Start of Something New

Hey y'all!

It's been awhile. Like, a long while. Since I last blogged, I have completed 3/4 of my senior year at Trinity. Overall, it has been a good year. The reason I am writing again is because next week I will start my Capstone experience. The purpose of capstone is to provide a role for nursing students to transition from student to nurse. In all honesty, it's very similar to what I experienced at Mayo, just with more actual responsibility. I have to work 180 hours in the next 7 weeks. I follow a preceptor (similar to my coaches at Mayo) and gradually take on a full patient load. I'll still have supervision, but I will be the nurse.

My capstone placement is at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago. I had to interview for this position back in December. Funny story: while I was waiting to hear the results of the interview, they told us the wrong date that we would hear. I was home on Christmas break, and I was basically glued to my computer, updating it every five minutes or less, waiting for the email. Unfortunately, it didn't come until a week later :( However, i got the position, and I am very excited! I will be on an oncology/hematology unit. I have expressed interest in oncology before, so I am grateful for the opportunity to try it out before I start applying for jobs. I'm working 12 hour day shifts which was my preferred shift. Unfortunately, that means I'll be driving to downtown Chicago during rush hours. Bleh.

In my dream world, I would have this internship, get offered a job, graduate from college, pass the stinkin NCLEX, get an apartment, and start working all within the next four months. I'll update this lovely blog periodically to let you know if I'm surviving and tell you what I'm learning. We recently had a class about social networking related to nursing. Basically, I can't say anything about anything or I could lose my (nonexistent) license. I have to be so careful. I do believe however, that I can share how I am growing and learning throughout this process without sharing information about patients. So that's what I'm going to do.

Life is good, God is great, and nursing rocks. Wish me luck :)

Love to all,
Caroline