HESI

It stands for Health Education Systems, Inc. For some schools this is the type of exam you take to even enroll in Nursing School, until recently my school used the NLN to enter the program(though I hear that is changing to the HESI.)

Once you are in the nursing program it becomes another dreaded exam you have to take prior to the final. The people that created this test believe that how well you do on this exam is directly proportional on how well you would do when it comes to take the state licensing exam after graduation...NCLEX.

It covers everything you should have learned during the semester. I say should have, because there were some questions on the one I took today that was clearly not from anything we covered in the past three months. However, I know they will be covered in Mental Health or Adult...which does come next semester. Maybe they were just testing our critical thinking skills with our limited knowledge base? HA

From the beginning of classes convening we knew we had to achieve a numerical score of 850 or have to do a remediation plan. Not a lot of fun when you have other class assignments to be concerned about. Last week the Nursing Department sent out an email stating: If you receive a conversion score greater then 80% you can opt out of taking the Final Exam. No added pressure or anything.

I know quite a few people that devoted countless hours studying for this. And I will most likely be hated for admitting...but I didn't study one bit. I didn't know what I should study or where to focus my time. So instead of wasting the time all together, I gave my undivided attention to things going on at home. (My son sure did enjoy his 4th Birthday, without mommy being buried behind a mountain of books.)

Isn't he cute!

Alright, enough playing around. Turns out I will not be taking a final for this class! I received a numerical score of 1017 which converted to a 92%. (Don't ask me how they convert it because I don't have any clue!) So all that is remaining for this semester is: one case study that must be finished tonight and a unit exam on Thursday! Sadly I still will have to take a Chemistry final as well.

You know you are nursing student if.....

1. You open the refrigerator door and notice that the already opened milk jug has been dated and timed and has your initials on it.

2. You keep the sterile field even when you cook dinner.

3. You have used restraints...and it was not a sexual experience.

4. Your family has filed missing person reports on you during finals week.

5. You shake a person's hand and you find yourself feeling for a vein to decide which size IV catheter you would use.

6. You discuss the consistency of your patients' poop on your lunch break..and that's not weird to you.

7. Your normal friends all graduated in business or mass comm.

8. You've canceled your gym membership once you realized your Pediatrics book can double as a 10 lb weight.

9. You are determined to figure out how to administer caffeine through an IV line before finals week.

10. You know that the correct answer is not on the test and you will argue to the death for those 2 points.

*****

About Number 4. that explains my lack of posting. We are now on our down hill slide to the end of the semester. We did our last clinical day this past Tuesday. Tomorrow the HESI. Next Thursday one more unit test and the following Monday and Tuesday Finals!!!! I am going to try and post tomorrow, today's class was way to much fun not to :)

Let the shit talk begin

That line was actually spoken as the theory instructor walked into the room on Friday.

For good reason, topic of the day: Bowel elimination (deification or even poop if you prefer) this topic also included flatulence and hemorrhoids. So, yes, there was literally a whole lot of shit talk. I may never think of chocolate in the same way again. Just in case the Bristol Stool Form Scale doesn't do the trick in determine if your own poop is good or bad...Milk Duds (Type 1) BAD, chocolate milk shake (Type 7) BAD, the goal of each deification to match a Baby Ruth consistency(Type 3 or even sometimes 4). Good thing I am on a diet kick. I mean, who really needs to eat chocolate ever again anyway, right?

Okay this class wasn't a fun as the topic alluded to, oh well. Maybe next week things will perk up a little, the next topic will be Pain Management....Narcotics! That may be good for a story or two.

Lesson of the day:
Proper fluid and fiber intake, plus a little exercise is all that is needed to prevent things from backing up!

In case you missed this when it first played on Scrubs (the funniest nearly medical like show out there!!!) a few years ago...I present you the POO SONG! (this pretty much sums up the lesson, well we didn't doing the song and dance...guess my class just isn't that cool!:)

Crazy insane week

So much for actually resting up on Spring Break. For only working three days total last month to working five shifts in a week; wow, I am worn out. Think I need to take a vacation from my "vacation." I guess for now I will have to be content with vacationing at my home away from home...AKA school. I spent a huge portion in the green and white uniform at school this week. Practice Practice Practice!

This past Saturday I got the not so wonderful news that I would have to re-tape my catheter insertion. My sterile gloves that came with the catheter kit were ridiculously too big; the tips of the finger tips could be folded back into my palm! At some point during the insertion my Edward Scissorhands touched my trash bag without my knowledge, poof my sterile hands were now dirty and I contaminated my patient. Instant fail! Lesson learned, I rerecorded today with much smaller gloves this time around. Hopefully there will be much better results!

We didn't have clinals this week; instead we spent the day in the school's lab. Where we were checked off on our last remaining skill set. Wound Care, more specifically I had to perform a sterile Wet to Dry dressing change. (Could have had a Montgomery Strap with a drain instead.) Things went well, short of my q-tip that I was using for packing snapping. Thankfully that happened at a point I could continue the task using the broken part. The completion of that skill brought on the conclusion of Lab testing days, the remainder of the semester will be spent at the hospital and there are only three remaining days of those!

The theory test went well, got my first 'A' on a this this semester! I quite happily will give up the 84% trend to keep this new one going. The only remaining exams are one regular test pertaining to the last four topics yet to be covered, the final (comprehensive of course), and the HESI (the true test to see if we absorbed anything from the entire semester!)

Let's see, I registered for next semester. Because I made myself stay awake until the online registration opened, I did get my first choice in classes. A few friends made it in there with me, its always great to have familiar faces around! This schedule filled up so quickly, many of my other classmates will be elsewhere. Kind of sad, I love the dynamics of this particular class. For the most part we all worked pretty well together. I suppose there is always another semester to try and get into the same classes!

Alright this is getting rather long and I think I prefer to have today's theory discussion in its own little post....but that will wait until tomorrow.

Feeling the Strain

I am sorry for not updating sooner, it has been (and will continue to be) a incredibly busy week.

Call it a welcome back from Spring Break....Now its time to bust your butts and catch up for the week you slacked off gift.

Tomorrow there's a theory test I am quite sure I am no where ready for but I don't ever think I am ready as I should be! I promise to up date the past week after the exam is done and over with!