Nursing School « anyways…

Graduation Party

June 14, 2008 at 10:57 pm | In Extra! Extra!, Family, Nursing School | No Comments

Today was my graduation party. My mother put it on at her house. I am honored that it was all for me. We all had fun. It wasn’t a surprise - mom had it planned for a while. It celebrates the ending of my initial nursing education. Here’s a list of guests:

Mom & Carl
Mataunt Dot & Uncle Phil
Nicole Marchand
Aunt Linda with her assistant
Mataunte Pat, Josh Pelletier
Jessica, Jeremy, Alexis
Mataunte Jackie & Uncle Morris
Uncle Bill
Sandra & Her Partner
Amber & Kyle Pelletier
Dave
Laurette
Diane Toussaint & Jason Swiesz with Jason’s kids, Jenifer, Alexis and Joseph
Steve & Shannon Bryant
My whole family
That makes like 36 people.

Thank you all for coming. Some brought gifts and cards. Thank you all for such an awesome and memorable day! I love you all! When we came home (late because we brought Laurette home, stopped to get Tylenol for Kim, then again for food, then again for gas), and while I was bathing all the kids, Kim asked, “Do you feel loved? There were a lot of people there today. You’re family is good…I don’t care what you say.” I agree. I did feel loved. Thank you.

It was such a good reason to get together. I got to see everyone. yeah!

On the way home - our muffler fell off. It’s just hanging there under the van. Ugh.

NCLEX-PASSED!

June 11, 2008 at 8:39 am | In Nursing, Nursing School | 1 Comment

I found out this morning at 5:15 am that I passed the NCLEX-RN and that I am now a licensed Registered Nurse. I called and told my mother at 5:45. I am elated and ready to work!

NCLEX-DONE

June 9, 2008 at 11:20 am | In Nursing, Nursing School | No Comments

So I finished the NCLEX at about 80 questions. The waiting period is HELL. I remember last year when I took the NCLEX-PN. I knew I failed and the test shut off at 85 questions (the minimum). I did just fine and passed last time. THIS TIME, I either did just fine and passed or failed miserably. Ugh. Some questions were no-brainers. Some were bad. Oh well. I may have passed - I may have failed miserably. We’ll see.

NCLEX-RN

June 9, 2008 at 6:53 am | In Nursing, Nursing School | 1 Comment

I am at the Fairfield Inn, Bangor, Maine. I only spent $69 to stay the night here. WOW! I’m here because I am going to take the NCLEX-RN exam this morning at 0800. I am worth the exam and ready for it. I can pass and I will pass. Thank you Heavenly Father for helping me through this. I am looking forward to the exam and I CAN DO THIS! easy, hard, harder hardest, then 71 more hardest questions and I can go home! HEHE!

Saturday (a few days ago) started a hazy, hot & humid bout. It’s been hot here. Kim went to Amber’s baby shower that day and I was able to put the air conditioners in before she returned late. She loved it and the house is now cool! Kim is miserably pregnant. I was able to clean the kitchen and living room quite well. Caleb cleaned the yard and living room (with me on the living room).

I slept well last night and was scared awake by the alarm clock here. It was so loud. Breakfast was good (waffle, hard boiled egg, milk, english muffin, OJ). Now I am going to look over a few things before I brush and leave. Oh yes, prayers and scriptures.

Last night I watched X-Men - much against the advice of NCLEX seminar teachers. Oh well…I couldn’t resist. I had cable for a night.

Passed

May 5, 2008 at 9:40 pm | In Nursing School | 4 Comments

So it is with exuberance that I present to you the news of my passing Final and passing ERI exams. I wonder if I will have a hard time coming back to normal life. No.

Last Week of School

April 28, 2008 at 8:36 am | In Natter, Nursing School | 1 Comment

TASKS:
1) Pass ERI test: RN Assessment at national level - without it I will fail school - sorry, school policy sir.
2) Pass Clinical - URGENT
3) Pass Final exam with an 82 or better. A MUST!

Pray for me. This is the last week of school and I have a hefty and difficult last seven days. Pray for Kim - I won’t be home much. The kitchen trash may not be changed much. Our light bulbs have recently been changed all over the house, but you never know. It could get dark awful quick.

Declaration

April 27, 2008 at 9:58 pm | In Natter, Nursing School | No Comments

I am looking forward to being done with school and finally being able to see everything around me. I want to do family history work. I want to go to the temple. I want to work and earn money. I want to be a good nurse, father, husband and son of God. I want to be able to go on a walk and exercise and run and live, love and laugh. I want to fish, hunt, camp and be outdoors with my kids. I have worked hard all this long time and I would like to live life more like a normal person does. Work, come home, serve and love. Wait a minute. I already do that. However, when I am home, I feel like I am stealing from work (school that is). Oh school - be done!

Inspiration - follow-up.

April 11, 2008 at 11:36 pm | In Credo, Glad Tidings, Nursing School | No Comments

I have so much to say and so little awake time to type it all. I am so tired ’cause I got up after 5.5 hours of sleep at 5am this morning. I went to clinical - which was good and I think I might be interested in substance abuse nursing. Then I came home and I’ve been on my duff writing a paper ever since.
But before my duff became a flattened pancake, I checked my mail. I received a surprise. You see, I had helped someone out through inspiration a few weeks ago. My action was seemingly simple and nearly insignificant. This person later told me that it meant more than she could express in gratitude. It helped my testimony of the Holy Ghost and inspiration…and how these things can bless the lives of others.
Well, today it came full-circle in the mail. That’s all I want to say about that. Just know that what she did for our family is beyond words in gratitude. Please…when you’re inspired to do something, don’t just brush it under a rug and forget about it. DO IT! Just follow inspiration. It will be a blessing to others if you do - and maybe to yourself. It was obvious that this person knew just what our family needed - she was close to the Spirit to really heed the promptings. I was brought to tears when I saw that parcel in the mail - it was a perfect way to remind me of all the blessings I have in my life. It helped with my bad attitude.
My attitude was better today. I learned about how attitude is everything today. I’ll have to blog about that later.
Bryce: thank you for your words today. I will reply when sleep is more abundant.
I finished my paper tonight.
Off to Stake Conference tomorrow…and a new Stake Presidency.

Thank You Sue, Thank you Kim

April 10, 2008 at 9:16 pm | In Nursing School | No Comments

Sue: Thank you for your comment. It reminds me that I need to be accountable for my actions and I have to analyze myself and who I am, not analyze others or blame others. You’re right. I’m just tired of nursing school’s make it or break it attitude. I am tired of seeing the rejection letters. I have seen this in a previous profession. This is why I ask myself, “Is there something wrong with me?” Behind the scenes, what you don’t see is my wonderful wife telling me the same things you are. Always trying to keep me humble and make me into a better person…make me less prideful. Nursing is such a purifying profession because of its inherently self-regulating practices. Teaching me how to do this and be this way has been one of the most difficult and rewarding characteristics of being a nurse. Sometimes I rant and rave on my blog and it exudes my negativity. Thank you for pointing out my spelling errors and relating them to skills or conversations…yes, I may very well be rushing through like that. I do need to slow down. How do you know me so well? On a side note…the majority of my spelling errors come from my typing notes during class…I just can’t keep up with the professor sometimes.

KIM: Thank you for being patient with me. I am sometimes very annoying…you are always steady. Thank you for choosing For All The Saints during scripture study tonight. It helped me take courage.

:-(

April 10, 2008 at 6:44 pm | In Fuss, Nursing School | 2 Comments

So…I got a letter from a hospital giving me the all-too-familiar rejection letter. “We’re sorry, but we picked somebody infinitely more wise, knowledgeable and oh we DO wish you good luck. Ta-ta!” I’m tired of the down-right freakin’ rude rejection letters after weeks of wait. I’m tired of wondering if my previous nursing school’s clinical instructor who failed me and is now the director of education at this hospital had anything to do with this. Because you know, I suspected she had something to do with my preceptorship rejection a few months back. After the DON investigated it, she had no other explanation, but didn’t deny it either. I guess there’s something wrong with me, because no one wants to hire me - even after YEARS of SCHOOL! #@!$%##! Do I sound raunchy? I feel raunchy. I had a bad day at clinical mostly because of my attitude. I didn’t have a really bad day performance wise. I mean, there WERE some positive experiences. However, I found out that I failed the ERI RN assessment exam. I need to pass this by the 3rd time taking it. They only count your nursing process paper if you pass the ERI exam. I need the paper to count if I want to pass. This was the first time taking the test, but it means I have to TAKE the test again. Something I don’t want to take the time doing. I just wish I would have done better. Pride I guess. I just need to do better and learn from the experience. It doesn’t have to be easy. In fact, it’s down-right hard.