A Week In My Life

So this week was, I have to say, pretty amazing. I started my consolidation caring for kids on dialysis. This is a very specific area of care so I have a lot to learn about nephrology and my patients, who are very special people. I'm sure I will learn a lot from them as well. I have learned so much and then at the same time I've had so much fun! The people I am working with are great people; happy, rounded, giving, intelligent. It's so nice working in an environment where people love their jobs and they don't let the little things interfere with that. Also, they are not taken for granted, they work hard for a good cause and they are respected by their colleagues. This is the kind of environment I want to work in, I don't think nurses should have to work as hard as they do if they don't enjoy the environment and they don't have a team of support around them. Sadly it seems a lot of my colleagues think they need to work on floors like that before they find a job where they are excited to work every day! So I am going to do my best to stick to my guns and never settle for an area that I do not love, because we all deserve that. But I do believe that it takes hard work to create an environment that fosters positive energy, so I am going to try my best to be a hard working, honest team member where ever I am working.

Whoa didn't mean to rant. Just wanted to say that I love my consolidation placement!

And then....! on Tuesday I arrived home from my consolidation orientation to find my wonderful boyfriend and our darling puppies walking down my street! What an amazing surprise! We proceeded to have a really busy but amazing week together. My life is feeling very complete and very exciting! Something new happens everyday and I'm learning so much all the time, and Marc-Andre and I are looking forward to the next several months, when all the questions about "what happens after you graduate" will be answered! Plus we have these two sweet puppies! And they are turning out really well, we love them so much and are very proud :D Good work Marc-Andre! They are a lot of work and if it wasn't for him they wouldn't be the well behaved little monkeys they are! Luckily it's easing up a bit now that they are over the 6 month hump!

So now they're all back in Penetanguishene, and I'm going to start my second week! Wish me luck!

Consolidating 4 Years of Education

My first week in my final semester of 4th year has been so exciting! I have been very busy coordinating all the coming events of the next 4 months including, consolidation, Grad clothing, grad events, and applying for my first RN position. (Luckily I am working with two awesome ladies for Grad events!). Planning Ahead; that was the theme of the week because my classmates and I are all going to be scattered in our consolidation placements for the next 2 months and will not get to come together until our final classes in March! We are entering the workplace as independent, knowledgeable and accountable professionals and we have worked hard to earn each of those adjectives. My education in nursing has been so rich in growth and seeing all my classmates grow with me has really been a great experience. When I went in to that last set of exams I was really amazed at how far we had come since first year. I remember feeling scared and nervous because I wasn't sure if I had studied properly or feeling overwhelmed by the content, often underestimating myself; but studying for my last finals I found that we were all thinking like nurses. We could sort through a complex case study, thinking critically and prioritizing the different factors with educated reasoning. I saw everyone do it, using the tools we have learned like pros! No one can do multiple choice like a nursing student!

As busy as this week has been I have found myself starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Things keep falling in to place in my head. I have an idea where I want to be in 6 months, in 1 year, in 5 years! I know it will change but I know what I want to feel when I look at my life and my career and that is a sense of peace, achievement and excitement. I am looking forward to my consolidation because I know it will help form me in to the nurse that I need to be to be successful. I love nursing because I have the ability to help people through times that seem out of their control, I get to help them take control and I get to learn about people and the amazing ways they live their lives.

And with that I am going to ice my shoulder because I got my seasonal flu shot today and (for the first time in my life) the injection site is sore, haha.

But I will leave you with this:

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong - because someday you will have been all of these.

-George Washington Carver