All Moved In!

Well I haven't posted here in forever....but I'm all moved in to my apartment in Halifax and have started "real work" as a nurse. This past two weeks were orientation, where we learned to do things like start IV's and also some of the policies. The educators (who are all very nice) gave us some scenarios to get us thinking about orthopedics, which was good because we did ortho in the end of first semester, so I'll also have to read up on it.

We had our first mumps scare yesterday...we all found out we might have been exposed! Luckily we weren't, and tomorrow I'm on my way for my MMR vaccination tomorrow. I also have a new little baby, Antonio, who is an orange tabby cat my friend Mary rescued from across the street. As I type this, he's trying to chase the mouse on the computer. Here are some pictures of the cats, and the apartment.

Here's some pictures of the animals antics lately. I've been spending most of my time studying for the RN exam which is this coming Wednesday...yikes! Other than that I'm getting ready to move to Halifax, and am very excited to be doing this as well! Sophie is excited, too, as she will be gaining a new brother when we move...I'm going to rescue a little boy from the SPCA (a boy cat I should say)

Graduation Pic

So, as you all know, we graduated yesterday and became nurses. It was an emotional day...I didn't realize how close we were to our profs until they came to hug us all before we went out for our convocation...none of the other programs received that kind of send-off. Here is a picture of my BScN nursing class of 2007

Punta Cana

Well I've arrived safely home from our big trip to Punta Cana. We had a really good week full of sun, sand, sea water and innocent drinks ;) I had a mild disaster while I was away: my camera broke! I have to go get it fixed, but my mom says I can use hers until I get mine working again. This might be a good time to start looking for an upgrade camera....we'll see. Anyway here are some pictures. Incidently, I've finally received my vista program and am using that today to post these blog pictures. I am loving vista and it's very blogger friendly, also I had no problem with drivers! yey!

Another Banquet.....Year Officially Over

The banquet was a success this year, despite all the things that felt like they were going to go wrong! We had a blast and I received an award for leadership in the nursing society. Nice to put on the resume. I have a load of pictures that I want to put up here so I'm not going to say much. The pics will do the talking.

First set: some of the graduating crew with Janice and Kim to the right is Willy (Willena Nemeth) and I













Mark and Erika looking lovely dressed to their best & Me and Debbie Brennick on the right. I spent most of my clinical time with either Debbie or Willena on 4B, 4C, the Cove and critical care












Heather and I on the left, and the original girls on the right: Angela, Amanda, Chrissy and myself.













More faculty: Jill and Corrine in behind who taught me peds and fourth year plus wound care respectively. I also had Corrine for community nursing this year. In front are Karen, Janice and Kim. Janice had me on the orthopedics floor and Kim was my mental health instructor. I never had Karen on the floor; she does 4A. To the right, a picture of Judy, Me and Cyndee. Judy taught me how to assess a patient, and also laid the beginning foundation of my nursing education. Cyndee was my Obstetrics instructor on the floor. I learned how to hold a baby and take his heartrate so he wouldn't cry.












Last (and not least) a picture of the group with Clare, who came back to be our guest speaker. She did an amazing job, and had some wonderful pieces of advice for us as we make that transition from student to nurse. And a picture of our executive (missing Christine, my treasurer and Saviour) Erika: seceratary, Janice: Faculty adviser, Me, and Barbara: my vice president.

Code Blue and Apartment Hunting

On Tuesday we went to a code blue thing at the hospital for our last clinical, where we did presentations, had a mock code blue and Debbie, Janice and Willena told us stories about their first code blues. These included Debbie crashing into everything in sight (sounds like something I'd do) Janice cutting the air tube that holds the ET in place (yikes!) and Willena being forced to push a med as a graduate nurse (oh the things we do). Debbie also told us about her longest code (4 hours!) and about the time they had to shock someone who was in a puddle (oh graduate nurses! Come shock this man)
































Here are some pictures of my new apartment, I signed the lease yesterday! Don't be fooled, it's not finished yet but it's going to be awesome when it is. It's a nice spacious one bedroom with a beautiful kitchen and laundry right in the apartment. I can't wait to move up to halifax and spend time with the boys, and with Jeanie, Rob and the Chloe as well.

So apparently my camera does work with photobucket now...it didn't before. Anyway there's a video of my cats, mostly sophie doing fun and amazing things...you can tell she's quite the cat. I'm not sure how to fix the light problem but I'm sure I'll figure that out soon enough. Also, as you can hear the water, you should know that my amazing cats used their amazing power to transport our house under niagra falls. How's that for amazing? Next week they're going to invent a time machine like Neal has.

Other great news, Jeanie and Rob will be happy to know there will be another babysitter in Halifax. I've been offered a job at Capital Health, one year contract with guarantee of a job after the year is up as well! I'm very excited for this and in preparation I will be doing my 96hr consolidation in the ICU to get experience with adults, medications and because I just love ICU. In a few weeks my mom and I will be making our way up to hali to find an apartment. Two weeks left of school, three clinical rotation days left.

Sophie & Carter Do Amazing Things

Videos Below

I've started playing with photo bucket, and since my camera for some reason won't tape I posted videos of other people's amazing pets. Here we have Debbie's dog Nero getting a beer out of the fridge, and Robin's ferret rolling over. I'll work more on making my own videos and will take any advice on changing the format. Enjoy!

Robin's Ferret & Cat Food

Debbie's Dog & Beer

Clinical

Back before the break I had a Tuesday off so I went to the hospital with Chrissy and took a bunch of pictures of my co-students during clinical to put on the slide show. They turned out really nice so I'm going to post some here.

The first two set of pictures are the girls doing the blood pressure awareness day at the hospital. Willena (instructor to the right) tried to trick me when I asked where her post conference by making up a room (the cpr room she said) and Debbie even tried to give directions to said room. "Go to the education centre, walk to the end of the hall and it's the classroom to the right" That's great except there are no classrooms to the right in that area! They won this time...










The crew in the cafeteria. Amanda, Erla and Mike. Right is Eileen's group working on their projects for that week.











My partner in crime, Chrissy (always ready for a picture...she's been around me too long) and Cory, the new addition to our group. to the right is Andree, Rene and Cory...members of Debbie's 4C group.










Judy Bailey and Jill MacMullin. Judy is use to my picture taking and tends to give me that same look everytime (fine I'll smile but I'm not impressed) Kim and Trish are on the other side, our mental health experts. Notice Kim doesn't have her name band on...shame on you!










Debbie Brennick deep in discussion with Tanya. Actually they were pretending. Debbie knew I was coming and tried to avoid me for awhile, but I managed to catch her during some down time with her students. I also managed to catch them in post conference which is the picture on the right.











The 3A crew: Lydia, Angela, Mary and Shaleen. Also the emerg group: Shannon and Jennifer. We are down to four clinical weeks left and two exams...then we graduate! Yikes.