Let me update you...

Geez, it's been awhile!

Okay, well, I totally forgot about this blog so I figured I would go ahead and get up to date. I have graduated from nursing school. Yipee!!! However, the big big BIG hurdle in front of me is the NCLEX exam, which I must pass in order to work as a registered nurse and get paid the big bucks lol. Until then, I am a Graduate Nurse. I have a job, at a hospital on the Oncology Med-Surg unit. Totally not what I was planning to do. My plan was to work on the couplet (mother-baby/postpartum - depends on the hospital as to what they call it) unit. But I discovered that it's not exactly easy to get a new grad position in this oh-so-popular, coveted area. Which made me realize that going into a specialty area fresh out of school may not be the smartest move for me. I don't want to pigeonhole myself into a specialty right away. Suppose we move out of the area and all I have is a few months of couplet care? What if where we move doesn't have the nursing shortage that Arizona does? I want to be as versatile as possible for awhile. Maybe after a year or two, I'll look at those specialty areas. But for now, I want all the experience I can get. Other than clinicals, I have never worked in the healthcare field, so getting experience is of upmost importance to me.

I really like the hospital I was hired at. I've done 3 clinical rotations there, including one on the unit I was hired for. My position is nights, which is good for me...I think. I am a night owl so it should be okay. Nights means not too many distractions, like doctors and family and such. More time to work on organizational skills. Not to mention the night differential lol. I start work the 2nd week of July with computer training, hospital orientation, and CPR class since my card is about to expire. Then the following week my RN training starts. It's an 18-week residency program, which I am totally looking forward to and am totally nervous about.

Of course, all of this hinges on my passing the NCLEX. Heck, I don't even have a test date yet! My stupid firgerprint card came back last week saying that it was illegible and I needed to redo it! Oh great. Well, it was redone and overnighted that same day, so hopefully I should be getting a date sometime next week. Until then, it's study, study, study!!!