Midterm Grades

I have been so anxious about my midterm grades since the day I found out all freshman were getting midterm grades..which was months ago.  I know I need an extremely impressive GPA to get in to the nursing program here at SCSU, seeing as the minimum for them to even CONSIDER you as someone they might want, is a 3.0.  I really was hoping to reach for a 3.5 or better for my first semester GPA but I don't think I'll be getting quite that.  My highest grade is an A+ in school health education.  That class is by far my easiest, the one test we had was the study guide she handed out EXACTLY so I got a 100.  She also curved it by adding 3 points to everyone because some students argued that one of the questions was worded in an unfair way. (it wasnt). So in the end, I got a 103 for the midterm grade.  Next, I got an A in anthropology.  I don't understand.  I never know what in the world is going on in that class and I struggle through the reading every night but somehow I still managed to only get 2 points taken off everything we've ever done.  In composition I got a B+.  It was based solely on one paper we did.  I got a c in inquiry, and I was mildly disappointed in myself for that.  The class doesn't ask a lot of me and I slack on the blog posts.  My lowest grade was a C- in Math 102.  I struggle a lot in this class and I definitely need to get extra help.  I went to the campus tutorial center today with a friend, but they were all booked up for the day and they don't make appointments for days in advance, so I'm going to go back tomorrow and make an appointment for the afternoon.  Overall, I'm not happy with my grades at all and I definitely need to step things up if I want to pursue a career in nursing.

Comfort Zone

This weekend,  I went out of my comfort zone by looking for a new job.  I've had two jobs before, but they've always fallen into my lap.  My first job as a waitress was offered to me by my boyfriend's sister, and I never had to do any interview process.  I just had to show up and I was hired. My second and current job was given to me by a friend.  She works as assistant manager at a store, and recommended me as an employee.  The owner was convinced by whatever she told him, and I was hired again without any interview process.  This weekend, I saw a post about a waitress opening at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Connecticut Post Mall.  I decided to go for it even though I had no experience applying for a job.  I went to apply in person, and had a short conversation with the manager.  He asked me about my job experience and when I was available and then gave me an application to fill out.  I'm now supposed to call him and set up an interview.  Overall, I think it went well and I think I might have a chance at getting a new job!

Video Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWfflSbcWs

Time

So far for my project, I haven't gotten a lot done.  I've probably spent 45 minutes brainstorming, an hour playing around in Imovie, 2 hours getting interviews, and 2.5 hours putting the interviews on my computer and editing them.  I think I'm going to need to spend much more time getting interviews and then editing them and starting to take on making the final project. 

Trouble Shooting

Okay, this really frustrated me.  Like, slam the computer shut, walk in a circle, open it back up again aggressively frustrated.  When I took videos, I did it in one long chunk planning to later break it up.  I asked my friends what their names were, where they went to school, and then what they wanted to be when they grew up, and how critical thinking is used in that career.  When I went to edit it, I would take minutes getting the little yellow box to start and end EXACTLY where it needed to be to get the right about of information for each section, then I'd try to drag the yellow selection into the top "my first project" section.  It worked the first time.  Not the second.  or the third.  or the fourth.  I later figured out dragging it was very temperamental and didn't work very well, so I found a button that brought it up there instead! Phew!

Campus Safari

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Video Project

Okay, I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but my project is going awesome.  I'm so excited about it.  I have my 3 undergrads done (easy first of course), and I started to edit them together on I-Movie.  I think I'm going to interview the Dean of Nursing, Lisa Rebeshi as well.  Lisa is a life long family friend.  She was my mother's bridesmaid and my mother was hers.  My father and her husband were high school friends, and when they we're dating my mother and Lisa respectively, they all went on dates together.  Lisa's husband even taught my mother how to drive!  I've grown up around the Rebeshi's so I'm confident that she'll be willing to help me with my project.  I also wanted to meet with her in her professional setting as well to talk about my plans as a pre-nursing major.  I look up to Lisa and think she is so incredibly brilliant and I'm excited for the possibility of working with her.  I'm taking a less-serious approach to my project.  I'm including my friends giggling and saying, "Can someone else go first?" I'm loving learning about I-Movie, and I've been watching tutorials and playing around myself to learn more about it.  It's so simple and user-friendly, but has so many great features!  I've never had to do a project like this before and I think it's a great opportunity.  I'm really excited to get more done and put together the final project!

Critical Thinking Essay

This week in the library I decided to look up some information on the use of critical thinking in Nursing, as nursing is the career I plan to pursue.  The book I picked up to help me research this topic was “Nursing Process and Critical Thinking” by Judith Wilkinson.  It was published in 2007 and highlights the importance of the use of critical thinking in the nursing world. 

Nursing is a high-pressure job, rich in need for critical thinking skills.  You have to be able to make quick decisions, and have to make them correctly.  The need to consider many things in every decision they make.  The art of nursing, the knowledge of nursing, the ethics of nursing, and the list goes on.  Critical thinkers are rational and reasonable.  When nurses have to make quick decisions they need to be both of these things.  Nurses have a lot more contact with patients than doctors do.  They need to think fast to say and do the right things.  They need to assess the situation at hand and figure out what is appropriate to say to the patient and what is not.  They need to be able to comfort anxious patients and detect things such as infected incisions.

Nurse’s decisions can affect a persons well being, or in extreme situations their survival.  They need the ability to collect information, assess the information quickly and make responsible decisions.  The author describes critical thinking as “thinking about you’re thinking while you’re thinking so as to make your thinking more clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, and fair.”

I think that if I want to become a nurse I need to make sure my critical thinking skills are as up to par as possible in order to be the best nurse I can be.  To me, nursing is a huge responsibility and I intend to take it very seriously. 

Wilkinson, J. M. (2007). Nursing process and critical thinking. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall

Blood Drive!

This weekend I participated in a service project.  I donated blood to the red cross.  I've donated once before at a drive at my high school, so I thought it'd be something nice to do again and get myself some good karma.  I had an appointment for 1:45 and got there right on time, I signed in, and they gave me a folder of pages to read.  It was all about medications and sexual contact and other restrictions one may have.  It took my about 5 minutes to read/skim through and then I went back to the reception desk to get my number.  I waited for another 5 minutes then began the "mini-physical".  They took my blood pressure, temperature, tested a small blood sample, and asked me a bunch of questions. After that I was taken to the main area where they collected the blood.  I squeezed a little red ball for about ten minutes while the blood collected and then I was all done! I sat and had a nice chat with a 50 year old biker who once got hit by a boat.  He was the kind of guy who looks terrifying but secretly loves kittens. Or something.  All in all the whole process took about 25-30 minutes and they gave me cookies! I think everyone should consider donating blood, it's so easy and fast but can really be so so so helpful.

Gyming to Relieve Stress!

I am so beyond stressed out.  I feel like I cannot keep up with assignments, don't remember what classes have what due, can't figure out this horrid anthropology essay, etc. I've never wanted to freeze time and sleep for a week so badly in my life. I have blogs due, I had a math test Monday, I have a school health education test tomorrow, I got a paper that's 20% of my grade in comp handed back today with a less than perfect grade, I have my anthro essay due Tuesday that I know I should have started but haven't out of frustration, and about a million other small assignments to due.  I know I need to cut down my hours at work, but I really don't want to and really can't afford to.

This Sunday, I gave 3 hours of my day up to just go buckwild at the gym.  I have anxiety troubles and have always found I'm less likely to feel anxious on a day that I've exercised, so I already knew going to the gym would help.  I started out with 30 minutes on a stationary bike, and then went on to another 20 minutes of cardio on an elliptical.  After that I did some exercises with a stability ball.  I used it to do crunches and then used small free weights of bicep curls and tricep work.  I went out to the machines and did leg work along with more arms an abs.  I felt so good and accomplished after.  Even though I had to go right back to constantly treading water with school, friends, and work, it was a fantastic break from the real world. (P.S. the gym is super empty on Sunday afternoons, perfect!) I think everyone should try exercise to realize stress.  Yoga, a run, good stretching, or a Beach Booty workout tape will all help!

Getting Sick at College

This blog is one that's extremely important and stressful for me.  I can't get sick this semester! There's no time. I have 15 hours of class, 25+ hours of homework, and 20 hours of work.  I hadn't really thought about it before but I'm realizing now how bad it could be.  I have the worst immune system in the history of otherwise healthy people, and when I get sick, I get SICK.  Every year I always (knock on wood) get the flu twice, regardless of whether or not I get the shot, I always get strep, I have colds like it's my job, and I throw up in the morning like I'm forever a few months pregnant.  Being sick all the time has already been an issue for me throughout high-school.  The administration wasn't always thrilled to accept my doctor notes.  I've missed one class of math so far because I felt really awful.  I didn't know if it was the beginning of a cold or allergies so I took Cold-Eze & allergy medication and whatever it was went away.  Phew.  If I do feel sick again I'll definitely go straight to the health center to get it taken care of before it gets bad.  I've been eating a lot of yogurt, as I was told it helps boost the immune system with the bacterias it has.  I've also been trying to drink tons and tons of water.  I've never normally drunken the recommended amount of glasses a day.  I'm trying to avoid the dining hall drinks because I never drink soda at home but it's so much easier to drink it here and I don't want all the extra sugar.  I'm trying to wash my hands constantly, avoiding touching things like doorknobs and desks and then eating or drinking, getting as much sleep as possible, exercising and eating as well as I can in college, hopefully I stay healthy and avoid my usual winter tradition!

Campus Safari

This week, I attended the RHA's Stay And Play.  It was held on the Residence Life Quad on Saturday starting at 1pm.  One of my good friends, Kristen, was part of organizing the event so I really went to visit her.  They had a big inflatable obstacle course, a t-shirt making booth, and some popcorn...and that was really it.  There wasn't really a lot going on and there really wasn't that many people there at all.  I didn't stay long at all and I just went to the gym instead.  I was slightly disappointed and I thought they might have more activities to try to really encourage people to stay on campus for the weekend instead of going home.  I really wish more people would stay because campus is so dead on the weekends! Hopefully, events in the future will have a better turnout and will be more exciting than this one.

Does Facebook Affect Your Education?

I asked a bunch of my friends about if they thought Facebook and Twitter affected their educations or attention during class.  I asked ten people and I definitely got the response I expected.  I asked 8 girls and 2 boys.  As expected the boys both said something along the lines of "um..what..no?" like it was a crazy question to ask.  The girls all said about the same thing too.  "Hahah definitely" was one of the text responses I got.  One of my friends who is studying at Roger Williams said, "Um, F--- yea."  I think it's more distracting to females than males because in my opinion, we don't really care about the same things.  Girls like to gossip and look at pictures of other girls and judge the length of the dress they wore to the club last night and look at whose relationship status' have changed to "It's Complicated".  To me, guys don't really seem to worry about those things nearly as much as we do and therefore, Facebook is probably a lot less interesting.  I think the only, teeny way Facebook may help education is that its a good way to connect with people in your classes and consult them about homework, getting notes on classes you missed, what they got out of a lecture, etc.  To me, this problem isn't one with an easy solution.  It's hard not to venture over to Facebook when you have your laptop infront of you during a painfully boring lecture on arguments.  If anything, the issue will only get worse.  One of my friends said "Yes because whenever I get bored it's just an instinct."  Facebook is like another limb for a lot of girls.  It's on your phone and you have the I-pod app and you're subscribed to get text messages when someone Facebook has decided is a "close friend" updates a status or post a new picture.  We're only getting more and more wrapped up in this virtual world as it becomes easier and easier to follow every movement of our friends, the girl who gave you a dirty look in math, and the boy who stopped texting you back.

So little time

I feel that recording what I was doing at all times throughout a week was extremely beneficial to me.  I realized that I still have a lot more free time than I had realized but I end up just wasting it.  I spend 4-5 hours at the gym, 20 hours at work at work, 3 - 3.5 hours commuting to work, 25 hours on homework and/or studying, and am left with about 18 hours of free time.  I use a lot of this time facebooking, zoning out (just spent a good 3 minutes staring at the wall before I realized it), and with friends.  Facebook and twitter would definitely be my biggest distractions.  I think these are most college students biggest issues because it's so easy to get sucked in for hours and have 3 tabs going at the same time without ever looking at the tab that has homework on it.  I also spend too much time trying to figure out how I'm going to spend my next block of free time.  I sit on my bed and try to figure out if I should go to the gym or start my math homework or write a blog or nap.  I don't consider friends wasting of my time but the other two could probably go.  I think I should discuss hours with my boss because I feel a little bit stressed and overwhelmed with working so much and was discouraged by the facts you presented to us regarding statistics on students with high job hours getting lower grades.  My boss is extremely reasonable and thinks my education here is much more important than my job there.  I think I should also schedule my days out more and pay attention to what I'm doing and how I'm spending my time.  I have a lot more time than I realize and I want to make the most of it!