Today was a LONG day! Our 8 hour clinical day was an introductory 8 hour lecture day. NOT FUN! My back is very unhappy about sitting all day and my brain is FRIED. Normally the day will not be 100% lecture but since this is the first week they had a lot to tell us. The class is team taught by four professors but you register for the class with your clinical instructor. By law, teachers cannot be responsible for more than 8 students at a time in a clinical setting. So there's 32 students in the class and 4 professors. You do the math. :) I may be biased but my professor is the best. ;) She is the "leader" of the class, the coordinator of all the sections. The other professors (Prof Mock, Prof Harritos and Prof Dame -- listed into the order I feel they should be ranked) are just not as good at lecturing and holding my attention. Prof Dame was AWFUL -- reading the powerpoint presentation [mostly incorrectly]. For her student's sake, I hope she is a better clinical instructor than she is lecturer. And that's all I have to say about that!
I found out I will be going to Zambarano Hospital in Pascoag, RI. It is a long term care facility for people with life altering injuries resulting from accidents as well as disabilities that prevent them from providing total care for themselves. Most are "younger" and I say that comparing them to patients in a geriatric long term care facility. They require total care. It has been said that it is one of the best clinicals for this class and a great learning environment. I am so excited to go there, even though it won't be for 7 more weeks.
An interesting point to this class is that we take our final exam 8 weeks in. This is because we then spend the remainder of the semester at the hospital and have no more classroom time. That 8 weeks is CRAMMED with information and LOTS and LOTS of reading. I think I will pretty much spend the remainder of the semester reading some nursing book, and maybe finding the time to update this blog!
My clinical group is Karen (my good friend from last semester who was a Bio major first time round), Sarah (has her masters in elementary education), GiGi (has a psychology degree and is a breast cancer survivor), Nikki (an undergrad from NH on the 6 year plan at RIC), Vanessa (another undergrad on the 6 year plan) and Carolyn (a social worker looking to change careers). It seems like a really diverse dynamic group and I am looking forward to working with them. My professor, Prof. Servello, is the first person I have met thus far who has wanted to be a nurse since she was a child. Well, she really wanted to be a nurse or a teacher -- and now she is doing both!
I am super excited for this semester! I am also glad I have 5 days to do all the reading I need to do for next week because right now I feel like I have about 500 pages to read in five different books! EEK!
I really need my kids to go back to school so I can hit the books in peace! This weekend should be interesting -- trying to cram in the last of summer fun and get this reading done.
Until next week...
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