Mark for Vital Signs Competency

I have the mark for my vital signs competency. I was given a mark of 100%.

A better answer for "What is a Respiratory Therapist?"

In a previous post, I mentioned how I was planning to respond to the "What is a Respiratory Therapist?" question in the future. I've tried my "A Respiratory Therapist assesses and treats cardio-respiratory and associated disorders to maintain or restore breathing." explanation out a few times and things didn't go very well. It doesn't exactly roll off of the tongue and it sounds a bit too legalistic.

I was at the CRTO web site and ran across the following statement, that I'll try using from now on when I get the, "What is a Respiratory Therapist?" question.

"RTs are health care professionals who monitor, evaluate and treat individuals with respiratory and cardio-respiratory disorders." I could even dumb that one down to "RTs treat people with respiratory and cardio-respiratory disorders"

Vital signs competency (update)

The Vital Signs Competency seemed to go well. I was actually able to conduct a patient interview, and take vital signs, without looking like a fool.

I also had to pretend to be a patient for someone else, who was doing their competency. Pretending to be a patient, was actually harder than interviewing a patient and taking vital signs.

This competency was actually kind of fun. It wasn't super stressful, like the last one.

Vital Signs Competency

I have to do a competency today. I have to do a patient interview and then take vital signs. I have 10 minutes to complete the exercise. I find it difficult to see people breathing, when they're breathing normally, so I might have fun assessing my patients Respiratory Rate during the Competency.

If I fail the competency I get a second chance. If I fail during the second attempt, I put all of my textbooks in a pile and light a match.

Misuse may result in sickness or death

I really didn't feel like shaving yesterday. Then I remembered that I was supposed to be "mask fit tested" and had to be clean shaven. I've been fit tested for a 3M N95 8210 mask.

I find a lot of warning labels amusing. The 3M N95 8210 mask has a warning label which states, "Misuse may result in sickness or death". Maybe it's not that amusing. They think that some Health Care Professionals in Canada got SARS because they weren't using N95 masks properly. One of the students in my class had a relative who worked in a Toronto hospital. He was in the wrong waiting room, at the wrong time, and was infected with SARS.

Oops. Sorry.

Apparently, I talk too much in my Professional Responsibilities class. The class ends up taking longer because I ask too many questions and get a bit carried away with some discussions. "...Seriously, I felt like slitting my wrists today." was how it was explained to me.

Oops. Sorry. I'll try to be a bit more passive.

If I was really smart

If I was really smart I would:

1. Post a long list of really smart things to do.

I don't quite understand

I was pretty sure that I got a crap mark on my first Ventilators test. Somehow I pulled off an 83% on that one. I don't quite understand how that happened.

Shined my shoes

I had to shine my dress shoes this morning. It kind of pissed me off. It reminded me of getting ready to go to my old IT job.

I'm going to an RT conference today, so I have a really good excuse for not studying. Unfortunately, I had to shine my shoes. We're expected to dress business casual...

1.5 hours

I was helping a faculty member move some equipment from a lab to a class and we chatted about a few things. He mentioned that when he was in RT School, he only studied for about 1.5 hours a night. That comment actually pissed me off. I decided that he was either lying or freakishly smart. I do recall that he once mentioned something about having a photographic memory. Today he mentioned something about almost going back to school and getting a Doctorate. Everyone keeps on mentioning how smart he is. Maybe he is freakishly smart.

It's not fair! I wish I only had to study for 1.5hrs a day.

Skipping class

I had to miss a Pathophysiology class last week. Trying to actually learn the material from a missed class takes way to much effort. Going to a class is so much easier. I don't understand why some people miss so many classes. If you go to class, you learn more and have to study less. Why do people skip classes when they don't have to. I don't get it.

Someone gave me an audio recording of the missed lecture, which is a big help but not as good as actually being there. Going to class and listening to the lecture would have been so much easier.

It's the Professor's fault

Most people, including myself, think that they did poorly on the first Ventilators test. I didn't do very well because I didn't study smart and started studying too late. According too a bunch of fellow students, they did poorly on the test and it's the Professors fault.

I guess I'm lucky. I can improve how I study and do better. If I did poorly because it was the Professor's fault, I don't know what I would do. Maybe I would try incessant whining. Maybe that would help.

No more disruptions

I had a Ventilators class today. Another class without any disruptions. I could get used to that. I think everyone actually showed up today. There was a test at the beginning of class. The people who are usually disruptive didn't say a word while the professor was lecturing. The guy who told me to fuck off on Monday was sitting in the back, all by himself, with nobody to talk to. I took a look at him, before the class started, and he looked a bit more stressed than he usually does before he writes a test.

The test didn't really have any surprises on it. Unfortunately, I was expected to regurgitate a bunch of "critical numbers" and that didn't go so well. That test wasn't worth much, so it's really no big deal as far as marks are concerned. I also now know what to expect from the Professor, who's teaching the Ventilators course. I really should have focused my study efforts on the review materials he provided us with, before the test. The review materials he provided are really good. Unfortunately, I only really focused on the review materials after I studied all of my other notes. Next time, I'm going to start by studying his review materials first.

Why did I get up at 3:30AM?

1. I hate myself.
2. Sleeping less makes me happy.
3. Is there a better time to study for a Ventilator test?

Odd

I was in my Pathophysiology class today and noticed something odd. When the professor was talking, she was the only one talking. The guy who told me to fuck off on Monday didn't show up for class today and as a result wasn't disrupting the class. I was most pleased.

Disruptive students (update)

The disruptive students, that I mentioned in a previous post, had to go to a meeting today. A member of faculty, and the Program Coordinator for my program, will be talking to them about the situation.

I will wait and see. If those idiots don't cut the crap, I'm going to start lobbying for their removal from the program.

A good morning

I have a test at 12PM, for my Patient Evaluation course. I still need to do a lot of studying for that test. It's now 6AM. I have a History class at 8AM. I just logged in to the College's computer system and found out that my History class for today has been cancelled! I didn't think that a class cancellation could make me so happy. It's a good morning. More time to study!

Too angry to study

Boy, am I ever pissed off. I just sent this to one of my professors:

The disruptive behavior in today's Patient Care Procedures class, was fairly intolerable. People in the back row, just wouldn't stop talking while your lecture was in progress. As your lecture proceeded the volume of the disruptive conversation(s) grew louder and louder. I’m sure you noticed.

When the people in the back of the room started talking louder than you, while you were lecturing, I decided to turn around and ask people to stop talking. When I turned around, before I could even open my mouth, I was promptly told by Ahole to "Fuck off". The last time I said something about talking in class, to the very same people talking during today's lecture, Ahole told me that I should move to the other side of the classroom. Today’s unsuccessful attempt at reasoning with people, left me rather perturbed and contemplating a possible course of action that would most likely be frowned upon by the College. As a student, I don't really have any acceptable ways of stopping people from behaving in a disruptive, disrespectful and belligerent manner while in class. All I can do is encourage, and support, others in their attempts at doing something about the aforementioned unacceptable behavior.

I know that in the past, you have tried to tactfully and diplomatically address disruptive behavior in your classes. I do understand, and appreciate, the value of dealing with these types of situations tactfully and diplomatically. Often times a friendly reminder, of what constitutes acceptable classroom behavior, is all that is required. Unfortunately, at this point I think that a "friendly reminder" may not be enough. Reminding people of acceptable classroom behavior seems to be of limited value, when addressed to certain individuals.

I gave up a fairly successful career, so that I could go back to school and become a Respiratory Therapist. I am not at all inclined to tolerate anything, which makes it more difficult for me to pursue my academic and career aspirations.

RT Scribe

The secret of my success?

Last semester worked out quite well for me. I was mostly driven by fear and anxiety. Those two things are strangely lacking this semester. I'm writing a test today and I'm feeling pretty ho hum about it. Last semester I would have worked myself into a studying frenzy.

I sure hope that the fear and anxiety, that kept me going last semester, wasn't the secret of my success.

Talking to patients

When I did my job shadow last semester. I watched a Student RT suction the airway of a vent patient. The patient was a drug overdose and was completely out. He didn't react at all, when his airway was suctioned. Before, during and after the suctioning, she talked to the patient and explained everything that was going on. Watching her do that, left me wondering about when I should and shouldn't talk to patients.

Recently we've been learning some actual patient care procedures and the topic of talking, and explaining things to patients, has come up. We're being taught that you should always talk to your patients and explain things to them. You never know when they might be listening. Sometimes they're listening, even when you're sure they can't be.

Smoker discomfort

My class is divided into two groups for labs. My lab group has 12 people in it. A couple people in my lab group are smokers. They always seem kind of uncomfortable when smoking is a topic of discussion.

The RT who teaches us, in Patient Evaluation lab, is currently working in home care. She was telling us how sad it is to see people who quit smoking, quite a while ago, and are now suffering the health consequences of their smoking. They quit, like they were supposed to, but still had to pay the price several years later.

Attrition

The attrition rate is 41% for my program. Only 59% of the students who started the program, in September 2006, actually graduated from the program.

All of the graduates wrote their registry exams at the beginning of this month. I hope that they all did well, on their exams, and will get to put RRT after their names in the next little while.

First 3 tests of semester 2

I have to write 3 tests next week. I have to write for Patient Evaluation, Patient Care Procedures and Ventilators I. I'll have to write a Pathophysiology test, the following week. I've taken courses with the Professors, that teach Patient Evaluation and Patient Care procedures, so I sort of know what to expect from them as far as their tests are concerned. The Ventilators test is going to be a bit of a mystery, until I actually sit down and write it.

Next week is the 4th week of the second semester and everything seems to be going well.

Intubation

The lab instructor told us, that if we finished early, he would show us how to do an Endotracheal Intubation and let us try. I think we're supposed to learn how to do Intubations next year. I learned how to do it yesterday and did one on a manequin. Three other people did it too. Everybody else left early!

A kid in bed

I was lying in bed with my head underneath the covers. I was as comfortable as a kid could be, in his bed. Then I started to hiccup. It was loud and it was scary and I couldn't stop it. My whole body was convulsing and the hiccups were loud. I was sure that everyone could hear me. Then I stopped breathing.

I could feel a liquid oozing out of my mouth and was wondering if some of that wasn't drool but something much worse, like blood. I still couldn't breath. I was just a kid. I knew that I was making a lot of noise and someone was going to come and help me. I wanted to knock some things off of my night stand, to make some more noise, but couldn't move.

To my great relief, I heard people running towards my room. Then they were in my room. I could sense people standing around my bed. Soon the covers would be lifted and they would help me. They didn't help me. They just stood there, waiting. Then I really started to panic. I tried to scream. I couldn't breath. I couldn't move. Then I woke up.

You know you're a Student RT when: You have nightmares about not being able to breath.

What can a Respiratory Therapist do?

I'm going to school, so that I can learn how to do 4 things. Can't I watch a video, or something, instead of going to school for 3 years?

According to the Respiratory Therapy Act of Ontario, a Respiratory Therapist can:

1. Perform a prescribed procedure below the dermis.
2. Intubate beyond the point in the nasal passages where they normally narrow or beyond the larynx.
3. Suction beyond the point in the nasal passages where they normally narrow or beyond the larynx.
4. Administer a substance by injection or inhalation.

What is a Respiratory Therapist?

What is a Respiratory Therapist? That's a question I've always had trouble answering. I've always tried to provide a simple and accurate answer to that question. I've always found that my attempts to answer that question, were quite lacking. Thanks to my Professional Responsibilities course, I now have a one sentence answer to that question.

"A Respiratory Therapist assesses and treats cardio-respiratory and associated disorders to maintain or restore breathing."

The above is just my rewording of the scope of practice definition found in Ontario's Respiratory Therapy Act, which states the following:

"The practice of respiratory therapy is the providing of oxygen therapy, cardio-respiratory equipment monitoring and the assessment and treatment of cardio-respiratory and associated disorders to maintain or restore ventilation."

Ouch

I now have painful bruising, on both arms, where I'm supposed to be able to palpate my brachial pulse. The more I practiced trying to find my brachial pulse, the harder it seemed to get and the harder I tried. Maybe all that trying, caused some swelling that made finding my brachial pulse harder. Maybe it really was getting harder and harder to find my brachial pulse. My lab instructor couldn't palpate my brachial pulse either.

I now wish that I would have picked up a blood pressure cuff, from the school Book Store, yesterday. The Book Store is closed today. People in lab were saying that if you used a cuff, and pumped it up a bit, it was easier to palpate the brachial pulse. I'll probably end up in a Pharmacy today, buying a cheap watch, and buy a cuff when I'm there.

Breath Damn it!

Today we had our first labs of the semester. In the Patient Care Procedures lab, we learned some more about suctioning and acquired some experience assembling and using the suctioning equipment. We had a contest to see who could put together, and set up, suctioning equipment the fastest. I won. I was able to do it in 32 seconds. I guess that taking apart all the equipment, and putting it back together, several times during the lab was worth doing.

In the Patient Evaluation lab, we learned how to take vital signs. Finding brachial pulses, in the upper arm, is freaking hard! I also had trouble measuring respiration rate, which is supposed to be easy. I actually started yelling at my partner to "Breath Damn it" because I couldn't even see her breathing. I almost tried to take a blood pressure. We played around with pulse oximeters and did things to make them give erroneous pulse and SpO2 values.

Last semester we all took to heart the fact that we shouldn't wear watches for infection control reasons. It's kind of hard to take a pulse, or determine someone's respiration rate, without a watch. Our Patient Evaluation lab instructor was kind of perturbed by the fact that only two people showed up wearing a watch. I mentioned the infection control thing to her and she was kind of amused by our collective stupidity. I guess the whole "you shouldn't wear a watch" thing is a bunch of bull....

Class cancelled (I could have slept in)

My first class should have been at 8AM today. That class has been cancelled. Now my first class of the day is at 12PM. I could have slept in! Today's 8AM class was cancelled yesterday. I didn't notice the cancellation notice when I logged into the school system last night. Fortunately, I brought a bunch of stuff that I can study.

This is for my Canadian History course:

Important dates

I like to keep track of important dates related to school. The dates include test dates and the dates that assignments are due. I put all of those dates on one piece of paper, so that I don't have to worry about forgetting anything. As dates come and go, they're removed from the list. As new dates appear, they get put on the list.

I just finished my date list, for this semester. The list has over 80 dates on it. That list is starting to stress me out.

I'm trying to figure out what date to put down for "Full Blown Anxiety Attack". I need to find a date that doesn't conflict with anything else...

The difference between reading and studying

Reading takes minutes.

Studying takes hours.

I honestly think that some of my classmates are completely oblivious to the above. I sure do wish that studying only took minutes. Wishful thinking does not a reality make...

Who needs a Family Doctor?

I still have a family doctor in the Big City. Unfortunately, I now live and go to school in the Little City and there's a shortage of family doctors. Every once in a while, I check to see if any physicians in the Little City are accepting patients. They never are.

The Little City has a couple of Urgent Care Clinics, that are supposed to take the load off of the Little City Emergency Departments. They were originally intended for urgent problems that didn't quite fall into the Emergency category. Now they're used by people who don't have and can't get a family doctor. I've been dreading the day that I would finally have to see a doctor in the Little City. Lots of people in the Little City don't have Family Doctors, so I naturally assumed that going to an Urgent Care Clinic would involve a lot of waiting around with a bunch of sick people coughing all over me.

I had to get the 3rd, and final dose, of a Hepatitis B vaccine yesterday so I went to one of the Urgent Care Clinics. I wasn't expecting it to be a pleasant experience. I was pleasantly surprised.
The clinic is in a building that also has a pharmacy, lab and XRay/Ultrasound place in it. As I walked into the front door of the building, I found myself in a waiting room that was shared by the clinic, a pharmacy, a lab and an Xray/Ultrasound place. Half of the chairs in the waiting room were empty. I was slightly encouraged. I walked into the pharmacy and gave them my prescription receipt for my vaccine. I was expecting a hassle because I was giving them a receipt from a pharmacy in the Big City. "No problem", said the pharmacist, "I'll just have to get the Big City pharmacy to fax something to me." I was wondering if I should register at the clinic, while I was waiting for my script to be filled, and was told that they're seeing people too fast for that to be a good idea. I was told to wait for the script and then register at the clinic. Getting the script only took about 20 minute.

After I got my script I was talking to a doctor in about 15 minutes. I talked with him about getting a blood titre for Hep. B antibodies. He gave me a slip for the required blood work and told me to go to the lab with it, in a couple of weeks. He asked me if it was OK for the injection to be done by the nurse and I of course said yes. The nurse grabbed me a few minutes later, gave me the injection and sent me on my way.

I really was impressed by the whole experience at that clinic, even though they charged me an extra $50 to get the injection done. FYI for non Canadians: Canadians general don't have to pay for medical stuff, because we have a government funded national health care system. That $50 fee might even have been "sort of" illegal.

Back to the books

It looks like the joyous times, of studying all weekend, are back again.

Without a doubt, Ventilators I is going to live up to its reputation of being a hard course. The Professor for that course warned us that if we fail a course this semester, It's going to be Ventilators I. I don't think that what's left of the "It's not fair" crowd is going to have a good semester.

Unlike most of you, I don't have a High school Diploma

"Unlike most of you, I don't have a High school Diploma."

That was the first thing out of my History professors mouth, when he started the first lecture of the semester. That seemed to get every one's attention. He also told us about the two University degrees he eventually acquired as a mature student and some of the fairly impressive things he's done. He then went on with a pretty interesting lecture about Canadian History. He used the word asshole quite a bit and that made me chuckle a few times.

I don't think I'm going to be learning the boring version of Canadian History this semester...

24 Survivors

Today was the first day of second semester.

37 students, including myself, started the RT Program in September. 24 students, including myself, made it into second semester. That's about a 35% attrition rate. That's about what I was expecting.

I was surprised by a couple people who didn't make it and shocked by a couple of people who did. I'm fairly certain that a few people, just barely squeaked into second semester.

Back to school tomorrow

Tomorrow, I'll start second semester. I'm surprisingly indifferent about the prospect of starting classes again.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to be nice

For several weeks, I've been trying to get something done about the constantly running water in the condo directly above mine. It's really loud, really annoying, pisses me off and it doesn't stop! Just before I left town for a week, to visit family over the holidays, the Superintendent told me that the owner of the condo would get someone in to fix the problem. When I got back home, on the 29th, the problem still wasn't fixed.

I've been civil. I've been patient. I've been polite. I've been diplomatic. I've been sleeping restlessly, while wearing earplugs, because the noise from he running water is so damn irritating.
Today I called the owner of the property management company, at home on New Years Day, and yelled at her for a few minutes. 2 hours later a plumber was in the unit and fixed the problem. WTF? Why did I have to be an asshole to get that taken care of?

A tale of two manuals

I'll be taking a CPR course on Saturday. I have to renew my CPR certification every year, for school. When I started the RT Program, I had to take a CPR and First Aid course. The Manual for the First Aid and CPR course, that I took at the beginning of this year, is 186 pages. The manual for the CPR course, I'm taking on Saturday, is 16 pages.

Prior to picking up the CPR course manual, I was going to read through the CPR material in the First Aid and CPR course manual. I am so glad that I picked up the CPR course manual. Figuring out what to read in a 16 page manual (uh, everything) is a lot simpler than trying to figure out what to read in a 186 page manual.

Top 21 Respiratory Therapy blogs of 2008

Rick Frea over at the Respiratory Therapy Cave posted a Top 21 Respiratory Therapy blogs of 2008 list a couple days ago. Check it out.

The next time you visit, don't study so much

"The next time you visit, don't study so much. You should only spend 30 minutes a day studying or just spend one day a week studying."

Advice from my 10 year old nephew, after I spent a week with my sister and her family. Sigh.

Tim Hortons

Trauma Junkie over at Surviving RT School asked me the following question: "I've never heard of Tim Hortons. Is that like Starbucks?"

No, Tim Hortons is not like Starbucks. Don't talk shit like that if you're ever up here in Canada. You're gonna get hurt real bad, if you say something like that up here, unless of course you're in a Starbucks. If you're in a Starbucks the sniveling weasels who frequent such a place, will think that you are "bad ass". You will become a legend. They will speak of you often, always in a whisper, when they think it's safe. They will wonder if you're still alive and what ever happened to your body.


The difference between Tim Hortons and Starbucks (in no particular order):

1. Line ups. There always seems to be a line up at Tim Hortons. Do you regularly see 20-30 people standing in line at Starbucks? In Canada, people go to Starbucks when the line up is too long at Tim Hortons. When they do this, they feel ashamed and hope that none of their friends see them. They also feel dirty. They feel dirty because they are.
2. No stupid questions. If you go to a Tim Hortons and say "large-double-double" at the counter, they give you your coffee just the way you like it. They put in the cream. They put in the sugar. They stir it up real good. They give you your coffee. They don't ask you any stupid questions. What's the deal with Starbucks and their stupid names for coffee cup sizes anyway?
3. They actually make your coffee for you. Starbucks pours black coffee into a cup and makes you go to some stupid little counter, where some stupid idiot's always in your way, so that you can put the milk and sugar in yourself.
4. The rules. There are rules when you're waiting in line at Tim Hortons. If you break the rules, you're going to get hurt by the other people in the line. There will be no witnesses and the security camera is defective. The ambulance will find you in a Starbucks parking lot, at the other end of the city.
5. The people. People who go to Tim Hortons aren't sniveling weasels. They don't ask for a half-caf-triple-mocca-frappa-whatever, unless they're a regular and making fun of Starbucks.
6. Pretentions. The pretentious people who work at Starbucks think that they're something special. I guess that's where people with advanced degrees in Philosophy end up working. If you work at Tim Hortons, your job is to make coffee, lots of it and to keep the line moving. If you're a Tim Hortons employee and start to think that you're something special, you get shipped off to the Tim Hortons in Kandahar. People in the line up at the Kandahar Tim Hortons have automatic weapons. If you get uppity at the Tim Hortons in Kandahar, there will be no witnesses, the security camera is defective and you were an enemy combatant.
7. Cardboard insulator thingys. Tim Hortons doesn't have those stupid little cardboard insulator thingys, that you put a coffee cup into, to protect your hands from the hot coffee cup. Those things are for sniveling weasels. You can find them at Starbucks.
8. Ice Cap. Tim Hortons has a cold coffee drink that doesn't taste like shit. Everyone calls it an Ice Cap. I think that it was once called an Iced Capasomethingorother but I'm not sure.
9. Starbucks sucks.
10. Tim Hortons doesn't suck.

A soldier in front of the Kandahar Tim Hortons, holding a box of donuts, three ice caps and a large-double-double:

The magic number: 800

When I'm studying a lot and not sleeping as much as I should, I'm drinking about 4 extra large cups of Tim Hortons coffee. Today I was wondering how much caffeine is in 4 extra large cups of coffee. The answer: 800 mg (http://www.timhortons.com/pdf/caffeine-canada-en.pdf).

That's cool. The next time someone tells me that I'm drinking too much coffee, I can tell them that 4 cups of Tim Hortons coffee is only 800 mg of caffeine. 800 mg is just fine. I only start acting funny when I take in about 1200 mg (6 extra large cups of Timmy's). For some reason my tummy hurts too.

Flu Maps

I've been thinking that I should get a Flu shot. I usually get one but haven't gotten around to it yet. I used to get them at work. Now I'm unemployed. They had a couple of days at school when they were giving them out. The line was too long on the first day and I mixed up the date for the second day. There's a clinic fairly close by that's been giving them out in the evenings but I've been too busy watching TV, playing video games, "studying" and trying to avoid my Christmas shopping.

Has the Flu season started yet? Are there lots of dirty Flu infected people in my part of Canada? Is there a map someplace that shows how and were the Flu is spreading? Yes there is.

Canadian Flu Map

American Flu Map (The map's at the bottom of the page)

Getting a head start

I just picked up the textbook for a History course, that I'll be taking next semester. I started reading the text yesterday and, to my surprise, it's a relaxing and enjoyable read. I can probably finish reading the book in a few days and enjoy doing it. I'm hoping that reading the textbook in advance will make next semester a bit less painful.

Study tip rant

This is my study tip rant.

1. Getting enough sleep is a part of studying. If you're tired, you have a hard time learning and an even harder time remembering. If you're tired when you're writing a test, you're going to make some stupid mistakes.
2. Don't study in front of the TV, even if it is turned off. That thing is just too much of a temptation.
3. Not studying is an important part of studying. You have to take breaks. If you find yourself reading something, and then not remembering what you just read, it's time for a break.
4. Good lighting. Bright lights in your study area make a world of difference, especially in the Winter.
5. Ignore the complainers. They're complaining because they aren't doing very well and looking for an excuse. The complainers use phrases like: "It's the professor's fault", "How can they expect us to...", "We shouldn't have to learn this because...", "It's not fair.", "It's not my fault.", "In the real world...".
6. Ignore the people who claim that they don't study much. They're getting crap marks, lying or are a lot smarter than you. If you need to do a lot of studying then do a lot of studying.
7. Don't "study for a test". Learn the material that you will be tested on instead. Understand the "what, why and how come" associated with the material that you're learning. If something doesn't make any sense, figure it out. If you memorize things that you don't really understand, you're probably doomed.
8. Don't waste time studying things that you don't have to. If you already understand something stop studying it and learn something that you need to know. There's loads of stuff that you're supposed to learn. Learn those things well and ignore the rest. If you only have to read a few pages in a chapter of a text book, don't read the whole chapter.
9. Don't study to pass. If you have a bad day, get sick or run into some other problems you could fail one or more courses. If you're only "just passing" you most likely don't understand what your supposed to be learning.
10. Avoid "pretend studying" at all costs. A lot of my classmates go to the library sit together at a big table, open their books, and then don't study. They just sit around and chat about this and that and then pretend that they've been studying for hours in the library.

Shiny new books

I bought the textbooks I'll need for second semeter. They're shiny.

Done

I wrote my last exam today. First semester is over.

These are my notebooks for first semester:

29.825% and 28.3

29.825%, that's what I need on my final Applied Science exam in order to pass the course. That's my last exam for this semester. Strange. I find it hard to study, if I'm not motivated by fear and anxiety...

I'm almost done with first semester and it feels REALLY GOOD.

I hate 28.3. 28.3 is a number that I thought I could never forget. When I wrote my lab station exam, a couple of weeks ago, I forgot about 28.3. If I ever forget 28.3 again, I'm going to go on a rampage. I'll get $28.30 worth of pennies and throw them at the front door of a police station, one at a time, until someone stops me! If you ever hear about some crazy Canadian guy who got arrested for throwing pennies at a police station, you know will know why...

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1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
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1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L
1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L 1 cubic foot = 28.3L

One more exam to write this semester

My Infection Control exam, on Friday, didn't go as well as I would have liked. There were lots of questions related to the cleaning up of biohazards, which I didn't seem to know much about. Some of the questions didn't even make sense to me. I'm not in any danger of failing Infection Control, so I honestly don't care about my mark on the exam.

My last exam, for the semester, is on Monday. I'm actually studying for that one now.

I went to the college bookstore on Friday and almost bought all of the textbooks for next semester. I decided to wait. I know I would have been flipping through those books, instead of studying for my last exam, this weekend.

Just two more exams

I only have to write two more final exams for this semester. The previously written exams, all seem to have gone well. I have an exam at noon today, which I'm studying for now, and an exam on Monday. Faculty will release all of our marks on Monday, after all of our exams have been written.

I'm really looking forward to the Holidays...

The Tower of Power

I have to write two Anatomy and Physiology final exams tomorrow. Sleeping tonight does not seem like a viable option. It's time for the "Tower of Power".

Stressful 10 minutes

I did a scenario based lab competency exam today. I can't believe how stressful that was. It was only 10 minutes, and it was easy, but the importance of passing that exam was stressing me out.

If you fail a lab competency exam you cannot continue in the program. If you fail, you get one chance to do it again. If you fail a second time, you're finished. You only get 2 "second chances" in the program.

Thing that aren't as funny as they sound

I added a couple more to the list:

Vitreous Humor
Aqueos Humor
Humerus
Fundus
Humoral Immunity

10 days for studying

The lectures for all of this semester's courses are now over. I write my first final exam on December 9th. Between now and then, all I have to do is study and go to a 10 minute lab competency exam. The fact that I have so much time to study, for finals, still amazes me. How can I not do well on my finals, if I have 10 days to study?

My lab station exam on Friday went well. I spent a lot of time twiddling my thumbs. I also spent a lot of time trying to remember how many liters are in a cubic foot, which is 28.3.

Sweet, sweet apathy

I have a new study policy. When I stop caring, I stop studying. Maybe I'll actually care about my lab station exam in the morning. I'm tired and I don't care anymore, so it's time to stare at the back of my eyelids for a few hours. My exam is at 9:30AM. I'm setting my alarm clock for 4:30AM.

Using "intuition" works better than I thought

In a previous post I mentioned how I felt unprepared for a General A&P test and that I was using "intuition" to choose some question answers. That test worked out better than expected. I got a 92% on that one. WTF? I don't understand.

Over and over and over again

I'm getting tired of studying for my General Therapeutics course. I seem to be studying the same stuff over and over and over again. I'm getting tired of studying and being tested on the same material repeatedly. Tomorrow I have a General Therapeutics lab station exam. During the exam I will spend two minutes at a lab station, and answer questions related to the station, and then I move on to the next station. There are 28 stations. A lot of people are a bit stressed over the lab station exam because they aren't really sure what to expect. I just want to get it over with.

I also have a scenario based lab competency exam next week and then a final exam the week after that. I just want that course to be done. I haven't learned anything new in that course, for a couple of weeks, and it's boring me to tears.

A Great Disapointment

I finally bought myself a shiny new Littmann Master Classic II stethoscope. I've been wanting to get one for months, even though I won't need a stethoscope until January. I opened the box, figured out the not backwards way of putting the ear thingys in my ears, and then listened to my heart and lungs for about 20 minutes. Then I got bored with it and put it back in the box.

Holy crap. 20 minutes. That's all of the entertainment value that comes with a stethoscope. That sucks. I'm terribly disappointed.

Basic ECG Interpretation

I was recently learning about basic ECG interpretation. It's really cool stuff but it took me a while to wrap my head around. We're just learning the fundamentals so we're only paying attention to "lead II". That whole topic always seemed so esoteric to me. Now it kind of makes sense and I'm looking forward to taking a Cardio Diagnostic course in third semester. That course is supposed to be brutal.

Sleepy test writing

We took up our last Cardiovascular A&P test today. It looks like I made a few mistakes because I was fuzzy headed when I wrote that one. I actually answered some questions incorrectly even though I knew the correct answer :-(

I wrote a General A&P test yesterday. That one probably didn't go very well either. I was using my "intuition" (AKA almost guessing) on more than a couple of questions. I was also sleep deprived and not well prepared. No mystery, if I get a crap mark on that one...

Less than 3 weeks until Final Exams

I spend most of my time struggling to get caught up. When I have a test or exam coming up, I drop everything and study for that test or exam. If I have an assignment due, I drop everything and work on that. Unfortunately, when I drop everything there's still new stuff coming down the pipe that I'm responsible for learning. When I'm studying for a test/exam or working on an assignment I'm falling further behind.

Final Exams are coming up. Up until yesterday, I was a bit freaked out at the prospect of final exams. How am I supposed to prepare for final exams, when faculty keeps on dumping new stuff into my lap that I'm supposed to learn? The answer to that question is a sensible one. As Final Exams approach, faculty is running out of material that they're supposed to teach us. All of the material for a couple of my courses has already been taught. All of the other courses should be wrapped up by the end of next week, which will give me a whole week to do nothing but get ready for final exams.

Pseudo cramming doesn't work so well (big surprise)

Lesson learned: Last minute studying (pseudo cramming) doesn't work as well as I thought.

Pseudo Cramming: Last minute studying, that includes an honest attempt to actually learn and retain what is learned. Better than real cramming but not as good as real studying.

In a previous post I mentioned how I felt about a Cardiovascular A&P test, that I had recently written. I thought I did fairly well. I didn't. My mark on that test, is the lowest test mark I've gotten so far. My mark for that test is 70%, unless their was an error in the marking. We'll be taking up the test tomorrow, so I might find a few errors in the marking but I'm not too optimistic about that possibility.


The Respiratory A&P test, that I thought I did well on (Dodged a Bullet Post), didn't work out as well as I thought either. That test was my lowest mark in that course to date. It was 12% lower than my next lowest test/exam mark for that course.

Odd. I honestly believed that I did really well on those tests even though I didn't. I did a lot of last minute studying for those tests and am pretty sure that is at the root of those not so stellar marks.

I freaking hate pagers

This post, over at the RT Cave, about pagers reminded me about a job I used to have. That job made me feel pretty important. I was "a somebody" when I had that job. How important was I? I was so important, that on some days, I had to wear 5 pagers and carry a cell phone. Beat that! You know you're important when you have to wear 5 pagers at the same time.

I was working at an insurance company, doing IT support. They issued me a personal pager that was for getting a hold of me when I wasn't at my desk (Pager #1). I also usually carried both of the "Sev 2 pagers" when I was at work (Pager #2&3). Problems were categorized by severity, ranging from Sev 1 to Sev 4. Sev 1 was the most serious and Sev 4 was the least serious. If there was a Sev 2 or Sev 1 problem, I got paged. One of the Sev 2 pagers was for the North office tower and the other was for the South office tower. We also had a change management system. If a change request was submitted and it was assigned to my group and I was carrying the change request pager, I got paged (Pager #4). If I was on call after hours, I also had the after hours pager on my belt (pager #5). I also had a cell phone, which I usually left on my desk unless I left the building.

I freaking hate pagers. Apparently I will probably have to wear a pager when I'm working as an RT. I wish someone would have told me that sooner :-(

Things that aren't as funny as they sound

Vitreous Humor
Aqueos Humor
Humerus
Fundus

See what happens, when you take three Anatomy and Physiology courses at the same time.

Bloody Thursday update

The test on Thursday went well. No more tests until next week! I have an online quiz, on blood clotting, that can be done on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesdy and then I have a General A&P test on Wednesday. I started studying for the General A&P test yesterday.

Respiratory A&P is starting to get complicated. We're also being introduced to ECGs in Cardiovascular A&P, which will take me a while to wrap my head around. As ususal, I'm horribly behind in most of my courses and am plannng to spend most of the weekend catching up.

Bloody Thursday

Today, which is Thursday, I'm writing a bloody test. The test is for my Cardiovascular A&P course and is only covering the not so limited topic of the blood. Apparently the blood does a whole lot more than just go round and round, in the body, and participate in gas exchange. My test is at 8PM. I got up at 3AM to finish off my studying :-(

Dodged a bullet.

I wasn't the only one freaked out by the test this morning. Lots of people thought that they didn't study enough.

A lot of the test questions were based on things I already knew, and understood, before I started studying yesterday. A surprising amount of test questions were based on stuff that I studied during the hour just before the test.

I didn't have enough time to study everything yesterday, and early this morning, so I focused on what I thought were the most important and fundamental concepts in the material to be studied. Lucky for me, that's the material I was being tested on this morning. I was a bit stumped by a question that involved the Equal Pressure Point, but was fairly comfortable with my answers to everything else.

Oh crap!

I have a Respiratory A&P test tomorrow. For some reason I thought that I has already made myself familiar with the material that will be on the test. I was wrong. I'm pretty much going to learn it all tonight.

Getting my ass kicked on the test tomorrow, is very likely. I'm a bit stressed by the situation but am comforted by some things that I'm trying to view as a bit of a silver lining in this cloud:

• The test is only worth 10% of my final mark.
• The material is actually pretty interesting and I enjoy learning it.
• It's mostly concepts, ideas and relationships which I'm pretty good at learning.
• I have to learn the material for the final exam, in a few weeks, so learning it tonight will be a good thing.
• Respiratory A&P is my best course.
• If I get a zero on the test, my mark drops to an 85%. I'm not getting a zero, so my overall mark in the course is going to be pretty decent no matter what happens tomorrow. If I was just scraping by I would be losing my mind.
• I now know how to trick my brain into learning unreasonable amounts of things in an unreasonable amount of time. There's a chance that I might actually do well tomorrow, if I can just get my insolent little brain to STFU AND STUDY!

Stupid, stupid brain. I hate you!

Yesterday at about 8PM my brain started to rebel. It just couldn't learn anything effectively anymore.

• Me: You have a test tomorrow and you have to study for it.
• My brain: Not wanna.
• Me: Come on. We've got plenty of time. We'll take it slow and easy.
• My brain: To much study, make me bored. Wanna TV.
• Me: How about getting some sleep instead.
• My brain: Sleep not good. Me too stressed. We have to study but I not wanna. Not study now. Need beak. Not wanna sleep. Won't be able to sleep. Sleep not leave time for study. (I know this doesn't make much sense. My brain really does baffle me sometimes.)
• Me: Let's take a 45 minute nap and then study.
• My brain: Me sleepy. OK. Just 45 minutes.

About 45 minutes later...

• Me: That was a really good sleep wasn't it?
• My brain: Me still sleepy. Want make more sleepy time.
• Me: OK. Another 45 minutes.

About 45 minutes later...

• Me: OK. Now we can study.
• My brain: Me like sleepy time. Make more sleepy time?
• Me: OK, but we have to get up at 4AM.
• My brain: Sleepy.
• Me: STFU!

Shortly after 4AM...

• Me: I can't believe how tired I am.
• My brain: More sleepy. More sleepy. Want more sleepy time!
• Me: STFU! We'll take a shower and drink some coffee and everything will be fine.
• My brain: Can't sleep in shower. Coffee stop me from make sleepy time.
• Me: That's the plan dummy.

After a coffee and a shower...

• Me: OK. Let's study.
• My brain: Let's Internet instead. Internet more fun than study.
• Me: OK. We'll check email, do a blog posting and then study.
• My brain: Me like blog. Make me feel special.
• Me: I hate you! STFU!
• My brain: What you so angry for? Not my fault not study and spend so much time sleeping.
• Me: STFU.

Always sick on test days

Big surprise. The student, with the big mouth, who is always disruptive during lectures was sick and couldn't write a test today. The same thing happened with several of her mid terms exams and the first few tests of the semester. She has a job in a hospital, so somebody is sure to write her a note. Everybody has to wait for her to write her test(s), before faculty will release our marks to us.

Not my favourite person. I hope I don't see her in January and I'm not the only one.

Too relaxed?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I wasn't quite so stressed out about school anymore. An odd thing happened to the new relaxed me, yesterday. I got up at 6AM, just like every other school day. I felt tired as hell but thought that I would get over it the way that I usually do, with coffee. Three coffees and 7 hours later, I was sitting in class and really felt like crap. I was so tired, I felt sick. I hadn't been sleeping any less than usual, so why did I feel so freaking tired? I think it was the lack of stress. Was I so stressed out that I had a bunch of extra energy? Is the new relaxed me going to require ridiculous amounts of sleep? Was all of that stress, the secret of my success?

5 tests

Another batch of tests is coming up. I have to write four of them next week and the fifth one, the week after. 3 of the tests will be cumulative, meaning that they can test all material since the beginning of the semester. The timing of the tests, so close to final exams, is no accident. Studying for these tests will give me a good start for the studying that needs to be done for final exams.

I had a revelation the other day. I can't study for 12 hours a day. Trying to do that is pretty stupid and a waste of time. When I plan to do ridiculous amounts of studying, in an individual day, my brain usually rebels and refuses to cooperate. I've decided that my study time needs to allow for goofing off. I will do a lot of studying. I will also watch TV, hang out with friends, drink beer, play video games and get plenty of sleep. If I don't goof off enough, my brain will rebel and refuse to cooperate when I'm trying to study.

A bit more relaxed

Now that I have all my mid term marks, I'm a bit more relaxed and confident. I'm actually doing quite well and really shouldn't be getting stressed out about my school work. My lowest course mark, after mid terms, is 80.25% and my highest mark is 95.60%. There's only about 4 weeks left in this semester and I'm in pretty good shape. I have tests in every course starting next week. A few weeks after that and I'm writing my final exams.

I always did find my courses fairly interesting, now they're getting really interesting. I wish I could focus on all of the new stuff that I'm learning now, instead of preparing for my tests and the impending final exams :-(

It looks like quite a few students won't make it through to the next semester. Some of them never had a chance. Some of them still don't understand what they signed up for and have this odd notion that faculty should make things easier, so that "it's more fair". Some of them are outright slackers and should be kicked to the curb. Some of them just had a bad semester and that's too bad.

I might stop studying all together

In a previous post I wrote about my decision to stop studying for an exam, so that I could get more sleep. Last Wednesday I found out my mark for that exam. It was 98%. I think if I stop studying altogether, and sleep about 16 hours a day, I should get really good marks all the time. Too bad I've been having trouble sleeing lately...

Carrot on a stick

There hasn't been a lot of new material thrown at us SRTs recently, because we've been writing exams for a week and a half. Maybe this weekend, I'll actually get caught up. Getting completely caught up on the material, I'm supposed to learn, is starting to look like a carrot on a stick to me. A good thing to strive for, but pretty unobtainable.

I hate the brain

Guess what I'm studying now? I hate brain anatomy and physiology. It's just to damn disorganized and hard to visualize. I kind of suspect that as an RT, I won't actually need a detailed knowledge of brain anatomy and physiology. If I ever have to poke around in someones brain, things have gone horribly wrong and probably won't end well...

Finished Exams

I finished my midterm exams last Wednesday and they seem to have gone well. I should have all of my marks by Monday. The marks I have so far, are pretty good. A couple of courses are giving a lot of people trouble and quite a few people are scared that they failed the exams for those courses. Those are the two courses that weed people out of first year. The attrition between first year and second year of my program is about 25%.

I'm a bit baffled by the people in my class, who don't realize how much they need to study. As the semester has gone on, I've adapted and improved my studying to accommodate the learning that's required by the program. A lot of other people just seem to use the same bad study habits over and over and then hope for the best. They're not doing so well and seem to spend a lot of time complaining about how "unfair" things are. Expecting you to learn and apply what you have learned is not unfair, it is required! I used to constructively argue with "the complainers" and give them some advice on how to be more successful. They've bought into the "it's not fair" mindset and won't listen to anyone who doesn't support it. Now when people complain I keep my mouth shut and start reading something or just wander off someplace. It really is unfortunate because they're all pretty intelligent, decent and sensible people. They just have blinders on and don't know it.

I did a job shadow with the staff at a local hospital's RT department a couple weeks ago. It was a really good experience. I watched the cardioversion of an atrial flutter, a tracheotomy being performed and the bronchoscopic biopsy of a vocal chord tumour. The hospital that I went to, seems to be the best one for job shadows. The people who go to that hospital always come back with good stories. One of the people who went there last week, actually got to bag a patient.

It's a Saturday morning. I got up at 6AM, made some coffee and started studying. That's nothing to brag about, that's just what needs to be done. I'm now studying material that was covered in a lecture on October 15th...

I'm never doing that again

After deciding not to cram for my Cardio A&P exam last night, and getting a good nights sleep, I wrote the exam. I am never ever pulling an all nighter, to study for an exam, ever again. I finished the exam really early and found it pretty easy. It had a few questions that required some thinking, which I wouldn't have been able to do very well if I had pulled an all nighter.

Lesson learned: Sleep more, study less.

I'm half way done my exams. I have an infection control exam tomorrow and then a couple more exams next week.

Dangerous study experiment: To sleep or to cram? That is the question.

I have to write a Cardiovascular A&P Midterm at 8AM tomorrow morning. I don't feel like I've done enough studying. I've spent quite a few hours, studying for this midterm over the last few days, but I just don't feel like I've done enough studying. The temptation, and plan until about 15 minutes ago, was to cram all night.

In the past, when I've done an all night cram for an exam, I've wondered if I would have been better off by just closing the books and getting a good nights sleep. Studying your ass off and then writing an exam when you're physically and mentally exhausted sucks and I just don't feel like putting myself through that kind of crap again. I'm going to try it! I'm going to bed. Maybe things will work out and maybe they won't...

Either way, I'll at least have something to post about tomorrow.

Posting Holiday

I might not be posting for a while. I'm studying for midterm exams.

I did a really good Job shadow with an RT department on Thursday, so that's probably what my next post will be about.

My first midterm is on Tuesday October 14th. My last midterm is on Wednesday October 22nd.

Bad paper pushing

I have to submit all of my immunization records to the school's Health Services department, so that they can make sure that I have met all of my immunization requirements.

For the second time, they are telling me that my immunization requirements are incomplete. The last time they told me that, I told them to look at the documentation in my paper file.

When they looked in my file, they found documentation confirming that all of my immunization requirements have been met.

This kind of stuff ticks me off.

Tests and Marks and other stuff

The A&P test I wrote on Wednesday was a lot easier than people were expecting. I really won't know how well my new hybrid lecture/study note strategy will work for me, until I use that strategy to prepare for some more challenging tests. If I'm not mistaken, the next batch of tests will be midterm exams. Those will start on October 14th, which is the day after Canadian Thanksgiving.

I have a group assignment in my General A&P course that's due in a couple of weeks. The assignment has a few components and they will all be posted on an online discussion forum. Everyone in the class is expected to participate in discussions related to the posted assignments of others. I was a bit miffed today when my group mates told me that they had decided that we were going to have the bulk of the assignment finished and posted by tomorrow night. I really was planning on working on some other things that seem to be a hell of a lot more important. I'm glad that I kept my mouth shut, about the self imposed arbitrary deadline, because the assignment is mostly finished and I don't really have to worry much about it anymore. That was a first for me. I'm the slacker in the group, who had to be bullied into getting my ass into gear!

Today I also finished the first draft of an assignment that I have to hand in tomorrow. It's just a one page summary of a journal article but it sure did feel like quite the chore, when I wrote it up early this afternoon. I was a bit stressed because I had to get it done, so that I could work on my part of the group project that I mentioned earlier. I haven't spent any time today, trying to get caught up on my reading and studying.

The test marks for the course that everyone was worried about, were posted today. A lot of people didn't really do very well. I got a 75% and I think that's one of the better marks in the class. In my program, a pass is 65%, so 75% isn't really something to be proud of. A few people who usually talk about their marks fairly freely, "didn't want to talk about it". The people in my class are fairly studious, and are accustomed to doing well academically, so they aren't too pleased about getting low marks for anything.

286 people applied to get into my program. The program only has 36 first year seats.

For a few days, I was actually only about a week behind in my school work. Now I'm almost 2 weeks behind again and I'm kind of OK with that fact. WTF?

More of my study strategies

I'm currently trying to figure out how to study smarter. Studying harder will only get me so far. For various reasons you can only spend so many hours a day studying. I'm already studying as hard as I'm willing to study. Now I need to make my studying more efficient and effective.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I have given up on study notes. For me they just take too much time to prepare and waste valuable time that could be spent actually studying. I'm now studying for another General A&P Test that I have to write tomorrow. I've discovered that if I use my lecture notes as a guideline for studying, and make annotations to those notes while studying, I end up with what I'm going to call hybrid notes. Hybrid notes are just lecture notes that are annotated while I'm studying. I'm not wasting any time by rewriting lecture notes or summarizing information from textbooks, I'm just adding to my existing lecture notes as I study those and my textbook(s).

I'm studying while I'm creating hybrid notes. I'm not preparing hybrid notes so that I can then study them. The hybrid notes are a byproduct of my studying. When I'm finished with the creation of my hybrid notes, I'm finished studying. In the future, I can use the hybrid notes to quickly review everything that I've studied. The hybrid notes should come in handy when I'm studying for mid term exams, final exams, composite exams and the dreaded registry exam of January 2011.

Using the above, also seems to be a hell of a lot less stressful and may result in me actually going to bed earl tonight.

So many blogs, so little time

I used to read a lot of blogs. Now I can only read two or three of them a day. I've been spending ridiculous amounts of time studying. If I haven't read or commented on your blog, it's because I'm too busy not because I've lost interest.

Later this evening I'm going to achieve a major milestone. In only a few more hours, I will only be 1 week behind in my school work. :-(

Fifth Test

I wrote my fifth test today. Now I know what kind of tests to expect from each course and instruct0r. Writing the first test for a course is always a bit stressful for me because I don't know what to expect.

This morning I decided to not make study notes any more. I spend too much time making study notes and not enough time studying. I have lecture notes, homework questions and textbooks to study from. I don't need to waste my time making study notes. I don't find that the process of making study notes, actually helps me to learn anything.

Note: In previous posts I made references to some quizzes. Officially, they're called quizzes but for all intents and purposes they're tests. If it's worth 10-12% of a course mark, I'm calling it a test from now on.

First real quiz today

I wrote my first real quiz today. It was worth 10% of the course mark. I wrote a quiz last week, for General A&P, and it was pretty easy.

Today's quiz, for my Applied Science course, was multiple choice and included a bunch of calculations. The quiz made me realize something. Writing down formulas and providing a pretty and "correct" solution is a waste of time. The name of the game is to do the math, without writing anything down if possible, and selecting the correct answer. Showing first principles, the formulas used, and identifying all species isn't required and will just slow you down.

1. Understand the question
2. Figure out the correct answer to the question.
3. Select the correct answer(s) from the available answers.
4. Repeat.

NOTE: Only write things down, if they assist with the timeley completion of steps 1 and or 2.

Things I wish I could remember

Below are 9 numbers that I have to memorize for a test next week. I'm about to give up on those and start studying stuff that I can actually remember. I have 3 more tests to write next week, that don't require the memorization of things that my brain refuses to remember.

Trying to remember those numbers is like trying to remember chemistry nomenclature. I can remember facts, formulas, concepts, conversion factors and densities without any problems... I suspect that I have a big gaping hole in the part of my brain that people are supposed to use to memorize stuff like this.

Did I get dropped on my head too many times when I was a kid? Did I eat a bunch of lead paint when I was a kid. WTF?

Critical Pressure of Oxygen: 715.87 psig
Critical Temperature of Oxygen: -118.4 C
Boiling Point of Oxygen: -183 C
Melting Point of Oxygen: -216.6

Critical Temperature of Carbon Dioxide: 31.0 C
Boiling Point of Carbon Dioxide: -78.4 C
Melting Point of Carbon Dioxide: -78.4 C

Boiling Point of Nitrogen: -195.4 C
Melting Point of Nitrogen: -209.86 C

Refrigerate after opening

I've transformed myself into a studying machine. The whiny complainy part of my brain, that thinks I have too much studying to do, is curled up into a little ball and sobbing quietly in the back left hand corner of my brain.

Last Friday I had my first General Therapeutics lab and almost knocked over a type E Oxygen cylinder. I kind of tripped over the damn thing. The lab instructor saw me do it and asked if I was OK. At that point I had both hands on the cylinder and was trying not to have a stroke. I told her that I was more concerned about the cylinder. Her response was, "Good RT". She seemed to think that my reaction was kind of funny. Note to self: I there are small Oxygen cylinders in the room, try not to knock them over.

I was hungry last night and had a craving for spaghetti. I cooked up some pasta and went to the fridge to get the sauce, that I had opened and used a few days earlier. The sauce wasn't there. WTF? Did I imagine the last time I ate spaghetti? Oh crap. I put it back in the cupboard after I opened and used some of it. It looked pretty good. It didn't smell or taste funny. Hmm. What could go wrong if I had some? I noticed the "Refrigerate after opening" warning and then promptly dumped the stuff down the kitchen sink.

Pasta with Ranch salad dressing, actually tastes pretty good...

Blog Title Change

I'm changing the title of my blog a bit. I'm going to change it from "RT Scribe: Notes of a Respiratory Therapy Student" to "RT Scribe: Notes of a Student Respiratory Therapist".

Student Respiratory Therapist is the legally protected title for Respiratory Therapy Students up here, so it's the more correct term. Everyone at school calls us SRTs. I think I might even be able to put SRT at the end of my name, if I felt like it.

Study strategies

I wasn't really being too smart about how and what I was studying, so I found myself a bit behind in my studies by the middle of last week. Most of my falling behind was due to poor study habits and strategies.

I was actually trying to study in my living room! That didn't work out so well. The temptation to turn on the TV was too great to resist and I found myself taking frequent breaks, from studying, to watch "a little bit of TV". I now have a dedicated study space, formerly known as my dining room table, which I use for my studying.

I was reading stuff in my textbooks that wasn't required. If I'm supposed to read a chapter in a textbook, for a course, I now refer to what's in the course outline and in my lecture notes to make sure that I know what has to be read. If it doesn't have to be read, I try not to read it. Sometimes you can avoid reading several pages in a chapter if you know what can be safely ignored. It's better to focus on what you need to learn and learn it well. Unfortunately, there's lots of interesting stuff to be ignored...

Already fallen behind

It's only the second week and I've already fallen behind. I'll get into the details about what went wrong, on the weekend. I have to prepare for my first General Therapeutics lab tomorrow, so I don't have time to go into the details.

My scrubs arrived today. I will be wearing them at school tomorrow. I actually look pretty good in my nifty new red scrubs :-)

Correction (108)

Oops. I misread something.

dilbert.com has 108 Dilbert Animated Shorts and I'm watching them all. After I'm done, I might start studying A&P again.

Hmmm. I wonder if there are any new TV shows on tonight.

21

dilbert.com has 21 Dilbert Animated Shorts and I'm watching them all. After I'm done, I might start studying A&P again.

Last school day of first week

My reading list for last night, was a bit too optomistic. I still have to do a bunch of reading to catch up. I was only able to get throught the material for Respiratory A&P. I felt the need to read slowly and study the diagrams, so that I was actually comprehending what Iwas reading. For my General A&P course, I still need to read chapter 1&2 of Marieb and Module 1&2 of the course module package. For my Cardio A&P course I still need to read chapter 18 of Marieb and Chapter 5 of Des Jardins.

I had my first Infection Control and Safety class today. Wash your hands. Wash your hands well.. Wash your hands often.

I went to a BBQ this afternoon and met a few of the second year students. I also had a couple of interesting conversations with a few faculty members. I was feeling pretty anti social, so I was ot of there pretty quick.

Apparently we only have 4 students in our class that came straight from high school. They're known as the Highschoolers. Most of the students in my class seem to be in their mid twenties, with a few in their thirties and possibly a couple in their early fourties.

Lots of reading today

I actually got a decent amount of sleep last night, so the material covered in the Cardio A&P lecture today made sense. Sleep is good. Sleep makes me less stupid. Being less stupid is a good thing.

Today is only the third day of school and I'm already starting to feel like I'm falling behind. Today I'm trying to catch up on my reading.

• For my Respiratory A&P course, I need to read pgs. 831-838 of Marieb, pgs. 7-23 of Des Jardins and pgs. 174-180 of Egan's.
• For my General A&P course, I need to read chapter 1&2 of Marieb and Module 1&2 of the course module package that the school self published.
• For my Cardio A&P course I need to read chapter 18 of Marieb and Chapter 5 of Des Jardins.

Today I overheard my Cardio A&P Professor mention something about previous students "having breakdowns". I'm not exactly sure what she meant by that and I've decided that I don't really want to know.

Second day thoughts

Yesterday was my second day of RT School. This is some stuff I was thinking about this morning:

• Everything except my Ethics course is taught by an RT.
• My ethics teacher doesn't seem prepared for teaching his course. He's not very familiar with current events and stuff that's been making the news for a few years. He was telling us how we should be reading the newspaper, so that we know what's going on in the world...
• In Respiratory A&P we were learning about the nasal cavity. Clinical relevance was discussed and made everyone very interested in the topic. An Endotracheal tube was discussed and passed around. I think we were also shown a nebulizer doing it's thing. That class was really short.
• I am not carrying all my freaking books to school again. That was really stupid. I had this delusional fantasy about studying in the library after I was done with my classes. After my Genera A&P class, I just wanted to go home and sleep.
• I have to start sleeping like a normal person. I could do my job on 5 hours of sleep. I can't be a very good student on 5 hours of sleep. Studying while tired is a waste of time for me because I can't retain anything that I've read.

First day of school

Today was the first day of RT school.

I have homework and it's not from any of my RT related courses. I have homework for my Workplace Ethics course, which is an elective. I've been exempted from one of the three electives that I have to take. At this point, I think that I will stick with the Workplace Ethics course and use it as one of the two electives that I still need to take.

In my Respiratory A&P course, the professor went on and on about how cool it was to be an RT. That was a good thing as far as I was concerned. He also mentioned some things that are in the good to know category.

• RTs can go straight into Critical Care (ICU or Emerg) at the start of their career. A lot of other medical professionals only do that after getting some experience and additional training under their belt.
• 15 countries accept Canadian RTs. The fact that Canadian RTs are trained to the higher standard of RRT (Registered Respiratory Therapist), makes Canadian RTs more of a none quantity in other countries. If you're an RT from Canada, you're an RRT.
• If you are into the cram and forget study method, you are screwed. You must learn and retain what you have learned.

The General Therapeutics course is being taught by the program coordinator. Most of the class was spent doing program orientation stuff. At the end of the class, we went down to the lab and were given our lab safety training. We will be using pressurized oxygen in the lab, so we have to be aware of some of the potential dangers associated with oxygen cylinders and compressed oxygen. Can make big boom and also make little fire very big and hot... Why is that lab right beside the cafeteria's kitchen?

There won't be a General Therapeutics lab this week, so we're expected to go to a BBQ that the second year RT Students have arranged. About 12 of the second year students came into class and mentioned the BBQ and said hi.

I didn't have an Applied Science class today but the program coordinator told us that she will also be teaching that course because the person who was going to teach that course can't anymore. The Monday morning class will now start at 9AM instead of 8AM. Yaaaay.

The professor who is in charge of the clinical placements and job shadowing came in and talked to us during the General Therapeutics class. The job shadowing for this semester is part of an actual course that will have assignments and homework. I will do job shadowing twice this semester. Everything except the job shadowing will be done online. The assignments are designed to make students more aware of what the RT profession is all about. One of the assignments involves making a poster for RT Week.

I found out that my scrubs haven't been ordered yet. Apparently, you can't just fill out an order form and expect them to order scrubs for you! I was supposed to take my copy of the order form to the book store and pay for them! I payed for my scrubs and bought a lab coat. I can wear the lab coat until my scrubs arrive.

I picked a locker that was close to the library. I wish that faculty would stop telling us how hard the program is. Some of us are becoming afeared...

One more sleep

One more sleep until I start Respiratory Therapy School. My first class tomorrow, at 8AM, is an elective course called Ethics In The Workplace. I'm trying to get an exemption from that elective. Until I know for sure that I'm granted an exemption, I'll be attending the class. I should find out tomorrow if I have been granted an exemption.

My other two classes tomorrow are Respiratory A&P and General Therapeutics.

If I don't get an exemption from that 8AM Ethics course, Tuesdays and Wednesdays will have 6 hours of classes and will be my longest days. My current timetable has 22 hours of classes on it. If I get the exemption, my timetable will have 19 hours of classes on it.

Day before school starts

School starts tomorrow.

That is all :-)