I’ve done a lot of reading this past month as a means of coping with the stress of nursing school (and yes, probably also adding to my stress). In fact, I’ve finished 11 books (thanks audiobooks and your speed up function!). I just haven’t written any reviews on here because that takes more time, and I feel guilty enough reading during the semester (and also watching Orphan Black and Game of Thrones). I justified reading because at the beginning of the semester for my psych clinical, we had to create this ‘self-care plan’ where we mapped out what we were going to do over the semester to make sure that we were focusing on our own health and I put down that I would read a chapter a day or watch an episode of TV a day. So yay for the rationalization defense mechanism!
Anycat. I’m currently sitting on the floor of my room, staring at piles of notecards, charts, and worksheets trying to prepare for my pharmacology ATI exam tomorrow (and also my final that is this upcoming Monday). I’ve been preparing for about a week now, but I feel like I don’t know anything. And that is not uncommon. I have a group text with my four really close nursing friends and we are all freaking out about this exam tomorrow. It’s extra stressful because just last semester, this exam was extra credit and now it is worth 15% of our grade and our professors have not really had the opportunity to incorporate it into our material. Bless my pharmacology professor for at least trying.
Nursing school is nothing like my previous degree. With that degree, I could pick and choose what I took and when, making sure to balance my hard courses with more enjoyable ones. But with nursing school, the program decides what we take and when. The only freedom in choosing that we have is that we get to choose which hospital we go to for clinical and on what day (based on a predetermined schedule). So this semester, I am taking psych mental health theory alongside a clinical, maternal newborn (OB) theory alongside a clinical, research/evidence-based practice, and pharmacology.
The past three or so weeks have been crazy assignment wise. We just kept chanting, “I just need to survive this week,” even though we knew our upcoming week was going to be just as stressful. Here is a glimpse of what I had going on:
- April 11 – 8-page genogram paper due, mental status exam and mental health nursing care plan due, self-care plan evaluation due
- April 12 – psych mental health ATI exam, presentation in research
- April 15 – draft of a 15-page research paper due, calculation quiz in pharmacology
- April 19 – maternal newborn ATI exam
- April 22 – quiz due in research, peer review of 15-page paper due
- April 26 – case study in maternal newborn
- April 29 – final 15-page research paper due, pharmacology ATI exam
- May 2 – pharmacology final exam (100 questions, cumulative)
- May 3 – maternal newborn final (80 questions, cumulative)
- May 4 – psych mental health exam 3 (50 questions, thankfully not cumulative)
I know that to some, that may not seem like a lot, but trust me, it is. And I don’t mean to come here to complain (I do that enough to my friends and family – letting out your feelings is healthy!), but just to explain why I haven’t posted since my last review (I know I said that I was going to be better at posting because I had found my rhythm, but clearly I underestimated what these last weeks would look like).
Anywho. If anyone wants to send adorable monkey gifs this way, I’d appreciate it. I will be rocking the shit out of my Time Turner necklace in the hopes that it helps me channel my inner Hermione Granger. Good luck to everyone that has finals coming up! We are so close to being done.
NerdyNurseDaria 