I feel like at the start of every semester I have a "first day" post about some kind of first....and while I feel like some people might think they get old and redundant (like I mean come on how many "first days" can one girl really have)....I think first days are pretty special....and this one was no exception....
Me being the absolute scatterbrain crazy person that I am, I traded into an evening shift at work the day before my first day of my very first clinical ever! Don't ever think this is a good idea....it sucks...and heres why: in my exhausted state, I forgot to consult my 30 page syllabus. I thought "oh my clinical day is Wednesday...and my time is 0630...that's for sure when we first meet right?" WRONG! I wake up from my 3 hour nap, shower, get all dolled up in my super cute uniform, make the strongest cup of coffee possible and out the door I go. When I arrive on campus (we were meeting in one of the meeting rooms on campus to go over the clinical syllabus, meet our clinical instructors, and find out where exactly we were assigned before departing to our actual clinical sites)...there is no one there...and this was like 10 minutes before 0630. I frantically check my class novel (aka: the syllabus) and we aren't supposed to meet till 8am. After a few choice 4 letter words I venture out to find the closest Starbucks for coffee #2 and decide wasting an hour-ish wouldn't be the worst things to happen to me (it definitely beats over sleeping and being an hour late...which I'm pretty sure I dreamed about). So lesson learned: always read your syllabus....and never plan your day exhausted.
So our lecture class is divided in to smaller groups of about 8-10 people each assigned a clinical instructor. There's 8 of us in my group and our clinical instructor is young and seems super nice! (I don't know why but I find older nurses to be very intimidating and slightly scary so I'm glad we have someone who is personable and closer to our age) One of my very first nursing school friends I made in class the first week (a girl who sits beside me who is super nice and also lives in Iowa City and works at the hospital--yay for friends!) is in my group...which was very exciting! The other girls seemed super nice too so I'm excited to get to know them and our patients! After going over the 10 page clinical syllabus we finally departed to our clinical site.
As far as assisted living facilities go, this one seems to be super nice and a little on the swanky side! We toured the facility and I had this moment where I thought....I could totally see myself working in assisted living (you all know my heart will always be with the old peeps). I don't know if I'll feel this about every clinical site....but I am quite thrilled with the possibilities my first experience holds.
Every week we'll be assigned a patient to complete an assignment on, and by the end of the class we'll be able to complete a head to toe assessment in 15 minutes. First up is the Health History assignment and I can't wait to get started!!! Hurry up next Wednesday!
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