Montgomery College, Fall 2011, 1st semester students

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Here is our new thread ladies (Nikki, Andrea, Kristian, Marissa...and whoever else will be starting at MC this fall).

Thanks!......:) off to bed....

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Specializes in Future CRNA or Nurse Practitioner.

Nikki, Kristian: how was your first day of clinical? I have to be there at 7:30am tomorrow for mine. Definitely will be making a starbucks run...make it a Venti!! LOL

I had 121 today with Bertiz and it was pretty fun. We talked for awhile about the course, watched a video on how to do a physical assessment, toured the lab we were in, and started talking about taking a patient history. There are only 8 people in the class so it's very intimate, and we sit at a round table which makes for great discussion!

Just finished organizing my binders/notebooks, etc. so now I'm going to pack some munchies for tomorrow and hit the sack. Maybe I'll see you guys around tomorrow :)

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Hey Andrea, I hope your clinical/lab goes well today. We laughed a lot. Prof. Mansir is hilarious and we have a nice group of students, two of which I know from my other classes. I started feeling the drowsiness around 6 and tried to keep the yawing very discreet lol. For some reason, the day felt longer yesterday.

I have Bertiz for 110's small group discussion. I like that we sit at one big table for our smaller classes.

We were given more modules to complete (3 more) before class today. I wanted to work on them last night but I was too brain-dead. I better get going on them soon.

Tina, have a great clinical day! Talk to you all later!

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Andrea, forgot to tell you...Nikki gave me your clip and badge folders. I will give them to you on Monday (or today if I see you, just remind me please).

Nikki, when are you leaving for school? I plan to leave around 2:15.

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Specializes in Future CRNA or Nurse Practitioner.

OMG...looooong day!!! My brain feels like it's completely fried and my eyes are struggling to stay open. This morning, we got acquainted with the MLC and registered for ProCalc. We then were allowed to work on ATI modules for the remainder of the 2 hours. Apparently, 4 modules were technically due today but they only really worried about 1: Infection Control (the only one I thought was assigned). The other 3 will be due next week along with the ones that were already due for next week.

After the MLC, we went to the Safety and Infection Control lecture with Professor Davis who is HIL-AR-I-OUS!!! I absolutely LOVE her!! I wish now I had done my clinicals at Doctor's because she is really amazing.

After that was lunch. Then we got with our individual clinical groups and met our clinical instructor, Mirna Ostchega. Our (mine and my friend Susie's) first impression of her when we met her was that she was very nice. She had a thick accent, but seemed very smiley and sweet. Well, that was kind of short-lived...she is nice, but she also seems to be very strict and serious. She is also one of those "put you on the spot" kind of teachers, which I am trying to tell myself will only keep me better prepared, on my toes and very aware of what I'm doing at all times. Today, she expected us to know how to bathe a mannequin and change the bedding while the mannequin was still in it. Nobody really knew how to do it (except for a guy who is already a PCT at Howard County General), so she seemed annoyed that nobody was prepared. Apparently, the lesson was in one of the other ATI modules that was supposed to be due today. We also practiced washing our hands, toured the lab, got our kits, and role played different communication roles. She does seem very knowledgeable about nursing practices and actually called me "honey" at one point so I can see she does have a soft side somewhere. I had hoped my first clinical instructor would be a little less demanding and a little more nurturing, but I am convinced everything happens for a reason...we'll see what that is as the semester progresses!

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Wow Andrea, sounds like you had a long, stressful day and need some R & R! I can't believe she expected you guys to already know those procedures, this is after all the first wk in the program.Don't worry to much about her. You'll have the support of your fellow students and you're a smart cookie. :)

I don't get that out of know where we were expected to have 3 more modules done by the following day. Where's the planning?

So we all stayed up or woke up early to get those done and guess what? We did not have our lab/clinical today...CANCELLED! Here we were, waiting at the student lounge for Prof. Mansir. We thought she got tied up talking in the hallway. So 3:30 comes, then 3:45 and still nothing. Nikki went to the office and that's when she was told about our class. We don't know why it was cancelled. We tried to go to the lab for our practice time, but since we didn't have the lab yet, we were not allowed to do it.

We spent a couple of hrs in the MLC doing procalc. Then went out to dinner (4 of us), ate at Austin Grill. Food was ok overall. I ordered seafood quesadillas and boy it smelled like something died. They tried to pass bad seafood as edible. Man, it would have sucked to get sick from that!

We had a great time chatting and laughing, though. I hope we get the opportunity do that throughout the semester. I'm off from school 'till Mon, thank goodness I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow...Have a good night and some well deserved sleep!

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Andrea - it isn't the students' fault that the modules didn't get done. That is an organization problem with the program administrators. We did ONLY need to have Infection done. Our clinical time was also spent doing the ATI modules the first day. If Prof. O wanted you to be prepared for how to wash/change linens she should have specifically said to do those modules during that time in the MLC.

This kind of scares me though. Prof. O is listed as one of my 110 instructor. Davis did lecture on Monday. She IS hilarious. Really keeps your attention.

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Specializes in Future CRNA or Nurse Practitioner.

OMG that sucks that you guys drove all that way just for it to be cancelled! But it's cool that you were able to get to know some people at dinner. I didn't know that the lab wouldn't allow you to practice until you've had the orientation, but I guess that makes sense. I wonder what happened? It must have been something serious for her to miss something so important.

Nikki, you are right. We should NOT have been expected to know those procedures but she's also the kind of instructor you don't really want to argue with because she'll just keep making you feel like it's your responsibility to come prepared regardless. We did have the syllabus before classes started and it did say something about the 3 other modules (remember I even asked on here if we should do those?) but since the hand-out that they gave us during registration only said to do the Infection Control module, that's all I did. I didn't want to get into an argument with her so I just let it be. Of course, she put Susie and I on the spot (maybe because we were sitting closest to her?) so all eyes were on us as we messed up almost every step of how to bathe a patient lol. I guess in the end it was a good learning experience; I just wish it hadn't been so much of a "learning-out-of-fear-of-being-humiliated" type of environment. We were told to gather our bathing supplies and wash our hands. Then she was like "Ok, bathe your patient". So we started...and she was like "Ummm...excuse me! Did you knock on your patient's door?? Did you introduce yourself? Did you ask for their name and check their ID bracelet? Did you engage in a little conversation? Did you tell them what you're going to do to them? Start over!!" Total and complete humiliation! LOL but everyone eventually felt the same sting cuz she went around and made other people do other things that she thought we should already know by reading the modules. You can bet I'll be prepared for next week though! No way I wanna go through that again...

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She doesn't sound like someone I would like to learn from. Humiliation, in my opinion, isn't an encouraging approach. Like you said, you learn out of fear. That isn't the type of relationship you should create with students. Did she say it with a mean or degrading tone? Or did she say with a smile on her face and jokingly?

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Specializes in Future CRNA or Nurse Practitioner.

Neither. But it's kind of hard to tell what her "tone" is when she speaks with such a heavy accent. Reading her face is a better interpretation of what she means. She seemed to be annoyed that we didn't really know what to do, but on the other hand she wouldn't jump in and help when she saw we were struggling...she would wait for us to ask for help. Then she wouldn't be mean about helping, she would actually be nice about it. It's just the initial reaction that caught me off guard because she seemed so sweet at first lol. She just seems to have high expectations and doesn't want to be disappointed, but is still willing to help IF she is asked. She's definitely not going to hold our hands or make things easy, but I'm trying to convince myself I'll come out more efficient at the end because of that. We shall see...lol.

Do you guys start your hospital orientation next week or the week after? Looking at the syllabus, I see that some are supposed to start theirs next week. How will that be possible if the tunics haven't come in yet??

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Andrea, sorry you guys were put on the spot. Not the best technique to promote knowledge retention. We have orientation next Wed. For us it's at school and not at the hospital. Prof. Mansir feels it's not necessary to go through a 6-8 hr orientation at the site. She also mentioned it gets crowded and makes the whole process too chaotic.

We were told to keep our valuable at home and only to bring the necessary items to clinical as we will have a main lounge to store our stuff. She said a student had her textbooks stolen last sem. and advised us to assign ppl to bring in a diff. book and share the resources. Thought that was a great idea. No updates yet regarding our tunics. I would think the orientation would still be a go w/out full uniform.

I haven't worked on any school stuff today. Why does everyone need you when you're busy? lol

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Hey guys. Do you think we should start using the yahoo group now? Since ANYONE (including professors) can read this, I think we should move over to the privacy of the yahoo group.

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