Rachel

hello medical surgical nursing...

2010-01-17T05:19:00Z

You know it's bad when the box your textbook comes in... is big enough for you to sit in.

...granted the size of the box was a little excessive for the book; the fact that the seller put the book in a box that big says something. Also, given the fact that in order to pick up the book, one should definitely use the same back saving safety techniques that are used when turning and lifting patients...it's not an exaggeration to say Adult health nursing is quite intimidating.

However, after I mellowed out after week two, I realized it's not really that scary, and though Med-Surg is not my interest for nursing I am learning to appreciate it.

I started clinicals last week, so maybe I should give you a bit more time before I ramble off about it, but I have three tests and a 13 page paper due next week, so of course I'm in the perfect mood for blog writing at midnight, and snacking, and surfing the internet...

duh.

Top three reasons why I like Nursing for Adult Health (aka med-surg):

#1. Pathophysiology. A subject I love. It's not as hilarious as Dr. Taylor's class, but it's equally as awesome because the concepts are now being applied to you and your patients. Application is one of the best things about nursing school because it means that you actually get to DO what you spend so much time reading about and listening to your professor lecture about. Plus you get to give more shots, and I love giving shots! I have no idea how weird that sounds to non nursing student ears but I said it anyway, because you should know that nursing school can make you weird like that.

#2. Clinical. Trust me, I complained in the beginning, which I feel slightly guilty about now. It's a lot of work, and a lot of work can be daunting business; it is tiring, and of course it is very time consuming...... but all the study and preparation feels nice. Expectations for clinical are much higher because you are pulling together all of the concepts you have learned. It's very rewarding to see how your hard work from previous semesters is coming together to make you feel more useful!

#3. Patients. I'll just be honest here, my unit is depressing, especially since maternal health and midwifery is my interest and passion. I miss the babies and moms and all the joy of new life. A consolation is that there is a lot of opportunity to do some much needed patient teaching. In my previous life (before nursing school that is) I taught, so this is an area of nursing that I particularly love. Early in the morning, when the sky was still dark, I was walking sleepily into clinical, feeling depressed about facing my patient who seemed unmotivated the previous day. His diagnosis was very preventable and I wasn't sure that anything I had said to him the day before was helpful to him at all. When I looked up, there was my patient walking down the hall in his hospital gown and penny loafers- doing laps around the unit. He yells out to me, "Good morning Rachel! I started my exercising!" He thanked me for the time I spent with him and told me he was ready to "turn over a new leaf". He told me I was great, and that I was going to make a great nurse. My heart was melting all over the floor!

Oy!

That makes my week.

I love nursing school.

Congratulations newly accepted students!! :)

2009-12-27T04:27:00Z

I was just thinking about how it was around this time last year, that I found out I would be coming to Johns Hopkins...

It was a very exciting morning, I believe it was just before 7:00 am (because I was three hours behind on the West coast) sleeping soundly when my phone rang. Groggily I answered, wondering who in the world would be calling and why, but as soon as I heard the news- I promptly squealed, probably said something quite unprofessional and immature like "sweeeeeeett!" followed with more squealing, hung up, and then promptly (with a big smile, I am sure) went back to sleep. Sounds kind of anticlimactic, but just imagine waking up to the good news two times- the first time with a phone call, the second with minor confusment and then a happy realization that it wasn't a dream!

So, for those of you who got that happy call (groggily or not), which will change your life for sure;

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Advice, advice, advice...??? Not yet.

There are lots of things I feel that I could tell you, things I've learned that have worked well, and things that I would do differently. However, for now, just spend the next six months enjoying the people and things you love, because for good, and hopefully for better, your life is about to change. Plus, advice is better given in person I think, over a cup of coffee and chocolate. I promise you can hunt me down at Accepted Student's Day or find me when you move here. Bombard me with questions, and you can even freak out a bit- I did it too and had an awesome former student (now awesome nurse!) calm my fears and encourage me- I won't mind at all!

Nursing school is both a sacrifice and a blessing, so you will be living between that tension, balancing the two, hopefully with grace, and patience with yourself. Again, congratulations to you, who will make amazing nurses someday!

I'll let you know how classes go soon- I am sure you are all dying to hear about Adult health and Pediatrics, and I'm sure there will be a lot to say!

Peace and happiness to you in this new year!

~Rachel

p.s. I just thought of an invaluable tidbit of advice that can not wait until accepted student's day... read as many books as you can possibly get your hands on- reading for pleasure is doable, but definitely not the same! So you know, if you're a nerd like me, and you like that sort of thing... READ! :)

48.7 %

2009-11-15T00:31:00Z

Today, as a friend and I stood on the sidewalk across from the grocery store, I exclaimed, “Wow! Do you see what I see?!”

“A Christmas Tree!”

Okay Whole Foods, a little premature, but we don’t mind! Hello Christmas!!

And with that said, we, the Accelerated class of 2010, are one holiday closer to becoming RNs! Soon it will be hearts plastered over the windows, Shamrocks, Easter bunnies, and then, can you believe it? Graduation will be here. Sometimes it feels like the year is dragging on- Patient Care plan, after Patient Care plan, but then you are amazed that you can even write a Patient care plan, as you look down at your feet and see boots, remembering that when you first arrived you were wearing flip flops and attending class everyday pretty much covered in sweat on account of the East coast humidity.

How the time flies…

Being a one half nurse is a great feeling- for all of our not-knowing, we have so much more knowing that we could have ever possibly imagined. I mean, I can tell you about cancer, how and why and even what drugs to take! This is insanity. This is coming from a person who had an undergrad in Arts and Social Sciences and Elementary Ed., who was terrified of Biology and preferred reading and writing poetry to wondering about cells and how the body worked.

Now I wonder about cells. I am absolutely fascinated.

Our second semester is coming to a close, we have learned ¾ of our drugs, and on Wednesday, 3/4 of our diseases. We’ve watched babies be caught, and we’ve practiced, practiced, and then practiced therapeutic communication some more with our mental health patients. OB was great- babies are wonderful, but then so are patients with dementia. This is my unit. Other students are on units with patients who have major depressive disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, chronic pain, substance abuse issues, and obsessive compulsive disorders. Incredibly fascinating and incredibly devastating....but we have learned and seen that there is hope for many of these patients.

We are all learning to talk and to be the intervention to the patient. A lot of the time it’s listening, some of the time it’s redirecting someone and calming them down, other times it ‘s coloring pictures, and sometimes it’s sitting with the patient to just be there. It’s weird to think about your very presence being therapeutic- no talking, no teaching, no BP cuff, no listening to lung sounds, but just being. It’s a shift in thinking, we often feel like saying, but I should do this, or this! But I think we have all learned a lot about how to talk and how to be patient, and how to be non-judgmental, and how to just be.

~Enjoy your Thanksgiving! I'm off to model the grocery store and prematurely bask in the Christmas season with music while I study Patho!

Rachel

On taking notes and refraining from talking.

2009-10-12T19:37:00Z

“Every single thing is tougher in pregnancy, if you are ~~pregnant.~~”

Trust me, that is NOT what my teacher said- she was really talking nutrition (GREAT lecture by the way!) But I wrote it and discovered my little mistake last night when I was studying for our final. Oops…

Nursing for the Child Bearing Family is coming to a close. Terribly sad. In this class you will learn a ridiculous amount about little fetuses, moms, and sweet babies. I say ‘ridiculous’ because your brain will be so filled with fabulous information that you won’t know that to do with it all. You’ll feel like you’re learning information that can change the world.

You’ll want to sign up for La Leche League, you’ll want to call every woman of child bearing age that you know and inform her that she must go directly to the store (right now) and purchase prenatal vitamins and then take them because she NEEDS Folic Acid.

You’ll watch a show about delivering babies that you used to adore, but then you’ll hear the doctor and nurses tell the mom to hold her breath and push while she counts to ten, then they will have the audacity to tell the mom to be silent when she pushes and you’ll be sad and want to teach these health care professionals that they are not using the best evidence based practice to treat their patient (you’ll be thankful again for such an awesome school that DOES teach you the best evidence based practices). Even more sad, is when you find yourself at clinical, bright eyed, first year nursing student- and you'll see practices that might disillusion you. Things you learned there is NO research to support. You'll learn to refrain from giving advice to health care professionals- for now. You’ll find yourself at the grocery store standing in line next to a pregnant woman and you’ll have to literally put your hand over your mouth so you don’t start giving her advice that she didn’t ask for.

Really, your intentions will be great. But you’ll also realize that sometimes, even when advice is really good, it is not the appropriate time to give it. So, last night when I saw the pregnant woman behind me, I really-really wanted to ask her if she’d taken any classes, or hired a doula, or made a birth plan, or if she called her doctor to see if he knew how to deliver her baby with an intact perineum. I wanted to tell her to wait until her contractions were regular and 3-5 minutes apart before she went to the hospital to avoid unnecessary interventions! But yikes. Probably inappropriate- right?

Um yes, so what to do with all this information? Call unsuspecting friends/sister in law’s and give them all sorts of stats and information and then stay committed to life-time learning and always using the best research and evidence based practice to guide my own practices. That’s how I’m going to change the world.

Peace.

Rachel

long time, no see.

2009-09-12T03:55:00Z

I know, I know... It's been a long time...

Insert- 'excuses'

1. Finals time/week. Busy bees we were! One final per day. I have to say, as brutal as it sounds to say "I had a final Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday!" It actually wasn't so bad. You're not going to believe what I'm about to say, but... it felt kind of like a breath of fresh air. And maybe that's because literally, during finals week, we were out of that nursing building that we were pretty much confined (sorry for the harsh verb) to, all summer. I mean- I walked, I ran, I walked some more, I sat on some benches, and studied outside. Amazing. Being in class for one hour per day seemed like a piece of cake. Oh and by the way, just so we're clear, the tests were not a "piece of cake", being there for merely an hour was the cakey part :)

2. Summer break! Oh my sweet sweet three weeks of sweetness. I read books- recreationally. It was extremely exciting and relaxing to sit on the beach, toes in the sand, waves and breeze all around, text books... miles and miles and miles away.

3. Getting acclimated. We've just finished our second week of fall semester! Amazing! I am so excited for this semester! It just took me a teensy bit to "get back into the groove," as they say.

For my fellow accelerated friends and myself, our schedule is:
OB (first seven weeks), Psych (second seven weeks), Pathophysiology, Pharmacology (all fourteen weeks)... and that's it! Can you believe it?! Three classes at once!

Craziness, I know. This semester, the idea of "free time" is a true reality. So for this semester we got some options:

Some people are working a tiny tiny bit at the school and such. Some girls are training for a half marathon. One girl I know of is training for a marathon in October. Our fabulous pathophysiolgy instructor, two other students and myself are signed up (and were wait listed!) for a team marathon. (I'll let you know how that pans out!)

Some people are knitting, taking up recreational reading, studying a lot, or sleeping. All awesome ways to fill up the time!

Here comes the plug... Since I can't knit or run a solo marathon, I'm taking extra classes along with a lot of other people. We have choices like Forensic Nursing- (big hit, I hear), Medical Spanish (another big hit), and Community Outreach (huge hit!). I'm taking Faith and Health- awesome class, look into it if you come! It's a wonderful breath of fresh air, (and not in a "it's finals week" type of way). Then there's Birth Companions where we will be trained as doulas and will the amazing opportuinty to work with women who are are in labor. I can't wait to tell you all about it when we get some experience. I'm also auditing a class at the School of Public Health next door, Humanitarian Emergencies.

So I'm telling you all this so you understand that if you come to Hopkins, you too, will have the opportunity to take your core classes and more! The opportunities to pursue that which most intrests you, is here for the having.

I'm off to bed! Hope to see some of you readers tomorrow at Perspective Student's Day!

Rachel

hey there!

2009-07-23T00:19:00Z

Oh goodness! I realized that I have not updated my blog in some time. This may have scared you! You might have thought to yourself- "She must be craaaazy busy! Will I be that busy?" Well my friend, you are totally right! Yes I was crazy busy, and if you come here, you too will be feeling the same way. I won't start rattling off all the quizzes, exams, papers, exercises, and such that I've crossed off of that handy dandy little planner that I once told you about. BUT, know that my planner looks so cool- it's all scribbled and worn and the cover is 1/2 gone! I've even witnessed the greatest act of sacrifice (that an accelerated nursing student can make) last week! In my lab group this girl opened her planner, handed her friend a pen and actually let him cross out exam 3 for P & A. I was stunned! I told them they must be really really great friends! That's commitment! Oh friendship!

But I digress, back to the "craziness"- Don't fear! I've been busy with not just school, but I've been enjoying my weekends too! My brother and sister in law live in DC, so last weekend I was able to visit them in DC. We hiked some of the Appalachian trail and ate lots of really good food. On the 4th of July I watched fireworks in Newport RI...so yes, you can get away, if you work ahead and compromise a little bit. I'm pretty sure that it makes you much happier and relaxed in the end!

Tomorrow is our very last day of clinical for the semester! It's exciting, sad, and a time for reflection all at once! It's exciting because wow! One week of classes and we are done for the summer! Also, we will officially be that much closer to being 1/4 through the program. It's sad because you become attached to your unit and the nurses and your patients and it's sad to move on and say goodbye. It's reflective and exciting again because once you step back and look on where you were on week one, or your first clinical, you realize just how far you've come! I mean, we can put in catheters and clean wounds, transfer patients, do assessments, and our group has even given shots! Our nursing vocabulary has gone from zero to 20%! It's been awesome! :)

Okay, I'm off to bed- clinicals are early mornings!

Rachel

a little over half way through the semester!

2009-07-02T20:16:00Z

I want you to know that I did the coolest thing on Wednesday...

Are you ready? ...

I turned the page of my notebook... and voilaa! JULY!

You know what this means- right?

We are officially, as of yesterday, half way through the first semester! I can't believe how time has flied- I mean, I heard it would, but man, they were NOT kidding! Midterms are done- phew! And we are embarking on our much deserved three day weekend! And that June calendar? I saved it for times when I need a little "boost of encouragement." I can refer to June, complete with crossed out first exams, midterms, papers, quizzes, a sign off, patient care plans, and other such nursing school type projects, and literally feel a wave of accomplishment wash over me. It's pretty awesome. When I saw a few people looking exhausted on Wednesday, I busted out "June." You should have seen their faces- it was like performing a good card trick! Okay, okay, the joy was fleeting, maybe only 4 seconds... but it was great nonetheless!

In other related events: I really enjoyed the fifth week. After a series of poor quality sleeps last week, surprisingly not due to school work- I made it a point to increase the REM. You need it for classes. I'm a fan of sleep and my brain works much better when I have it, so I had a much better week.

Labs have been getting increasingly more interesting- from trach suctioning, to catheters, and preparing meds- it made for some really great labs. My personal favorite: Syringes! No worries- we're not actually administering anything yet- we're just reconstituting our "Practi-med" (that looks suspiciously like yellow cupcake sprinkles), and drawing up the proper amount. Fun, fun! :)

Oh yes, and how could I forget clinical!? Loved it! I had another awesome nurse this week who was really eager to teach me. He let me practice some of the assessments that we've been learning in class. I love how we get to apply what we are learning to real life. It makes three hour lectures much more bearable to know we might actually be practicing the skill in the hospital two days later!

Okay, I'm off to enjoy the weekend!

Happy Fourth of July to you!

Until next week,

Rachel

You know you're a Brand New nursing student when....

2009-06-25T19:29:00Z

There's a little theme happening in this blog... excitement! Excitedly, excited, "SWEET!" and multiple exclamation marks are descriptive of my experience so far. Clinicals went really well this week, mainly because we got to put into practice some of the skills we've been learning in Health Assessment. I got to do part of a musculoskeletal assessment, and my patient was improving- bonus!!! The nurse that I followed around like a little bird all morning, let me ask him lots of questions- (bonus again!) and was happy to teach me random nurse-y things!

We're one month in and almost half way through our first semester! I can't believe how fast it's going, and how much we've learned! There's a lot of information, but the best part is, you get to put a lot of it into practice immediately. And by immediately I mean: lecture-> quiz-> skills lab-> test! I figure it's good that it happens so fast- there's no time for anything to leave your brain. You just have to make sure it got in there in the first place. So daydreaming during class? BAD idea! Even if it's one of those 7 second daydreams. That's something I'm definitely working on!

So... for fun I thought I'd compare this next semester or my last semester:

You know you're a Brand New nursing student when....

1. Your brand new stethoscope (in your most favorite color!) arrives in the mail- and you are excited like a kid at Christmas!

2. Your friend from clinical gets to give her patient a bed bath, and you say something like, "Are you stinkin' serious!!? She got to do a full bed bath!? I'm soooooo jealous!!"

3. The tech at the hospital starts to make a bed and you excitedly ask her to help- ...there you are tucking and folding and you're thinking "SWEET!!"

4. You had to buy reinforcent labels to put on all those notes for P&A- and you had no idea they were still even sold, because you havn't seen them since 7th grade!

5. You realize, iPoc and iPod are only one letter apart, but oh my, how they differ my friend...

6. Every time you meet a new person, you have to fight the urge to ask them if you can take their blood pressure. (I'm taking a quick Fourth of July weekend, and I'm resisting the urge to pack my stethescope and BP cuff... though.. the airport might be a great place to practice if I get delayed! hmmmm...

Have a great weekend!

there's no place like homeostasis. quack!

2009-06-19T02:31:00Z

Did you ever have one of those teachers who did crazy things to catch your attention, like play The Jackson Five's "ABC" upon your entering her classroom, or who held up a toy duck when she had something really important for you to remember?

Yah, neither did I... until Johns Hopkins that is! A very wise woman once said to me, "Rachel, I don't know what is up with the duck. But I do know that I like it!"

I like the duck too.

That was my prologue to inform you that we have officially finished our first exam of nursing school, and by my best estimations, we are something like 1/50ths done! (*disclaimer* I am not a real statistician, so I reserve the right to come up with some pretty wild numbers. On days when I really want you to feel sorry for me... or impressed- 1/50ths, might change to 1/346. We'll see how it goes).

But just so you know, the duck was not for naught! I think he was helpful for everyone and hope he will waddle on to pharmacology when we have to remember all those drugs!

We have completed three weeks, and classes are going really well. As long as you can get into the pace (sprinting- can you pace yourself at a sprint?) and de-stress with whatever happens to de-stress you, then I think you'll be fine. For me that happens to be my support system, which consists of my faith and connecting with people I love, daily. Also exercise, laughing a lot, and cooking yummy food when I get home from school. If I can give you literally one word of advice for the program thus far, ( I know, I know, I'm only three weeks in and there are probably way better and more experienced sources of advice for you at this point- but) from one new accelerated student to a perspective student- the word is balance. Remember it. It's your best bet to stay sane and your best bet to enjoy school. I am loving my experience here so far, and I have every intention of loving the 12 months and 3 weeks I have left!

But alas, sleep is also apart of my de-stressing balancing act, so will close for now!

enjoy the weekend!

getting to school.

2009-06-09T22:19:00Z

My morning was glorious! On Tuesdays my first class is practically in the middle of the day! (comparatively speaking, that is) Knowing I had to be there at 9:30, I organized out my time pretty well. I set my alarm with enough time to go to the gym, leisurely get ready, drink my smoothie, and then stroll to the shuttle stop, in time to catch the 9:00, which would put me at school with plenty of time to finalize going over notes for my first quiz! So things went as planned.

I arrived at the shuttle stop, and like clock work, it arrived. However, not in my plans, was the fact that is was completely full. So full in fact, that it drove off without me or half the other people standing there. Upon deliberating with two other nursing students about what to do (who also had to be at the same quiz in approximately 25 minutes), and another random "experienced shuttle rider" who was standing there, it was decided that the next shuttle could be full, and if this was the case, we'd be late.

Late-->embarrassed->no quiz->fail quiz->get the failed quiz dropped-> sad! no room for an actual emergency where you might really need to drop a quiz

We were definitely walking.

Here are the facts:

Did I mention that we are the last stop before school? We are the last stop before school.

Did I mention that it is a 25 mintue walk? It's about a 25 minute walk, 19 if you speed walk.

3/3 of us were in "non walking shoes" (Professional dress for lab days)

It was 85 degrees with at least 68% humidity.

2/3 of us started out in cardigans.

Number of JHMI shuttles that passed us on our walk: 5

Diaphoresis? 3/3 ("Profuse sweating" New vocab from P+A! Who knew we'd actually experience it within the week!)

There we were trying to remain positive, walking a steady incline, loosing the cardigans, nervously shooting the breeze, and purposely avoiding the hopelessly undeniable fact that we were going to be late, and that my little linear flow chart would come true for the three of us.

Moving to a brisk gait with 12 mintues of walking left and 5 minutes to get to class, a cab drove by. Did I jump into the road to stop him? ... Maybe.

We took $5.00 cab ride, three blocks to school this morning, dripping with sweat. It was gross and hilarious. I don't think we were laughing though, we mostly just felt gross.

Long, story short, we thanked the cab driver, like this: "Thannnnkkkkssss! Byyyyyeee! You saaaved ussss!" Then ran into the building, took the elevator to the second floor (time saved: 30 seconds) and burst through the door just in time to sweatily, guiltily, and at the same time, triumphantly, take a test from the teacher, who by the way will never know the drama, and sweating, and good intentions that went into our first quiz!

first week-ish.

2009-06-03T20:46:00Z

This could be a dangerous blog. I’m just giving you fair warning. Probably, the smartest thing to do, is to not write a blog on my first week of nursing school, but sometimes I think we all make choices that may not be “smartest thing”, and then we live with them and the consequences they bring.

Consequence of blogging right now? Procrastinating on going over Principals and Applications notes --->Staying up a bit later tonight ---> coffee tomorrow ---> $1.75 poorer.

So it’s settled. Small blog it is!
Here’s a little picture I want to share with you:

Is it there? Hmm... There's a little dot. I don't think that's it. Well basically, it was a picture of my planner, being filled to the max, I'm talking to the edges of the pages-max. If you can't see it here, sorry. I'll get on that. Eventually.

I was going to show you a picture of my first semester books. But that picture looks very expensive. And you don’t want to see that! (Not yet, that is.) This is a picture of my planner (if you can see it). If you don’t know me, then you don’t know that I LOVE planners…I really do. I mostly love them because I take great satisfaction in crossing out my little accomplishments. And in the past week, there have been many! Based on crossing out tasks, my satisfaction level is through the roof!!

And for all the inquiring minds, here are some interesting little facts about the first week of nursing school:

You get to role-play being a ‘real’ nurse by day two. Sort of awkward. Therapeutic communication is a learned skill!

By day two or three (depending on your section), you get to measure blood pressure and then learn how the way you’ve seen it done, is most likely wrong! (Not as easy as it looks people!)

You will learn the correct way to put on your stethoscope, and listen to your pulse through different areas on your body. Then, if you’re anything like me, you’ll question if you’re even alive, since you can’t hear ANYTHING!

…but then, you’ll get to squeeze on a little dab of gel, and hear your heart beating like horse through the doppler. Yes my friends, I am alive and well!

Our Lab instructors are AWESOME!

In your first day of issues in aging, if you didn’t already know this, you’ll learn that the elderly are also AWESOME! I just reread that sentence, and for instant clarification, our teachers are not elderly! And for clarification again; However if they were elderly, they would still get to be awesome.

The amount you will read in your textbooks, will literally dry up your hot pink highlighter before the week is over.

There are two more days to go, a brand spankin' new bright yellow highlighter, and much reading to attend to!

~ Have a great week!

Orientation Days

2009-05-30T15:05:00Z

Oh orientation. The day we've been anticipating as we anticipate June 1st!

Long, and information packed you were! Our brains are full, our wallets- empty. Oops! I promise to keep the scary parts out. (Don’t worry, there were not many!) Instead, I’ll tell you all about my shiny new name tag which I love, and also the student ID’s that we not only get to flash like VIP's, (just kidding) but they are also on an elastic clip/pull my friend! We are all very excited about the clip/pull…ahem. But I digress... those are but silly details. Yes, you’ll get shiny new cards on that amazing pull, name tags, a fancy little tote, lots and lots of paper with more information than you can only hope to remember, and a #2 pencil, but even better than that, (yes, even the lovely pencil) is the getting to know the student’s in your cohort, and the professors who will be teaching and supporting you along the way.

Orientation gets you real excited and then scared, but it’s okay, because five minutes later, you’re real excited again! We likened orientation to a roller coaster; an emotional roller coaster, that is. But I’m not here to terrify you! Roller coasters are good things! They are fun. Usually in hindsight, but fun nonetheless!

Let me tell you, in case you ever found yourself thinking, “...but if I uproot my life and move to Baltimore to go to nursing school, how will I know how to do ANYTHING?! How can I do it? I’m SCARED!!””
Let me ease your fears: Thanks to current students and staff: I now know the best places to study on the JHMI campus, how and where to catch the free shuttle to go to and from school and my apartment, great places to eat (including the local vegan anarchist cafe with free internet!) the location of every Starbucks within a 10 mile radius on a map, dates of the Hon Festival, good museums (that we can visit in our “20-22 minutes” of free time *), but perhaps more importantly, we were even taught the local jargon.
We were lucky enough to learn the definitions of ‘jeet’, oreo, yutz… and there are many more. Let's see if this little West Coaster picks up any of it!

I won't give away all the fun activities involving food and exploring that we took part in, but you'll be happy to know that they helped to add to our sense of comfort with our surroundings and fostered a sense of community among the student body and staff.

All in all, orientation was great! I think everyone appreciated the ~~onslaught~~ vast amount of information we received. I think we are all feeling that we were kindly being eased into our first week of classes, and we now have a pretty good grip on our surroundings and the resources available to us. I’m excited for school to start! Clinicals, labs, and the people, both patients, fellow students, and the faculty will definitely bring challenges, but after hard work and dedication, great rewards!

And I can’t forget to give a shout out to current students, especially current, former party planning SON bloggers! Thank you for answering billions (exaggeration) of questions from anxious and often stressed students. We appreciate you!

Well, time to get to my readings for Monday! My first 6.5 hour class! Who knew a class of this duration existed? Apparently, it does, here at the JHU School of Nursing! Yay for coffee and humor!

Hi!

2009-05-28T22:31:00Z

So before I get into talking about our first few days at orientation and telling you my initial impressions of the JHUSON, (I know, I know, the things you really want to hear!), I think a brief introduction is in order.

As you can see from the little intro blurb, I am a 2010 accelerated BSN student. I graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, with a Self and Society concentration, and a minor in Elementary Education. Tons of great classes, but as you can probably tell, kind of long vague title! Not so much science, and not so much direction when I graduated.

So why nursing?
Well, that my friend, is a good question. My dream of becoming a nurse didn’t really start years ago like some. When I attended college, I knew I really wanted a job I was passionate about, a job that would fulfill me in the sense that I knew that what I was doing would make a tangible difference, and I wanted to do that job in developing countries. There are many professions that can accomplish this, but that was part of my problem. So many to choose from, what to pick!?

I’ve thought about, and considered it all! Photojournalist, midwife, teacher, nurse, counselor, and the list could, (and did) go on.
Ultimately, it would take my love and interest in serving people, combined with a few tragic family health conditions that occurred during my life, and my traveling overseas, which made me more globally aware, to convince me that being a nurse was my calling.

So I guess you could say my passion for being a nurse developed naturally through my life experiences.

My goal in getting my BSN is to become a nurse midwife and then to eventually work overseas training and teaching preventative health care, working in community clinics, and working specifically with women as a midwife. And that, is my very condensed version, but hopefully it gives you some insight into what has inspired me to become a nurse! It will be quite the journey getting there, and I'm not going to lie, I'm so nervous, but I am also definitely excited for each step!!

And finally…why Johns Hopkins?

Well, I’m so glad you asked! After perusing the pages of this website I’m sure you noticed the global focus here! It's awesome! With Peace Corps Fellows, Global Nursing programs with several study abroad opportunities and collaborations in 12 countries, and Community outreach programs, such as Birth Companions, SOURCE, and SON COP, you can see that the focus is truly being a servant in our community both locally and abroad, as well as giving students an excellent education to prepare them to achieve their goals. I can’t say enough about how excited I am about the opportunities that we will have. With my interests and goals, JHUSON seemed like the perfect fit.
The accelerated program is intense, very. So I’ll be busy, very. But I promise to keep you posted on my journey.

~Rachel