Downhill

Mid-semester has passed, I can feel the momentum of racing downhill. And yes, did a little of that Sunday at the Capitol 10K, the 35th annual event & the fourth largest 10k in the US. It was fun, kind of hot, but no complaints. Ken and I cheated a little and actually veered to Lady Bird Lake trails near the end. It was just so shady and nobody on them. We weren't timed anyway. After that, we had a big family lunch (excellent Thai food) at Holly's house, my aunt Pam was in town.

I've got two big projects left, well I guess it's actually three. Two are papers and the other is being videotaped while I do a psychiatric assessment of a "patient" (really a classmate). Tricia and I are doing this together, we take turns playing the role of the patient. We read a secret script of a patient with a particular disorder and we get to impersonate them. It's not strictly scripted, we choose how to respond, and we have to demonstrate an understanding of the disorder and its manifestations. But ick...who likes being videotaped? I have managed to settle my nerves by thinking through how much of this I've done in real life as a floor nurse on a psych unit. It's a standard routine for new admissions, and that actually was one of my favorite tasks.

The other projects are a health assessment of a family, which was quite complicated, it involved interviewing someone, drawing diagrams of her family health history and analyzing the psychosocial functioning of their family unit. Plus identifying a health problem that they are willing to address and developing a plan. Anyway, it's 20 pages long (really), with 3 attachments. The last thing is a paper and presentation (with a partner) on the new cervical cancer screening guidelines and how best to explain them to patients. The new guidelines actually decrease most women's screening to less than annually, and I've seen some patient reactions in clinical - most aren't very happy about the idea. So the assignment could have some validity - it's a difficult thing to explain the science behind it, and takes some finesse.

And there's the day-to-day fun. A pharmacology test every Thursday, other tests sprinkled in, yes like jimmies on an ice-cream cone. I actually ....gasp.... got a 100 on a pharm test. I really had decided that he just didn't give that as a grade. But I'm still taking it pass/fail. And there's the big group presentation in my research class. The topic my group chose is pain management in post-cesarean section women and an association with post-partum depression. Let me just scream now --- I hate group projects. I don't mind things with a single partner, but our freaking group has seven people. Yes, that's not a typo.

Clinicals are still the most fun on the block. I just wish they didn't take 14 hours a week to do. I have Peds now on Fridays, and I'm paired with a Pediatrician (a physician, not an NP). I have to say, she's great. She's young, just graduated last year, couldn't be more helpful. At the end of our first day, I hugged her and said I wanted to give her a best preceptor award. (yes, I hugged a doc -- ha) We see patients at a community clinic, most have no insurance and are covered under Medicaid. I got to see coxsackie virus on the first day. And it was an amusing day at the University Health Center after Spring Break - literally two days after the kids returned - they were all sick as dogs. I mean, no sleep, too much sun, too much beer... I think I saw Sherry hand out antibiotics to every single one and she never does that. It was highly instructional -- like, this is what happens when you're stressed, you compromise your immune system, you have a tickle in your throat but you go out all night anyway...yep, this is what you get. A monster sinus infection, strep throat, a terrible exacerbation of asthma, etc.

I've got my summer lined out. I'm taking a required nursing class first, Health Policy. Then I get to take my elective, and I am still researching that. So many choices, it's just way cool. Things like the psychology of health in AIDS patients, human sexuality, deviant behavior, the advertising of health promotion, etc. But before all that starts, I'm going to Boston for two days for a review course for my board exam. I know, it's a year early, but it gives me a heads-up on what's important this last year. And what's really valuable is the manual - I can then study that whenever I want to start, I'm not dependent on scheduling of a live class.

So I'm going to leave with a cool quote I got from a fellow nurse at a lecture.

Philosophy of Sharing Ideas (K. Kirksey)
A large group = culture
A small group = cult
2 people = love
1 person = psychosis

ha!