ADVENTURES IN NURSING

OUR THIRD DAY IN NURSING SCHOOL

Surprise!  We hadn’t quit yet!  B and I had to remind each other that this was our only hope to actually have a life, be independent, and make a difference.  We slogged through into Day Three!

Mrs. B-1 moseys in and hands out our first quiz.  Say whaaat??  B and I roll our eyes at each other.  Was she serious?  It appears that she was.  What was that lecture on again?  Oh, yeah, “The History of Nursing.”  Well, la-di-da.  Here we go, folks.

I was struggling.  Damn it, why hadn’t I read that handout?  I remember now – because in my all-fired wisdom, I found the subject matter boring and uninteresting.  Names, and dates, and places – OH, MY!  I couldn’t even make an uneducated guess at most of the questions.  Meanwhile, B sits next to me ticking off answers all willy-nilly.  Damn her for studying anyway. 

Lesson learned – nobody cares whether or not I found the subject boring and uninteresting.  If the instructor lectured on it, I damn well better remember it.  I’m pretty sure I was several shades paler as I handed in my half-answered quiz paper. 

After that debacle, Mrs. B-1 began hauling out our first textbook, “Anatomy and Physiology.”  Damn, that was a heavy book, and just chock-full of several hundred pages.  There was no time to riffle through it as we began to immediately learn the contents of Chapter One.  Now this stuff seemed a lot more interesting to me.

When break time rolled around, we were all a-buzz discussing our first quiz.  I wasn’t the only one caught unawares of the seriousness of this whole nursing school thing, it seemed.  Apparently, there was to be no easing into learning this stuff.  It was more “sink or swim,” and a few of us were feeling overwhelmed – on our third day. 

Well, would you look at this!  Here comes Mrs. B-2, with an armload of papers.  Are you freakin’ serious??  Another quiz?  Yep-a-doodle, another quiz – just like they told us.  Great googly moogly, what were these ladies trying to do to us, weed out the riff-raff?  I do believe that was their intention.  At least I was able to answer more questions than not this time.  That had to be a good sign, right?

My head was reeling as Mrs. B-2 collected our quizzes and began her lecture of the day.  I was giving myself my own private lecture about buckling down, learning how to study again, and taking this sh** seriously.  I definitely needed an attitude adjustment.  If I was going to sit through two years of this, and pay for it besides, I needed to put forth more of an effort.  Damn, that computer programming class was sounding better all the time.

At the end of the day, we walked out to the parking lot with a few classmates, all bemoaning the fact that we were not prepared for this.  B and I spent the ride home with me grilling her about the quiz questions.  “What did you put for yadda yadda yadda?”  “How about the one on blah blah blah?”  Cripes, I was worried.

We spent the hour or so before the kids arrived home from school reviewing the quiz material.  Now I was REALLY worried.  There was only one solution – STUDY MY A** OFF.  Reality bites.

Once all the kidlets were tucked in bed that night, B took herself off to her room with her “Anatomy and Physiology” book, while I sat at the kitchen table, taking notes on Chapter 1.  I was beginning to feel like a student.  I was also beginning to feel like an old woman.  Doubts began to creep in, but I forced myself to focus.  I wasn’t looking forward to seeing my quiz grades the next day.

NEXT UP:  OUR FOURTH DAY OF NURSING SCHOOL