I passed at least

Unfortunately I missed the top level by 3% - ugh!

Feeling less overwhelmed but at least I have a bit of stuff off my plate. I'm plugging my way through it.

I feel like the little train that could - "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" - therefore I know I can.

On other news... I've been in talks with the teacher of my next course (clinical that is) about trying to set up placement cause I've had SUCH a hard time getting it arranged myself. I have inquired whether I would be able to do placement in the ER because I work already in a medical unit and if I can't get into a surgical unit then I would love to try out a placement in the ER. We'll see how that goes though, it's doubtful.

Finally a beacon of hope

In about October I was notified via email that the next course would be a psych course (already knew this but was reminded of it) and was told to begin the search to find a suitable placement. I believe I've said it before but it really irks me (maybe a tad more ;P) that I have to find my OWN placement as well as preceptor while the school sits back and does jack shit except do the clinical contract with the facility. Complete bullshit IMO. The old school that I was going to (for my LPN/RPN as well as my previous BSN) did this leg work for us (and was compensated IMO for this) which made life easier and certainly less stressful. This was something that I asked before committing myself to this school because I don't think it should be my responsibility to do this.

So for this semester my hubby thought to find a list of ALL the NPs and so I began calling them ALL - EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!! And was told that if I didn't find a preceptor in that two week period of time that I would have to abandon that course! So off I went asking whether they would be willing to "oversee" a basic review of assessments that I would do in front of them. Only ONE off a list of probably 30-40 ppl said yes. And OMG am I thankful to this person!!! Told her everytime I saw her! I was certainly stressed out and certainly worried that I would have to postpone starting my core nursing courses because of this stupid thing that I was told by the university to wait on until I was officially "IN" the course. It's complete bullshit IMO and I should have been advised of this.

Now getting back to October... I procrastinated on finding a suitable placement and figured that the school would do ANY of the leg work. Now it's December and I come to find that the school basically did jack shit in terms of helping me. A couple of days ago hubby wanted me to start doing the same thing as before but now focusing on calling the "key" people in the hospitals who would enable me to have a pysch rotation in the hospital. Focused on big hospitals and then I decided to broaden my search to smaller ones. Then hubby had an epiphany that it would be smart to check out the psychiatric nurses' association. I figured it couldn't hurt anything and off we went calling them. They instructed us on how to find the local chapter ppl and then we went off googling these people to see about contacting them directly to see if I could network with them to find a placement. Hell these people wouldn't be part of this association if they weren't somehow involved in psychiatry right?!

Next day I called up a couple of people and happened upon one lady who said that so long as I was allowed to do it at an out-pt clinic or in ppl's homes then she could help me. YAAAAYYYYYYYYYY OMG I was eccstatic. The relief was immense let me tell you!

Now I'm trying to convince hubby to register for next semester's courses. He doesn't seem overly keen on this idea though (not sure of the exact reasoning seeing as he told me that once I secured a placement then we would register being that we'd been in this sort of predicament already right).

So I started the paperwork with the uni to get the contract going so that in January I can start my placement hours. The good thing (though weird) is that for that course it only requires FORTY hours. Crazy low amount, very shocking to me and to the lady I spoke with. I don't really care so long as I get the hours in.

Fever seizures

Had placement today, it was my last - at least I think so. I've enjoyed it and today was no different.

My preceptor seemed to have enough trust in me to attend to one of the physicals today, and I nailed it.

We saw a little one who had bilateral ear infections - boy did they look painful!!! OUCHIE

Then we had a dad who brought his 5 month-ish daughter in for a check up cause his wife thought her cold had gone into her chest and was sounding congested - NP said nope but dad had also brought his approx. 2 yr old. And boy did HE look sick!!! He certainly looked MUCH worse than the one he came in for in the first place!

Dad indicated that kiddo had been fighting this "thing" for almost 3 weeks - had gone to an urgent care and the docs there had prescribed amoxicillin - which he had just recently finished. His nose was draining but not purulent - it was clear. When the NP touched him though, immediately she asked for a temp and it turned out that he had spiked one - 102.4 F (39.1 celcius) - and his poor eyes just told u everything about how sick he felt. We went out to get him tylenol and I went back in to give it to him - and take it he did. Then went back out. The NP was unsure what she was going to do plan wise because aside from the temp, his sinuses didn't look infected, no nasal drip indicating infection, chest clear - so what to do? And while we were discussing this amongest ourselves, the dad brought the kiddo out to the main area and exclaimed "he's having a seizure".

Sure enough, tonic clonic seizure (really rigid then the convulsions - and loss of consciousness - and his eyes rolled back in his head)- NP instructs the dad to put him down on the ground and she ensured that he didn't aspirate - tells the clerk to call 911 and stayed with him. Unfortunately there was no suction machine so I grabbed a kleenex so that she could wipe out his mouth - the seizure lasted approx. 2 minutes. When he started to have secretions in his mouth she turned him on his side and wiped his mouth again. Thankfully no vomitting, which meant that he kept down the tylenol. He also lost control of his bowels during this time. But that was the least of our concerns!

Once the fire fighters arrived, he had just completed the seizure and was in the "post ictal" phase of the seizure which is where they are no longer seizing but have not regained consciousness. Or if they do regain it, it may only be for a second. Our little guy went from the tonic clonic to post ictal then back to tonic clonic. Before he started to seize again the NP was able to get him to respond and open his eyes and his pupils were equal and reactive (good sign) - then he started to seize again, but it didn't last long before he went back to the post ictal phase. The guys arrived and put oxygen on him (didn't realize that there was oxygen in the office - don't know where anything is pretty much in that office!) and a pulse ox on him. His oxygen saturation was 94% without the oxygen and with blow-by oxygen it went to 100%. I tried to put the oxygen mask on him but he swiped that away so I just held it next to his face. You just felt for the little guy and his daddy who was standing near by just staring and trying to get a hold of his wife who was at work.

I got his little girl's stuff all together and got her in her car seat and brought her to him. Then once the paramedics showed up, they took the little one and away they all went with dad and baby in tow.

Wasn't expecting that for the last day of clinical - tho that's sorta how one of my last days of clinical placements went when I was doing placement on my unit at my hospital - so maybe it's a good omen for me???

A daring new road

July has been SUCH a great month for me. At the behest of my husband I applied for schools, hoping that I would get in to complete my bachelors in nursing. Well July I found out that INDEED, I was accepted. Now I wait to find out how many transfer credits I will receive.

I applied for the LPN (practical nurse) to RN (registered nurse) track as this is a shorter time period than a traditional track (2 yrs vs. 4 yrs!).

It's taking a while for the transfer credit aspect to be completed (over a month already) as there is only ONE person who does this job for all the international transfer students. I'm finding it frustrating that it's taking so long but I have faith that the longer it takes, the more transfer credits I will receive. Besides, I have time - I'm not set to start the program until january anyways.

I live in Southern Ontario, in Canada. One of the greatest aspects of this university is that I can do the program distantly and do the practical aspect (placements) at a hospital in the closest area to where I live - or I could move but that just doesn't work for us!

Unfortunately, the closest place that my school recognizes is a long ways away. As such, I must travel to do my placements - a MINIMUM of 2 hrs driving - in GOOD weather! Hopefully I'll only have to do this once a week!!!!

Another reason that July has been such a great month for me is that I was offered - and accepted a position in a hospital!!! Where I live that is momentus, as you must know someone within the hospital to get in - it's just THAT difficult!!!! Thankfully my preceptor when I was completing my pre grad for my practical nursing gave my resume to his unit manager to get me that "in" to get the job. I was given an interview and was offered the job!!! YAY for me!!! Now I start the job on Aug. 8th and CANNOT wait!!!

Supposedly good news comes in threes, the ONLY way this could get ANY better was either if the uni told me I only had to take the placement courses to complete my degree OR if husband would agree to have another child - as if that one would EVER happen! LOL - he wants to wait until my degree is at least completed - which is definately the smarter move, I just see how quickly my 2 yr old is growing up and I miss the baby stage and wish that she had another sibling (We also have a 9 1/2 yr old boy).