One down, plus: occupational terrorists

Took my nursing assessment final yesterday.

First off let me just say that performance testing freaks me out big time. I just hate being observed. It took me four tries to get my driver's license, and why? Sheer nerves. My heart pounds, my mouth dries out, my hands shake, I break out in a sweat. It's ridiculous.

That being said, I did pass all my skill check-offs on the first try, which I attribute mostly to sheer dumb luck. I did not realize that most of my peers failed at least one of them at some point, until someone asked me about it and I blithely admitted that I hadn't failed any of them. This drew many cold stares and whiny "OMG I totally hate you"s from the rest of the table.

Anyways I passed my final with a "B." The test was administered by my clinicals instructor. He's a decent guy which made it less intimidating. Unfortunately, I misunderstood some crucial instruction beforehand: he went down the list of points to cover in the assessment and told us which ones not to chart, but I thought he meant not to even assess those. So I probably would have squeaked an A on the final had I understood that correctly.

Then he returned my patient presentation, on which we all got B's. Mostly due to a boatload of minor APA formatting errors. I am totally going to get the APA formatting software. This will eliminate most of those errors out of hand.

So, I'll probably get a B in that class. I had good module scores, probably a low A, but the B on the paper and the B on the final will bring me to a B.

In other news: I saw the finger doctor Tuesday. Mr. Smug Physician's Assistant was somewhat more bearable. He clucked disapprovingly when I showed him my still-swollen, stiff, non-bending finger, and proceeded to grab it and try to bend it for me. This sound emerged from my mouth, entirely unbidden from me: "NGGGGAAAAAHHHHH!" The Finger of Doom did not bend. "So," he says cheerfully, "you need to go see the occupational terrorists! And this is gentle compared with what they will do to you!" I swear there was a subliminal "MUWAHAHAHAHA!" Evil Maniac laugh in there too but only I could hear it. The other people in the office did not call security as they certainly should have done.

I am supposed to be warming my finger up for ten minutes or so using a hot compress, then using my other hand to bend the finger, then slapping a cold pack on it -- oh and eating ibuprofen like candy -- but this would interfere pretty severely with my gaming and blogging time. Ah, priorities...