End of Week 2!

So, week 2 has come to a close today. I have a test next Wednesday in Anatomy and Physiology, but the class itself is turning out to not be the nightmare everyone says it is. I don't know if I have an easier professor or if it just comes naturally to me, but it really is turning out to be my easiest class of them all. Chemistry is my second easiest. This is hilarious considering my counselor was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle chemistry and A&P together, since they're such "tough classes". I also got some awesome news that I'll pass on here. The first school I went to was a large university in Minnesota. The likelihood of me getting into nursing school there was slim to none. They were saying you needed a 3.8 or 3.9 G.P.A. just to get onto the waiting lists. It was beyond disgusting. Here? 3.0. I know, my heart just about leaped with joy. I will certainly still be trying to get as high a G.P.A. as I can, but knowing that I don't have to cry over the 1 point that I missed on my lab report for chemistry makes me want to cry. (I'm sure there are people out there who know what I mean.)

I can seriously see myself opening up my acceptance letter in just a few short months...man I need to keep grounded! :P

Keep studying and work tough!

~THE Future Nurse Chelsey

School has begun!

I just finished my first week of school and am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief. I had heard so much online from other sources about Anatomy and Physiology being the nightmare course of nursing, so I was understandably very nervous to be going into it while simultaneously taking a second lab science, chemistry. I'll just let you know how they went from the top:

Monday:

I started out with Algebra 2. I'm not that great with math, so this will certainly prove to be a rather challenging course for me, but my professor is wonderful! He fully explains things and makes them super easy to understand. I don't really foresee any issues arising from this class, hopefully! The only thing that will take some getting used to is the fact that the class meets once a week for 3 hours and 45 minutes! ugh! It's enough to drive ANYONE insane!

From there I went to the lecture portion of my Chemistry class. I'm taking basic inorganic chemistry. I never took it in high school, opting instead to take advanced biology. I kind of wish I did take it in high school, but my professor I have for this course is awesome. He's a no nonsense kind of guy and doesn't believe in memorizing stupid things, like the periodic table and metric conversion tables. All those things will be provided for tests and quizzes. It's going to be a bit of a challenge, but I really feel confidant about this class. As long as I keep up and don't slack off I should be fine.

Wednesday:

I started out the day bright and early with Anatomy and Physiology 1. This class is a HEAVY memorization class. if you aren't so great with that, then I would highly suggest you either look into something else or get your study skills engraved in gold for this. For me personally, I've never really had issues with memorization, especially when it's something I enjoy. This class, for me, is something that I would love to learn anyways. The human body just fascinates me (which is why I decided to take Biology in the first place). In our first class, I was the only student to get our quiz 100% correct on material we just went over. I'm taking that as an excellent sign, since almost everyone in there (about 20 students) are hoping to get into nursing, or are in nursing now.

After lecture, I went to the lab part of my chemistry class. It was AWFUL! It wasn't hard or anything, just time consuming as hell! We are in there for 2 hours and 45 minutes and we needed almost ALL of the time! We were doing a lab on density and we had to weigh 9 blocks, each made out of a different material, then measure their length, witdth, and depth to get their volume. Then we had to weigh 5 metal cylinders made out of different materials and weigh a container of a metal block and a small medium and large block. Then take the cylinders and use displacement to find the volume. Not so difficult, except we had to do EVERY measurement 3 times with 3 different instruments. Needless to say, I had awful nightmares about a giant box of rulers and a container of blocks, attempting to measure them all before time ran out! lol! All in all, though, it'll be a fairly easy lab class. Our professor is pretty lax about lab reports and how they're written, which is good.

I also have a psychology class online, but it'll be a breeze, or so I feel. So far all I've done is take a few quizzes on the first chapter and am working on the application question, which is super easy. I suppose this may get tougher, but we'll see what happens as the semester progresses.

All in all I'm very happy with how this semester is going. I left my final class on Wednesday breathing a sigh of relief! Everything is as it should be!

~THE Future Nurse Chelsey!

The Nerd in Me!

So...looking for motivation to get through this rough semester. Nursing itself will be a huge motivation, but it will be a year before I would start nursing school and 3 years before I can take the NCLEX and actually become an RN. SO, I decided a tattoo commemorating my soon to come acceptance letter (I know, I'm really cocky) is completely called for. It's going on my chest and will be a constant reminder about how nerdy my DH has truly made me...

My Beautiful Future Tattoo

Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that Captain Picard would be very proud of my accomplishments. They need nurses on Starfleet, right?

Anyone else do anything special to commemorate their acceptance into nursing school?


~THE Future Nurse Chelsey

Class Schedule!

I was actually able to get into the classes I needed and wanted! I'm so excited right now! I'm only taking 4 classes, but they're going to be a fairly large workload. They add up to 15 credit hours, which is pretty good. I'll be taking psychology, Algebra 2, Elementary chemistry, and Anatomy and Physiology 1. I tried to find my professors online, but could only find 3/4. The ones I did find, though, all got excellent comments and ratings. I'm not working a job outside the home, but I am dealing with housework and kids, so this could be an interesting semester. This will be the one that determines if I'm going to nursing school next year or not. We'll just have to see...Has anyone else taken two sciences together? How'd it pan out for you?

~THE Future Nurse Chelsey

Thank You Lord For Midwives!

I thought maybe, while I waited to see what happens with school, I could explain a little about where I would like to go with nursing and my own personal experience with why. Like I've mentioned, I have 2 beautiful kids. My DD is 2 1/2, will be 3 in October and my DS is about 8 months. My DD was born at home unassisted, meaning the only people there were me, my husband, and my DD. My DS was also born at home, but we had a midwife present the second time around. I've never had a hospital birth, so I don't really have personal experience to draw from, but the home birth was the greatest experience. Once the baby was born, it was so nice to just relax and actually sleep in my own bed. Both of my kids were born quick, my DD coming in 4 1/2 hours and my DS coming in something crazy like 1 1/2. I don't think I would've made it to the hospital anyways, therefore I would certainly prefer a home birth over a car birth.

Now, the reason I decided on the home birth was simple. It's a natural process. My body knows how to digest food to give me energy and nutrients. My body knows how to expel wastes it doesn't need. My body knows how to rid itself of bod food or excess food. If my body can by smart enough to make me shiver to generate energy to warm up, why couldn't it be smart enough to continue our generation without complications? I truly believe that a lot of the complications come up because of the many unnecessary factors we throw its way. Do we really need to test for genetic problems before birth? Would you really be heartless enough to say, "I can't take care of a down syndrome child, let's abort."? If you can, then you shouldn't be having kids to start with. And how about all the pain meds and pitocin, and whatever else they feel is "necessary" to effectively give birth. Once in a while something really truly does go wrong. When it does, I'm very happy we have doctors who can step in and help out, but until that something goes wrong, they need to step back and let our bodies handle things.

If you look in the background there, you can see our midwife. I unfortunately didn't get an actual picture of her. This was the day my DS was born. Those of you who had kids. After you went through the whole ordeal of birth, wouldn't it be awesome to just climb into your bed with your new baby and get to know him/her in the quiet of your own home? It really is a safe and wonderful route for those with healthy normal pregnancies. Once my kids get to be a little older, I would love to become a midwife and give the same care I received and empower women to take over their care and make it the experience they truly want. Yes child birth is painful, but studies have shown that an epidural not only prolongs labor, but gives you a much higher chance of a cesarean section. Is that really worth that risk? I don't believe it is.

How does the old saying go? If it's not broke, don't fix it!

~THE Future Nurse Chelsey

Overworked nurses?

I read somewhere the other day that there are hospitals requiring mandatory overtime. Most shifts for nurses are 12 hours already. I understand that there is a shortage of nurses right now, but doesn't that become dangerous? You can push yourself to work for quite awhile, but there comes a point where, even though you can continue to walk and talk, you WILL start to make mistakes. That's just a fact of life. Nurses may not be in the operating room or anything like that, but there are things that they could do that could harm the patient or even kill them. Mixing up medications, giving the wrong dose, even giving something to a patient that is allergic to it. When we are given a responsibility that could mean life or death, that should put our work load in our own hands. If after completing my 12 hour shift I find that I'm way too tired to keep going, does it really make sense to, instead of giving me an option to stay, to just make it mandatory? Any thoughts on this?

~THE Future Nurse Chelsey

Hey! It's me! :P

This is totally what I hope to be doing someday! :)

~THE Future Nurse Chelsey

Ugh!

So, I went to my college's orientation today. I was told it would be from 9 am to 12pm. I had to get a last second babysitter for the kids. The person I found had to leave at about 12:30, so I would have to head back pretty soon after it was over. When I go there, it was so backed up and busy that we ended up starting a half an hour late. When it came time to sign up for classes I had to literally run. Unfortunately I can't sign up for classes online, so I'll have to go back on monday to sign up. By that time, almost all of the classes I need at the times I need will be full. I may have to wait another semester to go back. Disappointing, but not going to stop me!

~THE Future Nurse Moudry