Medical Math!

Last week saw us facing two exams, on back to back days. The maternity/L&D exam went quite well, I think (I hope!). The ethics/professionalism/legalities was another reality.  It was awful. Simply awful. I'm hoping for the best, but was not pleased at all with that exam.

In theory, I had already passed the course going into that exam, given that 65% of the course was based on two major research papers. But that's definitely not the type of marks I get, so that is of little reassurance.  Hopefully I'll somehow still manage to pull of an A-, despite that exam.  But that's still frustrating knowing I had an A+ going into the final.  Still, I'd happily settle for an A-, given that awful exam. That's my hope, anyways....

The only exam still to do is 'med math' -- doing all kinds of math calculations based on children's weights, dosages ordered, dosages on hand, IV drip rates, medication reconstitution, and the like.  You get the idea. Its not difficult math, but its clearly of the utmost important to not make any careless mistakes.  Medication errors simply terrify me.

They say that every nurse makes some medication errors.  And they also say that if a nurse say's they've never made a med error, that's even scarier, because that person probably doesn't realize the errors he/she's made.  Yep - this is one aspect of nursing that terrifies me.

Here's a great site I've discovered to quiz myself on medication dosage calculations:  www.dosagehelp.com

There are so many great resources out there.  Its quite the change from my previous degrees (says this dinosaur from prehistoric times, as my oldest kid like to tease me) -- students have it great these days.  I'm in awe of resources available today, and how profs all post their slides online before classes.  When I did my science degree way back, how I used to wish my profs could hand out their lecture slides and we could actually listen to the lecture instead of writing (with pen on paper!) like mad to try to capture the info in the slides.  Times certainly have changed, for the better.

I cannot believe we only have 3 semesters left.  That feels awesome.

Exams Start Tomorrow

Two exams are waiting for me, in the coming two days.  Maternity/L&D and a course about nursing ethics, professionalism and legalities of the profession.  Truth be told, the more I learn about the jurisprudence aspect of nursing, the more worried I get about the legal implications of doing something wrong -- not charting as accurately as I could, or whatever.  Scary stuff.

Anyhow, I'm here very briefly (OK, perhaps I'm procrastinating a wee bit), as a study break. I'm so happy that after this Christmas, there will only be one more pre-Christmas preparation time that nursing school basically ruins (until I start my Nurse Practitioner schooling, that is!).  I'm so stressed about Christmas, its just not right.  But I'll worry about that after Thursday's exam.

To those of you who read this blog and who actually know me in person -- I'm tellin' ya now that my Christmas cards will be l-a-t-e this year.  Maybe they'll be New Year's cards...

OK. Back to the books.  I just want these exams over and done with.  3 more terms to go!!!

It's almost over.  We can all do this.