It’s That Time of Year Again!

Well. It’s been…forever.

Everyone warned me about third semester of nursing school being The Worst™ but I didn’t believe them. Until I was actually in third semester. Let’s just say busy is an understatement. But I did manage to read a lot because let’s face it – reading was a way to escape from the world of adult and pediatric nursing. And that’s all I’m gonna say about those couple of months of my life.

This was after our last day of clinical at the VA Hospital – it was a great experience and I was truly privileged to get to serve the veterans that I did

I went up north for the holidays and spent a wonderful week with my family, including getting to see my mom’s face when she finally made it to the Rockefeller Center tree at night for the first time in her life.

Oh, and I also chopped off over a foot of my hair to donate. So that was a thing. Lol.

Anyway, I start my LAST (!) semester of nursing school this Monday, and while I’m hoping to be more on top of my sh*t, I can’t promise anything. I am *hoping* to be more consistent with blogging on here because I really did find myself missing it last semester. It was just too much to try to balance everything else.

Over the next couple of days, expect a lot of reading wrap-ups to be coming your way as I catch up with what isn’t on this blog.

As for my 2016 reading goals, let’s just say they did not go well.

-Read at least 1/2 of the books I already own: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (learned my lesson here not to make this a goal)

-Read at least 1/2 of the graphic novels I already own: read previous goal’s reaction

-Read all of the books I’ve received in OwlCrate: I was doing so well at the beginning of the year and then just kinda stopped reading them, despite being really freaking interested in all of them but like 1

-Do the 2016 TBR Jar challenge: CHECK! Oh my gosh, I actually completed one!

-Use the PopSugar Challenge when I’m in a reading slump: Mostly check

-Read at least 75 books: CHECK! I actually read 113 books

-Utilize the “What I Read” journal from OwlCrate: Again, I was doing so well during the first half of the year and then just kinda stopped

-Finish ASOIAF: Shame shame shame *rings bell*

-Write a review for each book I read: CHECK!

So yeah, those didn’t go over very well.

As for 2017, here are my goals:

-Finish ASOIAF (I’m actually a fourth of the way done with A Storm of Swords and am actively making this a priority)

-Read all of my OwlCrate books

-Read more diversely (I will be participating in #DiversityBingo2017 but I am also aiming to read more than 36 diverse books)

-Read all of my Kindle First books

-Read 1 classic a month

Here’s hoping these goals go better than last year’s. I don’t know about y’all, but 2016 was kind of a dumpster fire of a year (though there were good things that happened for sure) and I’m so ready for 2017, especially since I’m graduating in May and starting my career as a nurse! I’m aiming at going into pediatric oncology nursing, but I am also looking at starting off with pediatric med-surg (the regular floors) and working my way to oncology. Prayers and good thoughts are appreciated as I start applying for jobs.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and a very happy new year!

Reading Wrap-Up: Nursing Books

There were points in the semester where I needed some encouragement, so I picked up two books that I thought would cheer me up and make me feel not so alone. And for the most part, those two books did just that, though one was a little bit more successful than the other.

The first book I picked up was Becoming Nursey: From Code Blues to Code Browns, How to Care for Your Patients and Yourself by Kati Kleber, BSN RN. I’m really glad that I read this book as it pertains to so much of my life as a nursing student. A lot of what Kati covers in the book is what I have to look forward to in my future. There were parts that I didn’t exactly agree with (such as when to get all of your charting done – from what I have seen during my clinicals, it is not always possible to get your charting done right then and there), but overall, I thought she gave some really great life-work balance advice. There were also parts where she came off a little over-confident in herself. I don’t really know how to explain it, but there were parts where I almost disliked her, to be honest. Also, there were quite a few typos (which will be really embarrassing if there are any in this review) that really distracted me at times. Overall, though, I thought it was a solid book giving just a glimpse into the wonderful, crazy, amazing world of nursing and I gave it 4 stars.

The second book I picked up was First Year Nurse: Wisdom, Warnings, and What I Wish I’d Known My First 100 Days On The Job edited by Barbara Arnoldussen, RN, MBA. Despite the fact that this was more geared towards already/almost practicing nurses, I felt like it soothed my nerves a little bit better than Becoming Nursey. I picked it up at the tail end of the semester when I was at probably my lowest point of doubting everything I’ve learned so far and my competence as a nurse, so reading these quotes helped me remember that I am capable of being a fantastic nurse and that I am not alone in feeling overwhelmed. It also helped me remember why I wanted to go into this profession to begin with. I look forward to reading this in the future because I know I will need the encouragement of these nurses again. I ended up giving it 4.5 stars.

Reading Wrap-Ups and An Update on Nursing School

Since it’s been forever and a day since my last review, I decided to do things a little differently to cover the 27 books that I’ve read and not yet posted a review on here. I grouped them based on the types of book they are (save for Pride and Prejudice and The Little Prince, which will both be getting their own reviews) and will be writing general statements on each in the following couple of days. I’m actually drafting them out in advance so that all I have to do is publish them. Also, be on the lookout for a monthly recommendation post on June 1st – this month we’re going around the world!

So I finished my semester on May 4th and yes, I technically should have posted on here once I was done stressing/freaking out, but honestly, I needed a break from everything. I traveled up to New Jersey/New York for two weeks to visit my sister and my grandparents (and celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday, my grandfather’s 86th birthday, and their 60th anniversary – it was a very festive time of year!). I’ve mainly been coloring and catching up on TV shows that I fell behind on during the semester, as well as reading, of course.

I ended my semester on a really high note and made excellent grades, even making it to the Dean’s List. Luckily, my finals went from the hardest being first to the easiest being last, making it possible to not study for my psych final until the day before (if you can, try to never do that!!!). I have officially completed my first year of nursing school now, and only have two more semesters to go before I am eligible to sit for the NCLEX exam and earn my license. And while I plan on enjoying my summer, I also have it mapped out where I will be reading my ATI texts for my Adult I and II and pediatrics classes throughout the summer so that I have some semblance of an idea of what I am in for before my 3rd semester starts. I am also *hopefully* going to have a job as a patient care associate at one of the local hospitals so that I can continue to gain experience and hone my skills over the summer. I’m just waiting to hear back from a couple of jobs that I applied to.

Ooooo, look, a selfie after a clinical day! I really do love being a student nurse! I honestly believe the going to nursing school is one of (if not the) best decisions of my life.

I went on a crazy buy spree of books during my vacation, so I can basically kiss my goal of reading half of the books I own by the end of the year goodbye. Oh well, it was worth it. I am finally almost caught up with my OwlCrate books (I’m reading the April one now and still have the May one, but I just got that one, so I still have time), and I’m actually ahead on my GoodReads challenge (I probably just jinxed myself, but whatever). I’ve been keeping up with the TBR jar and have also used the PopSugar Challenge as well as Read Around the Year in 52 Books. I’m probably cheating by having books crossover between all three, but YOLO, I do what I want.

So anywho, that’s just a quick check-in on what’s going on and what to look forward to. I hope everyone is doing well and if you are lucky to have a summer vacation, that it is going well!

Nursing School Is Hard, Y’all

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.