Proud Moment

Yesterday was a very proud day in our family.
I had my capping ceremony to receive my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.

It was an amazingly long day but such a lot of fun.

Life Goes On....

It sure does folks, life has just been racing by and I feel like I haven't been here for a while?
A quick check of the last post and it was over 10 days ago, so not really that bad at all.

So where have you been I can hear you all wondering?
Living life I will answer, but there are a few things I will share with you.

Study
As you are all aware I have been completing my Bachelors of Nursing over the last 2 years. Only had 4 papers to complete. Not too bad...1 paper every 6 months, which mainly consisted of 2 essays.
Well I can finally announce that paper #4 is complete.
Yep, 2nd essay got placed in the mail last night.

Done, finito, finished, end of story....I have done it and survived.
I just have to wait the next 3 weeks for the mark to be available and then it is official but I am quietly confident in myself, so I have no doubts that I have just achieved my Bachelors Degree!

Labour Weekend
New Zealand has just had Labour Weekend this past weekend. The weather was not the greatest nor was it the worst we have had. It didn't stop us as a family going to our caravan and having a great time.
The boys got to play with friends they have known for a while but were able to cement the relationships a little further. 1 of the nights they both got invited to sleepovers in some else's caravan so we even managed a night without them. Bonus!
We managed to get the plants cleared from behind the caravan with the help of my mum who came to spend a night with us, luckily we managed to get this achieved on the 1 sunny day we had, so we were very lucky. It looks great now, all we have to do is get some form of platform down to keep it level and it will be awesome in time for the Christmas break

School Holidays
The school holidays only finished the week before Labour Weekend, so I feel like we had only just got over having a lovely 2 weeks with the boys and then everything was due at this time. The holidays were fun and I had a lovely relaxed time with the boys. It was the best holidays I have had with them for a long time.

Alex being as cheeky as always!

Work
Even though I have yet to secure a permanent job, I was lucky enough to gain 2 days work with my cousin at the office she works at. They are responsible for the regalia that is used in the graduation ceremony for the local University. So for 2 days I got to celebrate with all the graduates as they collected and returned their regalia for their ceremony. It was the most joyous happy work I have ever completed. Everyone was so proud of themselves and extremely happy it was over. We congratulated everyone when they collected their stuff and they were so full of smiles. It was a great 2 days, plus I got paid to be there, bonus!
I also managed to score a single day job as a patient actor for the nursing school. So I spent a day sat on a bed in a room whilst nursing students got to do a basic assessment on me. Nothing bad just the same thing every 30 minutes. It was interesting and hey it paid some more money so wasn't going to pass on the opportunity. They have even offered me a 2nd day next week which I have accepted.

On the permanent work front, there hasn't really been anything in the last few weeks.
However I did have a meet and greet, which I think turned into more of an interview yesterday at a private ear clinic just round the corner from me.
They were lovely and I feel I related with them amazingly and that I fitted really well. The director of the company was awesome and I feel we gelled really well. I happily joined in with the other staff over morning tea.
I definitely handed back my application form later that day and I know through the sneaky grapevine that they have sent reference checks out to my referees. So fingers crossed for this. I think it would be a great little place to work. Yes it is a small private place but it seems friendly and inviting and I think I will fit in just nicely there.

Hobbies
I have several hobbies...reading, sewing.
Although I have never let myself indulge too much whilst I have been growing the boys. Also as mentioned in a post a while ago I am terrible when I read as I get lost in what I am reading and everything else disappears out the window until the book is finished! Not that we are talking about wild classic novels here, oh no, we are talking Danielle Steel and other family romance novels, the really heavy girl stuff. If I find a series then I am typically screwed as if I find I am enjoying the first then I just have to have the rest of the series and I want to finish them all just as soon as I can!
Well with the study now complete and the boys also leaving me alone for more time nowadays then reading is suddenly taking over again. Roll on summer.
However I have found a new hobbie....one I knew I would eventually get into but to an extent I needed to let the times catch up with this hobbie...as I have finally taken up scrap booking, digital scrap booking too.
Man is it easy to loose yourself for hours doing layouts on the computer?
I will post about this more in a while as I have lots to say and as I am only using a trial edition of my scrap book programme I can't post layouts until the activation key comes through next week. Keep you posted on that one soon.

So there you have it. I have been a little absent but not quiet in any means.

Goals + 5%

I actually achieved my 5% weight lose goal last week, but due to an issue I didn't want to mention it until I had been to weigh in this week. Just to clarify that it was correct.

It seems that people have got into the habit of wearing the same clothes each week for weigh in, this is because it is amazing how much certain items can weigh.
I was lucky enough to be wearing a pair of jeans the first week I weighed in, so I decided to continue wearing them, especially as winter was coming our way and I knew I would be wearing them most Fridays for the next few months.
I have also managed to wear the same pair of shoes each week so have been happy to weigh in wearing them. However last week my ankle was playing up so I wore my running shoes, now these are known to weigh about 500g-1kg so I took them off. Then I had a wonderful weight lose of 500g which took me right down and under my 5% goal, but if I had been wearing the correct shoes would it have happened?
Who knows, so this week I made sure I was wearing the exact same things and yes I definitely got my 5% goal and also lost another 500g this week (that is 1kg in 2 weeks).

So now that I am well aware that I did achieve my goal then I can celebrate and let all know what I have achieved. Oh and also what else I achieved this week.......

The other goal I have achieved this week is the completion of my 2nd essay for the paper I am currently studying.

First essay was due in Apr 17 and I succeeded in passing this paper with 78%. Yea me.
2nd essay got sent off today and on completion of marking, which I know I will pass (positive thinking here guys!) then I will have achieved my 3rd paper and only have 1 left to complete this year.
Although on completion of the next paper I will have successfully completed my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.

So by the end of this year I will have achieved my degree and lost weight, what better way to end a year.

Studying

As many of you know, I am currently achieving my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.
Whilst this sounds amazing and you think I am well organised to be able to work, run a family and live and also get this, let me tell you a little secret, it is all by correspondence and I have been working as a nurse for the last 16 years, so these are not topics I am unfamiliar too. Also due to when I completed my training depended on how many papers I needed to complete. In my case that is 4, so by doing 1 paper a semester, it is taking me 2 years to complete. I am coming to the end of paper 3 so almost there.
In fact ask me again by about end of October and you will find me partying and praying that my last essay is a pass and then I have a degree.

Anyway, this course has been very easy but then to an extent I think they have made it very easy and sometimes this bugs me!
Shut up and go with it I can hear you all say but how can I not wonder when things are just too easy. Bear with me on this.

For starters I don't have to attend any lectures at all. I can find out sufficient information by reading some books and writing the essay. Good job I am not trying to learn too much from this.

Each paper has 2 essays, that is all you have to do to complete the paper. However the marking is way off. In order to pass the paper you have to get an overall mark of 50%. Now that is not 50% per essay that is 50% in total from both essays.
So if you pass the first essay with 60% and pass the next essay with 80% then overall you pass the paper with 70%. Well done you.
However if you fail the first essay with 40% but pass the 2nd essay with 60% then overall you have a score of 50% so you have passed the paper! Meaning that you can fail 1 of the 2 essays as long as you make up the marks on the other essay!
To me that is not right? If you fail part of the course how can you actually pass the course?

I am now on paper 3, essay 1 has been handed in and we are desperately waiting for the results, which are taking a long time in being available.
However whilst we are waiting we do currently have essay 2 to complete.
The essay was due May 17, but a week after the first essay was handed in we gained an extension. Yippee for us so now it is due in May 24.
Last week they distributed a template to assist you in writing your essay. Yes rather than getting you to write the essay from just reading the question they have actually given you a template which more or less gives you ideas and suggestions on how to write the essay.
Then a few days later they gave you a table that showed you how to distribute the words for each section so you get the correct word count for the essay!
Are you telling me that anyone writing a 2500 word essay at Degree level is unable to correctly distribute that amount of words over 5-6 sections? Come on people this is degree level 7 here, not 1st grade English essay writing!

Then today, after they have had a lecture about the essay this morning, we have suddenly gained another extension! Now ok this extension is only from 9am Thursday morning to 4pm Friday afternoon but why do I get the feeling that yet again they feel the students can't cope so lets give them more, much more.

Last year was a little of the same. I actually attended a lecture and at the end the tutor said she would be answering questions on the essay due if anyone wanted to stay behind. Well she went further than that she more or less explained what to write.
She stood at the front and went through each part of the essay step by step. More or less saying 'well in the first section they want you to define xyz, so you need to look up a definition of the words and write what it means....start the sentence something like "the definition of ........ is ......... which means ......." Oh and don't forget to reference where you got the information from.

I knew something was going wrong when she had to explain to the class one time how to reference in an essay. You are meant to integrate the references whilst writing the paragraph.

For example - The world is round (Smith 2010) although many have challenged this theory and often wonder if the world has extra parts on the side (Bates 2009).

Most of the students on the course were doing the following:
The world is round although many have challenged this theory and often wonder if the world has extra parts on the side. Smith 2010 (always just writing a full paragraph and putting a single reference at the end!)

I am not sure how I managed to drive home that day without driving off the road from shock!

Now I just keep joking that by Wednesday I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't an example essay available online for the students to use where they just have to insert words at appropriate places that are relevant to their chosen topic!

Study Time

So once again my study has commenced!


I am bound by deadlines and essays, research and commitments.
I am heaving my brain into an area it doesn't like to go too often but in fact once it gets there it actually enjoys what it is doing.

I had my first trip to Rotorua which consisted of being there by 9am for a 2 hour lecture and then turning round and driving straight back again so I could finish my day at work!
It was a busy morning, but not one I will have to repeat too often as I feel that I do not need to attend all of the tutorials available and in fact I am not expected to either, so any I do attend are a bonus.

But I do know the goal at the end and that is that come November I will have a Degree in Nursing and that in itself will be one of the biggest things for me to have achieved presently. I will attend my graduation ceremony with much pride and celebration next year, so watch this space.

Hope for Everyone

As many of you know, I am currently, very slowly, gaining my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.
This is coming 16 years after I qualified as a Nurse, but when I qualified, degrees were not the normal to have.

It is actually amazing how many people you will find nowadays who are working towards getting a qualification many years after they have left school.

I saw this news article today about one such man, who after 40 years has finally completed his Degree in Law.

So there is hope and inspiration to us all, if you want it bad enough then you will make it happen.

Party Time

As I mentioned here, I have finished my study for the year.
The party could start as soon as I received my result......

Let the party begin I got my result....70% which gives me an overall garde of B+ for this paper. Along with the B+ I got on the first paper then I am way happy and quite satisfied with that thank you very much.

Summer here I come.....!

Studying

I have finished my 2nd paper for this term.
That means, unless I have to resubmit (which god help me if I do!), I have finished all my study for this year.

And it was that easy folks, 2 papers completed throughout the year and only 2 more left to do next year and then hey presto (if only a magic wand would help!) I will have completed everything to obtain my Bachelor Degree in Nursing.

It has had its good moments, like passing a paper with 85% through to tearing my hair out when I can't find any references to back up what I want to say not what they would like me to say!
I have had stressful moments when I wonder why I am putting myself through all this, and only at Degree level when everyone tells me it should really be at Masters level! But there have also been times when I know why I am doing this and know this is my only way forward, this then spurs me to keep going, because then I know I only have myself to answer to when things don't go how I would like them too.

So the year of study has ended, I am not happy with this paper but also am not going to stress over it anymore. You can gain 40% of the mark just on presentation, correct referencing and correct academic standards alone, so to gain about 60% which I will be perfectly happy with I really only have to get 25% to match the 35% I normally manage to collect for the presentation side.
This 60% along with my 85% (pure fluke I am sure) from paper 1 will give me an overal mark of about 70% and that is still a B, so a B on both papers of this year is excellent in my eyes and that is all that matters.

Let the holidays begin

Blow My Own Trumpet

Occassionally you can be really proud of yourself and feel like you want to tell the world.
Unfortunately some people then think you are showing off when all you really wanted to do was celebrate when you have achieved something great or be proud of your own success for just 2 minutes.

Well this is one of those times when I am going to pronouce to the world how wonderful I think I am and how proud of myself I am too.

I am currently, slowly, completing my Degree in Nursing. This entails 1 paper every 6 months and each paper requires 2 essays.
The first was Nursing Knowledge and I completed this between Feb and Jul of this year. The results for that paper are as follows:

• Essay 1 = 79%
• Essay 2 = 72%
• Overal Paper Mark = 76% = B+

Yea for me, well impressed with myself

The 2nd paper I am doing is Law and Ethics within Nursing, this is being completed from Jul through to Nov.
And yes the reason I am writing all this is because I just got my result for essay 1 of this paper.
Now before I give you the result, let me tell you I felt this was one of my worst papers, I did everything in a 48 hour window one weekend (in fact the weekend as it was due!) and when I went through the marking sheet as answering the questions I really only put myself in the low 60's, but then I didn't care as I only need 50% to pass the paper.

So it is no wonder, as I sat at my desk this morning at work that I let out a little celebratory yippee as I read the result of 85% for essay 1.

I am very proud of myself and I want the whole world to know it.
Now I just have to complete essay 2 in the next 3 weeks and I am done with study for this year and have a nice summer holiday till Feb next year.

Clarification

After announcing how happy I was to have passed my first essay, I got the feeling that some of the people reading my blog thought I was training to be a nurse.

So to clarify this, I thought I would just let you know what I am doing.

I am already a nurse, have been for 16 years. Although I trained in England and came away with a nursing qualification that was only at Diploma level. Doesn't actually make any difference to nursing as to whether you have a diploma or a degree, but nowadays when you train you do come away with a degree if you pass the whole course.
However I am bored with nursing, it doesn't hold my interest anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love helping people, I love being able to be there to support them and to educate & help them. I haven't given up nursing I just know that this is not what I want to be doing for the next 25 years of my working career. I want to try something else. Ok there are no guarentees that the something else I choose to do will fit, but then the same could be said for the career choice I made at 17 years of age!

Unfortunately when investigating other options it became very clear early on that any other profession would involve getting a degree. Sadly this would mean having to train in something else for up to 3 years fulltime to obtain a new qualification. We don't have the resources etc needed for me to become a student fulltime for 3 yrs. So we had to look at other options, like how could I train in something else in a shorter amount of time?

Answer..........have a degree and do a 1 yr fulltime course in my chosen profession.
Problem........don't have a degree!
Solution.........get a degree.

After investigating it made sense to get a degree in nursing as it is only 4 papers and I can do them parttime. Thus I can continue to work, which works well for our family.
So for the next 2 years I am doing 1 paper every 6 months. Sounds really small amount but it is 2 essays to be completed in the 4 month period of the sememster. Sounds easy but you throw in 4 days of work, boys activites, family living and suddenly the time available to study with is not actually very much per week.
I know it will be slow, but it is the best way to do it for this family. We can justify me being a student fulltime for 1yr but not 3yrs.

So I have another essay due in in 12 days time and then I will have completed paper 1. In July I will start paper 2. Next year I will complete papers 3 & 4.
Hopefully in January 2013 I will commence a 1 yr course in my chosen profession.
In the beginning of 2014 I will be newly qualified and either working back in nursing because I can't find a job or starting on a new path in my life.
I do wish things were different and I could do 2 papers a sememster because then I would have the degree by the end of this year and start training next year, but sometimes life doesn't allow you to do exactly what you want when you want, so you make the best of what you do have.

For us, this is the best we can do at present, so I am not saying no to it and running with it happily.

Not All Lost

Thankfully all is not lost.
I have actually put pen to paper/ fingers to keyboard, even if it is only 200 words out of 2000.
The block is clearing and there is some light available.
I can't say this won't happen again with the next essay or paper, because with it being distant learning I know there is a huge chance it will.
I am still the first to admit that distant learning and myself just do not play nicely together, we fight and bicker and happily throw our toys at each other!

Yesterday was the past
Today is the present
And as for tomorrow? ........We will just have to wait and see!

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts.
Nice to get encouragement from some unexpected places.

I Quit

All I have accomplished today is the desire to QUIT.
Quit study that is, not life or work!

Last week I managed until 2pm before I have a major breakdown, unfortunately this week it only got to 10.30am.
I kicked, screamed, swore, yelled, cried  and generally lost it. My notes flew across the study and I walked stormed out of the room slamming the door behind me.

I am in a very low dark place at present and know that this is not rational thinking, but my emotions are on the edge and everytime I think about what is involved and how the hell am I going to achieve it more tears well up and threaten to flow.

I don't know if I am making this harder on myself or whether it really is this hard? But it is just not coming together. I have spent the last 4 Wednesdays going round and round in circles. I don't know whether I am missing the point or whether this is the whole point!
I am in week either 6 or 7 now and my first essay of 2000 words is due next week. Sadly I do not even have 3 words let alone any evidence to back up anything I want to write. The subjects are just not sinking in, I don't seem to be grasping an understanding of the whole thing and if I have to look for one more resource I think the computer will get it!
The course tutor has said to stopping looking for resources and to just write something down, but when you are struggling to understand the subject it is difficult to write anything. The 1st essay is in 4 parts and I am still only just trying to digest part 1, so I can't even move forward onto part 2 because otherwise it seems like a whole waste of the time I have just spent.
I don't seem to have taken any steps forward in the weeks since I started the study, I just seem to have gone backwards the whole way, way back actually.
I knew from the start of this adventure that me and distance learning just did not meet in the middle, I knew this was going to happen but had to start the ball rolling to see if it was achieveable because this was the only option available!

To say I am struggling is an understatement, I am lost, I don't know where to turn, what to look for, even how to find it. I seem to be wasting a lot of time trying to find a resource to only find that that one was of no use what so ever and have to start all over again.
I have the ability to access online databases, but am hitting brick walls there. I have the library at the hospital but limited time to get there but it takes time to go there and I am finding I realise I need something from there and then end up taking an hour out of my study time to manage to get the one resource which again then in turn turns out to be something that really has no relevance at all.
It has got to be easier than this, it has got to be a little simpler than this, it can't be this hard?

I know why I am attempting this study, I know what the end goal is, so please I don't need to be preached to about 'just think what you are working towards, just think about how you will feel when you achieve the end goal?' I know all that, don't think for a second it doesn't run through my head all the time. That is part of what makes this so frustrating, knowing that to a point this is my only option to achieve the goal I want, that is what makes it so hard, I know there is no other way.

I don't want to quit, I know that one of the papers I have coming up next year will be fun, I even think I may do it in the first semester next year instead of the 2nd because I know I will get through it and love it. But at the moment I have a very large black cloud hanging above me and I can't see my way out of it to even get to the end of this paper let alone move on to something else!

Frustration

Had heard back about my ongoing quest to become a Teacher.
Go check it all out here.

Lets just say, things are a little frustrating at present!

No Turning Back...!

I posted last week about how I was looking into completing my Bachelors of Nursing.
Well, there is no turning back now, as prior to having our weekend away I collected all the relevent paperwork I needed for the application. I got it all verified by JP and completed all 10 (felt like it!) 5 forms required.

Today, I went to Wintec and officially handed in my application.
Now I just sit back and wait for the letter to tell me exactly what I have to complete to achieve my goal. Will probably be May before I know completely.

On the other hand, one of the nice ladies at Wintec sent me through the Bio for the paper I think I have to complete.
Well Steve and I had a good laugh reading it as it is all based around very basic leadership, change and evaluating of yourself as a nurse, or more to the point, how to analyse yourself and your practise as you become a registered nurse!
This course is actually focused at people who are just completing their nurse training, so I may find some of the lectures and papers very interesting as I will be bringing 15 yrs experience to the lectures!

Looks like it is going to be a fun year