The long road, slightly condensed...

So I thought it'd be interesting to my readers (both of them!), and to me, to see the long road I've travelled to actually begin clinicals this fall! Hmmm, it's pretty long, wonder if I'll remember it all?

Ok, lets see, maybe I'll do this in a timeline...

2002- I was working as a receptionist for an airline that's no longer in business. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Coast_Airlines). It was an OK job, but I really didn't want to be a receptionist for the rest of my life. I decided that summer that I'd do what I'd wanted to do my whole life- start nursing school.

2002 Fall- I enrolled at Midlands Technical College (http://www.midlandstech.edu/) and took the first few required courses- Intro to Psychology, English Composition, Intro to Algebra, and a very stupid, but required course- Freshman Seminar. I did very well, enjoyed it immensely, and got to start the "good" classes the next semester!

2003 Spring- I took Anatomy & Physiology I and Medical Terminology! Finally, I was taking relevant classes! The dissections in A&P were pretty disgusting, though!

2003 Summer- My third semester I took the 2nd Anatomy & Physiology class and faced my first obstacle- burnout. I'd gone from having my nights and weekends free to be with Jamie and the kiddos to studying a LOT.

2003 fall- The second fall, my 4th semester, I registered for 3 classes- Nutrition & Diet Therapy, Pharmacology and English. Right before classes started I found out I was pregnant with Kate. Between horrible morning sickness that lasted all day and college burnout, I decided to take a semester off. This is also when I found out I'd been accepted to start clinicals that fall. We were allowed to defer once, so I decided to defer until Fall 2004.

2003-2006- That single semester off lasted for 3 years! We moved to Charleston, SC (we were living in Lexington, SC) for a year, then moved back to Lexington. Then we moved to Mansfield, OH in the fall of 2006.

2007 fall- We're finally settled in Ohio and I realized it's now or never. I registered for classes at North Central State College (http://www.ncstatecollege.edu/). I started off with 3 classes- Nutrition, Human Growth & Development and Microbiology. Let me just say this- STRAIGHT A's!!! Well, I got an A- in Micro, but that counts as an A to me! Nutrition and Human Growth & Development are both online classes, and Micro turns out to be my favorite class to date!

2008 winter- I'm taking 3 classes this quarter, also- Chemistry, Humanities and Composition & Literature. Chemistry is my only campus class, the other 2 are online. I've only been back in school for a whole quarter so far, but burnout has returned! I can honestly say I've never slacked off as bad as I did in my 2 online classes that quarter! Humanities, for instance, was a stupid, pointless class. I honestly doubt any of my patients will ever ask me about art and music during the Greco-Roman era. I can understand their desire for us to be well-rounded students, but for the money they charge for these classes, they should at least be relevant to our majors, don't you think? English, on the other hand, is a necessary class- I'm pretty sure my ability to write coherently and speak clearly will benefit me throughout my life, especially with people who may be depending on me to save their lives. That said, I totally dropped the ball on this class. It actually got so bad that I was scrambling and writing 3 or 4 multi-page papers on the last weekend of class just so that I could pass it! My professor said I had a knack for writing and that I could still pass if I busted my butt, so bust it I did! Grades this quarter showed my laziness- B in Chemistry (which I was OK with, that was a very hard class, but my professor was incredible), C in Humanities and C+ in English. I don't even want to tell you what this quarter did to my GPA, but know that I cried over it...

2008 spring- Only one class this quarter- the dreaded Speech! I can talk to anyone about anything, but put me in front of a class full of strangers and tell me to talk about ONE subject??? Not my thing. The first day of class I was scared to death! Then I look around and there are only 8 students in the class, including me! I can do that! My professor was amazing, too- I could listen to him read the phone book, he had such a great voice! We had 3 main speeches that quarter- persuasion, demonstration and informative. My informative speech was more of an introductory speech- I introduced a classmate. Persuasive was a little easier, I talked about The American Red Cross and the need they have for donated blood. Since I've given blood since I was old enough, this was an easy thing to talk about. My demonstration speech was fun, I made banana pudding! I also made a mess, spilled pudding down the side of the bowl I was putting it in and splashed it all over my apron, got a horrible case of the giggles! I didn't do as well as I'd hoped in this class, but to be quite honest, I didn't really try to improve from one speech to the next. My inflection on some words cost me a lot of points- I tried to argue that my accent shouldn't count against me, but he pointed out that proper pronunciation was kinda important. Oh well, I got a B+, I was fine with that.

Now throughout this WHOLE time I've been on a waiting list to start clinicals. There are different ways to get on the list, and 2 lists to be on- LPN and ADN. During my time at NCSC, I'd been on the ADN list (for a 2-year degree and an RN). This list, in particular, is VERY long and very competitive. I'm not sure how it's weighted, but things like your grades in the science classes and NET scores (Nursing Entrance Test) play a part in it. At the end of the Spring 2008 quarter I was #95 on the ADN list, and they only take 80 students every fall. That's it, only 80. Not everyone accepts, so there's a chance of getting in, but I didn't think it'd be that great, so I added myself to the LPN list (diploma and an LPN) in the spring.

Within a couple of weeks I'd been accepted to start LPN clinicals in the fall of 2008! I was excited to finally be getting started, but pretty disappointed to not be going straight through to my RN. Now the plan is to finish my LPN, then go straight into RN clinicals.

2008 summer- One of the new requirements for all nursing students, those at NCSC anyway, is to take a STNA (State Trained Nurse Aide) course and become licensed STNAs. Normally that'd be fine, requirements are requirements and anything that may help me in school is great, but financial aid didn't pay for it! We shopped around and the least expensive class was $550, plus $100 for state boards and $50 for CPR. Since I'd gotten into clinicals pretty much at the last minute, we really didn't have time to save up for this class, so saying this summer was pretty tight is definitely an understatement! I took the class at Pioneer (http://www.pctc.k12.oh.us/nurseap.html) and passed both it and the state boards with no problems.

Another HUGE expense so far was my required uniform! ONE uniform- one scrub pants, one scrub top, one lab coat and one $44 pair of nursing shoes- $207! And again- no financial aid! We have one choice of stores and one choice of uniform, we can't just wear white scrubs with the school patches on them, they have to be the single most expensive scrubs anyone has ever seen!

Ok, so I've finished my STNA, my uniforms are ordered, I'm all set. THEN I get a letter in the mail- "Congratulations, you've been accepted into the Fall 2008 ADN program." WOO HOO! I'm so excited! Since I'm on the bottom of the accepted list, the classes left to pick from are pretty slim- my classes and campus labs are mostly the same as all the other student's, but I'll have to drive to Norwalk, OH for my clinicals on Fridays, and be there at 7am. It's about a 55 minute drive! I'm not a morning person, and even if I was, leaving home at 5:30 am is asking a lot! My sweet hubby kept checking, though, and when someone dropped a clinical in the town just above us, he grabbed it for me!

So, that's it. Hardly condensed, but there you have it. I start classes next Monday, 9/22, and I'm so excited I cant stand it! I go to orientation on the 18th and hopefully will have time to go to the bookstore, too. I have almost all my supplies, I've had a BP kit and 2 stethoscopes for a while now, and the few things I need will be relatively inexpensive. Financial aid will pay for them anyway. I'm excited that I'll know some of the other girls in the class from the STNA class we took together, that'll make it a lot less stressful!

Next update- orientation!