Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Midwest, redux.
I'm heading back to Kansas next week to help the family out after my dad's upcoming surgery. He's a trooper, and I'm sure he'll heal up just fine. :) I just want to be there to help out with whatever they might need. I'm looking forward to seeing family again - the downside of living so far away from my hometown is that I see my folks once, maybe twice a year. It's not enough, really, but we make the most of the time we do get, and we supplement with lots of calls and texts and photos.
So all things considered, it should be a good trip. And I took a quick look at weather.com-- this doesn't sound so bad either:
So all things considered, it should be a good trip. And I took a quick look at weather.com-- this doesn't sound so bad either:
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Big One.
Tomorrow I take the NCLEX-RN (stands for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses). This is the exam that proves my competency to practice as a registered nurse, and upon passing I will receive my license to be a nurse in the great state of Montana.
It would be much easier if I could just promise the state board that I'm safe and competent, but that doesn't appear to fly. Instead, I'll drive to Helena, get fingerprinted and frisked, and go in to sit the exam. I have six hours to complete it, and I will answer somewhere between 75 and 265 questions. It's a computer adaptive test, so it bases the question selection on how I've answered previous questions.
I don't get much test anxiety, but I'm nervous for this one. For the past few weeks I've reviewed and answered practice questions for anywhere from ten minutes to an hour, most days of the week, but right at the moment it's not feeling like enough. I have friends who studied by just taking practice questions, and other friends who reviewed for hours a day, several weeks. So far, everyone from my class has passed. At first that was reassuring, but then a new thought occurred to me - what if I become the only flunkie of the bunch?
On the bright side, for $10 I can see my test results online the next day. It used to be that you had to wait for a letter, and it took a couple of weeks to get your results.
I booked myself a nice hotel in Helena for tonight - my test is at 8:00 in the morning, so I need to stay in town the night before. I found one with a workout center and a hot tub - two ways I loooove to relax. My current plan is hard workout, hot tub, dinner, wine, sleep, pass exam.
Any number of variations on the plan are acceptable, so long as they include that last step.
In a few minutes I'll pack my bags and hit the road. Wish me luck!
It would be much easier if I could just promise the state board that I'm safe and competent, but that doesn't appear to fly. Instead, I'll drive to Helena, get fingerprinted and frisked, and go in to sit the exam. I have six hours to complete it, and I will answer somewhere between 75 and 265 questions. It's a computer adaptive test, so it bases the question selection on how I've answered previous questions.
I don't get much test anxiety, but I'm nervous for this one. For the past few weeks I've reviewed and answered practice questions for anywhere from ten minutes to an hour, most days of the week, but right at the moment it's not feeling like enough. I have friends who studied by just taking practice questions, and other friends who reviewed for hours a day, several weeks. So far, everyone from my class has passed. At first that was reassuring, but then a new thought occurred to me - what if I become the only flunkie of the bunch?
On the bright side, for $10 I can see my test results online the next day. It used to be that you had to wait for a letter, and it took a couple of weeks to get your results.
I booked myself a nice hotel in Helena for tonight - my test is at 8:00 in the morning, so I need to stay in town the night before. I found one with a workout center and a hot tub - two ways I loooove to relax. My current plan is hard workout, hot tub, dinner, wine, sleep, pass exam.
Any number of variations on the plan are acceptable, so long as they include that last step.
In a few minutes I'll pack my bags and hit the road. Wish me luck!
Sunday, March 01, 2009
March first?
Boy, how time flies when you're in a freefall.
The past few months have been very surreal. I have been mostly unemployed since January 1st (randomly picking up receptionist shifts for my old company when I can), living somewhere new and not going to school. Any of these changes alone would be stressful, but doing it all at once has thrown me way off balance. At times I've almost felt as though I stepped into someone else's life. I've had a hard time getting into any of my normal routines - I haven't been to the gym since I was in Topeka!
I'm going to start back to the gym today. The first of the month always seems like a good time to make changes, and I'm hoping that by getting back into that routine, I will be able to garner some normalcy for myself.
I really miss going to school. I love to learn (though fortunately I'm studying for the NCLEX, so I'm still doing that part), but more than that I miss my classmates. I spent every day with those people for two and a half years, and they really began to feel like a family. I still see and talk to some of them, and everyone passes along updates and good news about one another's lives and jobs, but it's just not the same. A lot of them are working as nurses already, which means long shifts, often nights and weekends. Others are holed up, studying for their NCLEX. And lots of them have scattered, moving for jobs or to be with family. For the first month I felt a dull ache in my chest when I thought back to being in class with everyone. The day before the semester began at the university I even had a dream about being back in school. I think my loneliness was compounded by the fact that I was spending all day, every day at home by myself. It's been much better the past couple of weeks - since I've been filling in more at the office I'm getting some social interaction with old friends and coworkers. I enjoy having time to myself from time to time, but I'm a social person, and I really need to be around people.
The work situation is one that I have little control over, and I'm trying to be patient. I did interview at a hospital several weeks ago, but the first thing nurse recruiter told me was that they had frozen several of their open RN positions due to low census. (Low census is when there aren't very many patients in the hospital. Even hospitals are feeling the economic crunch.) I had a pretty good interview with her, but I haven't heard back since. I don't know if they are holding off still on hiring for that position or if they have filled it. I am trying to put that job out of my mind, and just watch for new ones opening up. Something will work out in time.
I hate to sound like a whiner. I love our new house (and that we can afford it even with me unemployed, thanks to my hard-working (and tenured!) husband), I'm proud of graduating from college, and I'm excited about all the new things in my life. But positive change is still change, so it's still stress. Remembering that helps me be kinder to myself when I feel a little out of whack.
The past few months have been very surreal. I have been mostly unemployed since January 1st (randomly picking up receptionist shifts for my old company when I can), living somewhere new and not going to school. Any of these changes alone would be stressful, but doing it all at once has thrown me way off balance. At times I've almost felt as though I stepped into someone else's life. I've had a hard time getting into any of my normal routines - I haven't been to the gym since I was in Topeka!
I'm going to start back to the gym today. The first of the month always seems like a good time to make changes, and I'm hoping that by getting back into that routine, I will be able to garner some normalcy for myself.
I really miss going to school. I love to learn (though fortunately I'm studying for the NCLEX, so I'm still doing that part), but more than that I miss my classmates. I spent every day with those people for two and a half years, and they really began to feel like a family. I still see and talk to some of them, and everyone passes along updates and good news about one another's lives and jobs, but it's just not the same. A lot of them are working as nurses already, which means long shifts, often nights and weekends. Others are holed up, studying for their NCLEX. And lots of them have scattered, moving for jobs or to be with family. For the first month I felt a dull ache in my chest when I thought back to being in class with everyone. The day before the semester began at the university I even had a dream about being back in school. I think my loneliness was compounded by the fact that I was spending all day, every day at home by myself. It's been much better the past couple of weeks - since I've been filling in more at the office I'm getting some social interaction with old friends and coworkers. I enjoy having time to myself from time to time, but I'm a social person, and I really need to be around people.
The work situation is one that I have little control over, and I'm trying to be patient. I did interview at a hospital several weeks ago, but the first thing nurse recruiter told me was that they had frozen several of their open RN positions due to low census. (Low census is when there aren't very many patients in the hospital. Even hospitals are feeling the economic crunch.) I had a pretty good interview with her, but I haven't heard back since. I don't know if they are holding off still on hiring for that position or if they have filled it. I am trying to put that job out of my mind, and just watch for new ones opening up. Something will work out in time.
I hate to sound like a whiner. I love our new house (and that we can afford it even with me unemployed, thanks to my hard-working (and tenured!) husband), I'm proud of graduating from college, and I'm excited about all the new things in my life. But positive change is still change, so it's still stress. Remembering that helps me be kinder to myself when I feel a little out of whack.
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