I landed a job as a PCA!

The future depends on what you decide to do today!

I have been applying for PCA (patient care associate) position for a while and I never heard back from any hospitals till recently. As you can see from my title that I did end up getting an offer from the hospital that’s close to my house. And it is the same hospital I did my first ever Med-Surg clinical rotation. Luckily, they did have a per diem position available which requires me to work at least once a week. With my spring semester starting soon, I knew I wouldn’t be able to work part-time or full-time because of my busy schedule ahead. I just wanted to get my foot in the door and I couldn’t be more excited.

The hiring process includes orientation which is three days of lecture in the hospital auditorium and five days of shadowing a preceptor. It worked out perfectly because my winter break is six weeks long. I am trying to get in as many hours as possible just so I could get my hands-on experience and also make some money to pay for my tuition and other necessities for school.

I got placed in the ICU/CCU unit and the first day was pretty overwhelming for me but towards the end of my orientation week, I felt really comfortable. Do I see myself working in the ICU? Uhm… I’m not 100% sure but I honestly wouldn’t mind it. I feel like there is so much you can learn in the unit and also maybe if I ever decide to pursue CRNA school, the experience will be relevant.

That is it for today’s blog and maybe in the future I might do a day in the life of a PCA and go over my entire shift.

Happy New Year to all my wonderful readers. May 2022 bring you happiness & success!!

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Another semester done!

Why waste your life in sadness when you can be happy!

OMG! I can’t believe I passed this semester. For one of the classes I was so sure that I would get a C- and my first strike but I dogded a bullet. I was literally on the edge before all the grades were uploaded. Because it meant that my second C- would get me dismissed from the program. I still have two full semesters to go and I want to keep my C minuses for the final semester.

But I feel so relieved knowing that I passed all my classes. Dreaming about straight A’s at this point is unrealistic for me. I have made peace with myself that at least if I don’t get anything below a C, I’ll be fine. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t put in my full effort, I’ll definitely try my best to keep my GPA up.

I learned a lot this semester, especially during my clinical rotations. I realized that no matter how much you plan, things will change. I went into nursing school making up my mind that I will be working at L&D and I wanted nothing to do with med-surg. But lo and behold, I wouldn’t mind working in med-surg for a couple of years because I feel like there’s so much room for learning and building your skills. You see different cases and it might get overwhelming and stressful but at least you won’t get bored. But who knows, I still have two semesters to go, things might change again. But for now, I feel like I would definitely enjoy the med-surg floor.

I have six weeks off before the start of next semester and I will be taking a winter class so I don’t have to worry about it. Next semester we have a 12-hour rotation in med-surg which will be one day a week and 5.5 hours of community nursing which is also one day a week. We had the option of picking an elective between geriatrics or critical care. Initially, I did pick critical care but changed to geriatrics because I did not want to get carried away and think I am a superwoman. I would have loved to be in critical care if I didn’t have little ones but I know balancing everything is going to be tough and I didn’t want to put myself through additional stress.

I’m gonna go enjoy my winter break now and to my readers, I wish you all a safe and enjoyable holiday!!!

Nursing school is stressful!

This is your sign to keep going and continue dreaming!

I survived. I am just a week away from ending my junior year. I am looking forward to my much-needed six weeks winter break. There has not been in a day in the past three months when I did not want to quit.

The stress was from having difficulty balancing school and family life and also figuring out a way to pay my tuition for the next two semesters. I also had two 8-hours clinical days a week, which took a major toll on my physical and mental health. Some of the clinical sites were about 45 minutes drive and so I would have to wake up as early as 5 a.m. I was barely getting 4 hours of sleep each night because of the number of assignments and exams that were due each week.

I wouldn’t have been able to come this far if it weren’t for a great group of friends and family of course! I kept telling myself that it will get easier once I graduate because when you work, you don’t have to come back home and worry about any teaching plan or care plan. The 12-hour shifts may be exhausting but you’re not going to have the fear of failing a class and then getting dismissed from the program.

Our passing grade is 75% and anything below 75% is a fail which does not make things any easier. Some exams have been harder than others. But I am glad I made it through the semester. I really did not think I would last. My anxiety has been through the roof but I learned to take it one day at a time and as long as I was passing all my classes, it was going to be okay.

So whoever is reading this and is struggling through school, just remember to give it your best and take one step at a time. Don’t overwhelm yourself and don’t give up because five years down the road you don’t want to look back and regret your decision.

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Definitely not easy but will 100% be worth it!