Weekend and Day 6

Well, I must say it was a refreshing weekend to sleep in (although you know when you get in the habit of waking up at a certain time and can't sleep in?  Yeah, that) and wrap my head around this amazing program.

I am happy to report that I am really enjoying myself.  In a conversation with one of our professors today, she said that the students in an accelerated program just have a certain personality; they tend to be more driven, more competitive, and are gluttons for punishment.  I think it is safe to say that I fit the bill:

* Driven:  I think overcoming all the challenges to get here at such short notice, as well as leaving behind my loved ones and not knowing anybody in a new town speaks to having a strong drive to be here.

* Competitive:  Yes.  Always have been, probably always will be.  Although I have become less competitive with others over the years, I still think that I compete with myself to push myself harder to do better.

* Glutton for punishment:  Yeah, anybody who subjects themselves to this much schooling is probably a glutton for punishment.  :)  Plus, it probably doesn't help my case much that I really enjoy school and I really have a love of learning new things.

So, there you go.  I wouldn't really say it's so much a personality type as a set of personality traits, because it seems like there is no pair of personalities in our cohort that is the same.  At least from what I can tell so far.

Right, on to Week 2, Day 1, also known as Day 6.  Today began with an abbreviation quiz.  Lecture was then about skin assessment, which isn't really separate from other body system assessments and should just be done as you do a full physical assessment.  Then, we also lectured on the respiratory system and how to assess lung sounds.  By the end of that lecture, I was chomping at the bit (figuratively speaking) to get down to the lab to hear the simulated respiratory sounds.  Unfortunately, I went in the second grouping down to the lab, so instead, another classmate and I did a basic respiratory assessment (we couldn't do a full respiratory assessment in the classroom for modesty considerations) and worked on the mountain of paperwork needed for the VA clinicals.

When we finally did get down to lab, we got to see the different methods of oxygen delivery (nasal cannulae, various masks, etc.) and learned the way to set these up.  Then, we listened to the simulated lung sounds: normal, clear; coarse crackles; and wheezes.  Of course, I had to ask what fine crackles sounded like, which wasn't standard information presented.  If anyone thought that the coarse crackles were a bit hard to hear, the fine crackles were even harder--barely there!  I don't know why I thought they would be easier to hear, but I believe our adjunct lab instructor that it takes years to get lung sounds down.

And that's all I have for today.  Tomorrow is an examination and another quiz.  And in case anyone was curious and I haven't mentioned this before, I am doing in 12 months what is usually presented in 30 months.  Yeah, glutton for punishment.

Goodnight everyone!