Almost Done

After three years of going back to school, I have accepted a job offer on a telemetry-medical-surgical unit at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. This unit has 36 beds and focuses on Congestive Heart Failure. While the focus is on heart patients, it’s also open to surgical and general medical patients. I have been working on the unit since April as a Nurse Aid and Unit Secretary, and I have been working in the Level 1 Regional Hospital since June 2006. So I feel pretty comfortable with how the staff, unit, and hospital flow. This was my first choice of where to work and so I’m grateful to have gotten the job. I do have some ideas for where I’ll be in two years, but that’s for God to confirm.

The catch to all of this is that I have to graduate from nursing school and then pass the NCLEX, the state board exam, to receive my license. I’ve thankfully completed the classroom portion of schooling. So here’s the list of tasks I need to accomplish to finish up:

1. Complete a 144-hour preceptorship (internship) on a progressive trauma floor over the next nine weeks.
2. Send a political action letter to a North Carolina politician about a controversial issue.
3. Send in my registration for the NCLEX.
4. Pass 3 computer tests designed to prepare students for taking the NCLEX. (Pharmacology, Assessment, & RN predictor)
5. Serve successfully as a leadership student and mentor for intermediate students two days in November.
6. Participate in 3 day NCLEX review session.
7. Pass the NCLEX, which I hopefully will take in January, but I won’t know until the end of December.

The list to get to this point would be exhaustive, but these are the last few things that I need to accomplish. For those of you who know what it’s been like, you’re probably thinking that this will be easy in comparison. I’m just glad that it’s almost over.
Thank you, Frances, for your understanding, patience, and support. We’re almost there.

Photo Credit: a.drian