Toads-in-the-Hole

In a word (or, in this case, one and a contraction) … I’m done. Well, sort of done.

My nursing school project began approximately five years ago, when Joel dared me to take an Anatomy and Physiology class with him in preparation for his battle with the MCAT. I signed up for the class, attended lectures with Joel every Monday night, and wondered about things I’d never wondered before, like “How is it that all these little, itsy-bitsy parts of my own body exist and I didn’t know about them?” or “Phospholipid bi-layer? So, that’s what keeps me from being a pile of goo and water!”

And so, it began: a change, a renaissance, an experiment that evolved over several months wherein I took a class here and a class there, adding up to all the prerequisites necessary to apply to a nationally-accredited nursing program. It wasn’t always easy, but it wasn’t always too difficult either [Case in point, the cost of all of the courses that I took in Portland were subsidized by my employer … Not so bad!]. I approached some of those wonderful moments squandered in high school or my undergraduate anew as I re-learned the magic of covalent and ionic bonding and how to manufacture sauerkraut in five easy steps.

When we moved to South Dakota and I began the nursing program here, the days whizzed by, and in a flurry I gained nursing lore and knowledge. Like anything else, there were good times and bad times. There were days that inspired me and days that discouraged me. I feel about my program like somebody once said about the French Revolution, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” It seems, though, that before I could blink an eye, I found myself standing on a podium, wearing lots of red, and shaking the hand of the president of the university.

But, still, even on that graduation day, something loomed ahead … Before I could truly congratulate myself on a job well done, I had a project to finish: NCLEX-RN, the national nursing examination that all student nurses are required to pass in order to obtain their licensure. Pass or fail, this was The Bar, and I would either sail over it in one brilliant track-star leap or smack right into it and crumple before its towering height.

Just this past Friday morning, I made my way to a sterile testing center, and sat before a computer, clicking this answer or that, with a certain crazed glee … All my eggs in one basket, I was determined to enjoy this challenge, despite the fact that each question cost me $4. In the end, the computer asked me only the minimum number of questions before deciding whether or not I met the basic eligibility standard of safety. Seventy-five questions and then, the screen went blank and I was on my way home.

It was only a matter of hours before the South Dakota State Board of Nursing’s website posted my examination results in the form of these words:

License Status: Active

So, I’ve deduced that I passed the NCLEX! Hooray! I can now legally practice nursing all by myself!

But, a nurse’s work is never done … As my professors preached, a person’s nursing education is never quite finished - my license requires continuing education credits, future employers require orientation to unique, complex systems of patient care, and of course, there’s always the puzzling world of managed care and health insurance to decipher. But, all of that can wait for a more motivated day …

For today, I plan to walk broadly in the summer sunshine with my newly-found professional mantle carried high on my shoulders, and be proud to be the nurse of just one.