Nurse Sean (dot) com

Yes, it has been more than a month since my last post. However, after about seven years of blogging, I’m quite aware that my desire to post ebbs and flows. There will be times where I excitedly blog every day. Other times, I will go weeks without posting. Lets face it, blogging is a lot of work! I think the only regret I have is that regular posting generally equals regular readers. I crave the hordes of readers other bloggers have, but they typically post at LEAST once a day.

That’s enough talk about how often I post! Too many of my posts start with a similar speech. I also want to mention that I’m aware that I have been tagged for the “eight random things” meme. I will try writing that in the next couple days. For now, I would like to update my last few weeks!

Believe it or not, I took a vacation! It was the first time I had more than two or three days off in a row since I went to Boston for ten days…four years ago! And before my Boston trip, I hadn’t had more than two or three days off in a row since 1997 when I went to Seattle. One vacation in ten years is insanity! My habit was to just get my vacation paid out.

So, to have two weeks off felt great! I didn’t go anywhere and I didn’t do anything. I watched a lot of television, walked my dog often, played on the Internet, and read. The most exciting experience was buying my new car! I bought a 2007 Galaxy Grey Honda Civic LX coupe with a manual transmission.

The absolute highlight of my vacation was my David Lynch film festival. I watched Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., and several episodes of Twin Peaks…all in the same day. This weekend I am going to see his new movie, INLAND EMPIRE. I’ve heard it described as one of the craziest movie going experiences of all time. Apparently it makes no sense…and well…what else would I expect from David Lynch?

Charlie really is driving me to the brink of insanity. He’s a walking contradiction! He is so easy to train with simple obedience exercises. He has no problem learning how to sit, lie down, loose leash walk, and his recalls are nearly flawless and reliable. Unfortunately, his potty training is getting worse every day (despite taking him out every 2-3 hours and watching closely for signals that he has to pee. He is also SO destructive when it comes to ripping up paper. And after trying everything in the books and out of the mouths of our obedience trainers…he still bites…A LOT! So, sometimes it feels as though we have the greatest, smartest dog, and other times I’m nearly in tears wondering what I’m doing wrong.

Charlie is actually done his puppy classes (sadness). They were incredibly fun! A lot of it involved him just running around socializing (playing) with other dogs. Charlie loves chasing puppies, being chased by puppies, and play fighting with puppies. Even more than that, we adored our Friday nights watching dozens of incredibly cute puppies running and jumping. As one woman put it, “you can feel your blood pressure going down by the minute!”

He will be starting true obedience classes on June 7th. It’s time to get a bit more serious with the training! He will learn to increase his attention span, gain self-control, and all the usual basics (sit, lie down, loose leash walking, etc. etc.). I truly love the facility I’m using. They are so incredibly friendly and knowledgeable!

Well, I have worked three shifts since the end of my vacation. I feel calm and at peace while at work. There is definitely a different vibe within myself while I go about my day. I will admit that I lucked out with my patient assignment, but in general, I feel as though I am starting to really enjoy this career.

Which reminds me!!! I received my RN license in the mail! When people ask me if I’m an RN, I no longer have to answer, “Sort of…I have my degree…and I passed my test…but I’m waiting for my license to arrive in the mail.” Yes, it’s all over and official, I’m the real deal!

It has been fun during the last few days watching the undergraduate nurses starting their jobs on the unit. I’m fascinated by the fact that only one year ago I was exactly where they are now. I am amazed and proud of how far I have come since then. It has been one hell of a year!

Of course, I celebrated my graduation from school and my registration as a nurse by promptly signing up for the “Advanced Studies in Critical Care Nursing” program at Mount Royal College. It is five courses long (physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, and assessment of critical care patients, followed by a practicum) and will provide me with the beginning training needed to transition to the ICU or ER. So yes, starting in fall, I will once again be a nursing student! I’m still very disappointed in the lack of critical training in Canadian schools as a basic part of becoming an RN!

Well, after going a month without posting, I could go on for ages. However, this post is getting long! So, I have decided to stop here. I will try to be a better blogger in the coming weeks.

I have been a bad bad bad bad blogger. But who can blame me? I’m in the final throes of my nursing degree and I just don’t have the time. Today, I walked into the university and plopped down my final project of my final practicum of my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. It was a nasty project, as evidenced by the necessity of a table of contents. You KNOW a project is too long when it needs a table of contents. It was sixty-six pages in all.

Yesterday in the mail I received my license to practice nursing in Alberta. It is a temporary RN license pending the results of my Canadian Registered Nurse Examination. We have a horrible system here in Canada. Our test is hand-written and includes long answer questions. As a result it takes months to mark everyone’s exams. That means, I won’t receive my official license until April-ish (I think). Unfortunately, they won’t allow us to use the term RN. We have call ourselves Graduate Nurses (GN) until our licenses are permanent. So, there’s many months to go until I can write those magic letters.

My last shift as a nursing student is Friday 23:15 to 07:30, then I report to work at 07:15 Monday for my first shift as a paid, full-fledged nurse. It really doesn’t seem as exciting as it sounds. I have been working almost full time as a nurse since May. Sometimes it was paid, sometimes it was as a student. In the end, Monday will just feel like another day with pretty much nothing different.

I decided to work on the Surgical Oncology unit that I worked on during the summer. While it isn’t my favorite unit in terms of coworkers or patient load, it will certainly offer me infinite learning opportunities that I just couldn’t get otherwise. I also have other units emailing me from Calgary and Victoria trying to “woo” me. Seriously, if anybody likes the idea of people begging them to work for them without solicitation, become a registered nurse! We don’t have traditional interviews where managers ask us questions…instead, we get sales pitches

Anyway, I really don’t have much to say. I have just been completely enveloped in clinical shifts and writing horribly lengthy papers. Hopefully, as my life picks up, I will have more to talk about in my journal….not to mention more time!

I wanted to spread the word to nursing students, nurses, and health professionals alike. google video offers an entire year’s worth of anatomy lectures from Berkley!!!

Here is the first video in which I went from initial skepticism, to awe. While the lecturer doesn’t immediately look like she’d be enjoyable, once you start listening to her you get sucked right into her personality. She is energetic and unique. I found myself wishing that she had been my anatomy instructor. But, from now on, she can be whenever I would like!

I just finished watching the lecture on the urinary system (below). I learned a lot! She is thorough, consice, and interesting.

This is free education people! I am totally blown away that google and Berkley have made this available. I thank them profusely! Click here and search for “Biology 131″ for the rest of the anatomy lectures.

I won’t graduate for another year and a half, but I’m already mourning
the loss of education. I find myself dreaming of which courses,
certificates, degrees, and careers I will study for when I
finish. The world is my oyster…I could do a Master’s degree,
then PhD….or perhaps Med school Me? A Doctor?

One idea, a little more fun, would be to study natural medicing
(homeopathic, naturopathic, herbology, Chinese, etc.) and then work on
a Master’s degree and PhD in Nursing, with my research focusing on
integrating these into nursing.

But more and more, my brain keeps going back to books, and poetry, and
drama. I never would have imagined ten years ago, but I am
thinking about spending time working on an English degree.
Perhaps by correspondence.

Anyway, I should really work on getting my degree in nursing, and then
getting comfortable in my career before moving on. I just hate
the idea of not learning. That’s one of the reasons I chose
nursing. When you become a nurse, you sign up for a lifetime of
learning, and relearning.

As an aside to this, I have been watching the third season of ER…and
more and more, I am craving the adrenaline and excitment of emergency
nursing.

******

In all other news, time marches on….

Time marches on…is my favorite phrase. It represents two things
for me. First, it says that no matter what is happening in your
life, time will advance. Not even the greatest tragedy can stop
time. Not even the end of the universe. I’m no physics
expert, but I believe…that time, even after the end of it all, will
still be marching on.

It also represents a lull in my life. If life is a series of
meaninful events, than the phrase “Time Marches on” represents the time
between these events. It is my way of glossing over the mundane.

And right now, time is definitely marching on…

That’s not to say life is boring or dull…it’s just that nothing is
happening. I wake up, I go to work, I come home, I watch tv, I
spend weekends with R.

Soon, I will be moving in with R.; something I am extremely excited
about because I was convinced I would never be loved by anyone, so it
seems odd that it has come this far. Self-Esteem issues?
Nah, there was just too many romantic tragedies, so I was convinced the
world was against me in that department.

I also figured I’d be galavanting around the globe, using my nursing
skills in many countries and situations…I figured I wouldn’t have
time in my life for settling down. But let me tell you, the idea
is working for me!

I did almost quit my job last week, but my boss (who is, by far, the
most amazing, impressive boss I have had to date) talked me out of it,
and we decided to cut back my hours so that I could look for another
job. He was very supportive of my new desire to seek out a career
in my field.

Anyway, like I say, time marches on, and hopefully I have something
happy happen to me soon. So that just for a moment, time will
feel like it stops, just for me.

Pyrsos