Sunday's Specialty - Rehabilitation Nursing

This week’s specialty comes to us from RehabRN. After you read what she has to say about Rehabilitation Nursing, hop on over to her blog to check out the rest of her posts. She has some great stories over there, along with some links to some really good articles.


Rehab Nursing...the good, the bad, the ugly

I like to tell people that my job as a rehabilitation nurse involves teaching people how to live. Patients come to inpatient rehabilitation for two main reasons: they need 24 hour nursing care and they need physical, occupational, speech or other therapies, and can tolerate them a minimum of three hours per day.

People come to rehab for a variety of specific reasons, too. They could be debilitated from a heart attack, pneumonia, surgery, or sometimes following hospitalization for a chronic condition. Many patients need to rebuild their endurance to go home. Most commonly, however, patients are sent to rehab following a stroke, traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. In addition, there are also specialized rehab programs for the blind and amputees.

In terms of where you work, you can work in many rehab settings with just an LPN license or as a diploma nurse. Baccalaureate trained nurses are often preferred. Your experience can vary, because you’ll need both those med-surg skills, such as starting IVs, tube feedings, inserting catheters, as well as other specialized skills you’ll learn along the way. You may assist doctors in performing procedures on the unit, such as changing tracheotomy tubes, lumbar punctures or complex wound dressings. Some facilities may also want you to maintain ACLS certification, others not.

Rehab settings may seem “slow” or “boring” to some new nurses, but they’re not always that way. You’ll learn a lot about prioritizing patient care when three of your six patients are due to therapy all at the same time, and you need to assess, medicate them and perform your treatments. In some units, you have hustle and bustle, then a little quiet time, then hustle and bustle and a little more time again. It just depends on your patients and a variety of other factors. As the Boy Scouts say, be prepared just in case the unexpected happens.

Many facilities may want nurses with two years experience, or they may hire you as a new nurse right out of school. Rehab nurses work in a variety of settings outside the hospital including clinics, long term care facilities, home health agencies, schools and outpatient rehab facilities, to name a few.

You will also deal with a lot of psychosocial issues in rehab, so I like to tell people that rehab nursing is a combination of med-surg and psychiatric nursing. These two factors can be very exhausting as a new nurse, both physically and emotionally. Besides med-surg and psych skills, rehab nurses are a vital part of the treatment team. We work with every kind of therapist you can imagine: physical, occupational, recreational, speech, etc., as well as medical staff, chaplains, and psychologists. Rehab nurses provide vital feedback necessary for the rehab hospital to get reimbursement from insurance via their care plans and their participation in team conferences.

If you are practicing in a rehab setting for two years, you may qualify to sit for certification exams, including the CRRN (Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse –see http://www.rehabnurse.org/), MSCN (Multiple Sclerosis Certified Nurse—see http://www.ptcny.com/clients/MSNICB/index.html) or other related certifications, depending on your area of expertise.

So where do you go from here? It’s up to you. In my short career, I’ve seen nurses in rehab go on to work in ICUs, wound care clinics, home health agencies and as case managers. One nurse I worked with even became a nurse manager of a rehab unit. There are a wide variety of places in which you can use your skills. Always keep your eyes open! Be willing to learn new things and the world is your oyster.

About the author:

RehabRN is a certified rehabilitation nurse working for the one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems. Read more about her working life at the Hotel Rehab at http://rehabrn.blogspot.com.


Thank you so much RehabRN for contributing! That was excellent information about Rehabilitation Nursing!

Change of Shift

I’m feeling pretty special right about now. Nurse Teeny is hosting Change of Shift this go around and whadayaknow? I’m on there!! Head on over to her place to read this edition of Change of Shift. She did a great job.

Excuse me while I regress a few years

**Huge immature childish post ahead.


I need to whine. I need to get my “it’s so unfair” moment out of my system. I do realize I am almost 30 and this is going to make me sound like my 6 year old but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

My sister is a 24 year old college graduate. In fact she has had her BS in Biology for about two years now. The girl has held one job her entire life. Over a summer. 4 years ago. She has had every.single.thing handed to her on a silver, sometimes gold, platter. She has never had to work for anything. Her school was entirely paid for. Her room and board has been entirely paid for – and not in the sense of living with the ‘rents. She moved out and went to school in a different state at 18 and has been living off my parents dime the entire time. The girl can’t do anything on her own. She can’t make a decision without someone holding her hand. My mom has asked me SEVERAL times to fly out to where she is to hold her hand and help her find a job. Um, excuse me? You want ME to put my life on hold for several weeks to go help her figure out hers? Why can’t she walk her lazy ass up to the employment office at her college and have THEM help her? Oh, that’s right. Because she needs someone to walk her there.

I am beyond frustrated right now. I realize that I made different choices in life. I chose to quit college and get married shortly after high school. I chose to have children and start a family early. In my defense though, even while I WAS in school, I still had to have a job to pay for my room and board while my grandfather paid for my school. It isn’t like I had the same opportunities that she has been lucky enough to have had for the past 6 years.

I have been working my ass off over the last year to try to do what my sister has been taking for granted. Get an education. I don’t have any free rides or handouts. I struggle. I make my own choices. I research my own options. I worry about my family’s future and the last thing I have available to me is someone here holding my hand through the process. Someone holding out their checkbook for me at every single one of my whims.

My “it’s not fair” moment has stemmed from me recently (as of this morning) finding out that my dear little sister is taking an all expense paid (by the ‘rents) cruise for the summer. Now why does this bother me so much you might ask? Aside from the above, I asked my parents for help with school and was told that they just couldn’t afford it. With my sister still jobless, and them still supporting her, as well as having to support my brother on his mission (they are Mormon. I am obviously NOT – long story), they just don’t have the funds to help me out right now.

It hurts. It hurts that my whole life I have had to work for everything I have. The day I turned 16 I had a job and have had one ever since. I have never asked them for much at all. They have never had to support me like they have had to support my adult sister for the past 6 years. Now, when I really need some help, they can’t, or won’t help because my sister is sucking them dry and they are letting her.

I am angry, and disappointed, and feeling sorry for myself. I know that life it not fair. That doing this on my own will make me appreciate it more, blah, blah, blah. I know this. But right now, I just don’t care.

I am hurt.

Plan of Attack!!! (Take III)

Time to revisit "The Plan" so I can see my progress :) Just a few things have changed since the last time but it makes me feel good about myself to see how far I am getting. Besides, who doesn't like patting themselves on the back every now and then? I know I could sure use it right about now.

Summer '09
Sociology - DONE!!
Gen Psychology – DONE!!

Fall '09
A&P I – DONE!!!
Lifespan Psych – DONE!!

Wintermester ‘09
Speech – DONE!!!!!

Spring '10
A&P II – DONE!!!!
Fine Arts Elective – Hopefully Photography Art Appreciation – DONE!!!!

Summer ‘10
PE Course – Registered
Pharmacology – Registered
CNA Course – Still need to register…after I get my damn social security card AGAIN!!! (Stupid husband)

Fall ‘10
Microbiology - Registered

Spring ‘11
NS BABY!!!!!!

It is amazing to me to see what I have done in almost a year. It was definitely a challenge for all of us and getting used to the schedule wasn't easy but we did it. Once my grade for my stinky PE course posts this summer, I will be sending in my application for The Program. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that I will still be able to register for my CNA course.

It is surreal to think that I am so close already.

I only wish I made this stuff up

I am beyond livid right now and my husband is the source of my anger. He is lucky that he got away to the fire station tonight or I'm sure he would have felt the daggers I would be drilling into his head with my eyes.

I got my social security card in the mail on Monday. When I got home from work today I had planned on running up to the school to register for my CNA course. I go to find the envelope that housed my precious card and it is nowhere to be found. I ask my husband if he had seen it and he immediately replies that he hadn’t. In that instant I remembered him tearing up “junk” mail on Tuesday evening and my heart sank. I drilled him about whether or not he paid any attention at all to the mail he had been tearing up.

He swears he did.

We tear apart the house, once again, trying to find the damn card.

It is nowhere to be found.

I am convinced he carelessly tore it up and trashed it.

My precious card. Gone again.

He won’t even give me an apology. He says that I don’t know for sure that he did it. I wish he would prove me otherwise. I need that freakin card. Bad. He had the nerve to tell me it was no big deal, I can just go get another one. It IS a big deal. This means I have to take off yet ANOTHER day of work to go stand in line and get it, wait ANOTHER two weeks for it to come in, then keep my fingers crossed that there will be room left in the course for me to register.

Really. Who’s life is this anyways? Because it certainly can’t be mine.

'Round and 'round I go

I have a little over three weeks until I turn in my notice at my job. I am getting really nervous about it and am starting to worry that I am doing the wrong thing. There are so many great benefits to getting my CNA however, I am really concerned as to how we are going to pay for Nursing School. We have saved so much money over the past month or so which is great but it won’t be enough to pay for school as we still need some of it to help with bills when I quit. My grandfather has agreed to help us out but I feel so bad about it. I wish we were able to do it on our own. 

I have been thinking over the past few days about staying at my job and just sucking it up by taking my PE class in the evenings and miss seeing my kids for 6 weeks. This will allow us to save up even more than we have already. Every time the thought crosses my mind about staying here though, I get anxious. I have managed to drag through the past few months knowing I wouldn’t be here for much longer. Knowing that there is finally a date set for when I leave this place. Knowing that I will get some more time with my kids before my life is overtaken by Nursing School.

I hate to think that this whole decision is based off of me leaving this job. I would be a liar if I said it wasn’t a HUGE deciding factor in my choice to get my CNA. I am so burnt out at this company and my impatience to get on with my change in life/career is nagging at me constantly.

I wish I could turn my brain off sometimes and just go with the flow of life without all these wishy-washy feelings. I will never understand how one minute, this choice seems to be the best thing for us (me?), and the next, I am flooded with feelings that this may not be the best idea.

FINALLY!!!

Grades have been posted! I am happy to report that I got my A in my A&P II class!! Whew, what a relief. I was really starting to stress a little last week. Everything was pretty much riding on that grade. I'm pretty sure I drove my husband crazy this weekend while I was glued to the computer pressing "refresh" over and over again.

Now it’s time to relax. (ok, at least try to relax). I decided to take everyone’s advice and take a break. We have the big family vacation coming up in a few weeks, then after that I will be doing nothing but studying for my HESI. I’m not too worried about the reading part (the only part that really counts for points in the entrance requirements) but I am worried about the math portion. I’m not the best at math and I haven’t looked at fractions in at least 10 years! That part I have to just pass with at least a 70 but knowing how important it is to nursing, I would really like to brush up as much as I can on my math skills.

But for now the relaxing begins.

Of course it might take me a little while to figure out exactly how to relax.

Sunday's Specialty - Med Surg

This week’s specialty comes to us from DreamingTree over at Med Surg Zone. She writes some great stories about her experiences as a Med Surg Nurse. After you’re done reading, jump on over to her blog to check out more!


Five years ago, I decided to go back to school for nursing. My background is in psychology, and I thought nursing would enable me to expand my career opportunities. In all honesty, it had never been my life's dream. In fact, throughout nursing school, I was the student who dreaded learning new lab skills. They often looked painful or awkward, and I could always see the potential for mortal harm to my patients if I screwed up. Classmates and family were used to me wondering if I should quit at any given moment. Gaining knowledge was great; potentially harming someone -- freaky. I share all of this because I was asked to write about my experiences as a med/surg nurse. I was the least likely in my class to become a med/surg nurse; and yet, here I am. I love it.

A medical/surgical floor is often touted as the best place for a brand new shiny nurse to begin. Why? A med/surg unit deals with a wide variety of patients: post-ops, chronic illness flare-ups (our "frequent fliers"), new onset illnesses (pneumonia, GI complaints, etc.), to name a few -- hence the name, Medical/Surgical. Our patients aren't sick enough to require continuous monitoring, but that could change at any point. We don't deal with many exciting procedures. Foley catheters, IV sticks, NG tubes, dressing changes, and some occasional suctioning are as good as it usually gets. Though, one day I assisted with a bedside chest tube insertion -- that was a bit more exciting! On a typical day, I may be taking care of six patients with the following complaints:

1. 73 year old with acute renal failure, diabetes, & cancer
2. 62 year old with syncope (one of the church drops)
3. 95 year old with bilateral pleural effusions, UTI, who is on aspiration precautions, &has a stage 1 on coccyx
4. 41 year old with chest pain
5. 68 year old with metastatic cancer
6. 64 year old with end stage renal disease due to uncontrolled diabetes, new onset UTI & pneumonia

Taking care of six patients with a wide variety of conditions can seem overwhelming. Truth be told, I've been known to groan as I read through kardexes. Organization is the key. On a good day, I have a routine that I follow. Coffee, kardexes, coffee, report, coffee, greet patients, review vital signs, review meds, last gulp of coffee, begin assessments & med passes. I have learned that a quick pop into each room after report makes my day a bit better. This gives me the opportunity to write my name on the whiteboard, let the patient know that I will be available shortly, and allows me to eyeball each person. That quick glance at the patient tells me a lot -- neuro status, respirations, safety -- all of which helps me prioritize the order in which I'll assess each person. It also tends to put the patient at ease -- someone is checking in and assuring him/her that they will be back.

Take a look at my list of six patients. Who would you have seen first? Who would you guess to be the most stable? The diagnosis doesn't always tell you what you need to know. I quickly learned that #1 was the most ill. This patient's condition had changed on night shift, and was worse when I got to him on day shift. Heart rate was tachycardic; he was diaphoretic, lethargic, edematous, had noisy respirations, and had crackles. When you see changes like this, routines go out the window. Put the patient on oxygen, check am labs, contact MD. End result? This patient received a dose of IV lasix and was transferred to ICU. An hour later, I was able to go back to my routine with my other patients.

The most stable patient was the one who passed out in church. Although this patient was stable, she wasn't a low maintenance type of gal. She wanted to go home -- NOW. Where was the doctor? Why weren't her home meds ordered? Why weren't her meds given first thing in the morning? What were her test results? In this instance, you have to be patient and diplomatic. If that doesn't work, beg & plead with the doctor to discharge the patient as soon as possible.

Right when you think you're getting your day back on track, something is bound to happen. Patient #4 may decide to have chest pain (nitro SL x 3, STAT EKG, repeat VS, call MD), and #5 has uncontrolled pain (lidoderm patches are wonderful). Throw an admission and a discharge into the mix, and you have one busy day. Oh, and don't forget to discuss patient needs with doctors as they round, phone calls to/from pharmacy due to med concerns, and critical labs to be addressed.

How do you manage a typical med/surg day?

1. You need a good brain. No, not the one inside your skull, but the paper kind that keeps you organized. Everyone has their own system. Ask around, try different ones out, and then use what works for you.

2. Never take shortcuts when it comes to medications. Look up unfamiliar meds, follow all precautions, and always check your 5 rights (three times, every single time). You really need to have a healthy fear of the harm you can cause.

3. Learn to always trust the nagging voice inside your head. If something doesn't look or feel right, it probably isn't right. That was certainly the case with my first patient of the day, and I have many more examples just like that.

4. Remember the Golden Rule. This applies to patients, aides, pharmacy, PT/OT, dietary, RT, secretaries, MDs, housekeeping, transport, and anyone else I failed to mention. Most interpersonal conflicts can be avoided by being kind and showing respect to all you encounter.

5. Ask questions!! Yes, there are stupid questions, but don't let that stop you. I've earned a lot of respect from people by being willing to admit that I don't know all of the answers. The more questions I ask, the more I learn.

6. Use critical thinking. When I was in nursing school, I hated some of the critical thinking exercises we had to complete. Now, I can't say enough how important it is to stop & think about all that you are doing. Do you really want to give heparin to a patient with critically low platelets? Do you really want to give that oral diabetic medication to the patient who's blood sugars have been low & hasn't been eating much? What about the patient with back pain? Would a lidoderm patch help more than the narcs? (yes -- I love patches...)

7. Have a sense of humor! Don't take yourself too seriously. If you can laugh on a crazy, busy day, you'll manage much better.

Again, I never expected to love med/surg nursing. I thought I'd give it a try because I was always told that it is the best place for a new nurse to start. After a couple years, I have to agree with that advice. Med/surg nursing exposes you to a variety of medical/surgical conditions, AND it enables you to hone your organizational skills. It really does teach you how to nurse on the fly.

Thank you so much, DreamingTree, for sharing with us! It definitely sounds like you get a wide variety of experiences in Med Surg.

What do I do with myself now?

Spring semester is over. I don’t have any other classes until July. This will be the longest break I have had from school since I started almost a year ago. I have been going non-stop since then and I’m not sure what I will do with all my free time. I am seriously considering taking another class during the first summer session to keep myself busy. I don’t need any other classes for my ADN (other than what I am already registered for and plan to take), but it might be smart of me to take some toward my BSN since I do plan on pursuing that at some point. I actually prefer to take whatever class I can online during a shorter semester.

Oh the other hand, it might be nice to have a break. If I don’t take one now, it will be another 2+ years before I get one. My kids and husband might appreciate the break even more.

And now, I wait

I finished up my last final of the semester yesterday. It was in my A&P II class. I am sitting on the line between an A and a B so my A is riding on how well I did on the final. I need this A. If I don’t get it, I have to take the class over again in order to get enough points for my program which means that I won’t be able to apply for the Spring 2011 start. I feel that I did pretty well on my final so I am not too worried, but it is still at the back of my mind that I could possibly come up short. I’m trying not to think about it too much right now though or I know I will stress myself out more than necessary. (notice I said trying. I’m not sure that it’s working as I am pretty stressed about it)

I am also waiting for my social security card to come in. I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned (possibly because I was so pissed that I have pushed it out of my mind) that the birth certificate I couldn’t find? Yeah, I didn’t even need the damn thing. Just my driver’s license. I did ask the lady if she would please just pretend that she needed to see it though so I don’t feel like a complete moron for tearing my house apart looking for it, then paying the $55 to have it overnighted to me. I guess it helps to read the fine print. As soon as it comes in, I will be headed up to the school to get registered for my CNA class.

So now, I wait.

Have I mentioned that I HATE waiting?

Sunday’s Specialty – 1st Edition – Neurology Nursing

I am so excited about this first edition. When I contacted Jo over at Head Nurse to see if she would be interested in contributing I was meet with an enthusiastic “hell yeah”. I was honored that she was so willing to share her expertise with us. She is an amazing blogger. She tells her stories with honesty and hilarity all in one. She loves her job and it shows. I absolutely love reading about her experiences and am so thrilled that she agreed to share the love with us.


So without further ado, here is our first edition of Sunday’s Specialty. A look into the world of Neurology Nursing brought to us by Head Nurse. After you read about it, head on over (no pun intended) to Head Nurse to read more about life in Neurology.


Neuroscience, or: Brains: They're not just for zombies any more


I am a neuroscience nurse. Brains and spines and peripheral nerves are what I do. I got into the field totally by accident and stay in it for two reasons: first, I love what I do; second, when you say, "I work in neuroscience" to a skeevy guy at a bar, he immediately fails to make any nurse-related jokes he had in store and instead looks at you with new respect.


Neuroscience is interesting. It's never the same two days in a row. It requires smarts, creativity, endless patience, and a certain level of steely determination. It also keeps you young, makes your skin clear and luminous, and improves the color and texture of your fur.



Okay, not really. But you do get to work with some amazingly smart people.



WHAT THE HECK IS THIS "NEUROSCIENCE" THING, ANYHOW?


Neuroscience is anything that has to do with the brain, the spinal cord, or the peripheral nervous system. Anything from brain tumors to spine injuries to strokes to MS, ALS, or CJD can fall under this category. Basically, if you have a problem in your central or peripheral nervous system, you're a neuroscience patient.


The fascinating thing about neuroscience is this: once a surgeon gets his fingers into your brain (as it were), everything else in your body is affected. I tell my patients who are recovering from brain surgery that their recovery process is very much like trying to walk on a sprained ankle: the portion of their body that's getting the most use is also trying to heal at the same time.


This means, realistically, that I have to be aware of everything from heart rhythms to electrolyte balances to muscle strength on an hour-by-hour basis. Brains and spines and nerves affect *everything*, so you have to be flexible and have strong nursing skills all around.


WHAT I DO ALL DAY


Basically, caring for the neurological or neurosurgical patient is the same as caring for any other patient, with a few little tweaks.


If it's a patient with a spine injury, a lot of what I do is focused on preserving or restoring any function the patient can have below the level of the injury. Skin care and physical therapy are huge in these cases, and the patients can be very labor-intensive--things tend to go wrong suddenly with high spine injuries.


If it's a patient whose post-op from having a brain tumor removed, there's a fine line I have to walk between pain control and sedation. There are also issues with salt-wasting and diabetes insipidus and seizure control, depending on where the tumor was. And, of course, there are hourly neuro status checks, to make sure that nothing's busted loose or changed inside the brain.


If it's an occlusive stroke I'm dealing with, there's the whole science behind balancing declotting the area with TPA versus not allowing a reperfusion injury to occur. If it's somebody who's got one-sided neglect, care can range from teaching them that one side of the universe still exists to moving everything in the room around to reinforce that concept.


If it's something that affects the peripheral nervous system, or something like MS or CJD, well, whole books have been written on nursing care in those situations. Let's just acknowledge that the nursing care for patients with peripheral nerve injuries or demylenating diseases is complex and creative.


WEIRD STUFF YOU WON'T SEE ANYWHERE ELSE


Drains coming out of people's backs. Drains coming out of their brains. Real live cases of mad cow disease, without the cow exposure. Strange things nobody can identify. Worms in brains. Foreign objects in brains. People drilling into other people's brains at the bedside.

THE UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES


Let's cover the downsides first: both the patients and the doctors tend to be strange in the extreme. If you don't have a lot of patience for deciphering what your patient who can't talk is trying to say, and if you don't have a lot of patience for doctors who apparently weren't raised on this planet, you won't last long in neuroscience. The work is hard--sometimes physically as well as mentally challenging--and sometimes heartbreaking...but that's the same all over nursing.


The upsides to doing neuroscience are these: you never get bored. Neuroscience is something that garners more respect than other fields, because it's seen as the province of extremely smart people. It's sexy as hell. And, if you're a big ol' geek like me, you'll find yourself fitting in perfectly with the group of smart, geeky, curious people you work with.

SOUNDS GREAT! WHERE DO I SIGN UP?


As I said, I fell into this specialty entirely by accident. If you want to do neuroscience on purpose, though, I would recommend that you find a good teaching hospital with a good neurosurgery and/or neurology reputation to work at. I emphasize teaching hospital because you'll have a whole lot to learn, and teaching hospitals attract people who, well....like to teach.


Med-surg experience is not necessary before you go into this specialty. The care is weirdly different in a lot of ways from straight med-surg, so the two don't overlap much.


As far as education goes, a good grasp of where the brain is (on the top) and where the spine is (down the back) is really all you need. Protocols differ widely from facility to facility, so you're likely to learn everything you need to know, and then some, once you start work.


I love my job. It makes sense to me, what the brain does and how it affects the body. I love my coworkers: they're smart, funny, and insane. I love my patients, who show me all the weird quirks the human machine can develop after an injury to its computer system. I say to all of you who might be interested in neuroscience as a career, c'mon in! The CSF is fine.

 
Thank you so much Jo, for giving us an incredible look into the world of Neurology Nursing!!

Cause I'm hardcore like that

I got my HESI Admission Assessment Exam review book in yesterday so I thought I would put it to some use.

Introducing....

After some thought I decided to go ahead with my idea on a weekly post. If it works, great! If not, at least I tried right? Oh, and by the way, we are NOT calling this a meme. I have no idea what a meme is. To me, it sounds like some kind of strange animal.

So here’s the deal. Every Sunday I will be highlighting a different nursing specialty. There are so many options out there for nurses. I thought doing this would not only help me, but also any other pre-nursing or nursing students who might be reading my blog. It will give us a chance to see all the different aspects of nursing available to us, maybe even ones we have never considered before.

I am looking for some guest bloggers to help me out with this. Especially if you are already working in a particular specialty. There is nothing better than hearing it straight from someone who has the experience. If you are a nursing student who already knows where you want to end up and would like to guest blog about your chosen specialty, I would love to hear from you as well!

If you are interested in guest blogging about a specialty, you can contact me here for more details. Also, if there is a particular specialty you are interested in hearing about let me know!

P.S. For all my artsy readers, feel free to re-do the image at the top if you feel you can do a better job. It won’t hurt my feelings. Really.

How stupid can you be?

Online courses seem to bring out the dumb in some people. I have had my frustrations over the past year taking online courses, from people who don’t use spell check, to the ones that use “text speak” – C’mon people, this is a college course you are taking – to the ones that simply cannot operate a computer. (My philosophy is that maybe they should require students to take a computer course, or pass some kind of computer competency test before allowing them to take a course that relies upon having computer skills but I digress.)

This one takes the cake though. I mean really? Who does crap like this? In my Art Appreciation class, we have to give our thoughts on a specific piece of artwork, or the artist, or even what they went through at the time. (key phrase here: our own thoughts). Pretty much par for the course in online classes: essays, discussions, more essays. Yesterday, as I was reading through the posts of my fellow cyber classmates, I came across a post from this chick. As I was reading it, my BS meter was going off pretty strongly. I remember her previous posts, and not to sound arrogant, but they were definitely NOT good, or at least not even as close to good as this particular post was. So being the untrusting soul that I am, I took the first sentence in her post, popped it into Google, and BAM! first result was word for word from Wikipedia, along with several other sources, all word for word. I take the second sentence of her post and this time the first result is a New York Times article from an art critic! Word.for.freakin.word.

Busted.

I probably shouldn’t have done this, but I called her on it. “I thought these discussions were supposed to be our own thoughts on the subject. I am interested in hearing what YOU think of this work” I realize that the teacher probably would have noticed it herself, I mean it was THAT obvious, but I couldn’t help myself.

I get so angry when I work my ass off to really look at the art (or whatever subject I might be studying at the time) and read my textbook and try to understand what I am looking at so I can form my thoughts into a semi educated discussion and some dumb girl plagiarizes her posts. Don’t you think I would rather copy some sentences from someone else and use that as my own post? It would definitely save me a hell of a lot of time.

If you are going to be that shady, then at least paraphrase what you find rather than posting it word for word so anyone can pick it up in Google and realize what a complete idiot you really are.

Possible idea - Weekly Post

I have been pondering this idea for a few weeks now. Something that I wanted to start doing here on my blog every Sunday. I'm just not sure if I want to commit to it or not just yet. I don't want to turn this blog into another "homework" assignment and end up hating it.

I really think it would be helpful not only to myself, but possibly others out there like me, who are either getting ready to enter nursing school, are thinking about entering nursing school, or are maybe there already but don't know where they want to end up.

I'm still thinking on it. I really, really want to do it, but I just don't know if I will have the time to take on something like this or not. I also thought about having some guest posters every now and then for it too, but not sure if I could get anyone to do that or not.

I suppose I could just try it out for a few weeks and see how it goes.

Maybe I will start it next Sunday?

Why can't anything ever be easy??

I have torn the house apart trying to find my damn social security card. I have no idea where it is. I need it in order to register for my CNA course. Looks as though I am going to have to go to the social security office to get a new one. (If you remember, government agencies and I do not go well together. SO not looking forward to that trip)

But wait...

In order to do that, I need my birth certificate, which must be off on some tropical island having a few cocktails and living it up with my social security card because that document is no where to be found either.

So now I have to order a copy of my birth certificate, wait for it to come in, then go to the social security office to get a new one of those, wait for THAT to come in, and HOPEFULLY have the damn thing in time to register for this CNA course in July. Oh, and hopefully there will be open spots for it by the time I get all this crap together.

It would be nice for at least ONE thing to go my way every once and a while.