After three and a half years it is unreal to me that we will be graduating. We all have come so far since we started nursing school in 2017. There has been many ups and downs throughout the few years at UNE, COVID being number one. In about four months we will be graduating and the real work begins. I am excited to wake up every day after graduation knowing that as a nurse I will be helping people everyday. Knowing that I could bring hope, help, respect, kindness and much more every day is what I am excited for. But facing the real world is a different story. In high school I only had a class of 86 students and in college only have about 68 people in my nursing class. Knowing that I spent 17 years of my life in school and only knowing 154 people is scary and how many more people we will get to know. There is always the fact of the unknown that every people will have to face, not knowing if you will graduate, not knowing if you will find a job, not knowing where you will end up, which is terrifying and exciting at the same time. After taking the NCLEX and graduation I am already planning a trip across the United States, I am excited to see new places, hike, and see many national parks, but also spending time with friends and family. My celebration will most likely be a small group of my close friends and family but it would have been very different if there was no COVID. I would have had a large party with extended friends and family because my sister is also graduating from high school, and it is my parents 25th wedding anniversary.
I have also been a well organized person in the beginning of the semester. I print out all the calendars in the syllabus, write all the dates in my planner, color code homework for different classes and more, but my problem is keeping up with the organization. On the weekends as well I plan what I want to do in my head to prepare for the coming week, but I seem to get distracted and never complete the amount of work I actually want to. It seems I want to spend time with my roommates due to the fact that I will miss that after we all graduate. To help me stay on track I want to make a SMART goal every day, to evaluate and accomplish what I need to each day. For example; today my goal was to finish this eportfolio post, resubmit my simulation, and an ATI test by 1700. By knowing exactly want I want to accomplish today I know my reward will be handing out with friends and having dinner after 1700 which will help me stay motivated to accomplish my work. In addition by making a SMART goal each day I not overwhelming my self to ensure each goal is achievable.
We completed four NurseLogic 2.0 lessons on ATI which included Knowledge and Clinical Judgement, Nursing Concepts, Priority Setting Frameworks and Testing and Remediation. The one I learned the most form was Testing and Remediation. In this section we learned about preparing for faculty-developed tests, preparing for standardized tests, critically reading test items, test taking strategies and much more. This section helped me a lot because taking tests is what I struggle with the most. I understand the information during class, and how to apply it in a real life situation but when it comes to tests I read too much into the question. When answering multiple choice question on the next exam I plan on trying +,-, and ? strategy. Placing either a +,-, or ? next to the answer provided. + meaning a probable answer, – definitely incorrect, and ? a possible correct answer. This will ensure I eliminate answers to have better odds. This is one of the many tips I learned through these ATI lessons, and I will have to try more of the strategies present.
