I am writing this for those of us that fret about the unknown.
Today was my first day of LVN nursing school. Our school has a rule that anyone even one second late does not get into the classroom, so a lot of us were very early. I was 40 minutes early and there were five other students ahead of me. A couple of students came in a little late, but I think they were docked.
The classroom was open so we came in and picked our seats. The woman next to me told me she hardly slept at all the night before, and that remark was reiterated by everyone close by. She said she had a dream that she was in a hospital with a disease that no one knew about. She attributed it to a fear of failure to become a nurse.
At the proper time we were introduced to our five teachers and their subjects. Then the head teacher passed out paperwork for us to fill out, (I have never filled out so much paperwork as for LVN school). Then the student handbook was passed out and the whole class (60 of us) took turns reading about the rules, regulations and school Mission Statement. It was made clear to us that the school set high standards and expected nothing but the best from its students.
We were then informed that we would be giving each other bed baths, NG tubes, and foley catheters, in addition to shots. I know I will not be involved in having a foley or a NG tube, but the rest I can live with. If students don't want to commit to a certain proceedure, its not mandatory, however, the students that volunteer for those activities will be the first to do them in clinicals.
The syllabus was not available so we were given our first assignments by our respective teachers. This program is seven hours a day, five days a week. We were told that for every hour of class time we were to have three hours of homework. That equals a 28 hour day not counting everything else besides school. They say we will have time to catch up on weekends. I guess that means I won't be posting as often as I have been lately, lol.
Uniforms were passed out, but we won't be using them for the first eight weeks. Thats when we start our clinical rotations. We were told that we would be working some evenings and some weekends. Oh well, I don't have a life anyway:o
I hope this helps some of you who are wondering what the first day is like. It must vary from school to school. Tonight I will try to catch up on the sleep I didn't get last night because I was sooo nervous about the first day of school. Well, at least I will try to catch up after I do some homework.
