This is my last week of vacation before I start orientation. On Monday my practice permit arrived via the mail and that is the last piece before boards. I'm studying as much as I can with my kids hanging over me. Three years seemed to go slow and, as I stated earlier, I relish every moment. I hope everyone has a great 4th.

With the summer in full swing, my Mr. Mom duties are coming to a close. Even though I say picking up, dropping off, bed making and separating Thing 1 and Thing 2 (as I lovingly call my children) from their sweating drives me nuts, I know I will miss these duties. This career change has provided me with an opportunity to spend some long quality ...

As I study for boards and prepare for July, I began to get fidgety and anxious hoping the days go by faster so July arrives sooner. After this weekend, I will not wish the days away. Following a round golf, I sat with two friends discussing distressing news regarding a fellow golfer. This fellow golfer was diagnosed with a degenerative ...

Well I finally obtained a nursing position and will start in July. Meanwhile, I will spend my days preparing for boards. This includes a board prep class. I will not give you the name as I am not a paid spokesman. What I can say it has provided some great strategies to answer questions. Thanks for reading; time to hit the books.

Although the school year has come to an end, I want to relate a few more experiences I had as a freshman student nurse. As a big portion of my second semester grade in my Introduction to Professional Nursing class (my only true nursing course my freshman year) was scenario testing. Scenario testing was a demonstration of how a student nurse would ...

We entered critical care as our last clinical rotation and I am absolutely loving it. I come home each day exhausted from running around and speaking to numerous specialties. On my first day, I walked into the room of my first patient and find the patient's SPO2 in the high 80s with the nasal cannula near his ears. After I adjusted the nasal ...

I switched my schedule at the health center to provide care to patients with HIV. I found it to be rewarding experience. The health center's patients lack health insurance which adds to the heavy burden of HIV. Every patient I cared for were so upbeat and feeling well. I expected to see sad, sick and emaciated people. This was not the case. ...

I switched from the home health rotation to the community health centers last week. These facilities provide numerous services ranging from immunizations to HIV-related issues to local residents. For the last two days, the nurses from the health center asked that I triage each patient. I did not know what to expect from these patients. Working in ...

I had just started a new full-time job at a nearby convalescent/rehab center. I found that the question I was asked repeatedly upon first meeting another nurse was ''How long have you been a nurse?'' It seems to be one of the most common questions nurses ask each other upon meeting, besides, of course, ''Are you an RN or an LPN?''- But that is a ...

People ask me how I will close my blog as my time as a student comes to a conclusion. It is a difficult question to answer as this semester will include job search, board prepartion and school work. As I look at those items, I find the position search very intriguing. What skill sets from other jobs or industries will translate? Will perspective ...