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Today was my first day on the floor in my acute care clinical. I spent the morning in the Cardiac Observation Unit at St. Luke’s downtown. I had the opportunity to start an IV, and to see a Transesophageal Echocardiogram, or TEE, followed by a direct current cardioversion.

The patient had atrial fibrillation, or a-fib, which means the atrium of the heart was not conducting current correctly so she had irregular atrial contraction. Atrial fibrillation is the most common dysrhythmia in the USA, affecting approximately 1 in 136 adults. Atrial rate can be over 350 beats per minute with a-fib, and ventricular contractions from 50-180 bpm. A-fib can cause pooling or collecting of blood in the atrium that increases the chance of blood clot formation. These blood clots can dislodge and pass to the brain and cause a stroke.

Top: A-fib heart rhythm, Bottom: Normal Sinus Rhythm

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I got a position with St Luke’s for their summer Nurse Apprentice Externship program. The program, which starts tomorrow, is 10 weeks long and includes time for shadowing other medical professionals and patients, as well as time for NCLEX review classes. It is a full time temporary position. If all works out, I will pursue a part time permanent position when I return to school in the fall.

Ninety percent of my assigned shifts are night shifts. I will work two 8-hour shifts and two 12-hour shifts per week. The shifts are 7pm-7:30am or 11pm-7:30am. I have a few evening shifts also which start at either 3pm or 7pm and get over at 11:30pm. I am really looking forward the experience.

I won’t be answering my phone during the day when I am sleeping. If you need to reach me please call between 4pm and 7pm, or call Brandi’s cell if it is an emergency and she will wake me up.

I have all weekends in June off (except this first one) and most in July. If anyone is planning on going camping let me know! I definitely need to get some camping and fishing in this summer.

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Now playing: Sixx: A.M. – Girl With Golden Eyes
via FoxyTunes

I officially applied to the Boise State nursing program this morning. I retook the Compass Placement Exam last week and did really well. I scored 98 on both reading and math (99 is perfect). I placed above Albegra (as I should have) so I was able to enter 99 for my math score on the application. I also had 7 bonus points for completed courses, such as English, math, psychology, anatomy & physiology. That put my total score at 204. They couldn’t tell me if that was good enough, but she had a suspicion that only those that score 200 or above would be considered for admission.

I also signed up for a certified nursing assistant (CNA) class on Saturdays. That means that every Saturday from now until May 5 will consist of sitting in a room for eight hours. By summer I hope to be getting clinical experience in a local hospital.

As most of you know, I quit my job at Micron in July and went back to school. I had wanted to do something else for several years but I liked the paycheck so much that I never took the step to do so. Things went downhill at Micron after our group was taken over by Gary G’s group. He runs the place like Hitler, and unless you are one of his “Good Old Boys” you are pretty much screwed. They have lost so many good people in Product Engineering over the last year that you would think upper management would see what is going on.

So I have enrolled at BSU again. I am signed up as Pre-Nursing and am taking Anatomy & Physiology and Psychology which are both first year classes. I will apply for the nursing program in the spring and then can start taking actual nursing classes next summer. People say it is hard to get into the program, but my advisor says I shouldn’t have a problem. Admission is based on a test over reading comprehension and algebra. My advisor thinks I should be able to get a perfect score since I have already taken five college math classes. You also get to add points to your score if you have completed any of the first year courses before you apply. She said 60 people aced it last year (a score of 198) and the lowest score that was accepted was 194 (test score + extra points). Update: I scored a 193 on the tests. I get another 7 points for courses, which gives me a 200. This should be high enough for acceptance. Of course, I will take the tests again to try to ace it.

I am working part time at UPS. The pay and amount of hours aren’t that great but the benefits are excellent. FREE HEALTHCARE! Sometime in the spring or next summer I plan on getting my CNA and getting a job at a hospital for experience. So far all the CNA classes have conflicted with my BSU courses.

Brandi is back at DirecTV. Hopefully this will only be for a couple of years until I pass the RN exam and she can stay home again. I think Abbie has adjusted pretty well. With Brandi’s new schedule we only need to have someone watch Abbie on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday for about four hours per day. Luckily, we have some great family members that can watch her.

So far school is going good. I got an A on my first A&P test, a B on the lab practical, and the highest grade on the first Psyc test. I had another test tonight in A&P. I will let you know how I did. Update: I got another A, 90%!

I know I always say this, but I really will try to update this thing more often. If you have a myspace.com or facebook.com account, I can be reached over there as well.