Seventh Week of Nursing School

 November 8^th, 2012

Dear Horribly Stressful Nursing Catch-Up Week,

            After Hurricane Sandy hit last week, most of my exams, evaluations, and assignments were pushed back a week. Unfortunately, for some reason my Adult and Elder on campus Simulation evaluation was not pushed back. This completely threw me off track studying-wise and emotionally. To be honest, it's a bit embarrassing but I broke down after reading the professor’s email. I didn't expect to still have the simulation evaluation because open simulation was cancelled for the week leaving me no chance to practice the scenarios. The only time I had to practice the scenarios was two hours before my scheduled testing time. I had not attended any of the previous open simulation slots because I was expecting to practice the Wednesday and Friday of the week of Hurricane Sandy. After getting a pep talk from my fellow nursing students and a few hours later, I managed to regain composure and convince myself that everything was going to turn out fine in the end. Going into the evaluation, I was pretty certain I was going to have to remediate. With my luck, I ended up with the Anthony Cunningham case and did not pass because I exceeded the time limit. The scenario called for a dressing change and medication administration. Sounds easy enough, but it was difficult to accomplish the nursing orders within 15 minutes when I was a bundle of nerves, paying close attention to make sure I didn't miss any steps or break the sterile field, and never acted the scenario out fully by myself. I also feel that the grading was very subjective depending on which clinical instructor was overseeing the evaluation because each clinical instructor taught the skills differently, had different expectations, and focused on different aspects of the skills. All in all, what I learned from this experience is to prepare for the worst and to not wait until the last minute to go to open simulation.

            Sadly, failing the A&E simulation evaluation sent me on a downward spiral. The past weekend I found it extremely difficult to concentrate fully on studying for my Health Assessment and Promotion midterm which was the day after. Not only could I not concentrate, but I could not sleep because I was so anxious. I came out of my HAP midterm feeling not very good about it. I'm pretty sure I missed at least 7 problems and I hope I got at least a B-. I feel like I studied for this test wrong because it was the first time I decided to focus my attention on the reading. If I had just stuck to my usual study habits of focusing on the slides, I know I could have performed much better. Again, lesson learned. Don't change your study habits when your study habits aren't broke.

Until Next Week,
Clos3tGirlyGirl