I GOT IN TO NURSING SCHOOL!!!

This past Wednesday, I received an envelope from my university letting me know I'd been granted conditional acceptance to nursing school! I was so excited! They only chose 36 people to enter the Spring program! I was on my way to an exam at the time and it was around noon so my hubby was at lunch (in the gym where he throws his cell in his locker) and my mom was supposedly at lunch but not answering her cell, etcetera. I finally got ahold of my hubby before I walked into the test and was so excited to tell him the news! I actually starting bawling like an idiot. I figure the test people must have wondered what was up! I did get ahold of my mom after the test and texted various people later in the day.

So conditional acceptance means that you have to do a few things before they give you final acceptance. One is to fork over $155 for a criminal background check/drug test. So I signed up Wednesday evening to have that done, then I would just have to take some paperwork to a local lab collection place to do the drug test. The second thing is to fork over another $150 as a deposit to secure my spot in the nursing program, which I also did Wednesday evening. The last thing was take some paperwork over to the school office here once I'd read it, filled it out and signed. So Thursday I headed over to have my drug test done and I dropped off the paperwork at the university. Now, I just have to wait for the criminal background check and the drug test to be submitted to my university and then I should receive a final acceptance letter. I've never been arrested, nor have I done drugs, so I should be just fine.

My only concern was a medication my doctor has me on, but the lab people assured me if something showed up in their test, they would send the second sample to another lab to have them do it. If something still showed up, they would call me to find out if I was on any prescription medication that might show up. If so, all I had to do was give them my doctor's name, the prescription, the dosage, etcetera and they would call to verify before sending the green light on to the background check company. This company then submits the background check PLUS the drug check to my university as GREEN for all clear, YELLOW for something needing to be verified, and RED for no way should you let them in (I guess). They give you a link to check the background check progress and I saw today they had 24/25 completed already. I figure they can't find much, so it should be done fairly quickly!

I'll tell you what, Nursing School is going to be EX-PEN-SIVE!! I've already had to pay the $305 for the check/test and the deposit. Once I find out if I'm in, I am required to purchase a fujitsu tablet to use for the class. It costs anywhere from $1400-$2300 (right now because they're currently on sale, though that ends on the 15th of October). I have to put in this order by November 1st to have it by Spring semester. (thanks for that being so close to Christmas, by the way...yeesh!) Then there are various other things I'd like to have as a student nurse. I'm going to have to get lab kits and specific scrubs, probably some good shoes for the clinicals. I want to get a decent stethoscope, plus there are many books and apps I'd like to get to help me out. I want to get an NCLEX review book, a Fundamentals book and maybe the book about tests in nursing school. They're completely different than normal tests in school because they make you apply what you know to answers. From what I hear, all 4 answers may be correct, but you have to pick the "most correct" answer which sounds confusing. I've heard some of these books help you out with figuring out what the instructors want as well as how your NCLEX test will be. Each of those books is about $30-$50 apiece (not counting the textbooks needed for class either). I've heard that having an iPod touch is great for some apps that really help student nurses out on clinicals. Of course I have a classic and not a touch, so that'd be another purchase. There's a really nice app bundle, but it's a subscription you have to pay for every year and it's like $160? But it has lots of things in it about different types of diagnoses, lab tests, medical dictionaries, etcetera in it. Great for when you need to know something on the fly, you can whip out your iPod touch and have the info at your fingertips in seconds! Do you see how this is beginning to add up?

DH isn't worried at all. He says once I get the final acceptance letter, then we start purchasing this crap. It better pay us back in the end! I've heard many a horror story about how new grads can't find jobs since they have no experience. However, it'll take me another couple of years to get my degree, so I'm hoping the economy has changed by then. I've heard that once the economy is ok again, many of the retired nurses who came out of retirement to help their families will retire once again and positions will be open. Not only that but with the baby boomer generation getting older, more nurses will be necessary.

I just can't wait to get in there and get my hands dirty. I miss a medical environment. I loved going to work every day, not knowing what I'd see, having emergencies walk through the door, surgeries, etcetera. Sure it was with animals, and I know there's a difference, but I'm thinking if I can handle that, I can certainly handle this.

I had to write this essay about why I wanted to be a nurse. Most people probably say they want to help people and everyone says don't say you're doing it for the money. Well, I'm certainly not doing it for that. I'd have stuck with DVM if that was the case, they definitely make more than nurses do. I chose to speak about all the medical problems that had gone on with my family in recent years what with my mother and aunt going through breast cancer. How I wish I had more answers for them or was in a position to ask questions for them if I didn't know. I wrote about my uncle's lifelong battle with kidney problems and after two failed transplants and dialysis for decades, he gave up that battle last year. A couple of years ago several feet of his bowel died and they didn't know if he'd make it. I was in the hospital a lot that weekend helping my grandparents cope. They had no idea what the doctors or nurses were saying, I think they were in some sort of haze. Thankfully I had enough medical knowledge from previous classes and experience in the veterinary medicine field that I could answer my grandparents' questions once they left. But the reason that I most wanted to be a nurse was because of Mary. When I was 21(-ish?) I was married to my first husband and living far from home and that's when I had to have surgery for the first time ever due to endometriosis. I was terrified! But I remember waking up and there was a nurse by my side and her name was Mary. I remember she just slowly stroked my hand and told me she was there for me and if there was anything I needed to just let her know. I remember feeling so alone and lost and had just gone through this procedure and you wake up disoriented but she was such a calm and comforting presence. Isn't it something that nearly 15 years later, I still remember her name? That's how much it meant to me at the time. And that's what I put in my essay. 15 years down the road, I want someone to say, "Remember that nurse Lori and how kind and comforting she was?"

Who knows what got me in out of the many that applied. Could have been the essay, I'm sure grades helped out some. I had to have three letters of reference to the program which had to include educational or work references. I had excellent references, my best friend who was a veterinary technician with me; a customer who works as a therapist offered to write one for me; and then my Anatomy & Physiology teacher wrote one. My advisor had told me if I could get a letter from him it would look REALLY great because he's considered a very difficult teacher. I asked my poor professor after 3 weeks of class? I wanted to give him enough time to see my grades before I hounded him, but it was only an 8 week class and I had to have my app in by August 1st (my class started June 17th and ended August 6th), so I asked him in July. He agreed to do so thankfully and he even tossed the envelope I included and put it in the School of Medicine envelope which I think made it look better! LOL Yes, my poor professor, he has to deal with me even now in our A&P II class (I switched profs for my second class because I felt I learned what he taught very well and I didn't want to mess that up)! Too bad I couldn't have asked him now because he could surely include more info now that he's known me for months, but obviously it worked anyway!

Though he might include how annoying I am...lol! My friend and I (we met in the first class and are taking the 2nd one together with him too) bug him via email about whatever we don't understand, though he says that's good because he knows we're really thinking about the material. He's a great prof. I wish everyone could take the class from him, though he makes you work hard for the grade and some don't appreciate that. It's totally worth it though because it makes you remember it for a long, long time! I think I'll actually be sad when the class is over because I don't believe he teaches nursing classes. Wish he did though! He is, without a doubt, the best professor I've ever had, I can honestly say that.

I really, really can't wait to get started in Nursing School! I hope the instructors are great and the class is wonderful and I learn lots and get the opportunity to get into a hospital and use what I've learned really well. It is my ultimate goal to get into a VA hospital and to be able to serve our veterans. With my husband in the military, it would make me feel very good if I could somehow do something for them!

Will try to keep this updated!

On the stitching front, I've been studying so damn hard, I haven't felt the need or want to even pick up any stitching. Though recently, I did pick up my Grateful Nation and get a bit more done on it. I can show a quick pic. Here it was in July of this year:


Here it is now:


I can't wait to finish this and give it to my grandfather! Better get going though. It's date night and DH and I sent the kids off to bed early and need to go pick out a flick to watch!