Autism Awareness

I am going to take a minute and talk about something important to me. It doesn't necessarily pertain to nursing life. But it is apart of my daily life...autism.

My son has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. He is an absolutely amazing, sweet, loving, kind-hearted kid. If you look at him, you would think he is just another normal kid. And then he opens his mouth. You'll hear it in his tone of voice and the volume at which he speaks. You'll also notice it in the way he obsesses over Mine-craft and Super Mario Bros. He doesn't always see that you are getting annoyed with him. Although, he is learning about sarcasm, thanks to his older brother and me.

Tuesday, April 2nd, is World Autism Awareness Day and April is Autism Awareness Month. For the entire month of April, we change out all of our outdoor lighting to blue lights in support of those with autism. 1 in 88 children has autism. It is that prevalent. And that is why we need to spread awareness!

I want to use my blog to ask anyone who reads this to change out their porch light to a blue one for the month of April. You can get them at Home Depot and a portion of the money goes to Autism Speaks.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Autism-Speaks-Blue-25-Watt-A19-Incandescent-Light-Bulb-A19-120v-25w-E26-24/203178912#.UVjY2lekOrM

To my readers, please feel free to share about how autism has affected your life.

Competitiveness

Getting into nursing school is competitive. It's the elephant in the room that needs to be talked about! It really is competitive. Someone next to you in your A&P class talks about applying to nursing school and you know you feel that little twinge. That twinge where you secretly hope that they don't have as many priority points as you do. The twinge where you just don't want your spot taken away. Competitiveness! Or how about after you take the HESI, TEAS, or Kaplan entrance tests? You compare scores and get secretly excited when your score is higher. Competitiveness!

But there is a secret I need to share with you. It kinda goes away when you get into nursing school. At that point, everyone is in the same boat and there is this camaraderie between you and the rest of your nursing class. When someone drops out and yes, people do drop out, everyone feels sad and wonders what happened. Now, don't get me wrong. There WILL be people who you will not like...at all! But they're in your boat! You can't let someone fall off your boat. And for some reason, you end up being nice to them and helping them when asked. It's all very...interesting. If I had to turn this into an analogy, it's like "Dirty Uncle Sal. The one who embarrasses everyone at holidays and family reunions and who can't be left alone with the teenage girls, but you have to invite him anyway." Ya know, because he is family.Yes, that is a Grey's Anatomy reference.

TV Medicine

Let’s talk TV for a minute. Medical dramas, to be exact. I love E.R. (the show). Or is it loved? Whatever. The fact is E.R. was an awesome show. I mean, come on. George Clooney, Noah Wyle. Hello! Spoiler Alert: I cried like a little bitch baby when Dr. Greene died.They made the world of medicine seem so cool and fun and interesting. But the show concentrates mostly on the doctors. Throughout the show’s run, there were only three main characters that were nurses. The rest were secondary characters. And one of the nurses became a doctor. Like nursing wasn’t good enough! Pshaw!

And then there is Grey’s Anatomy. I love the storylines (although this season is seriously craptastic!). But where are the nurses? There was Nurse Olivia, but she was George’s syph nurse. Not a shining example of nursing. There was the strike with the nurses where they all acted like little children towards the docs and then the docs totally belittled them. And what is up with all the doctors acting they are nurses? Really? Nurses are the ones that are typically in charge of comforting patients. Not that there is anything wrong with doctors stepping up! It’s just not…common.

Just so you know, I do have a point to this particular rambling. My whole point of this post is that before I really decided to become a nurse, I thought nursing life would be like TV shows. But is anything on TV really real? Reality TV isn’t even that real. Nursing is completely different, but it’s a better type of different. I am not medically diagnosing anyone. My job is ADPIE. I make nursing diagnoses. I get to focus more on the person as an individual; a person with not only physical needs, but emotional ones as well. And that is awesome.

P.S. It is so much fun to watch Grey’s and completely pick it apart. HIPAA violation here, incorrect pronunciation of a medical term there.

First Post

First post! There's just a few things I want to say before I dive into nursing student life.

Who am I? I am a 1st semester nursing student. I just started nursing school in January, so it's not like I am seasoned or anything. But I love nursing school. I don't love every part of it, but I do love it. I have made some great friends already, learned so many things that I could never expect, and learned the huge difference between regular questions and nursing questions...dun, dun, dun!

Personally, I am a wife and mom and (step)mom. The oldest is in high school, then a grade schooler with high-functioning autism, and a preschooler. I am in my late 20's. I am from a transplant from the land of fruits and nuts. If you want to know anything else, feel free to ask away!

And here is what you can expect out of my blog!

1. I am not going to be negative.

2. I am not going to violate HIPAA. Yes, I spelled HIPAA right!

3. I am not going to bad mouth my instructors (because honestly, they are great and there is a reason why I chose my school). Or my classmates for that matter...even if some of them do things that...ummm...I really do not agree with! I think this goes with #1.

4. Even though some people are going to know me personally, I am not going to identify my school. Not letting that come back to bite me in the ass!

5. I am sarcastic. So get used to it.

6. I might swear. It happens.

The stuff above is (mostly) due to my nursing school having policy about social networking and my online persona. What can I say? I like rules...well, most of them anyway.

ETA: I am not a writer. My grammar may occasionally suck. I am more science minded.