not make a peep!!
Hope you got a kick outta this....we had so much fun writing these!!!
Merry Christmas Everybody!!!
I was told this morning by the PA I went to see that I am resilient (sp?). I guess I should take that as a compliment but quite honestly, I can't imagine living my life any other way than that which I have chosen. It's just me. Who I am. What I do.
I'd like to take a moment to say how thankful I am for where I am in life right now. Life isn't perfect but I'm pretty happy with where I am at. I feel very thankful for my wonderful job and everything else I have worked so hard for. I'm thankful that I am going back to school in January with my end goal being my MSN. I'm thankful that we are where we are financially, it hasn't always been this way. I'm really happy that my body is holding up through all the stuff I put it through with my different exercise endeavors.
That being said, none of this happened by chance. I've had to be strong to stick to my goals. I wouldn't have been able to do this if it weren't for the support I've had from my husband, friends, and God (in no particular order).
Yesterday at work I got my butt kicked. I wouldn't say it was a bad day, just busy for me. I had a pretty alright assignment and was also 2nd admit. The assignment I had was totally appropriate as an admission assignment. What threw me is that we got our first admit yesterday at about 9:30 or so and about 15 minutes after that baby arrived on the unit, the team was called over to another delivery. It was a term c-section so I wasn't expecting to get anything. Then I realized they were over there for quite some time for a term secion so I got to thinking I was going to be getting this baby. Term babies that come to us scare me because we don't typically get term babies unless there is something wrong with them such as congenital diaphramatic hernia (we've has a run on these lately) or if they have severe respiratory distress from things such as meconium aspiration.
This kiddo had niether of these. Let me clarify that a litte bit more. The baby did have respiratory distress but not from meconium aspiration. My guess is either from having a low H/H or TTN (transient tachypnea of the newborn--common with sections becuase the secretions are not being squeezed out of the lungs) or a combination of both.
It was amazing how white this baby was when it came to us. The parents are of the darker skinned variety and this baby was more white than the whitest white person I know.
This admit ended up being more sick than the first admit which we expected would be super sick and wasn't.
So we did the typical lab draws and all that stuff. Had to give a bolus right off the bat and then another bolus after that. Then they ordered blood to be given.
This was a new experience for me. I never had the opportunity to give blood on orientation and since I've been off, the opportunity just has not come up for me. It wasn't that bad. We had to double verify the blood, double check the orders (again 2 RN's involved) and then prime the tubing. We use special tubing for the blood but it's different that giving it to adults. There is no normal sailine carrier that goes with it. It's just the blood which was different for me. The only time normal sailine went in was when the line was flushed. There was still the usual charting. I charted every 15 minutes for the first hour and then every half hour after that until the blood was done (it goes in over 4 hours).
I am feeling more comfortable at work but I still have so much to learn! I've been there for 7 months now but I feel like I'm still trying to find my feet.
What I'd really like to make as a goal for next year is to start doing flex and going to deliveries. I'm going to talk to my charge nurse about that and see what she has to say.
I'm so excited about going back to school in January. I got an email from my director saying that I can sign up for my CAP III. CAP is basically an increase in pay grade for things like education and certifications.
I'm a little confused because I was asking about this earlier and was told I wouldn't be eligible until I start the actual BSN courses. Right now I'm taking the last of the prereq's required for the BSN. I need to go talk to her about it. Not that I'm complaining that they want to give me more money, I just want to clarify everything so that I don't get in trouble for anything.
Tae Kwon Do testing is on Saturday. The husband is able to come and I'm so excited for him to be able to see what we do. I can't wait! I feel very ready for this!
In class on Monday we were doing test review and another green belt and myself were working on our patterns. Mike came over and was watching me do the last half of my pattern. It made me so nervous that he was watching!!!! I lost my concentration for a bit but got it back. He told me my pattern is looking good, I just need to work on my sine wave on the move in the pattern right before the side kick. I will be working on that tonight.
How sad that this is the most creative title I can come up with right now?
Things are going good. For the first time in my life I was able to do the full boat pose without having to hold onto my legs. It wasn't that I ever lacked the core control to be able to do it, it was that I lacked the strength in my legs to be able to hold them straight. I took yoga last week and bingo! I did it! Not only did I do the full boat pose but I was able to go from low boat post up to full boat pose!
Tae Kwon Do is going well. We have belt testing on Saturday and I'm very excited! This is the hardest I've had to work for a new belt yet! My current pattern, Won-Hyo is the first pattern I've had to do with a side kick in it. That has been a huge challenge for me balance wise. I've been working on my balance and kicking at least 4 times a week on top of going to class just to get it down. I'm a total type A personality. Can you tell?
I've been noticing more improvement lately as well. It's so encouraging when I can feel it myself. It gives me such a sense of accomplishment, like all the time I've been putting into it is totally worth it.
I have admittedly slacked off on my pushups though. I'm a little nervous about doing them for my testing. I have to do 35 in 2 minutes. I was able to get signed off on them which means that I'm doing them but I need to be able to get more range of motion (go deeper). So what I've done is gone back to doing them on my knees, 40 at a time, making sure I go deeper into it to train my muscles and once I get that down I will go back to doing them on my toes outside of class. Of course during class and when doing my warmups, I'm doing them on my toes like I should.
Work has been good. Last week I had my first 1:1 assignment. It was really scary! It was very fast paced and things just kept happening one after another. I ran my butt off that day more than I would do with a regular 2:1 assignment. When I first came on shift I had to start a Versed drip, give a normal sailine bolus, and give two rescue doses of Versed and fentanyl, then one more normal sailine bolus. All within the first 30 minutes of my shift this was ordered. At the end of the day I really enjoyed having a 1:1 but am glad that I get a nice mix of things as well becasue if I had to do that day in and day out, I think I would get real tired of it real quick.
I'm still trying to figure out the dynamic at work. It seems that the same people keep getting the same assignments. I know it's probably wasting my time but I'm just trying to figure out why. In some cases I know it's because certain people really like taking care of our long term kids. I work the end of the week and there is definately a "core" group there that has been working together for quite some time. I think that has a lot to do with it.
I signed up to take an online class next semester at CNM. I'm taking a humanities class called Pop Culture and Identity. I'm taking this because the other classes I was trying to get into were full already. I'm really hoping that UNM will accept this as a humanities elective but if they don't, at least I'll be taking a class that sounds very interesting.
I'm hoping to start my BSN in the fall. I'm going to talk to advisers there and see if I can also take some core MSN classes as well that way when I decide for sure on my MSN route (if I decide to do it at UNM) I'll have the basics out of the way and will be able to just jump right in to the core classes. It works out because either way I'm getting my masters. That fact is not in question at all, never has been. What is in question is the specialty. I'm still throwing several specialties around. I will have it nailed down by the time I get to starting my master's though. It's just that I am such a new nurse and need a little more time on the floor to see where my heart really is.
One thing that upsets me is the tuition that UNM charges for the nursing program! The tuition for the regular RN-BSN is over $300 per credit hour! How rediculous is that?!?!?!?! The real kicker is that it's still cheaper than going to another school because other school require more classes, will take longer, blah blah blah. I emailed the advisor asking her why the tuition was so much more. Of course I didn't get a good answer. It basically came out to "because we can". Pffttt!
The worst part of it is that my work will ONLY reimburse me the REGULAR tuition rate so I'm going to have to pay out of pocket for some of my BSN. That was totally NOT in the game plan!
What can I really do about it though? It is what it is. I just have to bite the bullet and take one for the team.
