Worst Spring "break" ever

I'm almost beside myself with frustration, stress and worry. This was supposed to be our spring break -- reading week. We have a final exam in psychiatry at 9 am upon our return on Monday morning. And we have a huge research paper looming in nursing research. So those were my two goals for this week...study and research/write a paper.


Instead, we're faced with 9 chapters of reading, innumerable Youtube videos to watch outlining various procedures and countless websites to read up on. All this for a lab quiz, that is due at noon on the Monday we get back to school.


This has truly been one of the most stressful "breaks" ever. Add to that, we're having some major issues with our oldest child, going through the agonies that are the start of the teenage years. The stress of that factor alone is almost unbearable to me. I'm not sure how that's going to play out in the coming weeks. But I will reach out for professional help if we need it, as this issue may be bigger than I can currently handle with my child (see, I've learned something from my mental health class!)


It's 4:15 am, and I've been up since 1:30 am, studying, simply because I can't sleep.


I'm really not sure, honestly, how I'm going to get through the next 6 weeks, without blowing my GPA that I've worked so hard to maintain at the A level, and keeping sane.  I truly just don't know.


The GPA is really important to me, for several reasons. One, it feels good to have marks reflect what I think I'm learning. And perhaps more importantly, it helps me get the consolidation placement of my choice -- certain areas of nursing, such as the NICU, L&D and Emerg (which happen to be my top three choices!), are only open to students with a good GPA.


In the big picture, if a student/new grad truly wants to get into one of those areas, they can eventually get there. However, being an older student, I'm well aware that my career time is much more limited that the new grad straight out of high school.  It's really important to me to get into an area that I love, as soon as possible, instead of wasting time getting there.  I've wasted enough time already getting into this field...I don't want to waste any more.


I'm going to try to go get some sleep now.  I've seen what serious sleep deprivation can do to the mind, during my psychiatric clinical rotation, and it ain't pretty.  And I'm not talking about "beauty sleep"!!!  I'm talking about the visual and auditory hallucinations.

On the psychiatric ward - first thoughts

We've had two shifts so far in this mental health rotation. The first was the obligatory orientation to the unit and the hospital (a new one for me). We had minimal patient interaction that day.


The second day was a nurse buddy shift. However, my patient was leaving that morning for an extended pass, so I got to at least prepare the patient's medication, go through all the meds and when they're to be taken, and to do the paperwork/documentation required for the temporary home pass.


Other than that, I had minimal patient interaction again. I sat in on a few patient sessions that were given by other members of the interdisciplinary team.  Those were interesting. I hadn't quite realized, mostly because I hadn't really thought about it before, just how intertwined mental health nursing is with other health and social disciplines. The cases can be so complex on so many levels, that go beyond "just" mental health...adequate housing, social support, nutrition, etc.


It really is a very interesting field.  I still love pediatrics more than anything, but am now starting to think I may have to (one day, when NS is over), do some mental health-related volunteering, on a crisis line or something like that.


The communications skills we're learning are fantastic, and applicable to so many situations. The crisis line position would certainly put those new skills to good use, and keep them sharp.


I've got evening shifts coming up tonight and tomorrow. 


Life is good.

Mental Health Rotation

It was a course and clinical rotation that I've long thought of as "meh...something to get through as part of nursing school."


Guess what?


I think I'm going to l-o-v-e this one....


Will write more after my first two rotations, in the next two days.  I can't wait to try this!!!