Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Graduation Picture from the school!
My graduating class! CSI ADN Spring 2011

Laura Johnson, you've just graduated from nursing school, what are you gonna do next?
Naturally I am going to Disneyland, well okay I will be in the same neighborhood! I have been to Disneyland enough to know the entire park! Instead I am going to a Dodger's game, the beach, Knott's Berry Farm, and a bunch of other fun things with the family to celebrate my brother graduating from high school and me from college! Should be fun! Also, I am studying a little bit every day to get ready for the NCLEX. I also moved into my first non-student apartment! Here's your pictures, Dana! Oh, and I am back to crafting--more pics to come of projects!

Year Two--Same game, different plan!

Then year two hit. My little sister was no longer around and needing an example--it was my first time being truly out on my own! I had amazing roommates who were a lot of fun. Well, I took advantage of this and had a lot of fun. Don't worry I still pulled my 3.0, but it was due to a lot of late nights and stressing. This year my method for studying was to forget the books completely (let's be honest, I am not going to be able to sit through a 1600 page reading assignment). I instead would record the lectures and then listen to them while I was at home or jogging. This worked a lot better. During the fall, we had several parties and became quite the popular little trio--Alyssa, Tara, and Laura. I learned how to ballroom dance, played extreme Murder in the Dark, lots of movie nights, midnight snowball fights, and spontaneous song and dance in the apartment! I got my second concussion, first stress ulcer, and pulled my first complete all nighter, which turned into 48 hours with no sleep. Stupid, don't try it! I made a lot of great friends in Twin Falls and this is when I truly fell in love with this town. I finished strong though and even managed to finally pass Algebra! Then I spent all of Christmas break with a broken leg. Not fun!
Spring semester was my final semester for the program. I was excited because I got to start off with OB, which is my favorite and I was certain that is where I would be getting a job after graduating. It was just as great as I remembered and flew by. I'm not gonna lie--not a lot of studying done here. Then I moved on to the dreaded Advanced Med-Surg. I was scared to death of this class because it is where fourth semester students fail out. Turns out I loved it. Okay, I did terrible in Endocrine, but I aced Critical Care and actually decided that maybe babies won't be where I end up. I love the ICU and I think that is where I will end up at. We'll see though! We got a new roommate Ashley and I loved her just as much as the others! My group of friends shifted this semester because our friend Shane left to school in Rexburg. I started hanging out with Shane and Gary, Tara, Terica, and Katherine. Lots of good times this semester dressing up for ward activities with the roommates, playing a lot of Just Dance, late nights talking about absolutely nothing, and dances at the church! Don't worry kids, those grades stayed up and I ended nursing school with a 3.4 GPA! I precepted on the surgical and medical floors, which I loved. On my first day my nurse asked if I would take a patient by myself. I said sure and off I went. Well, later in the shift she said that the charge nurse suggested we give the patient a different medication to see if it would help. My nurse Shana, asked if I would mind if she asked the patient about the change. I said that was fine, she was the nurse, and she said you are the nurse for that patient and I don't want to step on your toes. You should have seen the grin on my face! Haha! I was so excited! I'm a nurse! Well, I am a graduate nurse, but still!

The End is just the Beginning!

Well, I can hardly believe it, but my two year sentence is up! That's right.......... nursing school is finished. Now instead of my posts being rants about teachers and concept maps, they will be about patients and bosses! I'm only kidding! Well, I decided that before I take the NCLEX and my memory purges itself of everything I better write some things down. There was a lot that happened this year--both good and bad, that I don't want to forget.
I started out nursing school living with my little sister and just trying to figure out how to do this nursing school thing! For those who are nurses you will understand that nursing school is like nothing you have ever experienced. For the rest of you I will try to explain it. School has always been difficult for me. I don't have the patience to pay attention during lectures and I don't read because well, that patience factor again. It took me two weeks to read Harry Potter #7 and that's because I skipped the paragraphs that seemed boring or didn't have quotation marks in them! Sad I know. Well, in nursing school they start you out by buying all of your nursing books at once. $2000 right out the gate! Then they tell you that they want you to read all of these books! I was nervous and tried my hardest my first two semesters to figure out how I was going to do all of this reading. Well, by test two I gave up on the reading and just focused on my notes! I was a good girl that first year though and gave up fun activities and a social life for school. It payed off and I got the best grades of my life.