It was a (pocketless) exam day
Just popping in to say hi real quick before I dive back into the schoolwork!
I had another one of my big exams this morning.
And I didn't get a blog post written because yesterday I studied with two classmates yesterday for almost 5 hours, and then I came home and did a video study session with another classmate for an hour and a half.
And I met with two classmates early this morning at school before our 8:30 exam for some last-minute review.
This was my testing clothing today; I have to choose carefully. No hoodies with pockets allowed! But the odd thing is that our pants can have pockets so I am a little confused about what this rule accomplishes.
Anyway. The exam is done now. I feel about the same as I did after the first exam, and honestly, if I get another B grade, I'll feel fine about that.
There is no rest for the weary, though; I have to do some pre-lecture quizzes and get to a level 6 proficiency and also watch a bunch of required videos for the lecture tomorrow.
So, no time to worry about the exam I just took! On to the next one. I'm about to get educated on renal disorders. 😉
And I'll be back tomorrow with Five Frugal Things.
You are doing an awesome job, Kristen. Hope your day is productive and pleasant!
@Lynn,
Wow, I've never heard of that renal disorder. (Here in the adult medical world where I practice, I usually see patients who have chronic kidney disease in various stages, and the very occasional polycystic kidney disease sufferer). Glad your son's malady is treatable and non-life threatening.
@Liz B.,
Oops, that was supposed to be a reply to @Stephanie.
You’ve got this!
My son has a renal disorder called Medullary Sponge Disease. It took three years to get this final correct diagnosis. Maybe you will learn about this. Thankfully, it is not life threatening and treatable with meds and diet.
I'll let you know if it comes up in my materials!
I am so impressed! Hope the exam went well!
Do they perhaps think it is more obvious if one tries to slip notes out of one's slacks/jeans pockets than out of a jacket pocket? I can be super unobtrusive sliding things out of a slacks pocket in church. I feel sure a motivated student can do it even better than me when taking a hard test.
Thanks for checking in even when it's obvious you are super busy. Best of luck on everything!
Maybe? Or maybe it is just too unreasonable to expect people to have pants with no pockets? I am unsure!
@Kristen, that’s what I was thinking. Do they even make men’s pants ( if there are some in your class) with no pockets? Well, sweats I suppose.
Yes, but I think most men's sweats have pockets too!
You’ve got this!! Keep it up!
I am sure you did great on your exam with all that studying. We know all about renal disorders. Our adult daughter with Down syndrome got a blood clot in her left renal vein and when they discovered that they also found adrenal hyperplasia. Now she is followed by a hematologist for the blood clot and an endocrinologist for adrenal hyperplasia.
That’s a ton of studying. When I think back on college, I remember very little from my classes. Are nurses expected to remember all this stuff, or is the idea that you gain an understanding and then can refer to your textbooks if a difficult situation arises? No, wait, you sell your textbooks.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone who has made it this far in your Very Rigorous Nurse Training would need to resort to cheating at this stage! That is a pretty nonsensical rule.
Well, we need enough information to pass the NCLEX. So that's part of it.
And I think they hope we will go into nursing practice with at least SOME of this stuff still in our brains. However, once we get into practice on our particular floors, we will get really good at the things we regularly treat on that unit.
I still remember a lot of information from my anatomy and physiology classes, which I took 2021-2022, so I know I will remember a fair amount of what I learn in nursing school.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, I don’t know about doctors and nurses but my vet goes online to get the latest information on treating my cats asthma.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Nursing textbooks go out of current info very quickly.As a seasoned Nurse, I had a lot of familiarity with all the material from school,so if and when it came up,I had a basic foundation and could go look up on line and in new journals, what to be thinking about.You do get very focused and experience on your own nursing specialty (mine was OB GYN) but I feel pretty secure in my general knowledge too, from my excellent training.
In medicine, you never stop needing to read,learn, take workshops and in services, to stay current.That’s part of what makes it an exciting career!
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
You would think no one left in the program would be cheating at this stage, wouldn't you? But I've known people who were good students and did the work, but the high pressure of "can't miss" tests caused them to try to hide some notes when they took the tests. Sometimes, they got caught, and the sad thing was, they knew the material.
They didn't suit everyone, but my Shakespeare professor always let us bring books and notes to our tests, which I greatly appreciated. Of course, he gave us tests with one sentence on them, such as: "Discuss and compare the role of money, stereotype, or power in any three of the plays we've studied this semester." I'm not sure how well we could have done that without reference materials.
@JD, you'd be surprised? During Covid, the last semester of the class before, a significant portion was getting the exact same answers and errors on every advanced pharmaceutical exam. That portion had to retake all of those tests in one day.
You are awesome in that you even manage to post every day in spite of your hectic school study schedule! Not-A-Problem if some of those posts are rushed 🙂
I am so glad you are realizing your dreams.
As a former math/computer instuctor, my cohorts have expressed the opinion that it is easier to hide information, a phone, a graphic calculator in a hoodie. Which was why many of us went to open everything tests. Yes, the tests are harder and they are timed. Which can be painful.
Thanks for the check-in, Kristen. But as I've said in previous comments, we all know you're super busy right now. If you have to miss a day of posting altogether, I think most of us will understand.
Meanwhile, I'm coping with the broken rib that Dr. Bestest Neighbor and I are now 99.44% sure I got in my fall on ice last Wednesday. Further details on tomorrow's FFT.
I am so sorry you broke a rib! That's gotta make everything hard!
@A. Marie, ugh. Broken ribs are no fun and there's not even a lot you can do for it.
@A. Marie,
I 100% agree about Kristen missing a day of posting, if needed...and ugh, that broken rib!! it sounds painful. Please take it easy.
@A. Marie, oh no, I'm so sorry - ribs are so painful (even if just bruised, but obviously even more when broken)!
@A. Marie,
Ugh, broken ribs HURT. DH cracked his ribs, and it was miserable for him, and all he could do was wait it out. He was also black and purple all down his side. I hope yours heals as quickly as possible.
@A. Marie, I'm so sorry. I don't want to know about broken rib pain; every breath, I'd imagine!
When I was in college, my little grandma used to tell me, "study hard but take it easy." I never figured out how to do both! But, take good care of yourself even as you work and study hard. You've got this!
What I've got is the flu. If your nursing handbook has a quick fix for being super congested and not being able to nose-breathe, I'd like to hear it. I've been taking steamy showers and (store brand) Sudafed, using saline nosedrops, going through tons of tissue, drinking lots of liquid including fruit juice for the vitamin C, and I feel like someone poured concrete into my sinuses. So miserable! The fever I can deal with but the congestion is the pits. And my nose is so red, I look like Andy Capp.
@Fru-gal Lisa,
I'm trying to remember what I took when I had the flu 2 years ago....maybe Mucinex DM? but the store brand of it. I had a cough that lingered for weeks afterward. Sending you healing vibes.
Awww, I'm so sorry you are sick! I hope the flu vacates the premises soon for you. I've usually used Mucinex for viral illnesses involving congestion; that might be worth a try!
@Kristen, Same. Always and only use Mucinex for sinus or other colds. It does a great job to loosen up congestion and allows you to sleep well.
Thanks for sharing that chickpea salad recipe Friday! I've had some cans of chickpea languishing in the pantry for months, and wrote down the recipe to use one can. I did sub rotisserie chicken for the edamame, but to make it more frugal, I used part of the rotisserie chicken for dinner last night, part for the chickpea salad, and even more set aside for husband's lunches.
Maybe the rule is because many nursing students are women and women's jeans notoriously have small pockets? LOL.
Yay! So glad the recipe was helpful to you!
Now my brain is thinking of all the ways to cheat with a pocketed hoodie and not jeans...
I really don't even know what I would possibly put into my pockets; the way nursing exam questions are worded, it's not like you can really use much of a cheat sheet. If you don't understand a concept, you can't answer the question.
The only thing that would help me is a device that could google things!!
Keep up the good work, chica! I would definitely want you as my nurse.
In a total coincidence, a lady I don't even know (I'm at the public library) walked over to me 10 minutes ago and handed me a flyer she just had printed, saying that "March is Kidney (Renal) Health Month." She said she does displays at hospitals and wanted to give me a flyer. Good luck on your test(s)!
@lulutoo, Spooky!
You got this!!!
A Marie,sorry about the rib,few things are worse.
Good luck on all exams.I love “reliving” my own nursing school days through your blog..I can feel all the excitement,exhaustion,worry over grades and competency tests, and your natural love of patient care.You are gonna be SUCH AN INCREDIBLE ADDITION AND ASSET to the profession of Nursing. BE PROUD! It’s like joining the Marines.. you are a Nurse forever and ever after you graduate..and it’s a wonderful “club” to belong to.
Those graduation pictures,when you post them, are gonna make me cry ! (WITH JOY FOR YOU!)
I think about where your life was not so very long ago and how NOW ,it is filled with all things for YOUR growth and happiness.. a nice turnabout,don’t you think!!!!!! YAY!!!!
Trust me, I am going to cry too! lol It will be happy tears, mixed with a few defiant and triumphant ones. 😉
Thank you for cheering me on.
Bet it feels great to have that done. Have a great day.
As a teacher, I believe the no hoodie and no pockets in the hoodie is because students sometimes where air pods or ear buds with Bluetooth synced to their phones.....that is just my guess. We also do not allow them in our classes in our public school.
Interestingly we can have hoodies! They just can't have pockets.
And I'm guessing if we tried to put the hood on our heads during the exams, we'd be asked to remove the hood.
Thank you so much Kristen for checking in with us. You do more in one of your average days than I do in a week!
I, too, have protein powder I need to use. I try to put it in oatmeal I eat 3 x a week. Need to put it in smoothies.
Five frugal things – actually 6!
-- Made my own Poo Pourri to refill my bottle. I love the stuff because it REALLY works and I always keep it in our bathrooms. But those little bottles run 10 bucks each. You can make your own for pennies. Use 2 teaspoons of alcohol, 20-30 drops of essential oil (use one or mix a few), then add water to fill the bottle. Shake it up and you're done. You can reuse an original PP bottle or get small spray bottles from the art section at Hobby Lobby.
-- Saved leftover veggies in a freezer bag for a pot of beef veggie soup I'll make later.
– Made chicken stock for soup using leftover bones from a rotisserie chicken, a box of chicken broth and a few packets of chicken seasoning from ramen noodles packets.
– Saved a service call by using Google to figure out why our outside keypad on our garage door opener wouldn't work. My husband was doing something else so I dealt with this. I determined it was most likely the battery ( I didn't even know it HAD a battery, so it'd never been changed – in years às far as I know). I watched a troubleshooting video on this, changed the battery and it worked again. Yeh me!
– when I was looking for a quick snack, I ate a piece of from a few pieces of take out pizza I had put in the freezer when we didn't eat all our pizza. I'm not wasting good pizza!
– Instead of recycling some boxes thru our curbside program, I suggested we give the moving boxes we used to store things from or livingroom/diningroom while we had new floors installed to a nephew who is moving soon. He gladly accepted them.