Jennifer Vitti

So I should be doing work right now since I have SO MUCH to do with only 3 days left of classes (and 22 days until graduation!), but I had to stop to write a quick vent.

CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP BASHING MY GRAD SCHOOL! Seriously!

It frustrates me to no end! I don’t care if YOU hate it…how do you know I will? And if you hate it so much why are you wasting your money? LEAVE! I don’t care if YOU think that the professors didn’t teach you anything because my guess is that 100% NCLEX pass rate means that the teachers taught someone something…even if there are some really smart students in there I doubt that every single person left ready to pass the NCLEX because they were geniuses (and my guess is that the people who are complaining about the professors are the people who are NOT the geniuses and just cannot see what an opportunity they have been given).

And I’m not saying that I am going to go in there and love EVERY. SINGLE. THING. about the school, but seriously I do not need all the negativity before I even start the school! And when I do vent about the school I will make sure that I also praise it when it deserves it. I have never known 100% of a student body to love any particular school or program and definitely not a really demanding accelerated nurse practitioner program, but seriously let the incoming students figure it out for themselves. We’re stressing enough about everything we don’t need your cranky bitterness.

*sigh* I’m sorry I was just getting really fed up about it. People complained about BC, Northeastern, MGH, and now Regis. I just want to be genuinely excited with my school and my program and getting to do what I want to do! There are people who are unhappy at Skidmore right now and when prospective students come and are taking tours they yell “Don’t come here! It sucks!”. And I yell at those people because that’s not right. Yeah I had my issues with Skidmore, but I still enjoyed it and felt I got a really strong education. And I know a lot of people who loved it more than I did, so who is to tell the “prospys” that they won’t be one of those? No one should. And I feel the same way about graduate school. So again… I’m sorry you’re bitter but please…SHUT UP!

Ennnndddd Rant!

In more positive news you all can see the start of some of the new features on my blog! I updated my About Me so you can go check that out, Samm (my boyfriend) expanded my blog layout to make it accomodate new features better, and he added a “ask a question” button! I am really excited about this, so if you come across my blog randomly (or you’re a regular…I don’t know if I actually have any regulars yet, but I hope to soon!) and you’re too shy to comment on a post, but you have a question feel free to do that. That way it will be private. If it’s appropriate and useful I will post the answer on my blog for everyone (without any of your information of course) or if it’s personal/private I will be sure to shoot you an email back. So feel free!

Okay I have to get back to work: 22 days, 6 exams, 4 papers, 3 days of classes, and 2 presentations left… I can do this!

~love always~

Jen

So first of all I must wish everyone a Happy Easter (or Happy Passover)–Buona Pasqua! I went home for the weekend and it was fabulous! It was too short of course, but it was great to see all members of my family (and even some extended family) and I got to bring home a lot of stuff, so that packing won’t be so bad.

A couple exciting things–got a 95 on that Anatomy test I mentioned last post. Then I got a 100 on my Reproductive System practical, and I just had a Statistics exam that I think went pretty well. So my week has been going pretty well. I’m still trying to catch up on work from the past few weeks thought but I am hoping to accomplish that by the end of this week. My last Anatomy lab was on Monday and my last Senior Seminar is on Wednesday. I am so excited for everything to be coming to an end!

NEW INFO FROM REGIS! So I think I jinxed myself on my last post. I got invited to an Ice Cream Social (forget if I mentioned that or not) and I thought I couldn’t go, but turns out I can! It’s just going to be a CRAZY day because I am going to drive home right after my PChem exam on Wednesday, April 29th basically straight to Regis. But then I’m going to stay home for study days (bring a lot of stuff home that time too). So that’ll be good to meet new students and faculty and stuff. Also this past Friday I received a HUGE amount of info from them. I got to pick my class schedule (see below), which I already confirmed with the contact person, I got a list of things I need to do/buy like uniforms, A PDA WITH $200 worth of apps (hint hint grad present?!), CPR certification with AHA, and health forms. I also had to sign something for the IT people and send it back so I can get my email and password and what not, so that will be good and hopefully happen soon! I didn’t get any info about financial aid, but I’m going to start working on that soon. I also visited Regis on Sunday with my mom. It’s really pretty and little, but I like that for a graduate school since I’m not living there it will be easy to find everything and get everywhere. I don’t know if I could handle living there for 4 years undergrad though–I went to a small school, but even Skidmore is bigger than that! So yeah very exciting. I’m so excited to graduate and start classes.

Group 1B

Professional Nursing Mon 11AM-1PM (includes 1 hr lab); Wed 11AM-1PM

Clinical Thurs 7AM-3PM

Lab 1 on campus Tues 7AM-10AM

Health Assessment Wed 5PM-8PM

Clinical Pharmacology Mon 5PM-8PM

FRIDAYS OFF!! So pumped…and my Tuesdays are pretty easy too. I’m probably going to work for my mom, dog walking, those days and weekends. I’M SO EXCITED. Can’t wait for more info!

Have to run to class! I’ll write again soon!

~love always~

Jen

P.S. 32 Days!!!

Well I DON’T! Yes it was snowing this morning. Granted it was more flurries and nothing stuck, but still! NO SNOW ALLOWED! Yeesh! So let’s see I have lots to tell you…

First of all I am done with Senior Seminar! My presentation went okay. I was really nervous, so I’m sure it wasn’t perfect and I did not understand my paper as well as I would have liked in order to feel confident, but I did it I got through it and I passed and since it’s a pass/fail class I’m all set with that. My anatomy test went well too (I think). I came out feeling pretty good about it. Usually when I feel pretty good about it I am pretty accurate, so we’ll see. I’m nervous though as to why she hasn’t put the grades up on Blackboard yet. That might mean that not everyone did very well or she just hasn’t finished grading them yet, which would be frustrating because I want to know! I have that class at 12:40 so we’ll see!!

Statistics class was cancelled this morning because my professor called in sick, so that was nice to have the morning off and I got a lot of work done, which is GREAT! I love being productive in the morning.

There may be some changes coming to my blog soon. Nothing too drastic, you may have already noticed that some things were neatened up courtesy of my boyfriend. I am hoping to add some cool plug-ins that are appropriate and fit with my page, update my about-me page, do some more neatening… that sort of thing. And as the semester winds down I hopefully will be able to blog more yay!

Speaking of blogging one other important thing I am going to add that a lot of nurses and nursing students (and other people in the medical profession with blogs) have is a little disclaimer in relation to HIPAA. I know I’m not really under HIPAA yet because I haven’t started, but I will soon and I just want people to know that although I have mentioned what school I will be attending I will not be mentioning any names of clinicals, patients names will be changed, other facts will be creatively changed, I may even tell stories of other people and you readers will not be able to tell. I think this is really important not only to cover myself so I don’t get in trouble, but HIPAA is really important for patients and the people involved. So yeah… even though I want to share my endeavors will everyone and have somewhere where I can let off some emotion and steam it shouldn’t come at the expense at other people’s privacy. So hopefully a little disclaimer will be added to my site as well!

So what’s up for my last few weeks of school? I have a film critique due this week, then I’m going home for EASTER this weekend (I’m so excited and I’m also going to visit Regis on Saturday, which will be awesome), a reproductive system practical and a stats exam next week, two presentations and my last film critique the third week, and a stats exam, a pchem exam, and a research paper due my last week of classes. Then I of course have study days and 3-4 finals. Then senior week and GRADUATION! 39 days…it’s crazy!

Gosh I’m all over the place today… I think it is because I have not blogged in a week or so and I have so much I want to say 2 more things then I’ll leave you to untangle my post in your brains…

I didn’t get a chance to tell you guys what I got to do at my shadowing two weeks ago-I mean I was only observing, but these were some of the things I saw: Implanon put in, 1 week old premie check-up who was 4 weeks premature, a lot of sick kids (a lot of flu), a little girl who was having chest pain and it turned out to be breast buds (aww), kid with a swollen parotid gland, girl with a pseudotumor, and some regular physicals (mostly of young kids). Really interesting day! Did another shadowing last Friday. Another good day. I even got to participate a little! I held a baby’s legs down while two nurses gave him shots (one in each thigh). I felt important  and I was very proud of myself because one of the nurses came out to the nursing station and asked anyone who was around if they wanted to help and I immediately jumped at it. I thought I might be shy, but I was totally all over it. That was a good confidence booster even though it was a simple job. I also got to listen to a lot of office gossip that I did not really get to experience last week. To be honest I was not impressed. I found it very tacky that doctors were making fun of patients, other people were saying oh I don’t like this person, blah blah blah. Come on people! I got enough of this in highschool and even more of it in college… I don’t want any more of it when I graduate. I mean I guess there will always be some, but it frustrated me a little bit that they would be that unprofessional. Oh well… it hasn’t deterred me from anything I was just a little surprised that’s all. Anyway, I am not shadowing this Friday because of the holiday, but then I will shadow the next two Fridays after that. I can’t wait to see what else I will have in store.

Last thing is more of a negative update… no new info from Regis other than the fact that they have deposited my deposit. I was hoping once I got accepted things would be hopping (it is like this for other schools), but it’s not unfortunately. I think it’s because with Regis’s rolling admission they are still waiting to see if they get any other applicants before they send out any more info to students who are going. Or they’re waiting for people to make their decision. I would think we would definitely get SOME info this month though. The acceptance letter said we would get info about “uniform fitting, health forms, and CPR information” SOON <– whatever that means. Probably because that is stuff you shouldn’t do last minute and some people may need to plan ahead type of thing. Then registration info will be in late spring and orientation info will be mailed in late July. Somewhere in there I also have to figure out Financial Aid. I already did the FAFSA, but I might have to wait for registration to do the other part of it (Regis has a little form to fill out) because it asks how many credits I will be taking and I obviously have no idea yet. Hopefully I will get info soon. I’m just too anxious!

Alright wow long entry. Don’t worry not all my entries should be this long, or at least definitely not this crazzzzyyyy!

39 days!

~love always~

Jen

Today is really stressful. I have my senior seminar presentation today (we only have one presentation a semester and that determines whether we pass or fail). I keep trying to tell myself that even if it doesn’t go well that my advisor isn’t going to FAIL me, but I just hate having to present about topics I don’t understand/don’t enjoy. I think if my major was not biochemistry that I would feel different about presentations because back in the days of high school when I used to do a lot more presentations I did really well, I still got nervous, but I was more confident. I think the problem is that professors are invited to come (and they do come) and then they ask questions at the end. They are more quizzing you then asking you questions that they truly are interested in, which upsets me a bit.

But luckily once I get this presentation over with (be thinking of me at 4:35-5:35 PM) I will be DONE with one class and that’s so huge to not have that extra hour of homework every night that I use to prep for this presentation.

Unfortunately afterward I can’t even come back and relax though because I have an Anatomy and Physiology II exam tomorrow at 12:40. It’s on the respiratory system and the digestive system, so it’s a doozy. But hopefully I’ll do okay in that.

On the bright side I did my shadowing in Glens Falls last Friday and I LOVED IT! It was awesome. I got to see some really cool patients and procedures that I wasn’t expecting to see at a small pediatric office, so that was exciting. The nurse practitioner I followed around was pretty cool too… once she got over the fact that I was here to shadow her. Apparently no one told her I was coming, so she was a little upset at first, but got over it quickly and then was like a different person!

Also on a happy note my deposit to Regis was cashed this week, which means not only am I officially going, but Regis knows that too! I really hope I get more info from them soon.

Okay I have to go back to practicing and studying. I’m so nervous!!

45 days until graduation (wow!!!!)

~love always~

Jen

p.s. I should also probably mention that my sister did indeed come visit me this weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend and we had a lot of fun! We walked into town, went shopping, I took her to Panera…great weekend! Can’t wait to see her again at Easter (NEXT WEEKEND!!!)