Toot, Toot!

I worked on my prerequisites for nursing school for (drum roll)..... EIGHT years. I am the only person who managed to draw out an two-year Associate's degree comparable to med school, but the fact that I did not get serious about school until after having a baby could have something to do with it. I juggled school and being a stay-at-home-mom, plugging away at my classes part time, doing homework and online tests during nap times and running off to night classes when Dustin got home from work. I'd meet him at the door with my backpack on, take the keys to our only car from him, and dash off to class where I'd often be till 11 o'clock at night. Looking back on that time I honestly do not know how we did it. But eventually the day came when I was ready to apply to nursing school and the nightmare that embodied that experience. True to form, I would find out about the Medical University of South Carolina's nursing program less than a month before the application deadline. In addition to the application fee that we could not afford, I needed volunteer experience, letters of reference, to take the ACT standardized test, and an essay to make them fall in love with me. I was able to take the ACT test the following day on a stand-by basis, which pretty much meant I had to pay for it and show up at 6 a.m. and wait while a hundred or so teenagers filed in and if there was a spot left they would allow me to take a test I should have taken 15 years ago when high school material was still fresh in my mind. Thankfully, I was able to squeeze in and did surprisingly well with a 28 which put me in the preferred category of applicants to MUSC. I volunteered at a local hospital, managing to wrack up 40 hours in under 3 weeks which was just enough to get my volunteer certificate of completion the day before my application deadline. The stress of all this combined with having to write a stellar essay surely took years off my life.

The question we had to answer was, "If accepted to nursing school, what unique perspectives or talents do you bring to the profession of nursing?" Keep in mind, this essay is all about making them believe that you are something special, and is one of the few opportunities one is encouraged to toot their own horn. This is what I said:

Everybody has a story. Some people's are predictable and lucky to be born knowing what their calling in life is, but for others, it takes navigating life's twists and turns to flush out such an important truth. The only early truth about me is that I love people, as evidenced by my kindergarten teacher's comment on my first report card that "Kayte is an excellent student but has great difficulty not turning around in her seat to chat with her peers." I am also nothing if not eclectic in nature, with so many passions and interests that the thought of settling down to just one never felt right to me. Nursing called to me quietly, in a subtle way, with circumstances coming into my life to show me glimpses of myself that I never knew existed.

When I was 17, my father was given one year to live by his doctors, and it was uncertain which would kill him first, prostate cancer or heart failure. We said our goodbyes many times over the next six years as he bounced in and out of the hospital. Eventually my family grew comfortable with death, seeing it not as a tragedy to be lamented, but a natural part of life. I saw how a person can die with dignity and peace, and realized that all the rest of us can do is help the ending to their story be a good one.

As a massage therapist I have enjoyed working with people in pain and having the satisfaction of seeing them improve under my hands over time, but one of the greatest gifts I was given came when I was hired to give a gentle massage to a hospitalized woman in the end stages of brain cancer. I enjoyed that massage more than any other I have ever given, watching her revel in the pleasurable sensations I was able to bring to her life of mostly pain and confusion. She died a week later, but I knew then that if I could find a way to truly help people through painful circumstances, I would be living the life I am destined for.

Over the years my greatest enjoyment has been acting as a labor coach for women in labor, freely giving my time all hours of the day and night for the honor of helping women naturally face and conquer what has always proven to be one of the greatest stories they will ever tell. At first I thought I was in it for the babies, but have discovered that the mother's experience through pregnancy and childbirth fascinates me much more. I long to someday play a part in helping women become more educated about and empowered by the birthing process.

Looking back on my life, I can see now that all the choices I have made have not been random after all, but have pointed toward my eventually becoming a nurse. I do not see nursing as a smart career move, but as a calling in life that I cannot afford to ignore. I think the greatest thing I can offer as a nurse is seeing everybody as an individual and being conscious of the role I play in their life, to see their story as it unfolds before me and ensure that it is told with dignity and compassion. I have the life experience of dealing with people in medical crisis, not to mention the passion, drive, grades and intelligence that your nursing program requires. All I am lacking is the knowledge and superior training MUSC can provide me, granting me the opportunity to realize my dream of one day being a great nurse.

Second Semester

Well, school started again 4 weeks ago and I am constantly amazed at how different this semester is from my first. One thing that remains eerily the same is that I should be studying for my Psych test tomorrow and instead I'm goofing around on the internet, but that's neither here nor there. Last semester was a non-stop frenzy as they tried to turn us "lay people" into some semblance of a healthcare professional, and this semester is quite a bit more relaxed and now we're learning how to talk to the crazies and do research papers. Its surreal. I do have two hard courses, though, my med-surgical class and my Pharmacology class *full body shiver.* I'm doing my clinicals at MUSC for my med-surg and I guess this semester we don't do bed baths or vital signs because there are paid nurse-techs for that (yay!). Thats mostly what we did last semester and only a few of us got to do anything impressive like bandage changing or injections. On my friend Elizabeth's first day of clinical this semester she got to insert two foley catheters and suction a tracheostomy. Whoa! I guess the catheters went smoothly but her instructor told her after her first one on a man she needs to "grab it like she means it." Haha! Caitlyn got to change an ostomy bag (bag that catches poop as it seeps out of an artificial bowel opening in the abdomen). The man's wife was there as she did it and told Caitlyn that her favorite thing is when it shoots poop in your face as you're changing the bag. When she later asked her instructor Nicole (same one we had last semester), Nicole said what has since become my class's unofficial motto, "Sure, you can shart through and ostomy."
By sheer chance I am in my 4th week and have yet to have a med-surg clinical (first one is tomorrow at the crack of 6:45) and now I'm a bit terrified. Who knows what trouble I'll get myself into. Our new skill so far is IV insertion which I've always been horribly phobic about it, but when we practiced it on the rubber arm with veins and blood I was the only one in my class who did it correctly. Maybe there's something to be said for facing your worst fears and plunging blindly ahead in a silent panic!
My favorite class so far is Psych, and we do our clinicals for that class at the Institute of Psychiatry and work one-on-one with the inpatient crazies. FYI- if you ever bump into a person wearing paper clothes who you suspect could have possibly just escaped from the IOP, walk briskly in the opposite direction without making eye contact. Trust me on this one.
I was able to get into a Woman's Special Interest group, and we get to do about half of our clinicals working with women around Charleston at such places as the Florence Crittendon House (pregnant teenage runaways), Charleston Center (working with pregnant women with alcohol and drug addiction), Magdalene House (recently incarcerated women), and My Sister's House (women's shelter).
Yesterday we attended a seminar presented by People Against Rape and it was my absolute favorite day of nursing school thus far. They have a huge volunteer network of women who man the crisis hotline after hours and even meet women at the emergency room who are there to have rape kits done. We heard from the woman who runs the support groups, and one of our clinical assignments is to attend the monday night Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse support group and act as her co-facilitator. This is one of the coolest things I've ever been involved in and I think I'm going to go through their 25 hour training on February 19th to become one of their volunteers. I can't believe this has been in Charleston for the last 20+ years and I didn't know about it!
We also heard from a Forensic Nurse Examiner who is the one who performs rape kits in the ER. I didn't even know this job existed, and it was fascinating to hear about what she does. Apparently women used to be made to wait in the waiting room for hours only to have whatever medical intern who happened to be rotating through the ER do the rape examination while a male detective stood in the room, which as you can imagine sufficed to totally re-traumatize victims. A nurse in 1973 identified this problem and single-handedly changed the way these situations are handled and now there are Forensic Nurses who are legally trained to collect evidence that will stand up in a court of law and who even testify as expert witnesses for the prosecution. She said that its important you be a confident and professional person since survey after survey shows nurse's to be the #1 most trusted profession (second only to fire fighters for 2 years after 9/11) and their testimonies in court account for a 98% conviction rate. How awesome is that?! This is something I could be trained to do in a few months after I graduate in December. Who knows?
Speaking of which, I graduate in 10 short months. Ahhh! I've decided to go straight on through and pursue either my Master's or Doctorate degree in midwifery. Its currently phasing from a Master's to a Doctorate in Nurse Practitioner degree, so things are very fuzzy about it right now. I do know that it will be another 2-3 years of education, but its mostly online so I will be able to work as an RN as I do it, thank goodness. I had originally though that I'd work a few years, pay off my substantial student loans, then go back and finish my education. But I've realized that I'm 28 (again) and do not want to wait till I'm 40 to be doing what I want to do. I want to work hard now and have as long a career in midwifery as possible so that I have time to accomplish all the things I want to do. Its a long list. :)