There's a party in my tummy!!

Have I ever told you how much I love party planning? Well if not, now you know.


Seriously, other than Nursing, I would absolutely LOVE to be a professional party planner. Corporate events, kid’s birthdays, adult parties, weddings, whatever. There is something amazing about planning a fantastic party, then seeing all your hard work come together for a few hours of fun. Plus I love that feeling I get when people talk about my parties for months afterwards. I love it when people come to me for ideas for their own parties and I get to help them out. There is something therapeutic about working for hours on all the little details of a party and then bringing them all together.

I chose Nursing instead because it is less risky than starting my own business. Plus, I am not the type to go out and beg for business so I would probably get nowhere fast. I wish I could team up with an outgoing person who could do all the face to face work while I sit behind the scenes and plan. That would be perfect. Unfortunately, I have yet to come across a person who shares my passion for parties as much as I do and who wouldn’t mind being in the trenches so to speak. Yet another downfall to my extremely introverted personality.

I share all this with you because this is what I am filling my time with while I wait. Wait for my acceptance letter, wait for my state CNA exam to be scheduled, wait for Nursing school to start.

First up was my daughter’s second birthday party. Where I normally start planning these a few months in advance, this one I kinda threw together at the last minute. It was the first time I have attempted to make my own cake/cupcakes and I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself for how they turned out.

(For those of you scratching your heads, wondering what the hell that is - check out Yo Gabba Gabba ) The party also went off pretty well too. Everyone had a great time, and Brynn absolutely LOVED every minute of it.

Next is our big annual Halloween party. I am fortunate that my husband loves this holiday as much as I do and puts up with our parties getting bigger and bigger every year. This one is usually the talk of our circle of friends for months before and months afterward. I have already started getting questions about what this year’s theme is going to be, I haven’t released it yet (gotta keep them in suspense for a little bit longer while I work out more details) but they all seem pretty excited about it already. This year I am attempting to make my own costume as well which is turning out to be pretty interesting considering I have never used a sewing machine before. It is also turning out to be more challenging since I am jobless and we are on a pretty tight budget. Normally I go crazy. This year I have to figure out how to put on a fabulous party, while sticking to a slim budget.

So there you have it. If you were wondering what has been going on with me, now you know. Don’t be surprised if my blog gets filled up with my Halloween projects while I wait, and wait and wait and wait. I have GOT to keep myself busy or I am going to go insane with anxiety.

More waiting...

I wasn't able to take the test yesterday as planned. I had to pay for the test before I was able to take it and I totally spaced that the business office would be closed on Sundays.

I did take it this morning though, even after all signs pointed to maybe it wasn't a good day to take it. (Running around getting my daughter ready for her first day of school, waking up to shit and vomit all over my office from the dog we are taking care of, the little one waking up SCREAMING and just being a complete crab all morning) I am happy to say that I score 100% on the math portion of the test, which was obviously the one I focused all my studying on and was also the one I was most nervous about.

I did not do as well on the reading part though. This was the only section that counted towards our entrance scores. I got a 91.3%, still pretty good, but I was hoping for a better score. I am a little disappointed in myself. It is what it is though right?

This means I am applying to the Spring 2011 nursing program with a 11.652 out of 12 points.

I really hope it is good enough. Normally I wouldn't be worried, but the scores are REALLY high this time.

So now I wait. Wait for my score to populate in the system, then once I turn in my application, I wait for my acceptance/denial letter to come in the mail.

The next two months are going to be torturous.

Send me your good luck thoughts!!!

I go in tomorrow to take my HESI. I have put it off long enough. This is the only thing that is standing between me and nursing school.

I'm freaking out a bit.

And That's That.

I am two days away from the end of this hellish summer semester. I just finished up my last three discussion posts and my last quiz for my pharm class. I am so glad to be done with that class. Even though I might have pulled an A out of my ass (I’m sitting at a 90 before the last three posts are graded), I am sad to say I have learned pretty much nothing. I will most definitely be taking this class again once I get into the program. Nice waste of time and money that was.

My stinky (literally) PE class ends with a fitness test tomorrow (woo hoo! <-- sarcasm) and a final on Thursday. I plan on taking the dreaded HESI test on Saturday and hopefully I will be putting in my application for the Spring 2011 nursing program by this time next week.

My CNA class is still moving along. We are finished with the lecture portion and I have three more days of clinicals left. I won’t be able to take my state exam until sometime toward the end of September though. I am still at odds with what I want to do with it. I know getting a job at the nursing home I am at now will be fairly easy but the more time I spend there, even though I have come to like some of the residents, I really don’t see myself happy working there. I have glanced through some job postings at the local hospitals and most want 6 months to a year of experience. (should I have expected any differently?) I think I am just going to apply anyways. Why the hell not right?

 

Confusing First Clinical Experience

Hello there! Long time no post. I know. Shame on me. I have been SLAMMED with school/work/kids/sickness for the past few weeks. Only a few more weeks to go until this crazy semester is over then it is on to the next one (which will hopefully be a bit more relaxing)

I had my first clinical experience for my CNA program yesterday and I left feeling sad but at the same time elated. It was actually a very strange feeling.

I have heard stories about CNA’s. How they are lazy, give bad care, and just don’t care about their job or the people they are caring for. The facility that we are doing our clinicals at is a VERY nice facility. When you walk in you get the feeling you are in an expensive hotel rather than a nursing home. I mistakenly thought this facility was going to be different. Boy was I wrong.

The CNA I was assigned to was absolutely terrible. I know it isn’t my place to judge after only three hours with her, but I don’t have to be an experienced CNA to know how awful she really is at her job. First of all, she told me to go feed one of her patients. I sat there and chatted with this lady as I was feeding her while CNAss sat in the corner on her cell phone the entire time. When I finished up, CNAss walked out of the room and left me there alone. The resident asked me for her cell phone. I tried to find it but couldn’t and went to hunt down CNAss to see if she knew where it would be. I finally found her shoving a huge piece of cake in her mouth at the nurse’s station and when I asked her about the phone she told me to look on the nightstand as it should be on the charger. I go back in, find the charger but not the phone and in comes CNAss. She rips off this lady’s sheets, throws up her gown completely exposing this poor lady to everyone that walked by (yes, the door and privacy curtain were WIDE open) and says “Mrs. So&so, where’s your phone? We don’t know where it is. I guess your daughter took it. Take it up with her when she comes in”. I was shocked but didn’t know what to do and sheepishly hung my head and walked out of the room with CNAss.

Next, we run into this little old man strolling through the hall in his wheelchair. CNAss starts chatting with him. She was actually pretty friendly and I thought, maybe she just had a bad moment. We collect trays from the residents rooms and when we were done, she again walks up to this man, bumps me on the shoulder, says “watch this” and says to him “Mr. Confused, do you remember talking to me today” He looks at her and says “No, when did we talk? Who are you?” and she starts laughing and walks away.

Finally, she takes me into a room to get a resident dressed and into his wheelchair. She goes in, rips off his sheets, starts rudely quizzing him on what he is going to wear, rolls him over to find he had wet himself and rolls her eyes while letting out a huge sigh. She mumbles something about needing the wipes and again, walks out of the room with me standing there holding this man on his side, door wide open, residents naked butt hanging out all over the place (yes, I covered him). We get him cleaned up and in his wheelchair (the whole time she is laughing and mumbling something about paying her cell phone bill) and she disappears, yet again. I hunt her down, again, and ask her where this gentleman needs to go. “I don’t know, wherever he wants” was her response. I go back in, ask him where he would like to go and take him there. CNAss is nowhere to be found so I find the linen closet, gather up new sheets and start changing and cleaning his bed. His roommate was in there reading a paper and asks me to open the curtains and the blinds and close the door. I say “sure thing, I would be happy to” do as he requests and get back to changing the bed. He puts his paper down, looks at me and says “I just have to tell you, you are such a joy to be around. You have really made my day”.

That was the point I started feeling confused.

It was such a nice thing to hear and he actually ended up making my day but I barely said two words to this man. If me just being nice makes his day what does that say about the care he is getting there? Is he normally not treated with courtesy and respect? What about everyone else there? From what I have seen, there was no respect to be found.

I left with a smile on my face because I found that I really liked working with the residents a lot more than I thought I would. I was so proud of myself for not freezing up and being able to get in there and do what I needed to do. They were so sweet and it really made me feel good to be able to help them, but I also wanted to cry. I HATED seeing the way they were treated. I couldn’t believe that there would be people working there that acted that way. I just don’t understand why you would do that job if you hated it so much. I mean, you could probably make more money working at Wal-Mart than being a CNA and not have to work as hard. It isn’t fair to the residents to get a nasty CNA like that.

I was excited to do clinicals at this facility because it was such a nice place and I knew they would possibly be hiring a few of us students after we were tested, but now, I’m not even sure I want to do this anymore if I have to work with people like that.