This post is extremely late. I wanted to post this last year but if you are in nursing school, you know how all consuming it is. In any case, here you go - this is a recall of my 1st semester.
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Semester one of nursing school is in the bag and so is semester two, for that matter. This post will be on the first semester though and my thoughts and experience.
For those two semesters I knocked out, A&P 1, Roles 1, Healing 1, Children's Lit (elective) and Medication math.
A&P was a good class as I had remembered a lot of the content from pre-health. We covered topics such as the integument, muscles and muscle contractions, bones, tendons and joints, ligaments. There were more of course. It was a heavy and intense class that required a lot of study and memorization. I enjoyed my professor and the class overall.
Roles 1 was a sot of breezy class. It was an introduction to nursing roles and responsibilities. We focused on the community and how it effected the patient. I remember we had a huge essay but I enjoyed the content when writing. I enjoyed the class and the students. My professor is someone I still look up to and admire. She is smart as a whip and helpful.
Healing 1 is basically fundamentals of nursing. It was a difficult class because this when our mentality had to change to one of critical thinking. I honestly can't remember much about this class other than having a lot of anxiety at exam time.
Children's literature was an elective class which was surprisingly fun and enjoyable. I had to read books like, Charlotte's Web, which most children read during childhood. Rereading this book older was interesting in that I saw the characters from an adults mind and many were not very favorable. I read three books in total for this class and they all impacted me in positive ways. I really enjoyed this class overall.
My last class in those two semesters was medication math. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that math is Not my strong suit. I vividly recall walking into this class filled with anxiety and fear. This is a 80% or higher to pass class. 79.9% was a fail. The thought of failing, as math is a weak subject for me, filled me with absolute dread. I have never worked so hard in my life in any class, prior this math class. Our professor was really good and explained the material soundly. Almost every night I went over math questions, no matter how tired I was, so I could at least pass this class. The first test, I took off the afternoon from work and raced to school to continue studying. I did the practice questions over and over again. I was paranoid. After completing that test, I remember walking to my car and the second I sat down, starting to bawl. I was sure I failed. All the way home, I cried and worried over questions. I was sure I failed. I waited on pins and needles until the next class the following week (for some reason, this professor never posted our grades on BlackBoard) for my results. I walked into that class with a frown on my face. I sat in the back as I was sick with fear. When he called my name and I walked up to retrieve my exam, I almost passed out when I saw my mark. I mean it. There was a tiny space in time where the room went black, I was that paralyzed. After flipping to the back, I opened the booklet to see that I had received a 95% on the exam. I was stooped! Even now, I still can't believe I pulled that off.
After that, I remained steadfast in my study methods. I reviewed all the time and did the practice questions posted numerous times. Every exam was a lesson in torture as I did not feel I was ready or knew the content. At this point, after the first exam, half of the class dropped out of math. It was myself and probably 15 others who stayed the course. When finals came around, I was distraught. I have studied very hard in my day and still do, but that class pushed me to my limits. The amount of hours I put into that class was astronomical. After walking out of finals, I drove home, once again, filled with dread. I remember the second I got home, whipping out my phone in the driveway to calculate the lowest mark I could get to at least not fail. We had to wait about two weeks for our final marks and when I saw that magical, STAT, on my transcript, I almost threw up. I was certain I failed the exam. You see, the last question was a pediatric calculations questions, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to solve it. The question was worth 10 marks and I remember sitting there fighting back tears and I wrote, erased, wrote and erased possible answers over and over again. I think I go the right answer in the end but it was a stress-filled 20 minutes.
After receiving that pass mark on my transcript, I kept logging on all day to really ensure I had passed the class. I was certain I failed. In retrospect, I was filled with self-doubt as my prior exams were all A+ marks. The fear of needing a minimum of 80% is what had me in a state.
At the end of that semester, I was very happy to move on. It was so stressful, it was almost painful and I was ready to move on. I had two weeks off from school before I started my next semesters. I will update soon on those other semesters.
I hope you keep coming back to read about my nursing school adventures.
