First Week Memoirs

I just kept thinking this week, and it took me forever to get started, “This is my last free weekend before all hell breaks lose. I won’t have any more free time….is this okay with me?” And I spent hours…no wait, it was days, contemplating this and the many questions surrounding it. The fact is, many of us spend too much time thinking, and not enough time doing. Life is about doing. You have to do to accomplish. You can think on the matter later. I mean, to some extent thought is good. You want your doctor or nurse to think before they assign you some lab test. But the fact is, it is their thinking that has become automated, like a machine, because of so much practice from studies and from clinicals. This type of thinking is ok. It has become an instinct, an instantaneous thought based on research and experience. I have yet to think of a better way to classify it. The type of thoughts that inhibit actions, the ones that can take up more than a few minutes, or hours…now those are the ones that we have to be careful of. Those are the ones that inhibit our ability to accomplish. Anyhow, my thought process came to a conclusion when I realized it is time to work. I concluded that life is all about the Plan B. Watch out, those mice are working hard! 

There is no calendar big enough to write out all the stuff I have to do and where I have to be every day, so I decided to make two. I finally posted all my important events on a large calendar from Staples to hang up on the wall…so I will not forget where I have to be every day. I then put all my homework, projects, essays, tests, and quizzes on my little weekly planner that my mum gave me. Aw, to be organized! At least, for this profession, it’s mandated! For those of you whom I have not talked to, it adds up to roughly 19 chapters a week, at least one quiz, one test, one project, and one essay a week….but sometimes there are 2 tests a week. I can tell you right now, those are the weeks I am going to be pulling my hair out. It was wonderful to come into my Pharmacology/Pathophysiology class and hear the teacher say, “You will not get an A in this class…It is simply too hard.” Well, what a way to start off the semester! Especially when you need to get a B in the courses to pass….and a B is a 85-92, and an A is a 93+. This applies to all classes across the board. The school has a standard for their grades, like any other school, perhaps. I mean, it makes good sense, you wouldn’t want your nurse to only sort of know how to put in a foley catheter >.>

This week I get to have a skills checkout for putting on sterile stuff (gloves, mask, booties, hair net, apron). This means you are tested on doing a certain skill. These are the things that worry me because although they are very important, if the instructor thinks you have compromised the sterile environment, you fail! And you only get one more chance to pass, otherwise you fail the course. Yikes!

And by the way, it also has been very hard to post because my internet is very crappy this weekend, so I will have to show you guys some pictures later. Sorry about that.

Well, it has been a long thoughtful weekend, soaking up all of the free time I have left…and technically it’s borrowed free time. I seem to have caught another lovely cold, so I am thankful for wanting to work in surgery, because that will keep me protected from catching everything and their mother.

Happy Birthday Jaimes!

The countdown to graduation is now 479 days.