TurboNurse

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.