1st Week Completed

Whew! I did it! I made it through my 1st official week of Nursing school and there were already some big changes!!

As of July 15th, Texas A&M Health Science Center is officially a part of the Texas A&M University system! WHOOP! I'm sure there are a lot of great things that will be happening but I think the best part of this merger is that my fellow classmates will be able to receive their Aggie Rings! Since receiving mine almost 2 years ago, many students were worried they wouldn't meet the requirements to receive one. And the impossible became possible! So excited that they will be able to participate in an amazing tradition. 

And on to the juicy details of my week...Mondays & Tuesdays I go to my Fundamentals lecture and lab. Lecture was over basics - vital signs, the nursing process, and general surveys. Lab was when we were able to get our hands on some vitals equipment and practice. Blood Pressure deemed to be the most difficult for everyone. My group of 5 practiced and practiced. Some girls had trouble palpating the brachial artery. The rest had trouble hearing the sounds through the stethoscope as we attempted to measure each other's BP. Because of this some of the professors allowed some to practice on them while advising to practice as much as possible and do not get checked off on our skills until we've measured 50 successful BPs. I hope when I start learning more, I remember to write out my acronyms or nursing lingo for y'all!  

Lab couldn't last too much longer because we were sent to attend our Scroll Ceremony. We were going to receive a scroll displaying the Nursing Code of Ethics. This year, they decided to do something a little different. Each one of my classmates and I were paired with a senior student to be our mentor. They gave us our scroll, led us to sign the "book" that will be kept forever and serves as a reminder that we signed to uphold the ethics and answered our questions during the lunch. My mentor is Chelsea. She has been married for almost 2 year and has her Bachelor's degree from A&M. I think she's smart, beautiful, funny, down-to-earth and very helpful. We've been messaging back and forth about school and other interests. Today, I asked her about the textbooks I need for Fall and gave me advice on which ones to buy or not. 

On Tuesday afternoons, the SIM lab is open for practice. So following the luncheon, my lab group went back up to get some more BP practice. It went ok but we decided to get more practice in on Wednesday so I scheduled a room. Dr. Livingston - one of the few male instructors on staff - gave some great advice. He said that we should practice and come to the SIM lab as much as possible. With that said, if he saw us in the lab other than our scheduled times, he would remember that and possibly be easier on us when we have our skill check-offs or exams. BROWNIE POINTS PLEASE!!!

Wednesday & Thursday were long...we learned about Ethics, Values and Culture and were introduced to our Librarian who lectured on how to research proficiently. Following that, we were introduced to our Health Care Issues paper, which is due August 1st. I'm pretty sure I'm writing mine on ObamaCare...hisssss... I was at Hoffer's Auto Care and Fox News had a segment that said the plan was going to increase the cost of health care for young, healthy Americans. I initially didn't know what to think about this because I'm not very political but since I'm going into the health care field, I need to learn about this and other legislation. So give me a few days and I'll have some knew knowledge... Oh, I also made a 100 on our 1st quiz...super proud of myself!

Hopefully I can get my paper done quickly and keep up with all of the reading because these 5 weeks are going to go by very quickly. I'm home this weekend. Justin needed to help his dad in the field and my Dad just returned home from an Aggie Safari. Heading upstairs to read and get some early zzz's since a train was SUPER LOUD at 0500 and I didn't really sleep after that. I'm officially in the early morning risers club...yay! No, that is sarcasm even though I've never really slept past 0930. 

Thank you for reading and prayers. I love y'all!

A