“Well, I’m walkin’ down the line/ My feet are feelin’ fine…”

It’s been a busy few weeks at the JHUSON …  I finally feel officially initiated into nursing school…I have taken one exam in each lecture class.  Yep, it’s official, the school year has begun!  Until now we’ve had small assignments due in different classes and we were tested on skills in one lab class, but you know it’s always a different feeling once you get those first exams out of the way.  Now, it’s on to catching up on the work I didn’t have time to do while I was studying!

But, enough about school.  The end of September was great, personally, since it ended with my roommates throwing me a surprise birthday party.  My actual birthday was this past Friday and we didn’t have clinical, which meant no school, so I….took a nap in the middle of the day!  It was great.  This past weekend was the Fells Point Festival and the weather was just super!  The sun was out, there was a cool breeze and people flocked to Fells Point to enjoy the crafts, food, music and general atmosphere.  Like I said earlier, I was born in Baltimore, but I didn’t realize how many festivals go on in this city!  This coming weekend is a Chocolate Festival at Lexington Market.  There was a Book Festival a few weeks ago, too.  And if I remember correctly from last year (OK, maybe I did realize there were a lot of festivals) there should be a Lantern Festival coming up soon, too!  Amazing.

Coming up this Friday we have our second seven-hour clinical shift.  Two weeks ago we had our first shift which was great.  Everyone in my clinical group was assigned a patient and we took the vitals of our patients at the designated times and recorded them in the computer.  We witnessed how busy the mornings are (nursing shift changes, helping patients with morning care, visiting all patients and administering medications, etc).  I think I may have sat down about four times that day.  Total.  In the beginning of school we all talked about what shoes we bought for clinical days because we all wanted the most comfortable pair.  Lesson I learned: it doesn’t matter how comfortable your shoes are, when you are on your feet for seven hours, your feet will hurt no matter what!  Nevertheless, it was a “great” hurt and I really felt like I was starting to put what I’m learning in the classroom actually into practice.  I left clinical and said good-bye to my patient hoping that I don’t see him this week (because that would mean he stayed there for two weeks which is two weeks too long!) and I look forward to sharing with you all what this Friday brings.