So everything with school is wrapping up; we recently took our ATI Live Review class and that was awesome! For any of you that use ATI the Live Review is extremely useful and I wish they would have done it a long time ago! Very, very good for NCLEX prep. Next I finish up classes and have my Kaplan review course the first week of November and I will let you guys know how I like that one because it is quite an investment if you decide to take it. I paid $379 for the course and even though that seems insane, I figured I want to just pass the NCLEX and be good to go so why not spend the money? Plus you get your money back if you don't pass. Then the next week it will be white coat ceremony time and my family will be here to help celebrate! Can't wait! So much is going on right now and I actually decided to move home to Colorado while I wait to get into the Navy so I am also preparing to move right after graduation. CRAZINESS!! I will update you guys again soon, hope all is well! :)
I received a surprise call from my recruiter today and he notified me that he just got my commissioning paperwork!!! My oath to office and all other documentation is ready! Obviously I still have a lot to do before I actually commission and I am not eligible to even commission until after I graduate but I can't believe how close it is getting! Over two years in the making and finally nursing school is coming to close and my journey with the Navy will be starting soon. I have only one more week of nursing school and my graduation date is set for November 15th. I have decided to take the NCLEX and apply for a license in my home state of Colorado because our class was notified that the BRN in California is taking 3+ months to even process applications and make candidates eligible to take the NCLEX! NO CAN DO! I have to take it ASAP and my recruiter agreed that applying in Colorado would be best.
So everything with school is wrapping up; we recently took our ATI Live Review class and that was awesome! For any of you that use ATI the Live Review is extremely useful and I wish they would have done it a long time ago! Very, very good for NCLEX prep. Next I finish up classes and have my Kaplan review course the first week of November and I will let you guys know how I like that one because it is quite an investment if you decide to take it. I paid $379 for the course and even though that seems insane, I figured I want to just pass the NCLEX and be good to go so why not spend the money? Plus you get your money back if you don't pass. Then the next week it will be white coat ceremony time and my family will be here to help celebrate! Can't wait! So much is going on right now and I actually decided to move home to Colorado while I wait to get into the Navy so I am also preparing to move right after graduation. CRAZINESS!! I will update you guys again soon, hope all is well! :)
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I wanted to write a post about this topic in the hopes that anyone searching it online might find my blog. Like I said in my first post regarding my surgery news I was terrified when I found out that I needed surgery, I thought for sure the Navy would no longer accept me. I have found out lately, that is definitely not the case. I have been receiving a lot of calls from the program manager and HMs (corpsman) in the NCP office about my situation. They have all been extremely supportive and reassuring about my situation. The program manager that I am currently working with is a physician in the Navy and he has been great. He made it clear that they Navy is not trying to "kick me out" or "get rid of me" in any way. They realize that things happen and especially with a medical problem it is not something that you had control over or purposely caused. He said often times they have holds due to legal trouble or candidates failing classes which is actually a lot more serious. As long as I heal right and stay on track with school he said there will be nothing preventing me from being transitioned to active duty.
I hope that if there is anyone in my position in the future that they will find this blog post and know that everything will be ok! As long as you have a sufficient time to transition to active duty and you are not on hold for 6+ months past your graduation, then you should be good. I am not sure about other medical programs because the HM3 that I talked to today did say within other medical programs this could have been a problems but in the NCP program it is not. I am so glad that everything seems to be working out because I want to be in tip-top shape for active duty and perform my job to the best of my abilities without pain! So if anyone is having a medical issue and is worried about being put on hold please contact me!! I can try to give you any information on the process. I had a dilemma of either leaving the issue (because I was terrified of losing this opportunity) or deciding to get it fixed and I'm glad I choose the later. Going into the military with a medical issue already could be potentially problematic and I would advise against it. Just know that the NCP office is there to help you! They will not automatically kick you out after you've already been accepted to the program. They have already invested money in you and believe in you because they chose you as an applicant so have faith! And please contact me with any questions! :) UPDATE (2/28/2016): I thought I would update this post because I have found out a lot about the medical holds process since I posted this post. I am now almost 6 months later in the process and it takes much longer than I thought. I have now been medically cleared by my doctor and my retention paperwork is being submitted however my contact taking care of this in the NCP office informed me that the retention process can take six months to a year. However she also said it could take less, so basically they have no idea! I will update again when I know how long mine takes but for now it looks like the medical hold process is extremely long! Please contact with any other questions and I can try to answer them! So it has been a crazy two weeks since my hip surgery! The surgery went really well and my surgeon assured me she was confident in the repair. I was healing well and went for my first physical therapy appointment and then had some pain and swelling in my calf, and for all you nursing students...what could it be?? Signs and symptoms: severe pain, swelling, and redness in right calf and the textbook Homan's sign (pain with dorsiflexion of the foot). Yep, you guessed it, deep vein thrombosis! That was a great little complication! The most frustrating part of the entire situation was that I felt no one was taking my concerns seriously. I kept calling my orthopedists office to tell them of the symptoms and they did eventually send me for an ultrasound however it was negative the first time. Fast forward a couple of days and I was in so much pain that I could not even get up to do normal ADL's. So I ended up making a trip to the emergency room and what did they find after the second ultrasound?? DVT!
I actually learned a lot from this entire situation and it was interesting to experience healthcare from the patient's side and it is EXTREMELY frustrating. I think that if I did not have the experience and education that I do I would have ignored this common complication that can become something extremely serious. This made me think about my future patients and it really solidified the role of the nurse as an advocator for their patient. I had to deal with a very egotistical resident during my experience who was convinced since I did not have ALL the textbook signs and symptoms of a DVT and my last ultrasound was negative that I did not have a DVT. I calmly and professionally told him with all due respect, "I thought he was f***ing wrong", excuse my language but at this point I was so frustrated! And after it did turn out to be a DVT you could tell he was very embarrassed. So moral of the story, as I told the baby doctor that came to apologize after the diagnosis, LISTEN TO YOUR PATIENTS!!! Seriously! They know their bodies best and especially with a new patient that you do not even know it is not your job to judge if their pain, discomfort, symptoms, or whatever it is, are real. As nurses we have a responsibility to our patients to make sure their concerns are heard and if they feel something it wrong, it probably is! Even as I continue to experience the healthcare environment as a patient I see more and more what it is like for someone with no healthcare experience or knowledge, it's scary! So be there for your patients, even as a student. I know there are restrictions but you have no idea how much it can mean to a patient to have someone sit down with them and hear them out and just explain things to them. After I was diagnosed with the DVT I was put on Lovenox, so I was able to perfect my subq stick technique! :) Now I have been switched to Xalerto and I no longer have to poke myself every 12 hours. But I am on the way to recovery. I have started to put some weight on my leg and everything feels pretty good. Physical therapy is always fun and yesterday I was so proud of myself because I put my own shoe on and was able to ride the recumbent bike for 5 minutes; it's the little things! :) I will continue to keep you guys updated, thanks for sticking with me even though its not Navy related, hopefully by the beginning of next year it will be! |
Amanda BrockI am a new graduate nurse stationed in Japan serving in the US Navy. Archives
August 2017
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