Just keep swimming...thoughts about nursing school so far

I am partway through my second week of nursing school.  The main thing that I want to say, is that while it is busy, it is doable.  I know that I am just beginning, and that things will get much busier and the material will get more difficult, but so far a big part of nursing school is being able to manage your time. Just because we just started does not mean that we are getting things easy. There is tons of reading to be done, activities to complete, labs to practice the skills for, and projects already assigned. For the most part, I have to say, I am loving it. The instructors are actually surprisingly kind, and told us that they have a lot invested in us. Did you know that one third of the total cost of a nurse's training is their tuition during nursing school?  The other 2/3 is invested by the employer. I learned that a few days ago, and it goes to show that that's one of the reasons that the instructors and the school, as well as the hospitals around us want to see us succeed. After reading some horror stories about students all being super competitive and mean to each other, I am pleased to say that so far my class has been nothing but kind, friendly, and helpful to one another. Seems we are all in this together.

I am very blessed to not have to be working during the program. Some people are trying to work part time, and I cannot imagine working at all especially when I have two kids at home. Barrett is already picking up a lot of the slack by keeping the house clean, chauffeuring the kids around to their activities, and keeping dinners made. I have also started to tap into my frozen meals that I had prepared over the summer. Those are for nights that I am home before Barrett. I am such an all or nothing person that sometimes it is hard for me to know when to stop studying! There isn't a ton of material yet, but I know that we need to know it fairly well.  I also need to be able to spend time with my family and my children. So far I have set up Friday nights and all day Saturday to be time with my kids and or time with Barrett. This has worked thus far but I've only had one weekend and I know that sometimes I will need to tap into that time for extra studying. I figure that everybody needs some personal time or fun time. It can't be all work, or we will get burned out before even being a nurse. I have started to get discouraged just once or twice so far, and then I remind myself of things that I've been through that have been much tougher. My first year of teaching I was a brand-new teacher with no experience, not even student teaching, because I was hired as an intern. During that time when I started I had a two-month-old baby and a two-year-old at home. My husband at the time was not very supportive of me being in school (that's the understatement of the year), and I was going to school full-time as well to work to attain my teaching license. This had me driving an hour one way to Salem two nights a week (after not sleeping through the night and then working all day at a new career) for three hour night classes as well as going in on Saturdays. I also had a class online. And I think to myself, that if I could do that, (and it must've been pure adrenaline getting me through), then I can do anything.

One thing that I've been really excited to learn about is opportunities in nursing. We have talked just a little bit about some of the different specialties with the instructors, or at least my group has. We've talked about going on further than our associates degrees and what there is to offer for people who go further. It is hard exactly to know what I want to do when we have yet to set foot in the hospital. That is coming up! In just two short weeks, and I start on the oncology floor. I'm very excited about that, because it's one of the areas that I want to rule out (or in!). One thing that keeps resonating with me is that the instructors talk a lot about intuition and knowing when to listen to your gut feeling. Part of that, is the ideas that you have about different areas of nursing often before you've even experienced them. Many areas are a love it or hate it thing. While sometimes you will indeed change your mind and decide that you love something you thought you would hate or vice versa, often people have a little voice that directs them to what they think they will like or to what they already love.  I am trying to jot down the feelings that I get about different areas so that I can keep track of how I have felt about them. So far, I am not interested at all in intensive care nursing. There's something about the ICU that I do not want to work with. I think it's the fact that there are so many complex machines that are helping keep  people alive. I am not interested in learning how to run them, although I'm sure I will get some overview of that. So it goes to show that I'm also not interested in any of the areas that are highly technical. Some of the areas that I think I will be interested in are: labor and delivery, possibly emergency department (it definitely goes with my need for variety personality), anything that involves lots of teaching like community health nursing or perhaps working for a community health organization like Red Cross, and possibly… There's this little voice right now that keeps whispering to me Pediatrics. And I smile and laugh because this is the girl who never wanted kids, and then had two and loves being a mom. The girl who never wanted kids and became a teacher, and loved interacting with all of the students.  So some of you may be laughing and nodding and saying you're not surprised at all, but to me it comes as a surprise and I keep kind of pushing away the little voice, and then I remind myself that the little voice is often very important. So I'm excited to try out pediatrics when I can, and I don't really know where to go with that if I love it.  Perhaps a pediatric nurse practitioner is an option. I have not completely ruled out being a nurse practitioner, but I keep leaning towards doing something that's more in education like eventually being a nursing instructor. Surprise, surprise.

I am so excited and blessed to have begun this journey. I think that the two years will fly by (although I am sure there  will be days that feel like they aren't flying). I could not do this without the support from my wonderful husband, my parents, and our grandparents that are so willing to help us with the kids and anything else. I also couldn't do this without the understanding of my kids. So far they have been wonderful and understanding my need to study and very curious about what mom is learning at school. It's kind of funny. Because I keep having to tell them mom doesn't really know anything yet. But they are more than willing to listen and to let me practice on them. I love the health professions building. Did I mention that it has a coffee shop?? Yeah, I probably did. That's all for now.