I decided I'd make a post about a day in the "Life of Liz" (haha) and share a piece of my life here at school. But, seeing as I'm a nursing student, some days I have normal classes while others involve clinicals. For those who don't know of nursing clinicals, they are basically just working in a hospital with an instructor and an assigned patient for the day. At Case Western Reserve University, they start nursing students early. That's right, three weeks into your first semester you start your clinical experience. At that point do you know what you're able to do? Wash your hands... It's all okay though, more skills come. Now, in my second year, I have one eight-hour clinical a week. That'll up another day next semester.
Apologies for the long clinical talk, but I felt it necessary to really dredge up what all is going on. Anyhow, let's get started! First, we'll talk about Monday (regular classes) then we'll move onto Thursday (clinical day).
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MONDAY
7:10AM- Turn off alarm 1. Zzzzzzz.....
7:12AM- Turn off alarm 2. Don't worry, these are all vibrating watch alarms so I don't wake my roommate up. I do set some noise alarms as backups though, so this is when I turn these off.
7:20AM- Stumble to bathroom, blocking the light with my hands. Normally someone else is also there getting ready so we exchange those "morning remarks" that are oh so tired and vague. After washing my face and brushing my teeth I head to the kitchen where I pour myself a bowl of dry Raisin Bran Crunch (I've never liked milk in my cereal...)
7:30AM- I sneak back into my room and eat my cereal while scrolling through my phone. I normally check the weather to see what would be the best attire for the day. Being that I go to school in Cleveland, the weather can be a bit difficult... At the last minute I'll get up and put on my clothes for the day. If I plan on going to the gym after class, I'll just wear my athletic clothing. Otherwise, I normally try to wear jeans and a nice shirt.
7:59AM- "Shoot. I need coffee." Quietly tries to brew coffee without waking others up. Not a big deal though because my roommate gets up at 8am on weekdays.
8:03AM- The long walk to class begins. My classes are anywhere from 12 to 17 minutes away, so I always have to plan some time for walking. It's common to see me talking on the phone between classes. I find its a good time to call my parents or friends. I tend to have a lot of work so I try to spend time between classes catching up with people because I figure, "Hey, I can't do work while walking!"
8:30AM- Class. Monday morning's course is about gerontology in nursing. It's a long one and the room is always cold. I huddle in my seat and sip my coffee until we get a break. When it was still warm, I'd go sit outside in the sun for the few minutes we had. Otherwise, I chat with my friends while we sit at our table.
10:30AM- I meet with a professor every Monday for my job. Basically, I facilitate group study sessions for one of the better known, difficult courses. But, I meet with the professor a lot to get an idea of what the students are struggling with. Also, this professor is phenomenal so I love just getting to talk with her. After the meeting, I either go to the gym or to my room.
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| Planner page showing my schedule for the week. |
10:47AM- If I go to the gym I normally will stay for about an hour before heading back to the house. If I go straight to my room I try to work on something or plan an SI session (that same job mentioned above). I'll eat lunch and relax for a few minutes before heading to my chemistry class, probably calling someone else as I walk over.
12:45PM- Class starts a few minutes late because our professor is always busy with something else. If there is ever a class I almost fall asleep in, it's this one. Not because the class is boring, but the room is warm and I'm digesting my lunch. It never fails that around 1pm I want to nod off. Class ends at 2 so I leave and make my way back home.
2:17PM- This is where everything goes up in the air. Do I have homework to do? What about any studying? How's that last patient care worksheet going? Oh, should I plan Wednesday's SI session? Honestly, whatever needs done gets done now-ish. I'm always free until about 5 so I can get some stuff finished. My roommate tends to make it back before I leave again so we chat for a bit and probably end up laughing way too much at something not that funny, but hey, we enjoy ourselves. At 5:15 I'll leave to go to my SI session.
6:30PM- Yay, time for SI! Honestly, I love sessions, so this is a pretty good job for me. I get to work with first year nursing students and talk about anatomy with them and it's great. Especially to see when a concept really clicks. It makes me beyond excited. Plus, they're fun to talk to and I knew some of them before the SI stuff started, so its nice to see them all fairly regularly.
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| Book of the moment |
10:30PM- Bed. Ah, yes. This is the goal. After much tossing and turning, I'll finally doze off and be prepared to hit that alarm the next morning at 7:10am.
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THURSDAY
7:10AM-8:00AM- From waking up to grabbing coffee, Thursday is the same as Monday. I make the morning stumble to the bathroom and get ready rather slowly.
8:10AM- I get to leave a little later on Thursdays because my morning class is in a building much closer. I'll head out, zip my coat up tight, and do my best to barrel across Euclid Ave., defeating the powerful wind.
8:30AM- Class begins. This morning's class is pharmacology, so I rapidly write down everything that seems to be important about whichever drug we discuss. Pharmacology is very interesting, but the amount of information on the subject is staggering.
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| My backpack for school and some of my notebooks. |
9:45AM- Class is over so I'll leave the nursing building and probably go straight to the gym.
10:00AM- My gym sessions usually last about an hour. I'll spend 10-20 minutes on cardio then do some warm-ups in the back corner. Afterwards, I'll meander throughout the weights and machine sections doing my best to focus on whichever muscle group I hope to target for the day. Then, a 10 minute stretch and cool-down (often with a few ab exercises) before heading back home to clean up.
11:10AM- When I'm back at the house I normally take a few minutes to wind down. I'm often starved so I go to the kitchen and make some lunch. Because I have so much free time around lunch on Thursdays, I'll take advantage of the time and kitchen to actually cook myself something. I'll go back to my room with lunch and relax while I eat.
12:00PM- Probably time to start getting ready for clinical... I'll head to the bathroom and take a quick shower then hurry back and put on my white scrubs. As my hair dries, I like to put on a little makeup and get my stuff together. I'll slide my pens into my pocket, grab my clinical journal, wrap up my stethoscope to put in my pocket, and make sure I have all assignments that are due that day.
1:10PM- Back to the kitchen to pack dinner. The Cleveland Clinic has a really nice dining area with multiple restaurants, but I try to spend as little money as possible, therefore, packing food it is!
1:17PM- HURRY to the bus stop. The Clinic is about a mile away so it takes too long to walk and most of us just take the bus.
1:30PM- Thank goodness, I didn't miss it... I'll find an empty seat or standing space to enjoy the 7 minute bus ride down Euclid Ave.
1:40PM- Am I a bit early? Probably, that's how I am. I'll wander through one of the giftshops to kill a little time before everyone else in my clinical group shows up.
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| After the Stethoscope Ceremony my freshman year. |
2:00PM- Let the clinical begin! Well, kind of. We spend the first hour in pre-conference discussing assignments, classes, and life. At the beginning of the semester we went to the rooftop overlook, but as it got colder and darker, we starting having pre-conference in the dining hall instead.
3:15PM- By this time we should be back on the floor and have our assigned patient for the day. We find their nurse and get report, go introduce ourselves, and see if anything else needs done. Sometimes we have worksheets that have to be completed, so you'll see nursing students scattered down the hall on computers trying to gather the proper information. It always varies with what needs done, sometimes just vital signs and conversation, other times you may get to go with a patient to a procedure or take them on a walk. No matter what, you fill the time.
5:30PM- This year myself and my fellow nursing students are allowed to give medications, some of which are scheduled around this time to fit with dinner. So, if our patient has assigned medications, we'll grab our instructor and go give the meds. For those of us not passing meds that day, we take vital signs and make sure our patients don't need anything before we leave the floor for dinner.
6:00PM- Time for food! We wait anxiously for everyone to make it back to the conference room before heading down for dinner. I don't know why, but I'm always starving on clinical days, and it seems like everyone else is too. We normally find one of the other evening clinical groups and sit with them. With a group of nursing students this large and as little experience as we have, there are normally some pretty funny stories flying around. Whether it was someone's first time giving an injection and having a mini panic attack or getting in some sort of trouble with their clinical instructor, dinners are normally really fun and a nice break.
7:00PM- Back to the floor we go, all in our separate directions. After dropping our lunch bags off, we'll see if the nursing staff has changed and introduce ourselves if they have. Then, we check on our patient and see if they need anything. This part of the evening tends to be fairly slow as everything winds down for the night. There may be more meds to pass, but otherwise, most of the assigned work is done.
9:00PM- At this point we sign off with our patients and nurses before heading back to the conference room. We will talk about our days, anything interesting that happened, and discuss the assignments we had. A lot of times we make sure to look at the assignments for the following week as well, so everyone knows what to bring. After getting bundled up, we leave the floor and head out to the bus stop.
10:00PM- How long it will take the bus to get to the stop varies, but at the most its only 15 minutes. When it gets there, we all board and again find an empty space. As the bus travels back up Euclid and makes its various stops, the nursing students filter out. We live on different parts of campus so people get out at different times. Luckily, everyone has someone who lives near them so no one has to walk alone in the night.
10:30PM- By this point I should be back in my room relaxing and getting ready for bed. Depending on whether I have class the next morning, I may stay up late reading or watching an episode of something on Netflix. We only have classes on Fridays about half the time, so there is a good chance I'll stay up for a while.
11:15PM- Am I drained? Yep. So, I crawl into bed and pass out with thoughts of the hospital floating around my head.
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So, that is a day in my life at school! Not always the most exciting or entertaining, but, that's what it is. I often get tired from all the rushing about, but I find that as soon as I'm sitting doing nothing, I miss it. School is draining, that's for sure, but it is rewarding as well. Those hours I spend in the hospital are some of my favorite out of the week and I always look forward to them.
Looking forward to clinical is a big change from last year, when it was something I almost dreaded. But, I like clinicals a lot better now that I can do a bit more and spend more time on the floor. It allows me to get to know my patients better, and that is one of the best feelings. As of right now, I can't actually do a whole lot, skill-wise. And that's okay! It'll come with time. But, one thing I can do is be a caring person for these people to talk to, a new face who is there solely to help them in any way I can. As an actual nurse, I'll likely have multiple patients to look after, giving me less time to know them as people. But with the time I am given now, I plan to use it to the best of my ability.
I'm finishing this post over my winter break, and it is a great time to reflect on everything I've learned in just four months. Last year I never would have expected myself to say this, but, I can't wait to get back to school and learn more.
Until the next post,
Elizabeth
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