Big Test Day

Tuesday…the day when everything is due! I presented my skills poster in my aerobics class this morning and had to teach my exercise skill to the class. Everything went well, and my teacher was pleased with my presentation. Today, I also took that nursing test I had been studying for over my whole Spring Break. It was over Gastrointestinal (GI), Renal (kidney) disorders, and everything in between the two. It was a huge amount of material. Glad to say, that I had my parents praying for me, and of course I was saying prayers of my own. I studied very diligently over Spring Break because I wanted me make a high grade on this test, and going in to take the test I felt like I knew what I needed to know. Now after taking the test, I can say that I feel good about it, and I feel like I did well. I am interested to see what my grade is! Only two more tests left! I wasn’t selected to present my quality improvement poster today, but I will on Thursday. It’s so nice not to have any tests or other big projects due in the next couple of days.

"Oh, You Go to Gardner-Webb"

I spent this weekend at home. After returning from spring break, I realized that I had left my phone charger at home, along with a few other needed items. So, nothing left to do but head back home to get them. It was not a purely leisurely weekend. I was busy studying for a nursing test, and making a quality improvement poster for that same nursing class…all due on Tuesday!
Not to mention, I also had a skills poster due for my low impact aerobics class on Tuesday! I had already completed the skills poster, so I was thankful I didn’t have to worry about that.

My quality improvement poster is a presentation on how nurses can prevent specimen labeling errors. I was able to collect a few items from the nursing lab to glue on my poster. (i.e. biohazard bag, small collection container, gloves, wound culture set, etc) I wanted to use my creativity to make the poster interesting. My mom is also a very creative person, so I decided to get her to assist me in gluing all the items and information on the poster. We put our ideas together and created a very interesting poster. I expect to make a very good grade on it.

Besides working on the poster and studying, I also attended the Open House at NC Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. I got to go on a tour of various units in the hospital and even gave out a resume to the manager of a medical-surgical floor. I liked the atmosphere of the hospital and the nurse managers and recruiters that I spoke with were all very nice and helpful. I was surprised to find that the nurse recruiters and managers immediately recognized Gardner-Webb when they found out that I was a nursing student there. One recruiter had even gotten her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from GWU. When the nurse manager glanced over my resume, the first thing she said was “Oh, you go to Gardner-Webb; that’s great.” I think that speaks volumes about GWU and its nursing program. It’s awesome that Gardner-Webb is so well known at such a prestigious medical facility!

Now that's Expensive....

Graduation is exciting, but it’s also EXPENSIVE! Today, it hit me just how expensive when I began to think of all the things I will need to purchase for Graduation and all the costs of registering and taking the NCLEX. Nursing pin, cap/gown, and invitations for graduation. Fingerprints, criminal background check, and registration fee for NCLEX. And that’s just what I can remember; I need to make a list. I am also looking at the cost of coming back and getting my bachelor’s degree in nursing next year. It’s pretty crazy the amount of money I will be spending within the next two months! At least all this money is going to a good cause…..To help with the all the costs of Graduation, my entire nursing class has been selling World Finest chocolate bars for a dollar as a fundraiser to raise money. Half of each box that we sell goes toward our individual costs. I am working on selling my last box, and I only have 15 bars left! All money and any unsold candy is due by next Thursday, I’m hoping it won’t be hard to get rid of those last few bars.

Forsyth Open House

Yesterday I went to the Forsyth Medial Center’s New Graduate Open House. It was the first open house I have been able to attend so far. Business attire was required and resumes were strongly encouraged, but the event was not extremely formal. It was mainly a time for new grads to find out about Forsyth’s hiring process, talk with the nurse managers of the departments they are interested in working in, and possibly set up a few interviews.

I was surprised to find other students from my nursing class at GWU there at the event. One of the nurse recruiters opened up the event and went through the hiring process, salary, scholarship opportunities while working, and introduced all the departments that were present. Many of the departments were not currently hiring or scheduling interviews, but all were taking resumes. I spoke with the Med-Surg, and Renal, departments and handed out my resume because they currently did not have any positions open.

I ended up setting up an interview for this Friday with the Cardiac Telemetry Department. At this point, I’m not sure exactly what area I want to work in, so I would really like to have my first job be on a Med-Surg floor where I can see many different diagnosis and use a lot of my skills. But, I figure that interviewing with another department won’t hurt and will give me some interview experience.

NCANS Mid-Year Conference - Wilmington, NC

This weekend was the North Carolina Association of Nursing Students (NCANS) Mid-Year Conference in Wilmington, NC. I, as the District I Director for NCANS, had been working with the other NCANS board members in planning and publicizing the event. Since this was an NCANS sponsored event, the NCANS board members were there to host and work the event.

Tiffani and I drove to Lincolnton early on Friday morning to meet up with another board member and rode with her the rest of the way to Wilmington. When we arrived in Wilmington, the weather was beautiful and it was in the 80’s the entire weekend! I had never been to Wilmington before, but I found that it was a place that I would like to visit again.

The event was held at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside Hotel. It was a hotel with character and nice amenities. Friday was a day for the students attending to arrive and check-in at the NCANS registration table. We had a board meeting after registration hours and discussed the plans for the next day. Saturday was the main conference day. A complimentary breakfast began at 7:30am and sessions/ workshops began at 8am.

I was designated as the photographer for the event and had a great time going around getting pictures and talking with students. Each board member was assigned to introduce the speaker of each of the sessions. I introduced a flight nurse from Pitt County Memorial Hospital who gave a presentation on being a flight nurse and explained how to apply for the flight team at Pitt Memorial. Their program even offers the opportunity for students to go out on observational flight experience with the flight team!

Our Penny War and Silent Auction fundraisers went great and I heard good comments about all the sessions/workshops. Overall, I think all the students in attendance had a great time at our NCANS conference. Saturday night was a free night for board members. Lynn, the NCANS treasurer, and I went out and took a walk out on the Riverwalk and went downtown to see what it had to offer. We all headed back home after the NCLEX review on Sunday.

I finally made it home late that night and enjoyed an awesome home-cooked meal with my parents. It felt great to finally be home and on Spring Break!! Check out www.ncans.org to see pictures I took from the Wilmington conference and get an update on conference highlights.

Spring Break…..It’s FINALLY Here!!

This is the last week of classes before the blessed Spring Break. I have had several projects and papers due, but thankfully no midterms. This weekend is also the North Carolina Association of Nursing Students (NCANS) Mid-Year Conference in Wilmington, NC. Tiffany and I are leaving early tomorrow (Friday) morning and catching a ride with one of the other board members to Wilmington. This is a conference hosted by our organization (NCANS) and we will be hosting and working at the conference. As District I Director, I am looking forward to meeting and interacting with students from my area.

There is one student coming from GWU, which makes me very proud! Friday is registration day, and Saturday and Sunday will be filled with guest speakers, workshops, and an NCLEX review. Our board has worked hard and planned a lot of great stuff for the nursing students who attend, so I expect everyone to have a good time. I remember how much fun I had when I came for the first time last year. I am hoping that it will be warm enough to at least have a nice walk on the beach.

After the conference is over, I will be heading home to enjoy a hopefully restful spring break. I know that I will be doing some major studying, because I have a test after break. I will also be working on NCLEX questions and taking ATI tests to get a head start on all the studying I have to do from now until I take the NCLEX after graduation. But, on the bright side, I may be heading to Myrtle Beach with a few friends over the break. It’s still in the works, so I’m waiting to see if it’s all going to work out. If it doesn’t, we will still get together and do something fun. I’m excited about getting away from school for a bit, resting, clearing my head and coming back refreshed and ready to take on the rest of my last year of nursing school!

Snow, Snow, SNOW!

This past weekend I went home to see my family for the first time since Christmas break. I had planned to spend the weekend at home, then head to Charlotte with my mom and a friend for a concert on Sunday night, and come back to campus after the concert. It had been very cold and the weatherman had been predicting snow, but this had been their prediction several other times with not a fleck of snow to be seen. Sunday afternoon rolled around and the sky got gray and cloudy.

While getting ready and packing my things, I suddenly heard my mom call out “It’s snowing!!” I went to the window and couldn’t believe it; white flakes of snow were flying around everywhere. My dad turned on the news and reported to me that they were predicting it to get worse. I called the music hall in Charlotte that was holding the concert to see if they were going to cancel it, but they said the concert would go on as scheduled. I said a quick prayer that the snow would not ruin my plans because I was excited about the concert and not to mention the tickets I bought were non-refundable. The flakes kept getting bigger and bigger with more snow covering the ground outside. As my Dad and I stood at the window watching the snow, he asked me if I was sure I wanted to travel to Charlotte with the weather getting worse, but I was determined to go. After my friend arrived at my house, we headed out for Charlotte.

We made it to Charlotte with no trouble and had an awesome time at the concert. Meanwhile outside, it had snowed like crazy during the entire concert and was still coming down when we walked outside afterwards. A major snowball fight ensued as we scraped the piles of snow off our cars. When we got onto interstate 85, we could only go about 35 mph because of all the snow on the road. The snow continued falling heavily as we drove. We finally made it onto highway 74 outside of Shelby, but the road was not salted so it made driving horrible and dangerous. We passed numerous cars ditched in the snow on the side of the road and at one point we almost got stuck ourselves.

Thankfully, we were able to make it to the Hampton Inn in Shelby where we stayed the night. Monday was a Snow Day so no classes, which meant more time to play in the snow. I finally made it back to campus late Monday afternoon. It was an awesome weekend to say the least. Who would have thought that we would have so much snow in this area in March! It ended up snowing a total of 7 inches in Boiling Springs and took all week to melt!