Sunday, November 17, 2013

Festivities Begin!

This year, holiday weekend and the holiday festivities are starting earlier due to the way Thanksgiving and Christmas fall within the academic calendar. With that said, many of the holiday events for clubs have already begun and everyone at EC is already getting into the holiday spirit!

This weekend, nursing club got together at one of our professor's houses and baked hundreds and hundreds of cookies as well as candy. We also made lots of earrings this year to sell as well. Each year the club gathers and members bring cookie dough that we bake to then sell on campus. All of the proceeds from the sale go directly to a fund we create for adopt-a-family and after we sell everything, the officers go out and purchase Christmas gifts for the family. The more money we raise, the better! Then we are able to buy so much more for a family less fortunate. It really is a fun event. Denise, our professor, also cooks us a delicious Italian dinner so it is always nice to have a home cooked meal! Here are some pictures from the event!

 This is Denise's precious dog. On the left is the candy before being cooled and after. So delicious raspberry flavor!

This is Abby and me! She is one of my nursing friends daughter and she came to help at the event too!

In other news, the Orchesis show was this past week in which the club performs all the dances they have been working so hard on this past term. It is offered as an Encore performance for the sophomores and freshman, but I enjoy to go and support my fellow dancers and tappers. It was a great show with some really incredible dances. Next term I am going to try out a solo tap routine and hopefully it will get in!

I got to go to the ER again for clinical this week and it was an awesome experience. I did a few IV's, had a child come in with an asthma attack, and many other interesting patients. I definitely felt like I learned a lot and had another good opportunity to work on my skills hands-on. This week I hope to get more experiences like this. 

EC recently created a new dining option in which all students are given $100 off their meal cards to eat at two local restaurants, Horigans, an Irish pub, and Buffalo Wild Wings, a sports bar and grill. The money is for the two terms since this is just a test of the new system, but I know many students have enjoyed this option and really like being able to use their meal cards off campus. This past weekend I went to Horigans with one of my friends and had an amazing dinner! I really enjoyed a new option for dining and will definitely go back!

Besides that, this is the final week before Thanksgiving break as crazy as that seems! I still cannot believe it, it seriously flew by! I have tons of homework to do this week to prepare for vacation and then some more to do over break! I know the whole student body, myself included, is ready for a week-long vacation! By the time we come back, we will just have two weeks left before Christmas break!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Senior Year Festivities!

It feels like forever since I have posted, and lots has happened since the last time I wrote!

In regards to nursing, classes are busy! I just passed in a 27 page paper for Family Nursing in which I received the highest grade in the class and my teacher is using my paper as the example for future classes! Such an honor to have that recognition! Pediatrics is challenging but rewarding. For clinical last week I went to daycare and I spent A LOT of time with little children and babies. We played games, did some education activities, colored, and in the baby room, I practiced lots of infant care skills. It was helpful to go to daycare to better understand developmental milestones and levels of children, an important concept to master for Pediatrics and the NCLEX. I also went to the NICU recently for a rotation. It was an amazing experience working with infants who were so small, sick and newly born. I helped do some family teaching as well as worked with a nurse to give an infant a bath and feeding. It is definitely a difficult area of nursing to work in because it can be so sad and emotionally exhausting, but I really enjoyed this experience and feel like I got a lot out of it. Plus, who doesn't love a brand new baby!

In other news, EC Tap was busy this weekend working at the men's hockey game doing concessions. We do this every year to raise money for our show and the club had a ton of fun bonding and hanging out! We made lots of money and men's hockey won of course too! The women's hockey had a game before theirs and they also won, making them currently ranked 4th in the nation for divison III which is awesome! Both teams are doing great so far this year, and the EC student body has been traveling to the Domes (the athletic facility) to watch the game and support our EC athletes. Women's volleyball recently traveled to NJ to participate in the Empire 8 tournament. After a hard fought battle, the team fell to Nazareth. It was definitely a bummer but the team had an amazing season and finished off strong anyways. 

Here are some pictures of the club and myself at Domes!







Halloween was a few weeks ago at this point and let me tell you, the EC student body celebrated strong. Some of the art students carved pumpkins and displayed them in the campus center, and let me tell you they were AMAZING. One person did a carving of "Starry Night" that was INCREDIBLE. Another one of my favorites was the majestic lion from the Lion King. They truly were amazing. SAB hosted some events and intramural sports hosted a relay race with pumpkins across campus which was definitely a challenge for those who participated. Of course, the weekend was fully of social events where almost every student went out in a costume in some way or another. My friends and I had a great time celebrating and I made my own peacock costume, complete with a headpiece and tail made with real feathers and a recycled popcorn box! Tons of fun was had here Halloween weekend!


The photo on the left is of some of the tap officers and myself. The photo on the right is my other nursing major friend Jess and myself! The collage below is a bunch of pictures from the night!

 This is a photo of me and my bathroom-mate Katie celebrating Halloween together!


To finish off this post, I felt like it was important to note that I just registered for my last Term II classes EVER at EC! It is bittersweet but so so so exciting to move forward on this adventure and be that much closer to my nursing degree. Next term I will be taking community nursing and I am sure that will provide me with lots of stories. I also just received my senior pictures in the mail which is crazy! I still can't believe I am a senior. I recently also submitted my picture and personal write up to the year book too! This year is flying by!

This week is filled with LOTS of work and tap, as well as the Orchesis show which I definitely want to attend and watch the EC dancers! I also have another judicial board case to go to, which is student government regarding disciplinary hearings. Tomorrow I am going to the Pediatric clinic in Sayre, PA again for clinical so that is always a good learned experience. In the meantime, off to do homework. This weekend nursing club is getting together to make Christmas cookies at one of our professor's house and to have dinner as a group cooked by her! It always is a fun time and I am really looking forward to attending. Pictures and a post to follow in a few days!


 These are just two of my senior pictures! Hard to believe I made it this far! The photo on the top is my parent's favorite and the photo on the bottom is my yearbook submission! Here's to being almost a nurse!