Surviving Second Semester

To start off, I don' t know about you, but when I hear faculty and older students talk about first semester being a time to just survive, I wonder what happened to their second semester. My second semester has been the time of mere survival--first semester looks like baby stuff now.

This is how I mentally picture this semester. Just kidding. For historic purposes, any faithful friends or family who reads the blog, this was taken on the day of our Clinical midterms. It's the day upper campus had an explosion. An explosion of what? I still don't know. All I know is I was taking my test, minding my own business, when all of a sudden my nose started to run like crazy. Soon I could smell something sort of like paint. When I finished my test and looked outside, a huge cloud wrapped around a fountain of muddy water that was turning the sidewalk into a river.

The emergency response teams came quickly but did they evacuate the building? NO! What a waste of a good explosion!

They blocked off the whole sidewalk and started tearing everything up--including the heating system. This is a view from the HSEB-library bridge.
Apparently the hole and the orange plastic fence are a permanent fixture. Or maybe they're trying to match the front side of the nursing building where they're tearing it up for remodeling.

OK, so it hasn't all been that bad. Some people actually hang around and have fun together.

Don't tell us you're actually reading the ATI books!

Then there's clinical post-conference. This was after a 12- hour shift.
If you've been there, you know what I mean.

Sam knows what I mean!

Is it just me, or do the techs do a lot more in the OR than the nurses? Sponge counts? Is that what we go through all this school for? All right, besides the charming hats and shoe gear, what else makes you want to work in the OR?

Don't forget the memorable practices in the skills lab doing blood transfusions. (Get excited --final skills pass-offs are coming around again!) Don't forget to check his ID band!

Jan's really got a "leg up" on this guy. Ha ha ha...

Awww, cute. Never forget all the friends you made in nursing school! (I did NOT stage this photo--this is totally candid.)

Also totally candid, your friend and mine. . .GIARDIA (and Dr. Smith). I've heard Giardia posed for photo shoots with some of our classmates. You can check 'em out if you join the Facebook craze and search for Ann's page.

And more friends still. This was the Pink Panther lunch/interview for our research project. The question up for discussion: How do nursing students describe the impact of nursing school on personal relationships?

Don't we look like we have good relationships?

Then there's the research class itself. Remember that fun day of all the questionnaires?

Remember the laptops we lugged around?

And the group-project vibes that hit you from the time you
woke up on Friday till the time you went home?

Sam kept himself entertained while waiting to participate in the
hand washing study, conducted by the Trauma 1 research team.

You think they're waiting patiently. . .

Now THAT'S trauma!

Results: Gel San works better than 20 seconds of washing.

Those with experience in the health care field consistently were 17% more likely to get a clean wash than those with no experience. Wash wash wash!

Don't worry! The end is in sight!