Just a little prick now ...

When you become a nurse (or nurse student)  you have to understand that a significant percentage of your job will be causing someone else pain. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but let’s be honest, the job of a nurse vastly involves needles (and being a student means no experience, thus extra pain). You are going to feel just a little prick now... 

So, to make you empathize with all the suffering you will be causing your lovely patients, they make you taste some your own medicine (literally) before they let you into the program. I have never been poked and pricked so many times in my life. TB tests, blood draws, immunizations etc... My arm was so sore after the last immunization, I couldn’t move it for 2 days. A week after and I’m still in a lot of pain, not to mention the hard lump under the skin. Now, the big questions is where to get the next shots on my body. I’m not a big person so I don’t have a lot of muscle or fat. I can’t have it on my left arm as it’s all hard and lumpy and hurts a lot. I can’t get the them on my right arm because I can’t afford to not move it for a while so I need to decide where else on my body I should get the next three shots needed. I though about my buttocks. You know, the old fashion way of getting injections, but then I thought, I drive about 50 km everyday and I simply can’t have that much pain on my butt (not that driving is not a pain in the but, I just cant’t add anymore to that poor sufferer). Hips, I’m thinking next. That might work. One on each side. But wait a minute! Where do I get the third one? That is a problem. What is left? Thighs. OK, not a good idea. I need to be able to walk and if I have even a little limp I will end up with my back thrown off. Oh well, we’ll see. On shot at a time.

Surprise, Surprise!

Well, I recently found out that once you are accepted into the nursing program there is a humongous list of requisites that need to be taken care of before you start. Now, you would think they would tell you that once you receive your acceptance letter. No. They don’t! There is a very brief list on the website along the information on how to apply. Among the list is CPR/care provider course, mask fitting, police clearance and immunizations up to date. It turns out that the mask fitting which I though I would just go and get fitted, actually requires you to register for a session. I already missed all the sessions available for 2012 and the first one available in 2013 is on the day of my orientation. On top of that, you need to take 4 brief online courses, a TB test which comprises of 4 trips to the doctor over a 2 week period, blood tests and several immunization shots (more trips to the doctor). Some immunizations requiring more that just one shot with a wait period of a month between. So, now I’m panicking that I won’t have it all done in time.

How did I find out about this, you might be asking. Coincidence. When I was taking my CPR course, my CPR partner happened to be starting the same nursing program as me and she has a friend already in the program who told her. Do you want to know what else I found out? That the program I’m registered in is an accelerated nursing program and it runs for 16 consecutive months with only 1 week off between semesters (in spite of the website saying it is a 2 year program). I nearly had a heart attack when I heard. Good thing we were right at a CPR course. I was so pale that I might have been the opportunity for some of the students to do some live practice.

Those last couple of weeks have been full of stress for me. I still haven’t written my final Biology exam, I have to fit in all those doctor appointments & endless needles and come up with a plan to survive the Summer going to school full-time with five kids at home. Not to mention that my girls do competitive dance and this year is a National Year meaning they have their finals in Virginia Beach in the middle of July. How are we going to manage when my husband can’t take time off work? I don't know. I’m trying not to think about all the plans I had made for the Summer which included a trip to Virginia Beach and several camping trips with my family. Those lazy Summer days camping by the beach is what really keeps my sanity throughout the winter.

Looking on the bright side, I would be a nurse in less than a year and a half. That's very exciting, but scary. Can they actually teach me everything I need to know to be a RPN in only 16 months? Can I take in that much information without a break or without breaking? But there is hope for my dilemma... If, and only if, I got accepted into Midwifery and switched programs, I could have the Summer off. Wouldn’t that be sweet!?  I would find out probably around May, shortly after I had started my second nursing semester. Just in time to ask for my tuition money back. For now I’m just hoping to get an interview at McMaster for the MEP, and trying really hard not to think about the endless possibilities of ifs.

McMaster Tour

Last week I went for a tour of the Health Sciences campus at McMaster. My first impression was that it is not as big as I had expected it to be. My second impression was… I can’t wait to be here. The place is comprised of 4 floors in a circle that are open in middle where you can see all the way down. On one side of the circle are all the classrooms and the other side mostly faculty. There is a cafeteria on the main entrance floor and a library, but what impressed me the most was the Resource Centre. The Resource Centre is a big room that looks like a hospital. There are hospital beds with patients everywhere. Yes, with patients. All dolls! And… there are nurses working there. All doing their own thing. It’s so cool. It reminded me again why I had chosen to do the RPN instead of the RN program. I wanted hands on experience. And that is what I’m going to get. I don’t  want to just sit in a classroom all day and only learn theory. I know this blog is starting to sound more like the journey of a nurse wannabe but believe me I still know why I’m doing this. Midwifery is in my heart. 


The other thing I found really cool is that everyone was wearing uniforms. I don’t know, it may sound lame, but I have a thing about uniforms. I can’t wait to get mine. Each day I get more exited about getting started. At least I feel I will be learning skills that will be useful to me as a midwife. It will feel less like I’m just sitting and waiting for it to happen. 


As I continue to study biology, to finish my pre-requisite course, I become more confident that sciences is the area I love. As I learn about anatomy and physiology I discover that I want to know even more than what I need to know to pass the course. I find myself watching endless videos and researching online all sorts of topics related to the body. This is actually very surprising to me because anatomy and physiology is the course that scared me the most when I thought about applying to midwifery. Now that I am actually taking biology it’s the course that excites me the most. I hope once I start doing it at a higher level I don’t change my mind.  


That is it for now as I continue to wait for my information package to come in the mail, which will include all the information about time tables and choosing courses. I just can’t wait!

I got into nursing !!!

So… I’m in!! I actually got in! I will be starting the Registered Practical Nursing program in January. Hurray!!! I’m so excited. Even though it has been about a month I got my acceptance letter, sometimes I still have a hard time believing it is actually happening. I worked so hard to get all the pre-requisite courses in time, with really good grades, and studied so much for the Health Occupational Aptitude Exam. 


Apparently nursing is a very competitive program to get in and at one point (actually right after I wrote the exam) I thought there was no way I stood a chance. Even though I only start in January, I’m still studying biology because I applied with a mid-term mark. It’s going well, however, I’m in a bit of a rush because I want to finish it by the end of November. My deadline is December 15 but I have to take a bunch of immunizations before I start the program. I usually get extremely sick after taking immunizations and it triggers my fibromyalgia into a crises. I don’t want to be sick prior to or during Christmas as I have five children to make Christmas happen, thus the rush in finishing biology. 


I’ll still apply again to midwifery in February 2013, but this time to McMaster. I think I have a better chance of getting an interview with the McMaster program as they only use your pre-requisite grades to determine if you will get an interview. Since my grades are pretty good, I think I have a good chance of being offered an interview. If I get in, I will have learned some skill in the nursing program that will be very helpful in the midwifery program. If I don’t get in, I’ll just continue with nursing and repeat the process the following year. Sounds like a plan…

Plan B

It’s been a while since I posted here but that doesn’t mean that not much has happened. In fact, a lot has happened. Since my letter of rejection form the Ryerson University I started to think about what I could do while waiting to apply again next year. I've considered taking some of the Midwifery program elective courses through either summer school or distance education. The catch here is, I'm not sure if I am going to apply to Ryerson again or try my chances at McMaster next year. McMaster is not renowned for accepting credits for courses taken outside of their institution so I'm not too keen in paying a lot of money, spending a lot of time studying and not have those courses recognized. 


So I had the idea of applying to nursing. I decided I would apply to practical nursing since it’s only a two year college diploma and keep continuing to apply to midwifery. This would give me some practical skills that would come in handy in midwifery and if I get into midwifery before I finish the nursing diploma I would be more than happy to switch. I wouldn’t be able to transfer any of the courses I took there since they would be college and not university courses but I would take all the practical skills I learned with me. If it takes me longer than two years to be accepted into midwifery, then at least I can start working as a nurse, make some money and… continue applying to midwifery until I get in. 


To apply to nursing wasn’t as easy as I thought though. First, I didn’t have one of the pre-requisites. Math. Ohh math! Surprising enough, you don’t need math to apply to midwifery. So, back to Gary Allan Continuing Education I go to get a math credit. Now, at this point it's already May and the deadline for the nursing program application is June 1(I'm applaying for their January start date). I took a deep breath and started the course. After much stress, I managed to finish the credit and get all the marks in time. However, my struggles were far form being over. Now I had to take a Health Occupational Aptitude Exam (HOAE). This is a two hour exam on general knowledge of science, math, vocabulary, spelling and reading comprehension. When I looked at the sample test online, it seemed simple enough but the tough part is that they allow very little time to answer the questions and no calculator. When you only have 30 seconds and no calculator to answer a math problem, it is all of a sudden not so simple anymore. So, after two hours of excruciating torture I left the exam room feeling exhausted, frustrated,defeated and depressed. I know I didn’t make it!! It’s so frustrating because my academic grades are so good, but this stupid test will be worth 50% along with my academic average to give me my final mark, which is what will grant me a spot in the program. Once more, here I am waiting…. Waiting, yet for a result, for another possible rejection. This time I'm not checking my portal every day. Just every other day.