Midterm Massacre...

               A little more than 3 weeks have passed since my last blog update. Since then, much has happened. Before we began our trudge through Medical-Surgical Nursing, unfortunately, our cohort suffered another loss with one of our classmates unsatisfactorily completing the clinical portion of Fundies...The difficulty of Medical-Surgical Nursing, hereafter MedSurg, has lived up to its reputation. Tonight put to wraps our Midterm examination. Before we got here, however, we faced Quiz #1...

               Before I continue on with our class travails, I'm gonna take a detour...The administrators of our nursing program have it in their mind, to elevate the caliber of nursing students they produce. Therefore, a program-wide change to the grading policy was instituted at the beginning of MedSurg, wherein successfully passing a class is predicated upon a minimum final grade of 76%, a final examination grade of at least 76%, and a ATI performance of at least level 2. Furthermore, on quizzes and exams, students are automatically enrolled in remediation for any performance below 80%. Though the newly requisite grade performance seems rather reasonable, it's made a majority of the cohorts...anxious, for lack of a better word. Now, back to the original story...

               Given the new performance criteria, more than half of our class, myself included were nowhere near the cut-off on Quiz #1. To add insult to injury, I had the lowest score in the class! If not meeting the 80% standard wasn't bad enough, having the lowest score in the class was a definite wake up call. That definitely forced me to really figure out what I was doing. Did I really want to be in this program; studying nursing? Was I capable of the work expected? Was I going to have to attend mandatory remediation?

               For a couple of months, besides all of the extracurricular things I've had to deal with, I seemed to flounder on my personal motivation when school was concerned. However, that oh so difficult jump into MedSurg brought with it our clinical rotation. I was assigned to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. Despite having to adjust to working 12-hour shifts, I absolutely love my time in the hospital. I've had a few interesting experiences, from day one, that make me really want to remain in the program. Nursing is cool. I obviously didn't say that everything about it is awesome, but I know that the great parts can definitely be worth the trouble of the peripheral crap.

               As for the question of my capabilities and the coursework; I have the intellectual chops and academic acumen to overcome anything. Well, to give a you a little glimpse into the appropriate response, while in high school I enjoyed the challenge of NASA's Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) for two years; the maximum number of years allowed in the program, at the time. (On a side note: sadly, perennial national budget cuts have severely limited NASA's educational outreach, I was glad to be a beneficiary.) The work I did with NASA SHARP during the summer before my senior year of high school, resulted in an eventual publication credit, before I went on to university. So, to make a long story shorter and answer the capability question; Hell yeah! I definitely have what it takes, if I want to apply myself. And from the previous paragraph, I may have found a wellspring of motivation to apply myself.

               Finally, to address the dreaded stigma of having to attend remediation. Luckily, the sheer number (and percentage) of our MedSurg class who would have been subject to remediation after Quiz #1 were granted a stay of execution; at least until after the Midterm. The stress of having to perform really well weighed down on me. Luckily, it provided me the opportunity for a lot of introspection. In the end I realized that I tend to do well with absorbing new information when I was relaxed and enjoyed my learning experience. Fortunately, I recalled this soon enough to do something about it. I began to schedule more play and break time into my study schedule. It paid off this evening when I nearly scored an "A" on my Midterm! Whew! I'm sad to report, however, that the massacre claimed its first victims this evening; learning contracts for those falling below 80% on the exam (nearly half the class) were rolled out. Perhaps tonight's example can be further motivation.