Shaping with shape ups...

Before finishing nursing school I made a comment about getting new nursing shoes. I had used nurse mates for years and the last ones I got totally dissapointed me :'(   $65 and a lot of foot ache.

Given that my birthday is in November, my mom asked "so, what do you want for your birthday?" 
I said... if I, or you *wink* *wink*, had the money I would get a new pair of shoes to use while doing my preceptorship.  I feel I'm going to lose my feet after 12 hours running around the ER!" 
Mom - "how about those shoes on TV that make you get a butt, and nice legs?"
Me- "what are you trying to say?" Obviously I wasn't refering to the shoes...
Mom- "those shoes that look like a rocking chair"
Me- "no idea. get to me with that later"

20 mins later...

Me-  "the shape ups??!!"
Mom- "the what?"
Me- "the rocking chair shoes, mother"
Mom- "yeah what about them?"
Me- "that's what I want for my birthday!!!"

Two days later... (days before my birthday I must say), my mom took me to the mall and bought me the shape ups!  (For a review click here)  I was SO excited, I used them the next day I had preceptorship.  I guess I had never paid much attention to other nurses shoes as I did that day.  Most of them already had them... and were loving them.  When I got home I could feel the burn on my calves and my butt.  SO in love with them.  Only thing I noticed was that you can't stay standing still for a long period of time... therefore, I rocked back and forth. I'm sure a lot of people thought I had some kind of physical issue LoL.

Today after a long time without using them, I took them out, put them on, and embarked on a walk with my two dogs. I felt as wonderful as I felt the first day I wore them, I'm in love... all over again :)

Here again

Gee!! It has been soo long since the last time I posted anything. I started really excited and I faded away... well, no more says I. I am proud to announce that after 7 years of prerequisites, struggle, falling down and getting up, many instructors, patients and lessons learned... I finally graduated from nursing school...

5 months ago :D

My preceptorship was an exciting adventure. 132 hours in the Emergency Department, which sometimes served as the ICU, being blessed by the knowledge of not only one but many preceptors including doctors, lab technicians, and even paramedics. I was able to do my preceptorship during the night shift, hence the lack of writting during that time. I spent most of my free time catching up on sleep or reading in preparation for my NCLEX.

I prepared for my NCLEX with Kaplan and the most wonderful instructor one could ever ask for. She made everything I learned during my LVN and RN years make even more sense, and click. Every day that I attended class, I could feel the neurons jolting in my brain and making new connections.

NCLEX was the most weird expericence. I sat for 1hour and 45 minutes going trhough several questions... finished at 75 ... the minimum. I wish I could describe the feeling I got when the computer shut off. I just sat there, staring at the screen for what felt like hours but in reality was just seconds, I took a deep breath, raised my hand... and left the building feeling neither good nor bad. I was in a very calm state, wish I could feel that way more often ;) . It was a twilight zone type of feeling (I could hear the theme song playing in my head as I drove home). Two weeks later.... I passed!!! Fully licensed, and ready for action Registered Nurse.

Which brings me to today, 5 months after graduation, 3 months after passing NCLEX ... and with a mission = find a job. A place where I can be the nurse I've always wanted to be, where I can learn and be taught, a perfect match for me... I know you are out there. We'll see each other ... soon. :)

Missing that old friend

And I'm talking about my nursing book :( . I was helping my boyfriend (who is in 2nd semester RN) with his homework and all of a sudden I felt very emotional about the fact that I won't be in nursing school for a while!!! I know it sounds crazy but I really miss it... the whole learning experience and associating things with prior learning whoo! Can't wait till I'm completely done and graduated so I can look forward to either the bachelors or masters or both?

I will, however, promise myself to never let my knowledge wither away, learning should grow not die...and this isn't the end for it.

My heart will go on...

The beginning of it...

So this is it. After listening to my wonderful clinical instructor talk about blogs, I thought... hey! why not? ... but wait till after finals (while I bit my nails because I hadn't done any studying for it). Aaaand, as you may guessed, this IS after our final exam which I am proud to announce (fanfare) I passed :D



I have been a nursing student for a looooooong time, started my prereqs back in 2002, entered the LVN program in 2006 after crying my eyes out in front of the class, finally joined the RN program on 2008... failed it at the beginning of 2009... and rejoined at the beginning of fall and finally i'm done... well... almost done, I still have preceptorship :D

This has been a long and hard path to walk, and from now on I will try to blog about the stuff that I learn during preceptorship and during my career :)

Welcome all !!!