Hello Blog, it's Me, PICU Nurse

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post!! It's crazy how fast time flies when you're...

Having fun?? NOPE...

Are working in the PICU while doing grad school...BTW with a grad school director who thinks nobody works, so she schedules papers and papers and papers like nobody's business!!

But it's all good...I have seriously never said "It's only 9 more weeks...I can do this for 9 more weeks!" as much as I have in the last few days! And after those 9 more weeks, I'll only have to say that in 11 week increments twice more!!

Last week finished up our last week of "Clinical Prep" classes, and this week starts the real deal! Last week we did stuff like practicing "Difficult Conversations" which came in handy the next day because I had a dad yelling at me at work (more on that in another post! : )

And then we moved on to practicing presenting our patient in rounds. Now I may give report to nurses every night before I go home. And I may be a part of rounds, listening, every morning for my patients in the PICU.

But PRESENTING your own patient in front of a group of medical students, doctors, nurse practitioners, and families is a whole new ball game! Just to spice it up, my professor would interrupt us at various points (just like an attending would...scratch that...will do!) and say things like "Where are you going with that??" or "What does that even mean!?"

Not because they don't know what it means, but just because they are testing us. So I'm sure I'm in for a crazy ride this week!!

But I'm glad to have the class part behind me and the practice part in front of me. While I'm sure there will be days I leave thinking there's no way I want to go back, it'll be worth it.

I'm going through this whole (excruciating : ) process for an end goal, and I will get there! Nobody said the adventure would always be fun. And nobody promised that it would be stress free.

So here's to entering into the next chapter of grad school. The new adventure of walking into the PICU, not as a nurse, but as a Nurse Practitioner. It may be the same "home," but when I walk into that unit, I will be walking in as a guest. This is definitely a new role for me. But I welcome the lessons that I will learn...and the crazy, adventurous ride that it will take me on.

Here's to the upcoming Adventures of an Advanced Practice Nurse! : )