You know you’re a Brand New nursing student when….

There’s a little theme happening in this blog… excitement! Excitedly, excited, “SWEET!” and multiple exclamation marks are descriptive of my experience so far. Clinicals went really well this week, mainly because we got to put into practice some of the skills we’ve been learning in Health Assessment. I got to do part of a musculoskeletal assessment, and my patient was improving- bonus!!! The nurse that I followed around like a little bird all morning, let me ask him lots of questions- (bonus again!) and was happy to teach me random nurse-y things!

We’re one month in and almost half way through our first semester! I can’t believe how fast it’s going, and how much we’ve learned! There’s a lot of information, but the best part is, you get to put a lot of it into practice immediately. And by immediately I mean: lecture-> quiz-> skills lab-> test! I figure it’s good that it happens so fast- there’s no time for anything to leave your brain. You just have to make sure it got in there in the first place. So daydreaming during class? BAD idea! Even if it’s one of those 7 second daydreams. That’s something I’m definitely working on!

So… for fun I thought I’d compare this next semester or my last semester:

You know you’re a Brand New nursing student when….

1. Your brand new stethoscope (in your most favorite color!) arrives in the mail- and you are excited like a kid at Christmas!

2. Your friend from clinical gets to give her patient a bed bath, and you say something like, “Are you stinkin’ serious!!? She got to do a full bed bath!? I’m soooooo jealous!!”

3. The tech at the hospital starts to make a bed and you excitedly ask her to help- …there you are tucking and folding and you’re thinking  “SWEET!!”

4. You had to buy reinforcement labels  to put on all those notes for P&A- and you had no idea they were still even sold, because you haven’t seen them since 7th grade!

5. You realize, iPoc and iPod are only one letter apart, but oh my, how they differ my friend…

6. Every time you meet a new person, you have to fight the urge to ask them if you can take their blood pressure. (I’m taking a quick Fourth of July weekend, and I’m resisting the urge to pack my stethoscope and BP cuff… though.. the airport might be a great place to practice if I get delayed! hmmmm…

Have a great weekend!