It’s hard to believe that I am already in my second semester of nursing school! It seems like the first semester was such a blur of new faces, classrooms, assignments, terminology, and testing strategies. I felt like I spent so much of my time just figuring out how to structure my studying and keep on top of all my reading and lectures. This semester has certainly not been any easier content wise, but it is has been so helpful to go into it knowing my instructors and classmates and understanding their expectations!

This semester I am taking Professional Practice (aka Fundamentals), Pharmacology, and Geriatrics. I have really loved the structure of my classes. On Monday and Tuesday I have lectures, and on Thursdays and Fridays I have my clinicals for Fundamentals. Clinical days are long, packed with information, and always leave my head spinning, but they are so much fun! We learn so many skills in each eight hour block, and my instructors have been amazing at keeping us engaged with fun activities and lots of helpful study tools.

Our first week focused on gas exchange. Our learning points were: seizure precautions, fire and electrical safety, PPE, glucometry and telemetry, feeding, hot and cold therapy, bed baths and hygiene, bedmaking, and gloving! We did everything from races to set up suction tubes, feeding each other pudding and thickened water, wrapping each other up in ACE bandages and giving mannequins bed baths!

Week two was just as packed, with a focus on: documentation, medication
calculations, oxygen delivery devices, restraints, ROM exercises, DVT
prevention, canes/walkers/gait belts and crutches, trapeize beds and low
friction sheets, body mechanics, repositioning, and fall risk assessment. Some
of the highlights were forming Harry Potter themed teams for an oxygen
therapy quiz, practicing proper falling (and hopefully catching!) techniques,
and even reenacting a deep vein thrombosis formation (see picture on the left). I am such a visual, hands on learner that the clinical environment has been so helpful for me!

This week is already packed with assignments, and I have to admit I am feeling overwhelmed. But as I think about how much we have learned in the program and how far we have come, I am so grateful to have had this experience and am genuinely looking forward to all that second semester has to offer! God has brought me through so far, and I know He will help me get through this year too. Here’s to a very full, amazing second semester!