Future professor...?

So I really need a therapeutic release of all my emotions this quarter. This quarter has been nothing short of amazing! My upper division course is a piece of cake, which is really helpful. My painting class has been extremely stressful. I'm shocked. My first painting caused me nothing but anxiety and I hated every minute of it. I'll attempt a different approach for my next painting.. And now to the good stuff. My senior practicum class.


I absolutely L-O-V-E being a teaching assistant to my mentor. I go to the hospital and assist the students with just about everything. My primary responsibility is assessments and charting. My mentor spends the majority of time with 2 students who give all IV medication to 4 patients and that is very time consuming. This leaves me with the remaining 3-7 students and I focus on their assessments and getting them charted in the computer. 


It's incredibly interesting to watch as the students progress throughout the quarter. We have high expectations of them and they are all very hard working. What I didn't expect was when one student regressed, I felt it as if it was a personal failure. So I explored what made her change and we had a good conversation... I also supervise the students as they perform new procedures. That has been quite interesting...


My other huge responsibility with this class is grading care plans. I sit here with my laptop covering the table which has care plans sprawled all over it. I'm currently avoiding grading. I wonder if faculty do that too?


My experience with this class has just been astounding. I love working with the students and I love that they feel confident coming to me for advice/help. The students in this group chose this professor because they knew she was hard and wanted to be better nurses because of it. I hope that I also emulate her style of teaching/grading and that they enjoy their experience with me. 


They best part is spending time with my mentor... I am able to pick her brain and learn more from her and I love every second of it. I think one of the best parts is that I am making her life easier (her husband is dying so she's going through a lot), which she explained to me in my mid-quarter evaluation... how nice.


So some other exciting things.. I got nominated for a national award through the army/NSNA!! The spirit of nursing! I was nominated by the faculty and I can't tell you how much of an honor that is!! I had to write an essay and list all of my community service in the last 2.5 years... jeeze! When did I ever get anything done?! I'll find out in march if I got it, I'm sure I won't get it, but it's still pretty cool right?


The last exciting thing is that my mentor is being nominated for RN educator of the year! The faculty chose her for the nomination and she gets 3 letters of rec for it. She actually asked if I would write one!! I wanted to offer because it's highly competitive and I know that a student perspective could really help. So I can't wait to sing her praises for all that she does for us!!


Well that's it. I'm on-call tonight so I'm just waiting by my phone, grading care plans, and blogging. I gotta say it, Life is Good.