Back To School.........Already?

Well I have been some what absent from my blog these past 10 days or so, but I was busier than I thought I was going to be. I was on Christmas Vacation and spent it visiting my mom back home, I came back to where I attend school around the 4th or so and I don't remember slowing down since then, like I was expecting. Between studying for my second chance at my HESI Exit Exam (January 29th is the big day), preparing for the senior portion of the welcome back assembly, meetings, and preparing 75 survival kits for incoming first semester nursing students I hardly had time to eat (it's a really bad habit of mine).

But as of 230 pm yesterday I am free from all of my pre-school projects and just have to focus on HESI studying and getting back into being in school mode. Then starting in late February/early March I will get back into planning our pinning ceremony for graduation. I am also adopting a little (or 2) for our new SNA program Big Nurse Little Nurse (another post will go more in depth with that).

This semester as far as school goes I have 3 classes, 2 of which only meet every other week and we are only in school till March 25th so about 10 weeks or so. I have a total of about 5 exams (much less than the 15 from last semester), we have some community health based clinicals (once a week for about 2 hours), and we have one large semester long evidence based practice project. Starting around March 25th we will be leaving the classroom for precepting in our prospective fields, from that point on we have 6 weeks to complete 180 hours of clinicial work. We no longer attend classes or have homework, we simply work in the hospital and write a journal each week about it.

As far as extra curricula work goes I will hold my position of SNA VP until around the beginning of March, I will also be taking on the 2 littles in our new program like I said earlier, I will continue to be the class representative for whatever class things may come up. I'm also looking into volunteering with the younger semesters to help them with skills lab. I'd like to find a job but that isn't a huge priority right now.

So my earlier post was all about being unforgettable in 2013 and I really feel after yesterday I am on my way to that. I received so many compliments on my senior assembly projects as well as with my SNA work, my teachers are more than willing to write me recommendation letters for job applications, and many of our faculty has already said they will miss me dearly come May and they will have to find a new leader some where. Even though I am so very tired from all the work I am so glad I stepped up and took on the role.

My advice to any nursing students senior or freshman, be a leader, make yourself well known in school and step up into a role. Hospitals will recognize that and will fight for you, teachers will remember you and write amazing letters of recommendation, and your dean will know you so well you will be handed the responsibility of representing your class in their presence.

A theme for 2013

With a new year comes new beginnings, we hear it every year and I feel like our resolutions or our thoughts of a new beginning vanish before we even end February. School, work, kids, family, whatever may keep us busy slowly distracts us and before we know it the great plans we had for a new beginning are buried under a pile of grocery lists, homework assignments, bills, and whatever else may cover the buys desks of our daily lives. Now some people are the exception to the rule and conquer all the goals the set forth on the first of the year, me well I am no exception the that rule I very very rarely conquer my goals let alone even set them. I tried last year writing them on a very well decorated picture collage and taped it to my bathroom mirror so I would remember daily what I was working towards, needless to say it didn't work, while it stayed up for the entire year I don't even think I met one of the 6 goals I set for 2012. I read some where else, couldn't tell you where, about a theme for the new year. I don't remember reading anything in depth about it but about a week or so later I came across a quote on Pinterest about being unforgettable. Then all the pieces fell into place, instead of saying "My goal is to loose weight and get healthy. Or to learn spanish" (a failed one from last year). Why not just have a theme for the year, not a single goal you fight all year to meet then feel a slight pinch of disappointment on new year's eve when you notice those goals weren't met.

So my theme for 2013 is to be unforgettable. I am entering my final semester of school and then starting my first few months as a nurse, in hopefully the NICU or an ER in a children's hospital. I want to unforgettable in what I do, I want the people in my nursing program to remember me after I leave, I want faculty to refer to me in stories, students to remember the impact I had, inspire new students with my accomplishments. I want my fellow students in my class to remember me after we have all graduated and dispersed throughout the country.  I want the staff at my new job to be impressed with me, the patients and families to remember me as their nurse and the impact I left on their lives. I want to be remembered for whatever I do. So that is my theme for the year, I want to be remembered over the next year. I want to leave a legacy, not in the form of kids or a family but in my work and my dedication to what I love. So with that I say: "She who leaves a trail of glitter is never forgotten." Let me hear your plans, your theme, or what you want to do in 2013.