School has started!

Yesterday was my first day back to school in nearly 4 weeks. It was great to have such a long break but it was almost too long if I dare say. In about 3 weeks I am sure I will look back on that time and wish for it back. Since now we are on a 7 month stretch with only 2 one week breaks.

We did not start slow. We jumped right back into it with studying the heart and cardiac complications. Tomorrow we will be going to the hospital to have a special training on Mechanical ventilation for when we are doing our clinical rotations on the critical care units like ICU and CCU. This semester we begin to learn how to take care of patients with critical health issues who require specialized care like Cardiac patients in heart failure, patients with kidney diseases and kidney failure, Neurological trauma, and spinal cord injury just to name a few. I am excited to be back but dreading the endless days.

Over the break I resolved to revamp how I approach this semester. Last semester was so stressful and though I am rarely sick, I spent much of my break sick probably from the stress I had been feeling. I pretty much said no to anything other than studying and I don't think that was the right approach to take. By the end I was so burnt out I couldn't even think straight. Things were just flowing in one ear and out the other. I am trying to take a more relaxed approach this semester and making a point to exercise regularly and do something fun every once in a while. While at the same time, making my study times count more.

One blessing that I received this week was the knowledge that our schedule had changed. Originally we were going to be going to the hospital Wed, Thurs and Friday. This meant that after class on Tuesdays we would have to go spend 2 hours at the hospital doing patient research and then the rest of the evening preparing for the rest of the week caring for our patient. This meant going till 11pm or midnight. Then on our clinical days we had to do quite a bit of paperwork that hindered my ability to work as well as study. This would have only left Monday, Friday and the weekend to study and not much room for work or anything else. Well, since there was a conflict with another program they have changed our clinical days to only Thurs and Friday and part of our scheduled class time on Wed will be given to patient research. No longer having to do it after class is over. This opens my schedule up so that I can continue to work and have plenty of time to study. I was really nervous I wouldn't be able to keep working which I needed to do.

Well, my first test will be on February 9th! Time to prepare and study!