Ok, so I had my first day as a UGN today and it was fantastic :) I'm really lookinf forward to this position as it will be completely different to care aiding and actually right along the lines to what it will be like when i graduate. I will have a few restrictions...some of which are lame. They have to take the school that is the lame-est and then build their standards around what the lame school can't do. For instance, NG feeding tubes. I have personally inserted one into a very, very sick patient that couldn't even swallow. The only trick that I learnt was that if the patient puts their chin to their chest it is much easier to slip the tube around that nasopharynx corner, and also dipping the tube in some water to give it some lube is a big help. And even if by some miracle, a person inserts the feeding tube into the larynx, the pt gets an x-ray anyways to see if the tube is indeed in the stomach and not in the lungs. Anyways, I don't think I'll be doing a whole lot of NG tubes anywyas... Other than some kinda silly restrictions like that one, I think it will be a very positive experience. I will have a workload, and I will be responsible for patients -> I won't have an instructor looking over my shoulder to check everything which will make me feel a little more confident and independant. The surgical floor looks quite nice too. Today was the first time that I've checked it out and it is a lot nicer than the medical floors I've seen at this hospital. If I can, I will take a picture sometime soon!


I think next summer I will definately persure becoming an LPN for the summer. As an LPN, I won't be able to do quite as much as an RN, but I won't be limited in the hours I can work as I am in the UGN position...Overtime = big bucks. I should have enough clinical hours by next summer to write my LPN exam and then finding a job should not be that difficult given that I know the managers at LMH and RCH. If I do become an LPN next summer, I will be a full scope LPN so I can give medications and have a wider scope than a 'regular' LPN. I think most LPN's are now becoming full scope LPN's because at Langley, every LPN is full scope.


well, I should hit the sack. I have my first shift this thursday night I think...There have been some scheduling issues, but if not this thursdaym then I will be working on the 31st for sure (2days, 2 nights, and then 5 days off). I will follow that scedule for most of the summer. Dosen't seem like much, but that's full time for a RN! I hope to pick up doubles as a care aide on the weekends I don't work as a UGN. working a double as a care aide equlas 500 bux, so it is quite profitable to be at work for 16 hours and I really need the cash. Like, really bad. So, hopefully I can get good shifts as a care aide, and hopefully I get more hours as a UGN because with the funding right now, it's only good for 2 months worth of work...I am sure they will get more funding, I'm just not sure when.

Ok. This time I really have to go. I will post again soon!!!
Chris


*grunt*

Mornings can be rough...Just woke up

Showers are a real pick-me-up in the morning!

Can't get enough of the sugar crisp...It actually doesn't have all that much more sugar than a "healthy" cereal...I look at the labels when I shop! I should have taken a pic of my cuboard because I have a lot of good cereal...I <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/977/1358/1600/17-05-06_1052.jpg">So, in the mornings, I usually enjoy my big bowl of cereal while watching some kind of HGTV or TLC tv show. I just have to be careful I don't get sucked in because one day I spent 8 hours watching decorating shows...One good show was on after the other...

Then I looked at blogs and chatted on MSN for almost an hour...Not many people are online :(

Then a buddy came over for a while...this is where I forgot to take a few pictures. We watched a TV show, chatted, and then went to this Portugese restaurant for some lunch.

After we had finished hanging out, I did a few things to clean up my place, and then I went out with Danielle for some shopping fun. We went to the mall, and then to a few of her stores across the street (Smart Set and Jacob)

Then, we went out for some yummy food at Montana's!

I was hungry :)

Danielle did this shot too...She had a Jr. ribs combo and I had the meat loaf...I don't know why I had the meatloaf...It was OK, but I'm definately sticking to rib tips!

This is just a random driving shot. Yay.

Then the time finally came to brush my teeth and to hit the sack. Ew, I was drooling...

And that's it!!!
I didn't take as many as I had hoped cause I kept forgetting...I will have to showcase a day when I go to work. Then I won't seem like such a bumb :)

Blessings!
Chris

PS - all pics were taken with my RAZR phone :) Lighting has to be right to get a decent pic so sorry about the grainy ones.

This is how exciting work is. I took this miserable picture with my phone as I sat on my arse for 7.5 hours. This was just a regular shift so I made decent money but I am very sick of working at RCH. It is a long miserable commute in stop and go traffic and then most of my shifts are 1:1's which means I watch a person that needs close monitoring because of confusion, agression, suicidal tendencies...I think you're getting the picture. I start my UGN job in exactly a week and am very much looking forward to it. No more 1:1's!! I will hopefully get my care aide job straitened out with LMH so I can work there inbetween my UGN shifts. I'll be working 4 days on, and then 4 days off (for 12 hours) as a UGN so I will still have time to work as a care aide. It's just too bad that I won't be able to get as much overtime working the 2 different positions. If I got overtime as a UGN, I could be making over 800 bux in a single shift...which would be nice! But unfortunately for funding reasons Fraser Health does not pay OT to undergrad nurses. I could as a care aide, and make very good cash working OT, but I think the value of the UGN experience out weights that. I think next summer I will get my LPN thingy and do that. I will get good experience, make around 25 an hour and have lots of oppertunity for OT.

Anyways, sorry for rambling. I'm very tired as it is 2:26am right this second. In other news, I got a new phone the other day. I ended up going with a motorola RAZR which is a very cool phone. Nice size, cool functions, and I also have a nice hospital employee plan which gives me a ton of features such as internet and crazy stuff like that. That shift when I took that picture, I spent most of it painfully typing friends messages on my cell using MSN, and also browsing the latest CBC news headlines. I also got a super-duper high score playing bejeweled. It would take someone over 4 hours to beat it because that's how long I was playing that silly game while I sat.

In the next few days I want to do a blog entry that has only pictures explaining my day. I think that would be cool. Not sure why, but maybe someone else will find it entertaining too :)

I'm off to bed!
Cannot keep my eyes open!!... 

This is a pic that I tried posting in the last post. I thought I had some better shots from California and at Gallaghers but then I realized that was on my 35mm camera! doh! So maybe later I will hook up the scanner and scan a few pretty ones....but this is me at a course in Kelowna. I think it was 2 years ago... 

Well, the last few days I haven't been working much so I've been doing my best to stay busy. Suprisingly, it hasn't been all that hard! A few days ago, I started with the vacuum cleaner. EVERY square inch of my place is now dust free! When I clean, I tend not to do a halfassed job (thanks to my mom) and I vacuumed everything fromg the cupboards to the wainscotting, the shelves, the mouldings, the entertainment unit, window sils, and of course, the floor. Then I hauled out the bucket and sponge to wipe down my kitchen and bathroom floors as well as the cupboards. Once my camera finishes charging I'm going to snap a photo of the living room which is spotless for you all to see!

I've also washed my 2 cars, as well as Danielle's car too. She had a white car but it was masquerading as a brownish-grey car. heh, needless to say, it needed a wash because she just hasn't had much time to do it (school seems to suck the time for things like washing cars...). Yesterday I also replaced my alternator in the prelude. After the alternator, I've racked up about 900 dollars in parts and crap for that car. That's half of what it would have cost to fix my other car... Anyways, everything is working fine now and it better stay that way while I have it.

Today I went through my closet and packed up some old clothes that I don't wear anymore. There wasn't as much as I thought...I kept a few ratty clothes incase I need some grubs to paint or work outside or something. After watching hours of HGTV and TLC, I thought I would have been better at "purging" my closet! Oh well, it's not like it's overflowing...but I do have 3 closets for all my crap, so I think I have more than I think! Only 1 is really for clothes though, because one is just for stuff like golf clubs, ski's and snowboards, and lugage. The other for linens and sweaters, extra shoes, and lots of other random crap like tools and car parts...

This is kind of a random sidetrack, but I really miss golfing. I had a chance to finally go when I was in Kelowna for a few days. My cousin was here from California and we hit the links for a fun aftenoon. I used to have a membership to a course in Kelowna - Gallgher's Canyon - which is rated as one of the top30 courses in Canada last time I checked! Absolutely stunning course with beautiful scenery and amazing holes. I was a little spoiled to be able to golf at such an awesome course for my Jr. years. I'm surrounded by nice courses here in Langley and have never had the chance to check them out and I plan to this summer (if prices are reasonable of course).

I had planned to put my computer desk and filing stuff in my roomies old room but I just haven't yet. It will be weird to have an "office"! I just have to buy a long cat5 cable so I can run my internet over there. I also have an add up on the TWU site for a roomie, but I'm a little doubtful if anyone will respond because it's only for the summer months before I move in September.

No School = Cool

Hello!

Wow, sorry for taking so long to post again…I’m sure there are a ton of people just dying to hear what has happened to me in these last 18 days! *sarcasm*

Heh, so anyways, a lot has actually happened. I’ll start with school, since it is now OVER and I will NOT be blogging about school until September. Finals went fairly well from what I see my marks are. I did well in Maternity which was my main class of the semester as it was 6 credit hours whereas my other classes were only a measly 3 credit hours. With 2 very crappy midterms I still managed to get 84%. I know it ain’t all that exciting, but for the amount of work which was required for this course as well as my other courses I’m happy with that grade. I managed to do very well on my religious studies class (New Testament) and also did Ok in my psychology course as well. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but I definitely managed to meet the nursing requirements and am still trucking on in the program! Next semester I will be doing psyc nursing and I’m hoping I find it a little more interesting than maternity. I don’t feel a strong pull from God towards the maternity field, but I did learn a lot from the whole experience and did learn some new things about myself.

I think I mentioned something about my car story in my last blog… Not much has changed since then except me spending 700 dollars (probably more…) on the prelude that I have now. That has been a little frustrating because I haven’t even been able to make a payment on it due to these expenses and then rent has also gone up because my room mate left and I also had to give him back a damage deposit. Anyways, the car runs great when its running properly and hopefully after I put in the new alternator tomorrow it will run like a top once again. I’m kind of anal about cars and when something goes wrong it is a huge source of stress for me. I’m kind of thinking I will sell both my cars (the busted-up-which-is-soon-to-be-fixed 240 and the prelude) and get something newer and more reliable and also CHEAPER to fill up at the gas station. Both the 240 and the prelude are rather thirsty cars so something that is a little more fuel-friendly will be a good choice and something with 4 doors so the wonderful insurance corporation of BC can take a few fingers out of my pocket. I’m not sure there is any point in having insurance because it sure hasn’t done much for me in the 2 accidents I’ve been in. One with a person pulling out on me on a highway, and the other being side swiped by some bone-head doing probably double the speed limit…both instances apparently I was 100% at fault. I’m so glad I pay two thousand hard earned dollars to a multi-hundred-million dollar company and then have my fate be decided by a guy that sits on an office that reads 2 incidence reports. Obviously I’m at fault if there is any question, because I am the younger, less experience driver that also owns a sports car. THANKS.

And howabout these gas prices! I should get a license plate that reads: BEN_DOVER because that’s what I do when I pull into a gas station. I bet there are one or two people that are getting filthy rich from this retarded mark up, along with a few huge corporations. Or maybe it is the government because afterall, over 65% of the money you pay for gas is used for a tax, which is then taxed over and over again to pay for something like making half-assed repairs on already very crappy roads and building bridges that are too small for the flow of the city in the present and future, and I’m sure there are even more stupid things that our money is wasted on. I’m thinking about investing in 2 giant jerry-cans so I can go across the boarder and save myself almost 15 bux on a fill up. American’s are griping when their gas prices shoot up over 3 bux a gallon, but our Canadian prices are well above 4! After you factor in the exchange rate and the gallon to liter difference, it is actually $4.10US/gallon!! Crickey, that is a load more and then going the opposite way, I am filling up in the states at their current “high price” for $0.87CAN/L. So, in a ~48L fill up, that is a total savings of $15.84 per tank!! Pretty close to my estimate of 15 bux. Over a year, that is a load of money and well worth a 30 minute drive round-trip to get the gas across the 49th.

Sorry to bore you with these dumb things…actually, I’m not really sorry, because you could have just skimmed it over if you got bored :P

Now onto jobs…
The whole UGN thing is thus far a bit of a disappointment. I can’t wait to start my position, but I have to wait until the 23rd!!! Orientation is very late at my hospital and I was a little miffed because I really looked forward to a schedule instead of my casual on-call crap. I will also be dealing with less crap in general because I will be a nurse, and not a care-aide. Sometimes the care-aide shifts can be ruthless in the fact that they are extremely boring, or extremely busy. There aren’t many shifts that have been in-between that. So, I really look forward to be doing more of a nursing role with more responsibility and all that jazz. In the mean time, I will be trying to take as many ruthless care-aide shifts as I can handle and pray that these next 2 weeks go by very fast. This is another crappy thing about not having a car that works this weekend because my altenator died in the prelude and I haven’t been able to fix it so I miss 2 solid days or work with possible overtime and that means almost 800 dollars in lost wages (had I worked a bit of OT). Bleh, oh well, it was a good excuse to not have to drive all the way to new west to do a job that I don’t really like doing. Next summer I should have enough practical experience with my clinical that I can get my LPN thingy and do that. Then I will have no hour restrictions (like UGN’s have) and will be able to work more regularly (unlike care-aiding). Sounds good in theory, so we’ll see how that pans out.

Wow, it’s almost 2am so I should really start to wind down and get ready for bed. I had a great day today spending most of it with Danielle. We also finally got to go to church together and really enjoyed the service. This pastor is a very good speaker and the worship music is also mostly familiar to us so I think it is a good fit for us. The only kinda bad thing about it is the fact that it is in Coquitlam which makes for a bit of a commute. However, I know a few people that go there from TWU and we really enjoy the services so I think we will continue to go there. We (Danielle and I) also will try to get plugged into a young adults care group. I kind of miss being a part of a care group and look forward to it.

Good night!


PS….COMMENT :) and that pic with the dirt bike was of last weekend when I was in Kelowna. Borrowed a buddies bike and went out with Matt for a fun weekend of dirtbiking. FUN!