In an effort to celebrate ALL the milestones both big and small, here is a quick recap of the last month,
AKA the 1ST MONTH OF NURSING SCHOOL!
{first day of school pic}
So far, life in Durham as a student has been great!
Major adjustments include: commuting to school, RDU traffic can be very unpredictable, navigating a new campus & town, organizing class work, understanding Sakai, mastering the bus route, packing my lunch everyday, I was spoiled by Alliance Medical! and remembering my ID badge 😉 Pictured below are all of my new books, stethoscope & lab bag, believe it or not, I’ve already read so much out of each of these books! and I was happy to get lime green tubing! -favorite color!
This first month has flown by and I’m happy to have made it through the first major round of testing! I am pleased to have such an awesome cohort/professors who are always ready to help, and it is great to be enthusiastic about the subject material. So far I have really enjoyed seeing my previous work experiences come to life in the classroom, while learning the WHY behind it all. Here is my my new pop up office set up where I spend majority of my off-campus time, home sweet home!
What has worked for my so far in the program: Organization
- Keeping up with everything in my planner, & by “everything” I mean: the schedule for the week, my reading lists, deadlines for assignments & where to be + what uniform to wear. We have a very dynamic schedule and it could be very easy to show up to the wrong clinical site or in the wrong uniform, etc
- I realize the more organized I am, the less extra stress I invite into my life, I can follow my rigid structure & that allows me to learn better!
- I’ve color coded my classes- as you can see on my desk calendar & the notebook tabs, this saves me from extra writing when I can quickly associate a highlighter dot instead of writing out class titles, each class has so much going on I have to divide up the information easily
- I prefer to print out my notes before class and write on them during lecture. At the end of the day or the end of the week I make sure to file the papers away chronologically in the class specific binder, I have 1 binder for each class.
- I also made sure to keep up with my digital files accordingly… each class has a file folder located in the center of my desktop -so I don’t miss it! & I make sure to promptly rename them, so I know what I’m looking for. Ex: Pharm1.doc vs. LEC3300992.doc ~simple, maybe even trivial, but it has really helped with finding things later!
- Each course I’m in lists Learning Objectives for each lecture day or concept material… I make sure to write out my answers to the learning objectives every week, my deadline is Friday afternoon, but I work on them all throughout the week…
- I print out the “weekly task list” for each course to make sure I check off every last reading, suggested reading, assignment, or quiz
- My cohort createad a GroupMe group messaging account and we have a cohort Facebook page, everyone will chime in with questions, topics to remember, or studyguide attachments & tips ~super helpful!
- Lately my goal is to get home from school ~4-5pm, work/read/study until dinner ~7pm then unwind and relax until bed, then get up to do it all over again early in the morning!
- Weekends are for reviewing material & preparing for the week ahead, I used to try to read before lecture, but it was more confusing for me that way, now I just skim before & make sure I pay attention 100% the entire lecture, then read more in depth for whatever I didn’t understand
We’ve been battling winter weather her a lot lately, K-Ville even closed for the 1st time ever due to very low temperatures & increasing student illness. Dillon & I were snowed in together for a few days straight, he worked at home & I was happy to have the time to read over material uninterrupted. Scrubs have been ordered and lab time has begun! Pictured below: here we all are clamoring to hear specific lung sounds & fields on the simulation mannequin.
It’s only the beginning, but we are off to a great start! I am so thankful for this opportunity & I plan to make it count. I appreciate all of the encouragement and everyone who has checked in on me, it means so much! 🙂 Follow along on Instagram for more day to day posts! I’ll be sure to do my best to keep everyone updated… Cheers!
