Well it’s time to talk about what I learned this semester. I’m a little older, no wiser and have had the better part of my personality sucked out of me.

Here we go!

1.Geriatrics: expectations vs reality.

Disguised as like “Health Illness Concepts” but it’s straight up a geriatrics course. A lot of current nurses warned me this was their least favorite rotation but honestly it was fine. The theory portion was a lot tougher than classes had been at this point. The clinical was in a long term care facility and it wasn’t so bad. Reminded me of my Pine Rest days. I liked the homey feel and getting to know the residents. It’s not glamorous by any means but it has its perks.

2. I felt like I got to know my cohort better.

This semester we merged the two cohorts together so I’ve met mostly everyone now. I feel like clinical has made us feel like we’ve been in the foxholes together and since we’ve been going straight since the end of April everyone is kind over any projected personification and is being stripped down to their raw personalities.

3. Let’s get surgical, surgical surgical. I wanna make your body bleed.

I got to observe a surgery this semester. I don’t think the surgical life is the one for me. A patient can’t laugh at my jokes with a tube in their throat and no one warns you about the burning flesh smell. (Except for Nicole Boomgaard, thank you for the heads up.)

4. I’ve had to attempt to grow thicker skin.

Nursing school is a constant state of feedback and evaluation. Every thought and action you have is questioned and while it’s a good way to promote critical thinking it’s also a way to constantly be filled with self-doubt. It’s easy to take things personally and it can sour your spirit but ultimately it’s best for your learning but hard on a sensitive soul such as myself.

5. The pharmacy is open.

We started off just talking about a few meds at a time but now we are in it med wise. It was a lot of medications to learn with weird strategies to memorize. One involving a blind, pooping, dinosaur as way to remember Tetracyclines.

6. It is clear we need a break.

The collective exhaustion is palpable. The irritably, the sleepy eyes and weight gain (speaking for myself not calling anyone out). Everyone started out so sweet and perky and now even the Elle Woods type people are saying shit like “I don’t know what the fuck she was talking about it lecture today, I was just on amazon the whole time.”

7. I experienced my first code blue.

It was a jarring experience and some of us were able to do CPR on this patient. It was a great learning experience for us, but definitely a wake up call to what nursing can look like.

8. The actual school is busier.

When we started it was summer and literally no one was on campus but us. We could eat at Subway alone in the basement and park like the gods we thought we were. Now we have to leave an hour earlier to get good parking for afternoon lecture and are surrounded by 18 year olds to make me feel 100.

9.  I am now that person who takes two days to respond to a message.

When someone texts me or emails me I have to internalize it for a solid 48 hours before I can respond unless the question “are you hungry?”.  My brain is just out of room and I feel like a terrible friend/son/brother but whenever I have any down time I just want to lay down.

10. Even though all you do is study you still feel like you know nothing.

Which is obviously not true but everything is so intimidating. They will be talking about something in class and everyone is nodding along and you’re like “am I the only one who is lost or doesn’t know what a saline lock means?” Once you talk to everyone you realize they are all just faking it too.