Hello?

Monday was my orientation for nursing school. I am SO PUMPED! I was hanging on to every word that was said, held on to all the tons and tons of handouts we got like it was a $100 bill and kept thinking to myself "this is it! i finally made it! i'm gonna be a nurse!"
We had speaker, after speaker, after speaker talking to us about rules and regulations for the program, health regulations for clinicals, uniforms, background checks, this huge and scary test called Dosage Calculations that seems very intimidating and you have to get a 100% or you fail the course, clinical sites, schedules and textbooks ($1019 in books for the FIRST SEMESTER!!!). As soon as I got into the orientation I saw two girls from my microbiology class. I was glad to see two familiar faces, so I sat with them and was able to get the same class schedule as one of them, so it will be nice to have a study partner that I know and trust.
Members of the Florida Nursing Student Association were selling used uniforms during the lunch break. I got there a little late and all that was left was an extra small top and a medium bottom. The uniforms are pretty expensive - almost $40 for the top and bottom - and the FNSA was selling them for donations only. So for $5 I got an extremely ill fitting top and bottom. And let me just say that I will wear this uniform with an enormous amount of pride and happiness but good LORD it is hideous. I mean bad, bad, bad. The top is short sleeve, all white with a FSCJ patch on the side, two pockets at the bottom and it zips up the front, instead of buttoning, and the bottoms are white drawstring with two back pockets. To top it off I have to wear all white leather clunky shoes. I tried the uniform on for Patrick and he was very sweet and said it looked great but I could see right through him.

My first day of class is set for May 10. My schedule will be:
Monday - testing from 3-5:15pm. There are no classes held on Monday for nursing students, rather it is a mandatory testing day for all the nursing students. Fourth term students test early in the day, then 3rd term, then 2nd term then 1st term (which is what i'll be). I'm not sure what the testing day is - if it is just overall nursing tests, or instead of getting a test in your regular classes you just get tested on Mondays in the auditorium.
Tuesday - 9am - Noon class Health Assessment Across the Life Span
Wednesday - 9am - Noon class Pharmacology & Nutrition
1pm - 4pm class Nursing Concepts
Thursday - pick up my care plan information from my clinical hospital (Memorial Hospital )and prepare my care plan for the following day. I have to go to the hospital each Thursday before my clinical and I have to wear my uniform.
Friday - for the first 8 weeks of the semester I'll be in class from 8am - 1:30 pm in Clinical Nursing Techniques. For the remaining 8 weeks I'll be in clinicals at Memorial Hospital from 7am - 1:30pm.

My schedule seems easier than what I was expecting, but I think I'll be spending all my time on Monday and Thursday studying. A current first term student I sought out at the orientation suggested I try and get the day before my clinicals as an "off day" so that I can spend the whole day working on my care plan, instead of being in class that whole day, then changing, fighting traffic to make it the hospital to get my patient info and then spending the rest of the day preparing the care plan.

One interesting thing I noted about all the other students in orientation is that they were all fat. Some needed to lose about 10 pounds and others needed to lose about 50+. One of the professors spoke and she was, literally, morbidly obese. And I saw a student walk out and smoke a cigarette. Really? Haven't we all learned enough in our pre-req's that being fat and smoking is bad for you?