MY THIRD YEAR NURSING JOURNEY

Hi Guys, Assalamu Alaikum

First of all, I will want to point out that what I am sharing is MY EXPERIENCE and not anyone else's, this is my own personal experience through the final nursing year in school of nursing, which is different from experience of any other person that passed through the university, or studying abroad or even school of nursing from other states in Nigeria. My third/final year is a bit different not totally different though, actually, any nurse that graduated before my set even in my school had different kind of final year from us the ups the downs, and everything in between (we are just like a special set yunno😃)

But I hope some of you can relate to my story (knowing that no final year is easy in any school).

2nd-year snippet

I wanted to have like a 1st and 2nd-year blog then 3rd year but there are just little things I can remember from those years, so I tell myself to just blog 3rd-year cos there is no better time than the present (and if I force myself to remember I might as well not write this blog the way I want it to be) but here is a snippet, All the way through 2nd year, my focus was adjusting to academics, doing more studying than I actually do (if my friends are reading this they will testify, I always make/set new semester resolutions to study harder than the last semester but e get as e be) considering that in 2nd year you are expected to know things and start taking the leads in some areas (during clinical). Two things I definitely did not feel good about it.

During the 2nd year, there have been absolutely many dreadful times where I've thought to myself why on earth am I putting myself through this? Like what am I even doing? and I never get myself to answer these self-posed questions (almost every student nurse has gone through this phase). However, in the third year they say, everything will fall into place (do they?). Las las one lives in hope. But despite the 2nd year being sooo long (longer than the first year, though my first year wasn't so normal). We didn't have clinical postings the way we should, so we spent most of our year 2 in class (how boring), more and more presentations (which I still don't get used to despite having gone through the same thing in the first year), and a never-ending stream of new information (all med-surg them), I made it through and still haven't killed anybody thankfully 😃😃. But I say to you all soon to be or current 1st-year student prepares yourselves, 2nd year is NO FUN, it's challenging, stressful, and a little bit mad. But it does help if you have some good friends to share those times with which I thankfully have Alhamdulillah!!!.

THIRD YEAR

This brought me to now, the third/final year of nursing school. This is where things start to get real real, there is no easing you in some gentle lectures, there's no take your time and chill moments, I came into the third year with the highest level of energy (let's get it done kind of energy), but something happened. Lemme break it down, if you are a nursing student, or have passed through nursing school, or even if you don't know anything about nursing school, I am here to tell you. Normally, in the final year, you only got two exams to write, the hospital final exam and the NCLEX (nursing council examination), but fortunately that changes with my set it went from 2 straight to 4 exams in the final year (i mean do you feel me) that we had to do the first semester, second semester, pre-professional and then the one at the top council examinations on top of the project. Now to the real gist

Okay now, this post is getting longer than I thought but I really want to write all of it to keep this memory so I will come back someday to read my journey.

First semester

There is really not much I can remember, from the first semester, it was just reading and not so many lectures, I can remember we hadn't gone for clinical posting that semester. Okay before I forget, we were asked to submit our project topics proposal, which some of us did, and some didn't until like after the first semester ended. I started reading for my hospital exams early into the first semester and I stopped (since we're not going to write the exam anytime soon). Yea that is pretty much what I can remember for the first semester.

First clinical (3rd year)

We were actually supposed to go for our psychiatric posting to Sokoto before the second semester commence, but it was sort of canceled/postponed because of insurgency and whatnot (honestly, I didn't want to go)  I was happy when it got canceled. So in place of that, we went for normal clinical postings in Gusau (which I didn't know about until after one week through the posting, cos I lost my phone and I had nobody's contact) we were posted to Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital, it was a three weeks placement, I was supposed to be in the pediatric ward for the first week but I didn't report until the second week and that week we were moved (placed) to the Accident and emergency (A&E) ward and that was my first time in A&E y'all (can you feel me). We all did morning shift on the first day they later place us on shifts and luckily, I got Morning shifts and was happy not knowing/minding what is coming my way.

So lemme tell you this guys, there is no easy shift in A&E it's just work, work, work, and lots of work (I'm not even exaggerating) you can only get lucky to not have any road traffic accident cases, which we didn't have throughout the week (Alhamdulillah) but we had our fair share of other emergencies like gun shots and whatnot (i don't wanna go into details).

Okay, halfway through the week, Wednesday or Thursday I think, I got so unlucky that every day, first of all, I was asked by the in-charge to measure/monitor a client's RBS (Random Blood Sugar) and the client's relative in my presence told the in-charge she will not allow me (a student) to do it for her (come to think of it, would she have refused if it was a male student?) I don't think that but the in-charge like told her if she doesn't want me to do it then nobody is going to do and she then agreed and I did it for her but I wouldn't even lie that thing hurt me, I mean if I can't monitor blood sugar on a digital glucometer (something that a person can do by himself at home) then what am I doing in Final year, I WAS HURT.

Okay that passed, and on that same day,(how unlucky) I was asked to collect a blood sample, it was like 3 samples and I collected two and kept them aside and I withdrew the last one (this is where the horror begins) while closing the specimen bottle it fell off my hand, broke and the blood splashed all over my uniform, the patient's cloth and on the floor, that's not it almost everyone turned to see What happened and there was this nurse startled with blood splashes all over her uniform a specimen bottle cover on her hand and pieces of the bottle and blood on the floor I WAS EMBARRASSED Y'ALL but I kept straight face, my mate came to my rescue and asked me to just go, when I left the scene (such a horror scene) I went straight to the in-charge office and told him what happened and asked for permission to go home and I went home embarrassed, my mate cleaned the mess I made ( bless them). What an unlucky day it had been. But on the FLIP SIDE, other than these two events that happened, I really enjoyed my stay in the A&E ward, the staff were nice, welcoming, and warm, they got no problem whatsoever ( i mean who even got spare time to scold anyone in that ward) and my fellow student were very supportive.

The next week, we were placed in the amenity ward😃 (that was my first time in that ward too). I went there on Monday morning thinking I would continue my mornings but the roaster was changed and I was placed for evening shifts that week, so I had to go back home and come back in the evening. (i  wasn't even mad, I mean it's amenity every shift issa good shift). The only work we did in the amenity were just monitoring vital sign and Medication, chatting and writing a report (that was it😃😃). During the week, those that submitted their project topic proposals were given back their things and the topic was chosen for them and some were rejected. I used that opportunity and submitted mine together with the rejected ones. And that is how we completed our first placement in the Third Year.

Second semester

After the placement, we went back to school for the second semester, not giving up the hope that the second semester examination would be canceled and we would just write the Hospital final examination, I personally wasn't even reading anything that was thought during that semester, my focus was only on the Hospital exam. 

I think within the first two weeks in the semester, almost everyone was given project supervisors except some of us that got rejected ( I had to propose six or seven topics before he picked one for me) and they assigned us to our supervisor, who we didn't even bother to call or meet until after one week (not knowing what was waiting for us). My whole project experience was an adventure that needs a whole blog post, tell me if you want a blog about it.

I started my second semester with a true sense of purpose, paying more attention in class, take more notes, and read ten times harder than I used to, I was reading at double paced actually (and that was because we didn't have enough time) the second semester exam wasn't getting canceled and the hospital final was coming right after (like a month after). So we gotta do what we gonna do.

And  something happened

Surviving through the semester and reading much harder, at almost the end of the semester, one of our lecturers gave us an assignment/presentation and the whole class didn't do it (I promise we are a good student) 😃😃 we were carried away with lots of reading and all other stuff. The lecturer got angry (and I think he reported us or something like that) and we got punished. We were posted to the hospital for two weeks night shifts only and after every night shift we had to report back to school by 7:30 when our exams were just three weeks away ( I don't want you to assume we are bad students I would have posted the punishment notice here)😃 They called it punishment but I call it FUNishment (cos it was fun for me and all the people we were posted to the same ward with). I was such a read alone person but I had time to read in a group with my mate (so FUNishment helped a sister) yea that's all I want to tell you guys about the FUNishment those were fun two weeks except for the sleep though😴😴.

FUNishment did and it was just one week to the exam but there was no time table even on Friday that was just two days to the exam (we didn't know what happened or the status of the exam we just continued reading) until Saturday they told us it was suspended,(which we read as canceled) we got into jubilation mood like the exam was canceled 😃😃 but the celebration was cut short when they reanounced the exam date later in the day ( reset to factory settings). We were supposed to write the exam in November but it was postponed to December.

Psychiatric posting

There were arrangements/preps made to go for the psychiatric posting we missed immediately after the second-semester exam and it happened (we finished our exam on Friday and we were posted on Monday) but yo girl didn't go (I DIDN'T WANTED TO GO AND I DIDN'T GO) instead I was posted to a Hospital here in Gusau (me and other three people that didn't go) and we spent a month there while they were in the psychiatric hospital (another fun posting) we didn't do much actually during that posting, it was in the theatre so all we had to do was just wear our gown to watch while they do surgery but I learned how to do circumcision there ( bring yo male children) yea that is pretty it.

The Hospital exam was supposed to hold like a week after the posting but it was postponed too we were given like two or three more weeks to read and we wrote in February then we went for a much-needed vacation.

Our results were out during the vacation and I actually didn't pass, I had to resit 1paper and we all passed after that.

After the result was out, we then started our Review classes and reading hard for the finals. One week into the review class and CORONA HAPPENs we had to go for corona break like every other school (and that was two months to our finals).

That was such a looong post but if you reach here while reading THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR STICKING AROUND AND READING MY BORING STORY I really appreciate it.

My experience after corona break and finals prep. blog will come after in shaa Allah, hopefully soon.

Let me know what you think about today's post in the comment section down below. I've been seeing all your emails and I appreciate all of it and your support. I love learning more about you too.

DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS BLOG, SHARE AND FOLLOW ME ON ALL MY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS LET'S CONNECT THERE TOO.

Read you soon in my next blog 💜💜💜