Monday, February 7

timing is everything

This last semester of my time at Creighton is a little different. I have what is called my nursing preceptorship, which is basically like an internship. I'm paired up with a nurse and basically work her schedule, three 12-hour shifts per week. We have 10 weeks to complete 320 hours, and that's really all the "school" I have. And let me tell you, it's been quite the whirlwind.
My first week was a friday-saturday-sunday, and let's say I didn't quite make it to Sunday. Friday and Saturday were awesome, I love the nurse I am paired with and the floor I'm on, but I guess my body needed a little more time to adjust. I woke up on that Sunday sick as a dog, and stayed that way all week long. After I finally felt better and was able to back to Children's every nurse kept telling me "getting sick is normal when you first come into peds, it's like sending a kid to daycare, they pick up everything." I'm hoping that got out of my system now, and that I'll be good to go the rest of the semester. I've been back at school for 5ish weeks and I've managed to be sick all but 2 of them, or at least that's what it feels like.
I did make it through my next 3 in a row, however, and I don't think I have ever been so tired. I made it through all 3 days feeling great, not really understanding why everyone talks about hating working 3 in a row. Waking up on that fourth day though, it all sunk in. I was so tired my alarm went off for probably a good 5 minutes before I even realized it. I finally realized why all those people were complaining, it suddenly all made so much sense. Luckily, I have had a few days to recover since then, but it's almost time for me to do it all over again. I'll write again about all the exciting things I've gotten the chance to do this semester thus far- and there are many, many exciting things!