Bomb Drop :(

So just when you think something else in school can't go wrong it does. This has been one of the hardest emotional weeks of nursing school that I have had.

Clinical on Tuesday went great. We again got a lot accomplished. Lecture on Wednesday was same as usually.

Thursday on my way to clinical something deep in my gut was telling me something was wrong. It is so strange because at that time I wasn't consciously aware of it, but I look back on some of the abnormal things I did in the morning on the way to clinical and it is easy to see that deep down I knew something wasn't right. (For instance I checked my phone twice while on the way to clinical to see if anyone, specifically my professor, had called me...and I never do that while driving to clinical.)

Then once I got to clinical things were happening that were making me more consciously aware that something was wrong. First I was the first one to get there, there is always someone there before me. Second, one of the residents told me on my way in that she was surprised to see the students that day. Third, 10 seconds after I walked into the conference room the associate dean of the kirkof college of nursing walked in after me (this doesn't ever happen). When that happens you just know something isn't right.

A few more of the nursing student came and then the associate dean dropped the bomb. Our clinical instructors husband had died the previous night. He was killed in a car accident. Silence. Followed by more silence. Then sobs of sorrow.

You have to understand that our clinical group spends most of the day together coming up with ideas and plans to implement and provide education and assessment to the community at Mount Mercy Senior Apartment. The professor is included in this time. And she was awesome. She talked about her family a lot and was full of energy and spunk. It was so hard for us to imagine what she was going through. She was left behind with 3 young kids (the oldest 11 and the youngest 5). After we found the strength to stand we decided to go as a group and pick out some flowers because she had told us she loved to garden. If you find a chance to pray for her and her family please do.

I have include a link a news website if you would like to know more information. Just click on the title of this blog post.

A few little bumps in the road.

So a week or two has passed and I am starting to get into all the work associated with being in a capstone class (final nursing class). Things have been moving along pretty well with a couple bumps here and there. Our lecture classes have been interesting. In our semester class, as a group of nursing student who have been together through thick and thin and done assessments on half naked partners over the past two years, the professors of this class decide to give us an assigned seating chart. Who does that....oh yeah, elementary school teachers....NOT college professors. So to say the least this has been one bump I have had to overcome. I enjoy the people I sit by, but I'm a creature of habit and enjoyed my other seat just as much as well as the people I sat by then.

One thing that I think I am going to like this semester is that there are only 4 professors who team teach the course as opposed to 6 to 8 in previous semesters. I'm still a little stuck on the content of the class though, because it so far has not been your ordinary nursing content that you would think a nursing student should learn, however I am enjoying the community nursing aspect of the course.

My clinical rotation at Mount Mercy Senior Apartments has been going extremely well. Our group gets along very well with each other. And the professor rocks! We have been keeping very busy doing a couple client visits a week, promoting exercise and walks to the residents and doing wellness clinics. I have had the chance to meet some pretty cool people that live there and they seem pretty receptive to the nursing students. We are also preparing to do a health presentation to a large group of the residents on a specific health concern of that community and then do a professional presentation to other nursing students and professors.

Also I shouldn't forget to mention the massive paper we have to write this semester. I'll probably be complaining about it in later posts....just a heads up, but we have to write about an objective of the Health People 2020 initiative, which I will talk more about later. Anyway keep checking in, I'm going to try to be better at posting at least once a week this semester! Thanks for reading!

Graduated...wait, wait....what?

I had a much needed break from nursing school and all things nursing these past two weeks, which is the reason that I haven't posted anything for while. Well I guess I shouldn't say a break from all things nursing because during the middle of the break I graduated! Grand Valley does not have a graduation commencement ceremony after the spring/summer semester so we could choose to walk early, which I did! But I haven't really technically graduated yet because I still have to finish the spring/summer semester. Then the nursing college has it own special pinning ceremony for the graduates. Commencement was interesting, it was rather long considering they had to go through about 1,200 students, however they read through the names pretty quick. The nursing students were the last to get their diploma 'holders' but I got to spend my 5 seconds on stage shaking hands.

Today we started our last and final semester. Hip-Hip-Hooray! I start with having 6 weeks of my community health rotation which is at Mount Mercy Apartments which serves an older population community. We are there on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have classes at Grand Valley on Wednesdays. The clinical professor seems really nice and invested in the place. I was sort of worried that it was going to be like my pysch rotation, but I'm pretty sure it is going to be okay and that I'll survive. Today we did the usual introductions, went over the course syllabus, and had a tour of the building. Then we started the first assignment called the Windshield assignment where we had to drive out around the community and observe the population and the resources they can use.