1st Semester Nursing Student!
Hello Everyone!!!
I hope you all are enjoying the new year and had a good Valentine’s Day. The year 2008 has definitely started out more stressful than I thought it would. I had no idea that nursing school would be so hard!!! Yes, I heard the stories about how tough it is but I guess I never fully grasped how much work would have to be put into being successful in this program. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying every minute of it, but the amount of studying you have to do can be very overwhelming at times. For example, next week I have a test Monday and Wednesday, AND I have a 5-8 page paper due that Thursday!! So as you can imagine I’m about 95% bald right now…=(. It doesn’t help that I’m the biggest procrastinator known to planet Earth either. I’m finding out very quickly that procrastinating and nursing school do not go together at all!!! So I’m really hoping I get my stuff together before the end of this semester.
The things I like most about the nursing program so far are the teachers and my classmates. ALL the teachers are wonderful. They all really want to see you succeed and they love for you to ask questions. They’re there for you anytime you need them and they understand the stress we’re going through so it’s really easy to talk to them. Now there are a few instructors who scare me a little bit…they’re not terribly mean or anything, it’s just that they like to quiz you on the stuff you should know and they like to do it on the spot so you have to be prepared. This is hard for lil ol’ Chiquita because she gets nervous when asked questions on the spot so she usually comes out looking like a studdering fool…=(…but you can best believe I hit the books after that and made sure I knew my stuff! I know their toughness will pay off in the end.
Now when it comes to my classmates, you couldn’t ask for a more diverse group. We each are unique in our own ways and we all have different experiences to bring to the table.The love we all have for each other is amazing. We all want to see each other graduate the program and we’re all willing to go above and beyond for each other to make sure that happens. We’re no longer competing to get in the program, we’re all just trying to make it through together. I honestly don’t think I would be able to make it through without the amazing friends I have around me. When a due date is coming up…they remind me, when a new assignment is posted…they let me know, if i haven’t printed my slides out…they print a copy for me, nursing students are some of the most caring people you will ever meet. I love everyone of them and I know we will all make it out!!
So all you pre-nursing students have plenty to look forward to!! You will get the opportunity to meet so many people and the hands-on labs you get to do are a lot of fun as well. Just yesterday we got to examine each other’s abdomens for any signs of enlarged organs or abnormal bowel sounds. Me and my partner were EXTREMELY hungry that day so our bowel sounds were very active…=). Well I guess that concludes my blog for today…please feel free to ask me any questions or give me any advice on how not to go bald in nursing school!! Hope to hear from you soon!!

April 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Hi! I just wanted to say that your blog inspired me. I live in Missouri and I go to Seckman Senior High School. I want to go away to college, you know? Experience life on my own. And I’ve been looking at colleges in Tennessee. I think I’ve narrowed it down to either Austin Peay or Middle Tennessee State. But I’m more interested in Austin Peay because it is a lot smaller and it seems so much more me you know? Well, I haven’t exactly decided 100% on what I want to do with my career and stuff. I just know that I want it to be in the medical field. As of right now however, I’m leaning toward a Nurse Anesthetist. But I don’t know what to do or anything. I’m graduating a semester early from high school and just going straight to college. But anyway, I just wanted to say that it inspired me really. And I hope you update more. :]
April 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Thank you so much Christina for your comment!! Congratulations on graduating school a semester early!! You are already ahead of the game!! I’m glad I was able to inspire you and even more glad that you may be choosing Austin Peay as your college. Austin Peay is such a friendly and caring school and many times it is overlooked because its a smaller school but we have alot of great programs here and even greater people. I love this school and would recommend it to anyone! Austin Peay has one of the strongest nursing programs in the state of TN so if you’re leaning towards becoming a nurse anesthetist we would be a good choice!!! I want to wish you the best of luck on whatever decision you make and let me know if you have any other questions!!! Thanks for reading!!