The program

For clarity, I thought I would explain a little more about what it is I’m actually doing.  I am in a three-year nurse practitioner program for people with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree.  Although I was a biology major in college, many people in my program don’t even have a science background.  This first year we will become RNs…it is literally the fastest way possible to become a nurse.  Two weeks from our first day of school we already will be starting our clinical rotations and in the hospitals learning skills.  After this first “bridge” year to become an RN, we enter our “specialty” years to become our respective types of nurse practitioners.  This particular program has many specialties to choose from: pediatrics, family, adult, gerontological, women’s health, oncology, acute care, and nurse-midwifery, just to name a few.  This semester we will study pharmacology, biomedical principles, anatomy, and medical-surgical nursing.  We will have two 6-week rotations on various medical-surgical units in hospitals.  Everything we learn in class, we are only told once and then expected to know it since we have so much material to cover.  Studying and memorizing is going to become my life.  But the more I learn, the more I am absolutely positive this is the right place for me.  I’m so excited to work in health care in this capacity!

Every former student tells me this will be the hardest, most rewarding thing I will ever do.  Thus far I am convinced they are right.

Coming soon: day 1 of cadavers!

Day one

Today the journey began.  I feel as though I have landed in a foreign country. Ironically, when I have actually moved to foreign countries I generally felt more prepared and less scared than I do today.  Today I found myself in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language and have never been taught about the culture.  My knowledge of nursing language is minimal…limited to what I’ve picked up from personal health issues and episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.  Today was just a small taste of the language and culture, a guided peek with other scared travelers from the comfort of our chairs.  In two short weeks the full immersion experience begins.  We will go to clinical and be expected to know things.  For the time being I am having a hard time just grasping the basic language, how I’m supposed to actually function and provide care in this new country I do not know.  I have chosen the most accelerated way possible to become a nurse, the speedy highlights tour.  Right now this seems like a totally crazy idea.  Looking at the schedule and seeing everything I will know in a few short weeks is completing overwhelming.  From today on, I will live and breathe nursing.  It is going to be a wild ride.