Coming Up for Air

I'm sure I've said this before, however, this has truly been the week from nursing hell! Actually, it's been more like two weeks in the making. Last week my class took the critical thinking/care plan exam where we are given a nursing scenario and have to determine what could possibly be wrong with the patient and what we're going to do improve their condition. About 5 minutes after turning in my exam, I realized "IDIOT!!! You forgot to write a secondary nursing diagnosis!!!!!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Ugh, it was SUCH a bummer! (Actually that's the day I decided to take a trip to Jungle Island to calm me down.) I knew I had secured a spot at next week's retake exam, which might not have been so bad if I didn't have two other exams that week!

That was a Wednesday. I spent Thursday thru yesterday either at a library or hospital studying and preparing for today's two exams. It's hard to describe the stress and toll that a week of continuous studying and worrying takes on a person, but you could definitely see it on our worn out faces and empty stares. A constant flow of coffee was all we had to keep us from succumbing to the one thing we longed for more than anything... SLEEP!!! 

But the day finally came. For those retaking last week's exam, it was do or die... we either passed this time or kissed our hopes of graduating in December goodbye. Frankly, there was no chance in hell my butt was not going to pass this exam (plus I don't really have a Plan B if I fail out of nursing school, so I had no choice).  Our professors didn't make it easy for us though, throwing a big curve ball when they gave us diabetes for a scenario. Diabetes?!... we learned that 3 months ago! I think they ended up agreeing that as long as we didn't kill the patient in the process of resolving his hyperglycemia we'd pass. And guess what? Everybody passed! PHEEEW.. One down, one to go, and by this point I'd had enough. I just wanted to get the day over with. Luckily, on my second exam (pharmacology) I scored a 2 out of a possible 1, 2, or 3 and as long as you got a 2 or 3, you received full credit. Haaaaaallelujah!!! I have one more exam (Med-Surg final) on Friday and then my semester's over. Yippeeee! 

A weekend off sounds pretty amazing to me right now... I'm pooped. :)