One More Day

I feel like singing that song from "Les Miz"...but can't until tomorrow. I have taken my last exam, I have given my last presentation (rocked them both), and all I have left is my Last Day of Clinical, complete with my Last Performance Eval of School. I HATE evals. The profs always make it as scarily awkward as possible so that you always feel like you've failed until the last minute, and the feedback they give they try to deliver BEFORE letting you see your grade. Therefore, the "constructive criticism" aspect overshadows the "but you did great" part, so you're hearing them list and detail your failures for MINUTES before they say "oh and you got an A". It's like- couldn't you have LEAD with that???!! "You did great! You got an A! However, here are some things to work on as you move forward in nursing..." would be a lot less nausea-inducing.

Sometimes I think they just like to watch us squirm. :-p

I'm really ready to be done- picking up my CPR instructor card this week, getting ready for the move, looking for jobs.

Next stop: the mountains. But I really want to be working someplace I love before Christmas, if at all possible, ideally in an Emergency department. :-D

One more dawn, one more day, ONE DAY MOOOOOOOOORE!

What I'm Going To Do On My Summer "Vacation"

As of this afternoon, I've accepted a three-week position in the High Huts up in the White Mountains...a real gem of an opportunity to do some SERIOUS hiking for three weeks while studying for my NCLEX exam. Also, I'll be the most medically qualified (but least experienced) croo member on my team.

The oddest part? My hutmaster (think "supervisor" or "lord and master") will be none other than my BROTHER. I'm actually looking forward to this. Though I may call him a bit of an idiot, or (justifiably) think that he's a bit off sometimes, I do know that he's one of the finest people working in the mountains anywhere in the world, and I'm actually enjoying working with him...though we'll see how that lasts if he starts saying unkind things about my cooking...

I took my last test of nursing school today, and really enjoyed the questions on disaster triage and communicable diseases. The rest was less fun, but triage is like a puzzle- which patient first? Red, Green, Yellow or Black? It's really quite fun to do on paper (disaster triage sounds like much less fun when you're actually saying that you cannot do CPR on someone due to lack of resources).

So all I have left of school now is three clinical days, and one very immense presentation on community health interventions in a Philadelphia Suburb.

Patient Teaching

The problem with these last few weeks of class is that I don't get much to blog about- it's just sitting in a room. I WILL have something by tomorrow though- run in with a doc, my preceptor was MARVELOUS!

Dear GOD The HEAT!!!

Oh my lordie, it's STILL hot. Briefly today, I entertained high hopes of there being a real break in the weather, down to something normal, as it was pouring BUCKETS of rain. While this was a significant improvement in the fire weather warning, it's not been especially successful otherwise. The green is nice though, a big step up from the brown.

I was in NYC for two days, doing an interview with the Feds (USPHS) which was awesome and fun, and something I'm keeping in mind.

It's SO TOTALLY trauma weather- people go a little nuts in this heat...plus the cicadas are now out, and i've heard stories about the sound of cicadas driving people over the edge.

Looking forward to getting REALLY into job searching- i'm actually getting excited about this, unexpectedly!

The Evil Plan

So...I'm a month from graduation...still no job offers, but then, we're in the middle of a TERRIBLE job market. Therefore, my parents (well, my dad, since he's some kind of evil reclusive genius) have come up with A Plan. This plan involves several aspects of my life: I will live at home with them-( yay! i get to cook! grr! i have no social life!), and spend 8 hours 5 days a week making contacts, and doing a real job search that will also gain me contacts within my profession. This is how dad got his job, and i KNOW it works. At the same time, I will be getting up at 0530 every morning, and exercising for 2-3 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, both going up the Mountain (its quite a small mountain) and doing pilates, and so forth, so as to be "as marketable as possible). With grudging acceptance, I have realized that he's probably right- though I'm not huge, i'm quite certain that if i were in STELLAR shape I would get away with more. :-p Dad calls it "stacking the deck in your favor".

One of the key factors in this plan is that Dad has consistently stressed that I should NOT just take "anyone who will hire me", because that will likely make me miserable. Instead, I should work all the contacts I can get, and hold out for a job I will LOVE, and be psyched about every single day. He has a point- why would I put in all this work and money to be miserable?

Therefore, as this plan goes forward, I will be blogging it. Think of it as Crash Course In Nursing, Part II- The Search for the Perfect Job...coming in Mid August to a monitor near you!