Life as a Nursing Student

If anyone notices the time that I post this you will probably get an idea of how my life has been for the past 3 weeks. Yes, I am already 3 weeks into nursing school, and two weeks into working as a PCT at Mercy. I am finding that the only time I have for anything (laundry, showering, eating, studying, blogging, snuggling Zoey) is late at night, or early in the morning depending on how you look at it. I pretty much get up at about 7:30 everyday (or earlier depending on Zoey) get ready, head to class till around 12:30, come home study, and then on the days I have been working head to Mercy at about 2:45 for my 3-11:30 shift. I have been getting home around midnight, showering and then doing homework, cleaning up my room, or trying to feel relax and like I have total control over my life! I am beginning to understand the life of a nursing student!

I started my first week at Mercy as a PCT last week and wow do I love it! I have already gotten to see so much and I am really loving the people that I work with. I think it will really be great experience for me in the long run because of how much I am getting to see just at work. The nurses have been great at inviting me into the room to watch procedures and see interesting patients that I may not get to see during my clinicals. They have also been so welcoming and really excited that I am going to be a nurse. It just makes me look forward to April 28, 2012 even more :)Right now I am in the orientation phase of work. I work with another PCT who has been there for about 17 years. For the most part I am getting to know the floor, how things work, and all of my responsibilities. I have about 6 more shifts of orientation, and then I am on my own!

Back to school...I have a pretty decent schedule for actual class time, Thursday is my only long day and it is because we have clinical, and then I don't even have class on Fridays! I am really seeing though how much that extra time comes in handy. I really have a lot to learn in school and definitely won't get by just skimming the chapters and cramming before tests. My anatomy class is proving to be the hardest so far. There is so much to know about the human body, and never really having taken a science class at this level really doesn't help. I have found out that I really need to put the time into studying for this class and learning the material. It is also pretty much the foundation for everything I will be doing too, so I feel like it is so important to actually learn and know it! My other 3 classes are going great too, Nursing Theory, Nursing Skills, and Chemistry. We have our first clinical this week so I will make sure to post about it afterward!

Okay, that's it for now, I have a test in Nursing Theory tomorrow at 8am that I need to finish studying and getting sleep for :)