Thanksgiving Blessings

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100

The season has turned closer to winter as evidenced by the barren trees and the shift of colors in the landscape from bronze and copper to ochre and gray. The pasture outside my window still maintains a hint green and the horses have been frisking about. I think they enjoy the cooler weather as much as I do!

School progresses as well. Our second case study is due tomorrow. I'll be very thankful to turn it in! Amazingly, we only have 3 weeks until winter break! In that three weeks, we have 5 tests and 2 finals, so it will be a busy time.

For Thanksgiving, I am looking forward to Zach's arrival and also several of his friends. It will be a joy to have a bit of bustle in this normally quiet apartment!

Today I prepared the first pots of paperwhite bulbs and put the hyacinth bulbs in their glasses to chill in the refrigerator. They will brighten the dreary days of mid and late winter.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mid-term!

Autumn has been beautiful here this year. The hillsides are a rich tapestry of color. I've spent many an afternoon out walking and driving to enjoy this seasonal spectacle.

School progresses and after a rough start in Mental Health class, I feel like I'm finally getting my feet under me. As expected, this year has been more challenging than last year, but it is still every bit as interesting! Learning is a joy.

We are in our second clinical rotation for the semester. I'm at the hospital here in town and enjoying working with one of my favorite clinical instructors from last year. We are learning about IV's this year and I have to admit to being a little nervous about putting that first one in. Maybe this week! We've practiced lots, but as you can imagine, it's very different doing such things with a live person than with a rubber manikin!

Deep peace friends.

The pastures of the wilderness drip,

the hills gird themselves with joy,

the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they shout and sing together for joy.

Psalm 65: 12, 13

9 Months to go!

Hard to believe that we are already through our first full month of the RN year! I have two classes this semester, Medical Surgical Nursing and Mental Health Nursing. While it sounds like an easy schedule, both classes are 7 credit courses so it is a full load! We have two instructors for each class and we will do a 7 week clinical for each class.

Currently, I am in the mental health clinical. I am working with veterans at the Knoxville VA Hospital which specializes in the treatment of schizophrenia and related disorders. I anticipated that this would be my least favorite of all the clinical rotations, but I'm finding instead, that I really like working with these patients.

In Med Surg, we have learned how to do in depth physical assessments and are studying surgical nursing as well as in depth study on the respiratory system.

The next couple weeks are BUSY! In the next 12 days, we have 7 tests, a 40 page case study, 6 days of journaling (about 40 pages worth), an oral exam on mental health medications and two smaller assignments for Mental Health. Enough to keep me more than busy!

When the class load has been less intense, I've been oil painting! You can see some of my recent work and some of my older stuff at the lpbonistudio link on the right side of the screen. Looks like painting will be taking a back seat to studies for a while!

Hope that everyone reading this will leave a comment so I can get an idea of who is following along on this amazing journey through nursing school!

Blessings and peace,
Lisa

On towards RN!

Accomplishments this summer:

• Graduated with LPN diploma in June
• A in Microbiology
• PASSED the LPN NCLEX exam!
• Licensed to practice as an LPN!!!
• Started oil painting again (see above)
• Enjoyed visits from family and friends in July
• Enjoyed camping with my kids in Rocky Mountain National Park
• Visited family and friends in Colorado in August
• Caught up on sleep!

After much prayer and thought, I am pushing forward to the RN year rather than working for a year first. Classes began on Wednesday! Would appreciate everyone's prayers as I make this journey forward!

Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven with mighty victories by his right hand.
Psalm 20: 6

LPN!

Wow! The first year of nursing school is over and done! I graduated and received my LPN diploma on June 24, 2005! I had a bit of difficulty right at the end with clinical and as a result, I nearly didn't graduate. But thankfully, with God's grace and through the prayers of many, things worked out and I was able to graduate after all. Summer report card:

Med Surg ~ B
Sociology ~ A

The next step is to take the PN NCLEX, which is the LPN nursing board exam. That should be sometime in July once all the paperwork goes through. Microbiology begins July 11 and it should be an intense 4 week course.

Based on the recommendations of my advisor and the dean of nursing, I need to decide by August if I'm going to work as an LPN for a year before going on to complete the RN portion of my training or if I'm going to try and work part time as an LPN while I go to school. Since I came into the program without having been a CNA first, I have a lot less clinical experience than most of my fellow students and they would like me to have a little more clinical exposure before moving on. Would appreciate everyone's prayers as I make this decision.

Right now, I am blissfully enjoying time off from studying! I have been enjoying visitors! We had a delightful time seeing some of the sights and catching up. Looking forward now to some free time to paint and pursue non-nursing interests for a couple weeks as well as more visitors the week of the 4th of July!

Joy!

Today was a day of tests. We had one in Socology at the early hour of 7:00 a.m. and then at 1:00 p.m. we had a big test over the assessment and diseases of the renal (kidney) and urinary systems in Med Surg. It was a pretty tough test. What a great joy it was to find out this evening that I was one of 2 people in the class who got 100% on the test! 100% test scores in Med Surg are exceedingly rare so it makes me even more excited about getting that grade!! We also had a test on Monday, which I got an A on so it has been a really good week!

Spring into Summer!

Springtime in Iowa

Spring semester is over and summer semester has begun. Only six weeks away from completing the LPN program! It’s amazing how quickly this year has sped by. Testimony to how positive things can be when one really enjoys what one is doing. I find the thought of graduating from the LPN program almost bittersweet. I think back to how unsure I was of myself last August and see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve enjoyed learning this year. It’s really been a good year and I almost hate to see it end. All the same, I’m looking forward to moving on into the RN program beginning in July!

Spring semester finished well and I was able to maintain a 3.2 GPA and my spot on the Dean’s list! Here is my report card! Keep in mind that our grading scale is a little different from the norm. An A is 93% or above, a B is 83 to 92% and a C is 75 to 82%.

Medical Surgical Nursing I ~ B
Maternal Child Nursing ~ B.
Human Growth and Development ~ A
Nutrition ~ B

It’s a tough program and I feel pretty good about those grades especially since a couple of our instructor’s let me know that I am in the top 10% of the class! My grade in Maternal Child grade was actually 91.8% so I just barely missed that A!

Now in the first session of summer semester, I am taking Med Surg Nursing II and Sociology. We have clinical practice two days a week and I’m at Cass County Hospital in Atlantic, Iowa for that.

May 27th is the LPN lamp lighting ceremony and June 24th is our LPN graduation. I am looking forward to the 2-week break after graduation and anticipating visits from various friends and family! It’s a beautiful time of year here in Iowa when all the wildflowers are in bloom and the fields are growing lushly. It will be nice to have some time off to enjoy it and to share it with everyone who visits!

July 11th is the first day of the second summer session and I’m planning on getting a head start on the RN program by taking Microbiology. I'll get a two week break in August before Fall semester begins. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to come back to Colorado for a visit so keep those e-mails, letters and phone calls coming or leave a comment below! I really love hearing from everyone.

Blessings of peace and harmony to all!

Spring!

Spring arrived in Iowa with the return of the redwing blackbirds that sit evenly spaced between fence posts along the roads. The robins arrived shortly after. What a joy it is to wake to their morning song. Farm machinery that has been tucked away in sheds all winter is appearing in farmyards once again. Sunny days begin to outnumber the cloudy ones. Farmers are disking their fields and the smell of newly turned earth permeates the air. Newborn calves with snow-white stockings have appeared in the pastures. With each new rainstorm, the grass turns a darker degree of green. One night was silent. The next, the pervading chorus of spring peepers filled the air. It’s a comforting sound that says, all is right with the world. Spring is really here!

School is going well, but I definitely have a case of spring fever, which makes it hard to concentrate on studies at the moment! Have been able to maintain strong B’s in both nursing classes as well as Human Growth and Development and continue to have an A in Nutrition. It was discouraging to learn that we do not have a break between spring and summer semesters. We have finals one week and begin the summer semester the next Monday. Sadly it means that I must miss a much-anticipated gathering with my Posie friends on Cape Cod in May. On a happier note, the summer semester ends June 24th with our LPN graduation! Hard to believe that this first year of nursing school is almost over. One more year to go!

On the agenda for this week are tests over the cardiovascular system, protein metabolism, and pediatric blood, lymphatic, and metabolic disorders. In nutrition, I also have a paper due on vegetarian diets and complete proteins. In Human Growth and Development, there are two projects due, one an activity book for which I am doing a Sibling preparation book aimed at 3 to 5 year olds and an adolescent obeservation paper. In Maternal Child we also have several chapters of workbook due. In addition, we are working on our third care plan which is due the following week. It's a busy week!

Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10

Promises of Spring

Winter Blooms

Gifts of Grace

Desktop Blooms
In clinical each week, we are assigned to a patient whom we work with for one or two days. On our patients from the last week of January, we had one week to complete a detailed nursing care plan. Nursing care plans consist of:
· A report on the pathophysiology of the condition affecting the patient,
· A bibliography,
· A complete head to toe physical assessment,
· Detailed information about the medications used,
· Detailed information about the diagnostic tests and labs done,
· 12 nursing diagnoses, and
· 4 nursing diagnoses written up with short and long term patient goals, intervention strategies and evaluations of effectiveness.
This care plan was due Thursday morning. I worked all week on it. On Wednesday night, I taught a portion of my childbirth class curriculum for a Human Growth and Development class at the college. It was hard to give up the 3 hours that I could have worked on my care plan to teach, but I put it in God’s hands to help me complete the work. I literally was up all night working on it on Wednesday. By 5:30 a.m. Thursday, I realized I couldn’t do anything else but that I had to get ready to go to clinical and that I had no choice but to print it out and turn it in, incomplete, for better or worse.

Saturday evening, the instructor called and wanted to know where the rest of it was. I explained to her that I just hadn’t been able to get it done. She asked if I knew how much it was going to hurt my grade and with what was probably a sob in my voice, I said, yes, that I did know. She was silent a moment and then said, could you get the rest of it to me by 6:00 p.m. tomorrow? I had it turned in by 2:00 p.m. The amount of time it took me to finish? Almost exactly 3 hours. God is gracious.

One of my joys is forcing hyacinths and paperwhites to bloom indoors on cold winter days. Back in October, I filled one vegetable bin of the refrigerator with hyacinth bulbs in forcing glasses. By December, the glasses were filled with pristine white roots but the tops of the bulbs showed no growth yet. By the end of January, the papery tunics form a ruffled collar around the pale yellow cones of leaves that have pushed up an inch or two. In order to provide a steady progression of blooms over the next month, every few days I bring another hyacinth out from the refrigerator and put it on my desk where I can watch it change and grow daily. Leaves turn from pasty yellow to chartreuse to deep green. Sculptural flower stalks rise, released from the protective cocoon of leaves. Each waxy bud tips outward until it springs open, spilling fragrance into the room.

Paperwhites are much easier. I simply nest the bulbs in a glass container filled with fine black gravel, add water and wait. First the white roots snake down through the gravel in every changing patterns and then green shoots begin to telescope skyward from the rich papery brown tunics. Paperwhites grow so quickly, that the growth is nearly visible to sight. When the leaves are about three inches high, the blossom sheaths begin to rise between the leaves, swelling each day. The sheath turns translucent and embryo buds can be seen within, growing, changing day by day. Now the bud sheaths are so pregnant with blossom that I anticipate being able to watch them split open any moment into bloom. Then, while occupied with something else, I hear a quiet snapping pop and look over to see infant blossoms bursting forth. What a miracle of life to be witness to.

So while my family and friends are taking February visits to places like the Cayman Islands, Aruba, Florida, Paris and Costa Rica and another is enjoying blossoming cherry trees in the San Francisco area, I have my own little Eden, my own bit of spring growing on my desktop. Such grace God gives us, to bring such joys into our lives.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all. 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Week 1, Semester 2

One week down, fourteen to go! The new semester is off to a good start. Classes are a little more intense than last semester, but more focused on detail rather than general concepts, which is easier for me. I’m amazed at what we’ve already learned in just one week. Here is a sampling.

• Injections (Dart that needle in! I’m grateful that we haven’t had to puncture other students or patients at this point, just oranges!)
• Nursing cares for people with stomach and upper gastrointestinal illnesses.
• How to write Nursing Diagnoses and create Nursing Care Plans. (And here I thought I’d seen the last of legalese upon leaving the Colorado Dept. of Law!)
• Medications ~ Memorized a list of 60 medications. Not just the names, but also the drug class, their use, what we need to assess as nurses prior to and during the course of therapy and their side effects.
• Proper administration of medications. We reviewed this in the fall, but were tested on it today. I, patting self on back, passed with flying colors!

There have been things I learned outside of class as well.

WINTER! I didn’t really know what winter was. Winter in Colorado is days of sunshine, punctuated by a handful of cloudy snowy days now and then. You need nothing more than a sweater sometimes. The snow melts in 2 days. It gets really cold only a few days a year. Winter in Iowa? WEEKS of DARK gray clouds sitting low, punctuated by partly cloudy days where it is LESS GRAY. Once in a rarity, the sun actually comes out. I crave those days and find myself basking in the sun like a cat! It’s COLD. FREEZING. WINDCHILL BELOW 0 for days on end. ICY. There is ¼” or more of freezing rain on every surface, followed by snow, followed by more freezing rain, followed by… you get the picture! It’s SLICK! I need studded snow boots!

But in the cold and ice, there is AWESOME beauty as well. Ethereal frosted fern patterns on every window. Forests of barren trees shining in the late afternoon sunshine like a forest of Venetian chandeliers, every twig and branch coated in ice, gleaming, and sparkling, reflecting light. Landscapes in muted tones of white and lavender with every blade of grass or pine needle frosted and standing out in relief. Horses in the pasture wearing thick white blankets of snow. And in my apartment, pots of brilliant amaryllis the color of rubies, paperwhite narcissus filling the air with fragrance and a monstera philodendron, a souvenir from my working days at Lam-Wood threatening to take over Creston. There is beauty everywhere. Our challenge is to find it, where ever, whenever we are, even when the wind chill is well below 0.

The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

Christmas Deer 

New Year, New Classes!

Christmas is over and the New Year begun. I enjoyed a lovely two weeks in Colorado over the holidays visiting with family and friends. Highlights of my trip were sitting in church on Christmas Eve with my parents, all my kids and the girlfriends and two of my closest friends. How wonderful to spend the holiday surrounded by everyone. Another highlight was New Year's day when I got to spend time alone with all my kids. Great laughter and lots of fun! I also enjoyed spending time with several friends. In the mornings, I enjoyed the mountain views from my parent's house and watching the deer and birds in the yard. Nice to have time to just sit and talk with my parents as well. It was very hard to say goodbye to everyone this time around. I do miss everyone so.

School starts up on January 10. Purchased my books and have gotten a start on the homework assigned before we left on break. I’m excited about my classes this semester as we get to study some of the areas of Nursing that I’m really interested in!

Medical Surgical Nursing (aka Med Surg)
Maternal Child Health
Human Growth and Development
Science of Nutrition

We also have three clinical rotations this semester as well as a Medications lab. My first clinical rotation will be at one of the hospitals in an adjoining county. I’m looking forward to that and think it will be a better fit for me than the nursing homes.

Oh, and the official report card for last semester?
Fundamental’s of Nursing, I & II ~ B
Pharmacology ~ B
Anatomy and Physiology I ~ A
Feel pretty good about those grades!