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I'm still here...

I know I haven't posted in 500 years, but I promise I'm still here....and I'm still in NP school. Thankfully I just finished my HARDEST, most stressful semester of all of my nursing school career. This past semester I took Advanced Patho & Advanced Assessment together. Can we say, BIG mistake?? Why didn't anyone tell me how time consuming and hard these classes were? I mean yes, I realize that we're talking Patho & Assessment here, but still, a little warning would have been nice. The funny thing is, I thought I was making the best choice. I mean it was between taking Patho & Pharm together or Patho & Assessment, so naturally I thought I was making the right choice, I mean wouldn't you think so? Well, guess who was wrong, big time?? Me!!
Unfortunately, Pharm was WAY easier than I thought it would be and although assessment wasn't hard persay, it was EXTREMELY time consuming. Between the discussion boards (DBs), the write ups, the quizzes, the videos, the tests and the midterm and final, I really thought I was going to pull every one of my hairs out. Not to mention the DBs for patho, plus the quizzes & 19 page research paper. When I say stressed I'm talking me sitting with my sister in Arby's at the beginning of the semester in tears talking about how it was too hard and that I think I should drop one of the classes...Fast forward to last week when our final grades came out. As in assessment and a B in patho!!!!!!!!! Heck yeah!!!!!! One of the As was a 92.6, just BARELY made the A cutoff and my B was a 85.19, again, a B by the skin of my teeth, but WHO CARES!!!!!!! I can't even explain how happy I am to be done with that dreaded, awful, gut wrenching, blood pressure raising semester. Oh & lest you think I'm exaggerating, when I got done with my patho final (of which I was pretty sure I was going to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of) my blood pressure was 207/117!! Talk about stress. Alas, no sense in dwelling on what is done, I made it out alive and I'm moving on to my FOURTH semester.  The best thing about my fourth semester? Clinical time!!!!!!!!!! This semester (which is a summer semester) I'm only taking Women's Health. That's it. No other classes. Although I have one other pre-req type class (Policy) I didn't want to overburden myself for summer since it's a short semester. So only WH this summer. Then in the fall I am taking Peds & Policy. Then Spring will be adult and then summer is practicum and then I'M DONE!! It's so hard to believe that in a year and a half I'll actually be able to see patients!! Well, once I pass my boards...which is another stressor, but I'm not even going to THINK about that until AFTER I graduate. I mean I have enough stress on my plate without thinking about all that right?
So, one of my friends who graduates this summer (lucky dog) was talking about her job offer. She has been offered a job by her preceptor. It's a private practice setting with several NPs & maybe one PA. Anyway, the offer is this: Pay per patient assuming she will see 25 pts a day which should come out anywhere between 95-100K...and that's it!! No benefits, no malpractice insurance, no CME coverage, no paid vacation. Accascuse me?? I know I said I would take the first job I was offered, and I probably will, but I am at LEAST going to negotiate for SOME benefits. I mean even if they're not going to offer medical insurance, then a the very minimum I want those three things. I mean I've never heard of someone not even paying malpractice, PTO and CME's....I guess we'll see. Just gives me one more reason to open my own practice....I guess we'll see when the time comes.

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