YEAR 2!!!!!!!!!!!!

So summer is over and I feel like I have so much to catch you up on!!! During my last blog, I was 1/2 way done with summer school. Finals and work went well. I absolutely loved my Brigham and Women's Hospital maternity rotation. I even got to see a birth (which I have to admit, made me cry)!!! Then we were awarded with a whole month off at the end of the summer in August. I went on a couple trips to NYC and Foxwoods to have some fun before starting up again in the fall. Finally, I applied for a job as a Medical Assistant at Harvard Vanguard in Somerville and got it!!! So now I also work every other weekend as a medical assistant taking patients’ initial vital signs, finding out their chief complaints, performing lab samples, and assisting the clinicians with their daily needs.

As you can see, I made it through the summer and now it's time to start with the fall of my second year. This semester, I will be taking complex care, community health nursing, and advanced pathophysiology. I have a clinical that accompanies community in which I will be spending 6 weeks performing home care visits at the Bedford VA and 3 weeks at Rosie’s Place in Boston. Rosie’s Place is a sanctuary for poor and homeless women, offers emergency and long-term assistance to women who have nowhere else to turn. Also, I will be having my preceptorship at Winchester Hospital in the ICU. I am really excited to begin this because I will be shadowing a RN throughout her daily life as a nurse. She will teach me everything I need to know about the Winchester policies and the regular routine in a nurse’s schedule on a 1 to 1 level. Rather than being with a clinical group with one clinical instructor, I will have the opportunity to experience the nurse’s role first hand and get a more individualized experience. I will be beginning both of these rotations next week.

This week was the first week of fall classes. I began with complex care and community health nursing on Tuesday and advanced pathophysiology on Wednesday. The classes were great. I’m really looking forward to getting into the material and preparing to take the NCLEX following this semester. Two of the professors are new to me and our advanced pathophysiology professor is that same as pharmacology from 1st semester. It is difficult to get back into the swing of things after having a whole month off. I’m definitely keeping organized and attempting to keep up on the readings and workload of the semester. We also had community orientation and an IV med lab this week. These were set up to prepare us for the clinical rotations we have ahead of us this semester and to let us know what we would be in for.

That’s all for now. I’ll have another update next week and let you know how clinicals go!

- Katie : )