It's been a loooooong time, Blogger

I am not good at keeping up with this blog. In fact, I actually forgot that I had this. I tried to change it to my running blog - that didn't work. Instead, I started a blog with tumblr that chronicled my journey from Hopkinton to Boston in April (PS I finished!). I also, at the same time, forgot about that day zero list. I think it's a lost cause - we'll see.

The big news in my life is that nursing school officially begins in 76 days! I'm super excited. After receiving an acceptance letter on January 5, I basically didn't hear back from the school (except for when they wanted my money) until about a month ago. That's when information started to trickle in. We had a uniform fitting in May. I ordered my scrubs, lab jacket, name tag, patches, penlight and Kelly clamp. I also picked up my student ID while I was there. Apparently the size small pants are back-ordered so my order hasn't shipped out yet - hopefully I'll have everything in the next few weeks! I also ordered my stethoscope and shoes. The shoes are... special. You really can't make white nursing shoes look good. My stethoscope, however, is awesome. I ordered on with hot pink tubing (obviously) so it's very me. I can't wait to use it! I also picked up a name plate for the stethoscope - I don't want mine getting lost in class. I took my BLS for the Healthcare Provider class (CPR), which was exciting because it was my first nursing "event." My official log in name/password and my college email address were set up. The day I received the letter from IT with this information, I ran to my iPhone and set up my email so that I could begin to stalk my school email without any problems (I couldn't help it - I've been anxious for information for MONTHS).

I also recently received a book list for one of my courses, Professional Nursing. This course has many parts to it - a nursing lab, clinical, and lecture. I haven't heard about my clinical placement yet but I did get the list of textbooks I will need. I ordered those immediately because I have homework to do this summer. I don't know why I was so surprised to have homework before classes - it's an intense nursing program! However, I was still surprised when the assignments came through. I had to purchase two textbooks - "Math for Clinical Practice" and "Fundamentals of Nursing." The latter is SO heavy - I couldn't believe the size of it when I opened the box from amazon.com! I have to read a bunch of chapters in it before school starts. The email we got didn't specifically say that but it listed about 6 different chapters with the textbook ISBN info - I'm assuming that means we will cover that for day 1. I'd rather not start the semester off behind so I'll do the reading regardless. I also have to do the first 4 chapters of the other textbook, "Math for Clinical Practice." I've gone through chapters 1-3. It is really really easy. It's basically a review of very basic math (think elementary school style math) - I had to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals and then basic equations. Nothing too hard. The thing I keep having a "hard" time with is the number of decimal places it rounds to. I'm used to keeping significant figures, thanks to years of science courses, but the book typically rounds to one decimal place. Regardless, it's pretty simple math but so necessary for calculation dosages of drugs, etc. Good times!

I also had to purchase a few other items for this course. One is a handbook of nursing skills and one is a video guide for nursing skills. These are both supplements of the "Fundamentals of Nursing" text. I have a few assignments with these as well. I'm hoping to get all of this work done in July. For clinicals, we have to use a PDA with specific software loaded on it. Luckily I have an iPhone so I will use that as my PDA, since ti meets the specifications. I had to download the app Skyscape from the App Store. Through Skyscape, we purchase various guides and texts to use throughout nursing. For Professional Nursing, I was told to purchase Davis' Drug Guide for NUrses, Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Nurse's Pocket Guide and Nurses's Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests. I also received a bunch of free apps when I purchased these - very fun! I can't wait to start using them. I've played around a bit but it doens't make much sense to me.

I haven't heard from my other courses yet (Pharmacology and Health Assessment) but I'm assuming I will have summer reading to do for them as well. I'd rather start the semester off on an organized, prepared note. There is nothing worse than falling behind from the start - you can never catch up!

Other than that, nothing else is new. I have my financial aid stuff all set. The graduate department set up a group on Facebook for my class - it's been really awesome. Everyone seems really nice and helpful - we've all been asking questions and it's been super helpful.

That's about it! I have one last immunization in the next couple of weeks and then all of my health forms will be ready to be submitted. Orientation is about 2 months away - that will be pretty exciting! I can't wait to get going - hurry up, 76 days!