This week has been an interesting one no doubt.
The beginning of this week marked my last final of nursing school - like my last final of undergraduate studies e v e r ! How crazy is that thought?
That last final ended a class which signaled a new beginning - the beginning of this thing us nerdy nursing majors like to call preceptorship.
What is preceptorship, you may ask? It is this thing that nursing students look forward to their whole nursing school career.
H A - j u s t k i d d i n g
If you are anything like me, thinking about preceptorship during the first semester of nursing school was like talking to a English major about organic chemistry - something very stress-inducing.
However, as the time continued on, I did become more and more excited for preceptorship - those consolidated 120 hours of being thrown into (sometimes) complete chaos along side a seasoned nurse.
As of today, I have completed less than a third of my required precepting time - however, I have learned very quickly the truths in the statements "nursing school teaches you nothing."
Well, I will not completely agree with this statement. Nursing school has indeed taught me a lot; there are many times where I talk with someone and feel rather knowledgeable about the healthcare topic at hand.
And then I walk into the clinical setting: the hospital.
There are those moments where I feel just plain stupid, like I should know this answer to this question or how to do this or that or the purpose behind this and that.
Thank goodness for my preceptor-nurse; you are not dumb.
Encouragement - that is what a almost-graduated nursing student like me needs. A positive learning experience that gets me ready for my career as a nurse makes the 12-hour drag of a 12-hour shift less suck-y.
Speaking of which, 12-hour shifts are no joke. My contacts dry out my eyes and I begin to get hangry for Starbucks. Here I write after a 12-hour shift and I am really unsure of how mush sense all this blabber makes.
And yet I really could not be happier - I am in the place I want to be and doing what I want to do. I still have a lot to learn, and sometimes I may really make myself look dumb; but I'm ready for all the challenges that come at me because yes there will be plenty of them and I need to face them and choose to use them to help me become a better nurse so my future nurse self will be the best she can be for all the patients she comes into contact with.
O K - I am done babbling now.
Hopefully this post is not as bad as I think it may be when I read it on a fully-rested brain.