The final quarter

Today was the first day of my last quarter of school. At least this time around. I don't think I'll be returning for awhile.

I had a great spring break relaxing with my family. Mom was here to help with the childcare gaps and we spent a few lazy days working a puzzle and shopping for birthday clothes. I turned 35 on Friday. We celebrated with a delicious dinner and fun-filled game of Aggravation before bed. Of course, Abby cried when I "aggravated" her, but I don't think she is holding onto that grudge. I'm not sure because the next morning I dropped her and CJ off at Kathy's to spend most of the week at the beach house. Jumah and I will join them later in the week for a little while.

Mike returns on Monday, and it will be nice to have him back. I'm excited to hear about all of his adventures in Romania. It sounds like they are having a great time and the impact of the conference they are doing for church planters there has been exceptional. I really wish I could have joined him, but I'll have to wait until next time.

Tomorrow morning I "get" to take a practice NCLEX exam - the national exam you have to pass to become an RN. I kind of secretly like tests, (I know I'm weird, you don't have to point it out) so I'm curious to see how I'll do. We're not supposed to spend much time studying because they want to know where our baseline is. It's supposed to tell us where to focus our study time this quarter. Today I filled out paperwork to apply for my license and a testing date. It's all finally coming together - the end is in sight!

Of course, to get to the end, I need to complete 240 hours of preceptorship - which is basically like student teaching for nurses. We turned in our requests for specialties weeks ago, but they still haven't placed 10 of us, so they won't release any of the placements yet. Which means I don't know which shift, which department, or which hospital I'll be precepting at. Much less which days. Supposedly we'll know by the time we start next Monday. Let's hope so.

Progress

Before...


Six months and $2K later...


The front two teeth are now together, another top side tooth has had room to start growing in, and miracle of miracles - both top teeth are in front of the bottom teeth for the first time in her life. Yeah!

March is here!

I have to say, this quarter has not flown by as quickly as I expected, hoped, or would have liked. But we're finally getting to the end. I have two days left this week of 6am clinicals at Tacoma Lutheran Home, and then just two more Thursday lectures before finals. I will be unbelievably relieved to be done with the bulk of my coursework in the nursing program.

It's been tough deciding what I want to do with my career. I think I've decided to go ahead and apply for the critical care residency program at St. Joseph Medical Center, where I've been working since November. They keep asking me for my application, but I'm still scared I'm committing to something just because it's familiar. And there are nights at work when I think, "Who in their right mind would ever do this job?" But I've always thought that about my jobs. The nice thing about critical care is that it is a good jumping off place for anywhere else I might want to work later. I'm still very interested in oncology, hospice, and eventually being a nursing instructor. All of those things need more experience on my part.

Overall, I'm still glad I chose this career. It has been a very good fit so far for my personality, gifts, and knowledge base. I am looking forward to moving from the nurse tech role to the registered nurse role, even with all of the responsibility that comes with it. And I'm looking forward to a more balanced life once school is over.