Attend the class cohort. They have the slides saved and available in case you can't, but going to a live one is far better as they mention things that are not on the slides.
Attend the MSN welcome cohort. Again, slides saved if you need it...and again, attending live is far better.
Attend other cohorts as needed, as they have valuable information. I have a date with the Writing Center one this weekend.
Make an appointment with your Course Instructor early on in the course to say How-Do and ask any questions you have. The first performance assessment seemed very intimidating, but after I spoke to the CI, I was able to clear things up and feel somewhat less intimidated.
They're very strict about APA. You will feel like an inept fool who has never used APA before. You will be paranoid about incorrect APA. You will be paranoid about paraphrasing. You will have nightmares about in-text citations and only putting one space after a period instead of the usual two. Even if you were an APA master in another program, you will still feel most if not all of this. I feel much better after that Writing Center appointment though.
Speaking of which, make appointments with the Writing Center early, at least a week before you plan to submit an assessment. I fortunately did make my appointment early. I'm glad I did because when I went to reschedule it for a day later (I still hadn't finished my draft), they were booked solid through August 1. I tell you, as soon as I start the next cohort, I'm figuring out when my assessment is due and immediately scheduling that Writing Center appointment.
Word's "Find and Replace" is a fast way to correct that "only one space after a period and not two" problem.
Email instructors and the Writing Center as needed. They will get back to you fast. Really fast. Take advantage of this.
WGU loves the Oxford comma. I love the Oxford comma. Finally, a kindred spirit!
And finally, don't forget to use Turnitin to check your work before submitting any assessments, as they are very strict about plagiarism as well as what percentage of work can be directly taken from other sources even if cited correctly. The goal is 30%. Under 15% and you're doing great. Under 5%, you either didn't use any other sources or you are at paraphrasing skill level: ninja.
Anyhow...I'm finishing up this first assessment to get it submitted by the weekend. Then it's right onto the next class, which I can't recall off the top of my head, but I think it has to do with research. No rest for me, alas.
July 19, 2018
Another weekly call with Baby Nurse. She told me that I'm on the few nurses she has who isn't burning to rush through the program as fast as possible. I responded that my circumstances at this time did not require me to rush and that I could enjoy the ride.
So, all the reading is done. I started working on the performance assessment. I'm glad I went with PERRLA, at the least the online version: it lets me save my paper so I can work on it anywhere. Which is nice as I have a Mac at home but work is strictly a Windows clique.
I had some questions about this assessment, so I booked a telephone appointment with my course instructor for this morning. She's a pediatric nurse, so Peds Nurse she is. I seem to be attracting all of the nurses for the under-18 crowd, which is funny given that this was the one specialty I could never do.
So Peds Nurse answered the questions, and therefore there is now no reason why I can't get started. My arbitrary deadline for the assessment is July 28, so that leaves me with 9 days. Except that I'm feeling tired today and really need to get some sleep...
I can't let that be an excuse though.
So, all the reading is done. I started working on the performance assessment. I'm glad I went with PERRLA, at the least the online version: it lets me save my paper so I can work on it anywhere. Which is nice as I have a Mac at home but work is strictly a Windows clique.
I had some questions about this assessment, so I booked a telephone appointment with my course instructor for this morning. She's a pediatric nurse, so Peds Nurse she is. I seem to be attracting all of the nurses for the under-18 crowd, which is funny given that this was the one specialty I could never do.
So Peds Nurse answered the questions, and therefore there is now no reason why I can't get started. My arbitrary deadline for the assessment is July 28, so that leaves me with 9 days. Except that I'm feeling tired today and really need to get some sleep...
I can't let that be an excuse though.
July 15, 2018
Three hours of sleep
...and maybe not even that. That's all I'm running on for work tonight. So I'm firing up the coffee pot and starting the IV. Oh well. It looks like I'll be working with a couple of my favorite nurses, so it'll be all right. A great team can make up for a lot of things, lack of sleep included.
I'm almost done with the reading for the first class. I have 92% of the tasks completed. Two more tasks remain, then I have officially covered everything and I can begin the assessment. Well, I could start the assessment at any time, but like I said, I want to get the most out of this experience so--at least for right now--I'm going through everything.
Graduate school has started me thinking about my career's future. I really like where I work, but I'm not sure there will be a lot of opportunities for a MSN-Ed there (I also feel like there's some new undercurrents developing that I'm not sure about, but that's another story). But anyway, I would like to stay at my current facility and if that's not possible, there may be opportunities for a MSN-Ed in one of the other hospitals in the organization's chain. If not, I may have to look elsewhere.
Fortunately, in the several years I've been living in the area, I have at least one contact in almost every psych healthcare facility in town. While that doesn't guarantee me a quick new job, at least I have people who can do recon for me and, should it come to job application time, provide a reference. And we could always relocate out of state...though that's not on my want-to-do list in the foreseeable future. That was part of the plan of going to education full-time later on in life.
Of course, who's to say a nursing program won't pick me up after I graduate? Though I had planned to be a full-time educator later on, after I've been worn out at the bedside, I could always go full-time educator sooner than planned and continue being at the bedside part-time/PRN. But that's at least 1.5-2 years off.
While I'm thinking about the future, I'm trying not to obsess over it too much. I've been trying to practice the mindfulness I've been learning about, to stay in the present and be aware of what's going on around me right here and now. No easy task given my anxiety issues and predilection to stressing out.
I'm almost done with the reading for the first class. I have 92% of the tasks completed. Two more tasks remain, then I have officially covered everything and I can begin the assessment. Well, I could start the assessment at any time, but like I said, I want to get the most out of this experience so--at least for right now--I'm going through everything.
Graduate school has started me thinking about my career's future. I really like where I work, but I'm not sure there will be a lot of opportunities for a MSN-Ed there (I also feel like there's some new undercurrents developing that I'm not sure about, but that's another story). But anyway, I would like to stay at my current facility and if that's not possible, there may be opportunities for a MSN-Ed in one of the other hospitals in the organization's chain. If not, I may have to look elsewhere.
Fortunately, in the several years I've been living in the area, I have at least one contact in almost every psych healthcare facility in town. While that doesn't guarantee me a quick new job, at least I have people who can do recon for me and, should it come to job application time, provide a reference. And we could always relocate out of state...though that's not on my want-to-do list in the foreseeable future. That was part of the plan of going to education full-time later on in life.
Of course, who's to say a nursing program won't pick me up after I graduate? Though I had planned to be a full-time educator later on, after I've been worn out at the bedside, I could always go full-time educator sooner than planned and continue being at the bedside part-time/PRN. But that's at least 1.5-2 years off.
While I'm thinking about the future, I'm trying not to obsess over it too much. I've been trying to practice the mindfulness I've been learning about, to stay in the present and be aware of what's going on around me right here and now. No easy task given my anxiety issues and predilection to stressing out.
July 12, 2018
Oh well
I wasn't selected for one of the scholarships at work. I received my rejection letter today.
I admit that I'm bummed because I thought I had a really good chance at it. I worked hard, sent it in for revisions, seriously considered and where applicable incorporated the feedback from one of the review committee members. I'm going to presume that my manager spoke well of me when she sent in the recommendation form. So I was rather optimistic that I might get one.
But as I've posted on the nursing forum, if there's only 5 slots but 25 equally qualified applicants, 20 of them will still have to leave empty-handed. I can only guess (hope?) that I was one of those 20 that would also have had a scholarship had there been 25 to give.
In reality, I don't know how many scholarships were up for grabs...I'll know soon enough when they announce the recipients.
There is always next year's scholarships, though next year, I'll use a different person for the managerial reference. Just in case.
Though I have to remind myself that even with this loss, I'm still rather ahead of the game in terms of finances. My tuition reimbursement should cover nearly half of the tuition costs. I'm still holding out hope for a WGU scholarship which would only be a few hundred each term, but it's still something. And thanks to planning and creative budgeting, I am 99.9% certain that I will not have to take out any student loans. I'll be graduating without any debt.
Going to mope about this for a little bit, and then get back to studying.
I admit that I'm bummed because I thought I had a really good chance at it. I worked hard, sent it in for revisions, seriously considered and where applicable incorporated the feedback from one of the review committee members. I'm going to presume that my manager spoke well of me when she sent in the recommendation form. So I was rather optimistic that I might get one.
But as I've posted on the nursing forum, if there's only 5 slots but 25 equally qualified applicants, 20 of them will still have to leave empty-handed. I can only guess (hope?) that I was one of those 20 that would also have had a scholarship had there been 25 to give.
In reality, I don't know how many scholarships were up for grabs...I'll know soon enough when they announce the recipients.
There is always next year's scholarships, though next year, I'll use a different person for the managerial reference. Just in case.
Though I have to remind myself that even with this loss, I'm still rather ahead of the game in terms of finances. My tuition reimbursement should cover nearly half of the tuition costs. I'm still holding out hope for a WGU scholarship which would only be a few hundred each term, but it's still something. And thanks to planning and creative budgeting, I am 99.9% certain that I will not have to take out any student loans. I'll be graduating without any debt.
Going to mope about this for a little bit, and then get back to studying.
July 10, 2018
Randomness as I wait
I'm waiting for a webinar that is to begin in about 30 minutes...it's an "Intro to the MSN Program" one. I decided that I'm going to take advantage of everything offered that could apply to me in some way. Though I'm not a webinar fan and prefer to not have to call in--I'd rather converse by chat instead.
I've decided to rename my program advisor from Kid Nurse to Baby Nurse, as the former keeps conjuring up images of goats. I have a standing telephone date with her on Wednesday mornings.
The class that I'm in has a "21 and Done" list...apparently a lot of these classes have this feature. Basically, it maps out the entire course over 21 days, and if you want to finish the course--or at least submit the performance assessment--within 21 days, then this is the document to follow. It's not binding, so if I decide to use it, I'm not committed for the entire 21 days. Anyhow, I started off with it and abandoned it by day 5. My work/life schedule didn't exactly sync with the schedule of tasks as in the document, with the end result that I'm not exactly up to day 10 as the document says I should be at.
I am doing a lot of work though. It's mostly self-reflection, as well as learning about systems of health and wellness. Learning a lot about mindfulness and how it could improve my nursing practice. I admit, I'm a perfect candidate for learning mindfulness as my specialty of nursing focuses on the mind.
I need to stop eating cheese. I usually don't eat it as my body doesn't tolerate dairy as well as it used to...but it's Muenster cheese. Damn good Muenster cheese at that. And I have no willpower when it comes to damn good creamy Muenster cheese and whole-grain bread sandwiches. I have to tell the other half to go back to getting Cheddar.
I find out later this week--Friday--if I am one of the scholarship recipients at work. I'm going to be really disappointed if I'm not. I worked very hard on that scholarship application, particularly in refining the question answers to be under a certain number of words--and a rather small number of words at that. Plus include all the key words. Plus make it still sound like me.
I haven't heard about any WGU scholarships yet. Still hoping to get one of the five that I applied to.
I've decided to rename my program advisor from Kid Nurse to Baby Nurse, as the former keeps conjuring up images of goats. I have a standing telephone date with her on Wednesday mornings.
The class that I'm in has a "21 and Done" list...apparently a lot of these classes have this feature. Basically, it maps out the entire course over 21 days, and if you want to finish the course--or at least submit the performance assessment--within 21 days, then this is the document to follow. It's not binding, so if I decide to use it, I'm not committed for the entire 21 days. Anyhow, I started off with it and abandoned it by day 5. My work/life schedule didn't exactly sync with the schedule of tasks as in the document, with the end result that I'm not exactly up to day 10 as the document says I should be at.
I am doing a lot of work though. It's mostly self-reflection, as well as learning about systems of health and wellness. Learning a lot about mindfulness and how it could improve my nursing practice. I admit, I'm a perfect candidate for learning mindfulness as my specialty of nursing focuses on the mind.
I need to stop eating cheese. I usually don't eat it as my body doesn't tolerate dairy as well as it used to...but it's Muenster cheese. Damn good Muenster cheese at that. And I have no willpower when it comes to damn good creamy Muenster cheese and whole-grain bread sandwiches. I have to tell the other half to go back to getting Cheddar.
I find out later this week--Friday--if I am one of the scholarship recipients at work. I'm going to be really disappointed if I'm not. I worked very hard on that scholarship application, particularly in refining the question answers to be under a certain number of words--and a rather small number of words at that. Plus include all the key words. Plus make it still sound like me.
I haven't heard about any WGU scholarships yet. Still hoping to get one of the five that I applied to.
July 8, 2018
And it begins...began...begun...
I'm officially officially a graduate student. School started a week ago.
I'm in the midst of my first class. I have 4 classes this semester, for 10 CUs. Each CU takes--or is worth--about two weeks' of work. So, at 2 CUs, my first class will be about a month long, with a "end" date of 7/28. I could finish it sooner and start the next one all that much earlier. Or I could finish it after the 28th--anytime, really--and start the next class a little later. It doesn't matter how long I take for each class, as long as I pass all 4 classes by 12/31.
Kid Nurse explained that she set the class "end" dates to have me finish the term in mid-November. Her reasoning was that it would leave me free time for the holidays...or if I was feeling motivated, she could move another class up to this term, and I could get ahead of the game.
This first class has LOTS of reading. Though I imagine that all of these classes are going to have LOTS of reading, plus some video. There's e-books, e-reserves, journal articles, websites and videos galore for me to pore through. I found it easier for me to print out what I can so I can highlight and make notes--although WGU's software has the capability of highlighting and note making, I find I prefer old-school pen and highlighter.
I can't print the e-books out, which sucks. There, I use the software tools to note and highlight.
I'm still lurking in some support groups. Some of my classmates have already finished this first class and are starting the second. I've found that there's a lot of students who just jump right to the projects without going through the whole course because they want to complete their programs ASAP.
I'm not going to do it that way. Though there's nothing wrong with rushing: I suppose as long as they're getting what they want out of the program and they're doing it in the academically honest way, then is it my business how they accomplish it? But at this time, I'm not going to do the mad rush. I'm going to savor each step of the journey. I might speed the journey up by a term...well see how things go this first term.
I'm in the midst of my first class. I have 4 classes this semester, for 10 CUs. Each CU takes--or is worth--about two weeks' of work. So, at 2 CUs, my first class will be about a month long, with a "end" date of 7/28. I could finish it sooner and start the next one all that much earlier. Or I could finish it after the 28th--anytime, really--and start the next class a little later. It doesn't matter how long I take for each class, as long as I pass all 4 classes by 12/31.
Kid Nurse explained that she set the class "end" dates to have me finish the term in mid-November. Her reasoning was that it would leave me free time for the holidays...or if I was feeling motivated, she could move another class up to this term, and I could get ahead of the game.
This first class has LOTS of reading. Though I imagine that all of these classes are going to have LOTS of reading, plus some video. There's e-books, e-reserves, journal articles, websites and videos galore for me to pore through. I found it easier for me to print out what I can so I can highlight and make notes--although WGU's software has the capability of highlighting and note making, I find I prefer old-school pen and highlighter.
I can't print the e-books out, which sucks. There, I use the software tools to note and highlight.
I'm still lurking in some support groups. Some of my classmates have already finished this first class and are starting the second. I've found that there's a lot of students who just jump right to the projects without going through the whole course because they want to complete their programs ASAP.
I'm not going to do it that way. Though there's nothing wrong with rushing: I suppose as long as they're getting what they want out of the program and they're doing it in the academically honest way, then is it my business how they accomplish it? But at this time, I'm not going to do the mad rush. I'm going to savor each step of the journey. I might speed the journey up by a term...well see how things go this first term.
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