Training2bRN

i think the first semester is the easiest at our school. our clinical is only 5 hours long this semester, but it's 12 hours long next semester. half my classmates are failing (which is anything under 75% at my school). i don't understand why -- they seem like smart people, they do all the reading, and they study for tests. they work harder than me, and they know the material better than i do (i can tell, because they out perform me in lab all the time). but when it comes to taking tests, they do much worse than me. the tests have a lot of tricky questions, and they get fooled all the time. i think the dropout/flunkout rate is 50% at my school after the first year. i think the school should work harder to retain these students. many of the students who are failing in my class speak english as a second language, and i wish the school would hire a bilingual teacher for them!

it's very hard to understand how a patient feels, when you've never been hospitalized or seriously ill. i try to joke around with the patients, but i think i am inadvertently insulting them. for instance, one patient can't speak well due to paralysis. he was trying to tell us that he wanted a shave. but i thought he wanted a beer! so i teased him afterwards, saying "i was planning on sneaking in a beer for you next week!" my classmates all laughed at my joke. but then i thought afterwards ... wow, i just made fun of this man's inability to communicate, even though that was not my intention at all. so i am thinking that it's best to not joke at all with the patients until i have a better understanding of how they feel being in the hospital and all. i know that if i was paralyzed, and bed-ridden, i would like humor. but i think most patients are grieving, and not in the mood for jokes.

well i think i figured out why my professor's presentations confuse me so much .... she is using her slide shows from an old textbook that the school is no longer using. this really ticks me off, because she is making me learn 2 different versions of the same material, and doubling my work load. i wish she would just take the time to edit her PowerPoint files to reflect the new textbook!!!

They list the wrong chapters to read on the Syllabus. They give us slides that have material that came from nowhere, and does not match any of the reading in the book. And then they give us slide presentations that mix up all the chapters together (as if they didn't bother to edit their PowerPoint files). It appears that they are not taking the time to prepare for class. They gave us about 5 versions of the Syllabus (each listing different chapters to read). I'm really sick of their disorganization. It's driving me crazy, and I am thinking about finding another nursing school to attend next semester. I can't take two years of this chaos.

i lie low, and say very little to the instructors. i certainly would not critisize them, even if they are disorganized and drive me crazy.

i swear, working in the hospital can be so gross! i went to put a patient's bed pan (full of poop) in the sanitizer, and the machine flooded, pouring gallons and gallons of water and feces all over my feet, and in the hallway. i was stepping in feces water 3" deep. and this is the patient with a past history of HepB. i'm afraid to wear my shoes in the house anymore. hey, did you hear that in some European countries that hospital workers are not allowed to leave work in their uniforms/shoes? they must leave them at the hospital to be sanitized. i wish we did that here in the USA.

i was helping my classmate shave a patient -- i was holding a bin of water for her -- and i forgot to wear my gloves. at one point, i put my uncovered hands in the water to rinse off a washcloth for my classmate. my clinical instructor walked in and said "you should really be wearing your gloves if you put your hands in that water." this patient has had HepB in the past, but that's not why he's in the hospital now (he's there for paralysis due to a neurological disease). there are no warnings about taking extra contact precautions with this patient. could i have caught HepB from this patient?

i mean, she seems like a really nice lady outside of school. but she's kinda hard on you if you mess up. and don't dare approach her if you have not read the material or studied. she makes me feel like a little school child, and i am a mature, grown woman with children! oh well. i guess i should be thankful for having such a great teacher. i just wish she was a little kinder to the students.

i tried on the uniforms recently, and the pants did not have enough room to accommodate a large rear end. i am going to have to sew in an extra piece of fabric in the back ... and i bought a really large size too. i think the uniforms are designed for men.

how are you going to be a nurse when you are so fat that your arms can't reach the patient in front of you? i am overweight too, but i am not so fat that my arms can't get past my stomach.

my school has a mandatory health form that my doctor must fill out before i can get into clinicals. i am a little worried about this form, because i have been treated for mental illness in the past. i am stable on meds now, but i worry that my instructors might be very prejudiced against the mentally ill, and she might use the subjective nature of grading to kick me out of the program. i am also worried about my weight -- i am semi-obese -- although i did see many other overweight nursing students at my orientation. plus, there is a requirement that i can lift 50 to 100 pounds. i can lift 50, but i doubt i can lift 100 pounds, without some weight training (and i doubt anyone else can in my class). do they actually test you on this lifting requirement, once you are in the program? any other nursing students with mental illness or weight issues out there? did it cause problems for you at school?