16 posts tagged “tests”

I passed Integrated Skills yesterday. Basically, you're given a scenario and you have 15 minutes to prepare (look up your drugs, make some notes, etc.). Then you go into the room where the mannequin is set up and do your thing.

My scenario was a man with Prostate Cancer who had a TURP the day before. He was on continuous bladder irrigation (CBI) and had dime size blood clots in the tubing with no urine outflow.

This tells me that he needs manual irrigation (which he had orders for). Crap. I had heard that we wouldn't have to do open irrigation since we didn't have much instruction on it, so that was something at least.

Except it wasn't true.

I did closed irrigation and the instructor says "It wasn't successful. Now what?" I said that I would do it again. "Okay, still didn't work. Now what?" Sigh... "I would get an order for open irrigation." "You got it. Go ahead."

Ah, shit.

I actually did the procedure perfectly. I also had to do a central line dressing change and give medications. The instructor told me I got a 100% (although it's really pass/fail). I hit all the points they wanted me to. Woohoo!

Today was my final. I did some studying with Laura Tuesday night and then yesterday I went over and studied with her and 3 other people. Then I came home and reviewed the power points online. I felt well prepared.

The good news is I got a 91% on my final!
The bad news is I got a 90% for my class participation grade which gives me a final average of 89.45. I hope my teacher rounds up or something because I REALLY WANT THE 'A', DAMMIT! I'm going to be pissed if I get a B.

Either way though, I am done for almost 4 months! And there was a sign-up sheet posted to select your clinical site for next semester so Laura and I signed up for the same one (Palms West, days. Not that close to my house, but I'd rather that than St. Mary's.)

Tonight is the Dolphins Banquet which would be more exciting if I didn't have to work tomorrow. Ah well...

I got an 88.91 on the HESI exam. I attribute most of that to good guessing, because as I was taking the test, I felt like I did not know anything. Well, I'd see the question and think "huh...I used to know that" and would give it my best shot. So, better than straight up guessing, but nowhere near actually knowing the answer.

Today I worked, but only until 12:15 or so. There were 5 of us on, and when I mentioned to the charge nurse that I was tired because it was coming up to finals, she said that after AM care was done I could probably leave. So leave I did. Which is nice because I am sleepy, but bad because that was my only day this week and instead of 12 hours I got 5.5.

Alex and I are going to Islamorada this weekend to celebrate our two year anniversary!

I am so excited!!!!

Also, I got a 90% on my test today! Woohoo!

I got a call today from the HR Director at the hospital. Apparently my paperwork came back a-ok with no 'discrepancies', which is what they call it when a date is off by a couple months for whatever reason, things like that. Nancy was excited that we didn't have to deal with that. The only thing is for some reason my high school records were going to take awhile to come back (come on! I didn't graduate that long ago!) so the background check agency wanted me to fax them my diploma. Fortunately I actually know where it is, and it's not buried in storage. I faxed it today but when I spoke to Nancy she said to bring her a copy when I come in so we don't have to wait.

I have to attend an orientation within 90 days of starting. JCAHO fines the hospital $2,500 for each day an employee works past 90 days without attending. Damn! The next one is April 16-17, which is M-T and I have clinicals those days. She said I could attend the one at the end of May since I will be out of school by then. I do have to go to an ethics class within 30 days. That is also on the 17th and starts at 1pm, I believe. So I have to ask my clinical instructor if I can leave at 12 that day. Hopefully that will be okay, she knows I've been hired for this job and she wrote me a really nice recommendation for it.

So! I have an appointment tomorrow at 9am with Nancy to finalize everything so hopefully I can start next week! 

This morning I went to Cardiac Rehab for 2 hours (thank GOD there is no minimum time requirement this term). It was actually pretty interesting. Basically, after patients have heart surgery, bypass, stents, etc, they are referred to CR for about 3 months. They work out on treadmills and stuff while they are hooked up to heart monitors. After that they can join the maintenance program, which is just like joining a gym. Those old people were in better shape than I am, I'm sure!

ALSO I finally got an email back from Patty asking me to call her to set up an interview! I did and she said that either she or the clinical coordinator will call me back this afternoon with a time. She said that I come highly recommended by both Candace and Debbie so she doesn't think it will be a problem to get me in. She also said that the shift would be 7a-7p so I said I would like to work 2 days a week then. Fingers still crossed, but YAAAAAAAAAY! This is a HUGE weight off my shoulders.

Still slightly stressing that I have a paper due Monday (won't take long to do though) and then a test on the 21st which I should have been studying for but haven't. Ah well.

I had a test this morning. Got a little better in the procrastination, but I still had some stuff to cover this morning. Anyway, I got an 82% but I should get credit added for one more question. The program tells you the questions you missed when you are finished, plus the correct answer.

The question doesn't really matter, but for the answer I put:
- Have patient ambulate as soon as possible
- Encourage coughing and deep breathing

The test program says:

WRONG
Correct answer:
- Have patient ambulate as soon as possible
- Encourage coughing and deep breathing

Hello! I called the proctor over and she told me to write down the question and my answer on my signature sheet before I turned it in. I talked to Laura and the same thing happened to her.

Exciting things in skills:
My brother let me start an IV on him on Sunday! I didn't actually hook him up to the IV line because I had used it in practice so it wasn't sterile. I did have sterile venipuncture needles so I just used those to practice hitting the vein. On the first try I missed. Since he said I wasn't hurting him, I started moving the needle around to try and get the vein. Still couldn't. That was my last needle of that type, so I had to use a butterfly needle next. With that one I hit it dead on and got a nice flash back! I was so excited! I feel good that I was able to do it that time, but now I know that IV starts might not be as easy as I thought.

In clinical on Monday I got to discontinue a Foley Catheter. Not much to it, but I think I did well and my teacher told me I did also. It's always exciting to get to do new skills!

Today I had my first test of this semester. It covered 16 or so chapters and I, like a jackass waited until last weekend to start studying. I had about 13 chapters covered last night when I went to bed at 1am. This morning I didn't even read the last chapters, I just went on to webct and read the notes and the powerpoints for those chapters.

I got an 86%

This does not mean I am going to do it this way again, though! Too stressfull!

Today was Semester II orientation. I found out that I am doing clinicals at the VA Hospital. This is sucky for a couple reasons: no one from my old clinical group is there, and it's all the way in Palm Beach Gardens (at least a half hour away and that's with NOOOOOOO traffic on 95). As for the VA itself, I've heard both good things and bad, so I guess we'll see. Unfortunately I'm not working in this area after graduation, because I've heard good things about being a VA nurse. Although they don't have OB anyway, so I guess that wouldn't work.

I printed out the syllabus for each of my classes and started skimming through them. Not really a good idea. All that does is freak me out looking how much I have to accomplish in the next four months. Chest tubes and ostomy care? Ewwww. I also found out that I will rotate to a detox center for one day, and I will also have a shift where I act as the Charge Nurse(?) and head up the team of student nurses. Everyone gets a turn at this.

I will have 6 exams this semester before my MedSurg HESI and my final exam. A couple papers due for clinicals (same as last term, IPR, CHAT, DHAT) except we are expected to be more thorough this time.

Today I need to:
Take down the Christmas tree so it can go out with the trash in the morning

Tomorrow I need to:
Buy a couple books and sell my books from last term
Clean out my notebooks and/or buy new ones for this semester

This weekend I need to:
Assemble my clinical supplies
Wash and iron my uniforms
Start reading
(maybe)Do a VA runthrough so I have some idea how to find the lobby

I procrastinate so much I procrastinated writing this entry.

The semester is almost over. I am very stressed, although not as bad as I was this time last week.

Last Thursday I got a 72 on my Pharm test, bringing my test average to 79. I have to have a 75% to pass. I emailed my teacher asking for help or advice and she said she would review my test and get back to me. Well, now it's WEDNESDAY and my next test is TOMORROW so when exactly was she planning on getting back to me? I freaked out for about an hour after that test. I cannot fail that class. It will set me back an entire semester. Come to find out though, I am the only sucker in the class not using the book for the online test.

I had a shitload of stuff to get checked off on in skills lab, but I got all of that done on Saturday except catheters, which I did on Monday. So I am all done with skills lab. That was a HUGE weight off of my shoulders.

I also had to meet with my mentor to get them to sign off on some form we have to complete part of every semester. Basically we have to give them our unofficial transcript and they make sure we are where we need to be credit-wise. I did that yesterday after my clinical final evaluation (went fine, done with that class too!) and she said she wasn't sure that my art history class counts for my humanities credit. Oh, it better. I didn't sit through that suck ass class for nothing.

So now all I have to stress over is my finals next week. And now I think I have to end this here, because the screen looks a bit swirly and I'm afraid that means I have a migraine coming on.

Today I have a Pharm test which I have to study for when I get home. I have a case study due tomorrow.

Next Thursday I have another Pharm test.

The Thursday after that is my Pharm final, PLUS my HESI exam.

The Tuesday before my Pharm final is my Nursing Lecture final.

And somewhere in there I have to get checked off on my skills like catheter insertion, NG tubes, bandaging a head wound (which my sorry teacher hasn't even TAUGHT US YET).

On the bright side I have two weeks off from school after that (and one of those I think I will take off of work as well). Also, the day after my final is probably the Dolphins Christmas Party. And the day after that, me and my clinical classmates are going out together to drink away this semester. If I make it that far.