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Hello all! As you may not know I am sitting here writing this blog a couple of hours before my last nursing exam. I have waited a long time for this day and I am so happy I had made it this far. I can’t believe these past two years have gone by. I remember first arriving to nursing school and learning how to memorize on my first day “ambulating” or “auscultation.” Things have definitely gotten better.
Well as our nursing year winds down me and my fellow classmates have been getting ready for THE big test, our NCLEX. Thankfully there are practice test on campus that allow us to practice NCLEX style questions. I also took a 180 computer exam to see how prepared I am for the NCLEX and any weakness I need to work on. I’m feeling pretty confident that if I keep studying and taking practice test often than I may pass the test.
I hope all you reading this blog who are considering this life changing decision are happy with your choice. In my opinion UNE has an excellent nursing faculty that truly care how well their students do and they put in the effort to get to know their students. Unlike most colleges UNE nursing program is an actual two year program (as of now), what that means is you can expect to transition into the nursing field quite fast. For me these past two years have been quite busy, I can recall one of my classmates stating she has never worked as hard for something in her life, which I can totally agree with. I believe everyone in my nursing class has worked their hardest, and this makes the end of the year feel very rewarding.
Well I better get ready. I’m still baffled that this is my last exam, but don’t get me wrong I am completely ready for the end.
Well it’s the start of a new nursing rotation, and the weeks are counting down. I am very excited about starting pediatric nursing. The rest of my nursing class is pretty excited too. However, that doesn’t stop me from taking my studies seriously and striving to do my best. There is still four weeks left.
My nursing class - we've been together through maternity, mental health and now pediatrics
Anyway with the end of the year is still a ways away so there’s still work to be done. Like getting ready to take the NCLEX, planning for the pinning ceremony and signing up for classes next year. I will be back at UNE next year for my Bachelors degree in Nursing. So you can expect to see me around this campus still. I signed up for classes this week already and I also signed up for my summer classes. Which means in all I’ll be able to graduate with my Bachelors in a year and a half. Yeah!
Hey Everyone! Well it has been a busy couple of weeks. First off I just wanted to say how needed that spring break was. I definitely rested, recouped and recharged my batteries. I didn’t do too much, basically caught up on nursing papers and projects I would have to do when I got back. If there is any advice I have to give to any incoming nursing students is to always stay ahead. As my sister would say (a natural athlete) always be in athletic stance.
Anyway now I am back at school and back to work. Right now I am finishing my Mental Health Nursing. I have really enjoyed this class so far and my group is having a great a time. Mental health nursing isn’t just learning about mental disorders or diseases. It is actually more than that. I would have to say it is more about developing therapeutic communication skills and becoming more empathetic to our patients. And these skills are central to being a nurse. Next week is our last quiz and then we’ll have a final on March 31st and then it’s onward to Pediatrics!
I really can’t wait for graduation. We just had a meeting about commencement ceremony and what to expect. Needless to say I am so excited! I can’t believe how close graduation is (FYI May 10th). However, my education will not stop there. As some of you might not already know I am pretty determined about my education in nursing. I will be taking some summer courses this year to earn some credits for my Bachelors Degree in nursing. Not only can I not wait for graduation, but I’m also excited to start summer school (Does that sound weird?).
Well I’ll be sure to update you all on how my Mental Health final went and starting Pediatric nursing. Wish me luck!
Amanda
Hello everyone! Well I am happy to say I just completed my maternity rotation for this semester, and now it is onward to mental health. Maternity nursing was a lot of fun. Of course there was the mandatory paperwork, but the clinicals and lectures were unlike my med. surg. classes before.
I had clinical at Maine Medical Center on the Labor and Delivery and Postpartum Unit. It was so much fun to be working with the nurses at Maine Med. and I admit caring for the babies. You should all know I have no previous experience with babies so I was a little apprehensive about giving care to an infant. I was so afraid I would hurt them. However that all changed after maternity. I remember going to my clinical instructor so proud about what I just accomplished- I held a baby. Cheesy I know, but that was a big step for me. I also saw my first c-section and that was a great learning experience to see how Labor and Delivery staff work as a team to prepare for the birth of new baby. All in all I had great experiences in maternity clinicals.
Another aspect of maternity nursing that was different is we had to do a presentation in front of our class about a case study. Our case study was an infant of a diabetic mother so we had to present all the information about the labs, medications and the nursing care of an infant of a diabetic mother. It went pretty well I must say.
preparing to present
Well I just took my maternity final and now I am officially done with maternity nursing. Now I will begin mental health nursing. That will be interesting, and I’ll be sure to keep you informed of where I’ll be going for clinical and what its like.
There are times when things go so horribly wrong that you can’t help but laugh at what an unpredictable circumstance has occurred. Such a thing has happened on my dormitory floor. It started innocent enough with what looked like a poor attempt to dispose of some soup in the water fountain. Granted the bathroom and kitchen are just feet away the water fountain seemed to have an applicable drainage (not).
Well soon we were all awoken in the middle of the night to the sound of “drip. drip. drip. drip? What the? It appeared the water fountain had backed up and regurgitated a sink full of water onto the floor. Security to the rescue!
Since there was nothing to do that night I stayed with the nice security guard as he attempted to unclog the drain. I learned about their profession and what they do for all us UNE students. The security guard here at WCC don’t just unlock and lock doors for trapped students they actually do a whole lot.
The security officer I interviewed said their main goal on campus is safety and monitoring. They accomplish these goals 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. Safety on our school campus is their first priority. They’ll go as far as making sure a student is safely escorted from their car or building back to their room. And sometimes their priority for student safety goes beyond. For example, this security guard I interviewed told me that most of the time the ire alarm goes off is usually a false alarm, like accidental burnt popcorn or a laundry hamper hitting the switch. But the security officers here take each alarm seriously, because from his experience you never know for certain if that alarm is false or not.
I believe it is a top priority for all you seniors out there looking at schools to consider security on campus. Personally for me I always feel safe at UNE. I know if I need help who to call and they will reliably be there for you. UNE offers 24/7 security and monitoring on campus along with security escorts when needed. So don’t overlook security when comparing schools, because it is just as important as the food and classes.
Hey everyone. Well it’s the start of the second semester and all us UNE students are all back and rested to start a new semester. Well right off the back my first day was full of excitement. I started with my nursing class where we were given a quick introduction to what we will be doing this semester in nursing. We’ll be doing 5 week quick courses in Maternity, pediatrics, and mental health. I will be starting with Maternity followed by mental health and lastly pediatrics. I just had my first maternity class and it is so different to my medical-surgical classes in nursing. For starters my maternity group is about 10 people so are education is highly individualized. I will be starting clinical next week and will spend one day with a midwife and Saturday I will be attending a Lamaze class. That’s right a Lamaze class. I never really pictured myself going to one, but if this will help me to better understand what my patients are going through and help make my nursing lectures more concrete than I am all for it! It looks like I will be pretty busy. There is a saying here about nursing students, we have no life, because we eat, breath, and sleep nursing. I believe it is universal to all nursing students.
My other class I am taking concurrently with nursing is pharmacology. I have just been to one class and I already know this is going to be very interesting. Personally for me I am very interested in pharmaceuticals and how they interact in our body and the whole pathology these drugs change in people. A weird obsession I know, but everyone needs a hobby right?
Another class I am taking for nursing is Dimensions of nursing. Dimensions seem like a really helpful class because it is sort of meant to help teach us how to take the NCLEX (the test all graduating nursing students take to be a registered nurse “rn?). We will be doing practice tests and stumper questions weekly, but we will also be able to learn about nursing management and how to enter the workforce as a new nurse. Which is relieving. Next week we will be having a guest speaker come in teaching us how to prepare our résumés and how to go into a nursing interview. Sounds helpful right?
Well that’s what my life is so far right now. It’s a lot of work, but now I am so much closer to graduation. I’ll leave you all with some pics of what I did over my winter vacation. Hint: It was someplace warm, sunny and far away from nursing.
the end
Like a bird to a feather, words to a book, or a marshmallow to hot chocolate. Finals and stress just seem to go together. Finals week is sort of a mixed blessing. For one everyone is excited about their Winter Break vacation, but before vacation we must all work our tails off for finals. If you don’t know what finals are let me explain. Finals are usually a final project, test, or paper an instructor assigns that is meant to show our understanding of the class.
For me personally I had a group presentation to do in Health and Law class concerning the right to procreate and how it has been an issue in the legal system. In my Human Development class I will be doing another presentation on death and dying and then as a class we are meant to write a paper on what important human development issues we have learned. And finally in my Nursing class we will be having a whopper of a test on everything we have been taught in 100 questions. That means I’ll be doing some serious reviews.
However, at UNE there are many ways we can combat this stress. Stress busters week is upon us and stress reducing activities are offered to students to help them unwind, relax and have a fun study break.
sign ups!
Activities offered lately have been spa facials, massages, foot reflexology, osteopathic manipulative medicine (from the OMT students at UNE), and shiatsu messages. There are many other stress busting activities going on too. Like study classes complete with pizza and snacks and snack breaks provided in the dorms. All these are provided to get the students relaxed and not so tense about the finals.
Well gotta go and study some more.
I must say there is a lot and I mean A LOT of snow here at WCC. Now we may not have perfect snow covered hills perfect for sledding, but there are other ways to have your fun.
For example, No one can stop you from making a snowman. And if you like, since it is finals week, you can call him your study buddy.
Or you could try to make an ice rink. All you need is patience, water and a below freezing climate.
But who says you have to stay at WCC to have fun in the snow? If you’re a skier than you probably know about Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley and Sunday River in Bethel, because these are some pretty popular ski resorts. However I came to find out there are many ski areas in Maine. You can check them all out here.
However, is skiing is not your thing than why not try some snow tubing. Sure it’s not graceful as skiing or snowboarding, but it is fun (and cheaper)! Check out some of these areas that offer snow tubing.
Hi everyone! Well I’ve just finished my first week at preceptor and I have learned so much! I really enjoy working at the hospital in the ambulatory surgery unit. Some of the things I have been doing at preceptor is helping with the preoperative assessment and procedures. Like taking the patient’s baseline vital signs (heart rate, o2 sat., blood pressure, respirations, etc) assessing their preoperative procedure compliance (did you complete your bowel prep?), and filling in the paperwork (and there is a lot of papers). After the patient’s procedure is done then they are wheeled back to recovery where I immediately assess their vital signs and make sure everything is all right. We also make sure they get something to eat, because they haven’t eaten anything since last night!
The nurses at the ASU are wicked nice too. They have been really helpful and are even looking for things to teach me. One day I even spent over in the ASU teaching room, where I learned about all the preoperative procedures the patient must comply with before the surgery. I specifically learned a lot about the medical abbreviations that are so common in the surgical charts. Like: BTL (bilateral tubule ligation) BX (biopsy) BKA (below knee amputation) TTP (thrombocytopenia). Another exciting thing about doing preceptor in the ASU is that I have the chance to go in the operating room some time soon and watch an actual operation. I think that will be neat to see.
So far I have been going to preceptor Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I’m taking 2 night classes during the week so after preceptor on Tuesdays I drive to Portland to got to my health & law class and stay to take my human development class the following Wednesday. Yeah my schedule is pretty busy, but it is nice to be able to look forward to the weekends.
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