Taken' a break!

Done. This summer from hell is finally DONE!! I made a B in OB and an A in Peds, but since they average, it's going to be a B. Good enough. An A in clinicals still keeps my GPA respectable. It's been study, study, study and then stress, stress, stress. I'll have to go to another day in clincals tomorrow, but just to sign my evaluation. We got our clinical and class assignments for next semester, and with one exception, I like everyone in our group. I'm not looking forward to Psych. Weird (and I completely accept that they are disturbed and ill) people make me uncomfortable, but if I can fake it at the nursing home, I can handle this. Since I have no intention of ever doing psych nursing, it's just a blip. I can finally take a deep breath and enjoy my vacation.

Racing for the finish line

Summer school is almost over. I take my last regular test in OB today. Had my last regular test in Peds yesterday. I've done all my papers and only have an oral report left for clinicals. I'll end up with a B in theory and an A in clinicals. I'm happy with that. Finals next week, and then free for three weeks. I'm leaving after my last final for a week in Arkansas at the lake house with my family. Then to Nashville to see my son. Then to Oklahoma where I'll pick my husband up at the airport and we'll spend a couple of days with the in-laws and have our dental work done (my FIL is our dentist). Then to Texas to spend a couple of days with our best friends and their kids. Then home with a stop off in Tunica (gambling)/Memphis. That will give me a week to do nothing but lay around the house and do nothing before fall semester. At that point, it will be 16 weeks until my RN program is OVER!!! I will still have 30 hours of nursing theory to do before my "real" graduation, but since we get all of the state mandated class and clinical time up front, I can sit for the NCLEX and be working as a nurse that last year. I can also do the theory classes online, but I don't know if I will since I tend to put things off until the last minute, and really need to be in a classroom to discipline myself. We're going to lose a few people. OB was a hard ass bitch and you have to pass both classes in order to go on. You can't just average a good grade in Peds into the OB part to get the 75% required to go on to Advanced Med/Surg. This is in addition to the 2 people already gone. They can retake these classes once, so all is not lost for them, but thank God that isn't me. I don't know what I would do if I had to retake something. I'm starting to actually let myself get a little bit excited.

It's REALLY early....

So what am I doing up at 4:19 in the morning? Do you mean what was I doing up at 3:00 in the morning? The paper said there would be fireworks in a local park last night. I knew I had a few things left to do for the care plan (that is worth 25% of my clinical grade), but decided to see fireworks anyway and get up early and finish up (but not THIS early). It was a scam and the fireworks are actually tonight, but we met some friends and ate dinner and went to find out fireworks weren't there. That means I didn't get through eating until about 9:00. I know better than that. I have reflux really badly, and I know not to eat late and then go to bed, but I did it anyway. At 2:45 this morning I was throwing up like crazy. Gross. On the good side, I am doing a bang up job on the care plan since I have so much time before clinical today. I took my ATI tests yesterday. The great part is that I don't have to remediate (take them again at home and score a minimum of 90%). My scores were high enough to avoid that. The test also said that I exceed the minimum standard to pass the NCLEX and that someone with my score would be expected to pass it with 93% certainty. So far I've done well on the ATI every semester, so maybe with only Advanced Med Surg/Psych to go, I may actually be a REGISTERED nurse someday!