Friday, July 17, 2009

On Completing Requirements for School

What a day! I finally was able to finish The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada Basic Life Support and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Course for Health Care Providers! I actually considered this quite an accomplishment because I now know how to administer CPR to infants and adults (including two-rescuer scenarios and the use of bag mask), what to do during a foreign-body airway obstruction, and how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED).

I am so confident that if I see anyone out there collapse I exactly know what to do. Just follow the ABCD: Airway, Breathing, Circulation, and Defibrillator.

I was extremely lucky that I was the only trainee during that time and I had my personal trainer with me and I controlled our time for the session. It only took me 2.5 hours out of the normal 4 hours to train, perform, and take the written test (which I aced!).

I highly recommend Swoop First Aid for health care professionals out there looking for certification or re-certification. Dave, the instructor, was really nice and the training atmosphere was relaxing and fun.

I was actually supposed to do the certification after I got my conditional acceptance form from Grant MacEwan but I just wanted to finish this prerequisite already beforehand so that I can just hand the certificate to the Nursing Admission Team and have nothing to worry afterwards.

I really feel so accomplished because I already have finished updating my immunization, requesting a police information check, and I even applied for student loan already which turned out successful! All I need now is the conditional acceptance letter from MacEwan and I'll truly be happy.

The Proposal

We were watching TV when my mom suddenly said that it's too bad that we didn't get to watch The Proposal at the theatres. I then told her that it's still showing at Cineplex Odeon at Edmonton South Common. And guess what happened next? It was already 9 PM and my mom said that we should go and watch it - which we did.

Was the movie worth it? It sure was! I never knew that I had an extreme liking to romantic comedies. The movie was funny and witty. Although this would never ever happen in real life, heck! At least I enjoyed watching a complete fictitious movie.

Although I was a bit offended to what Margarette Tate (played by Sandra Bullock) said, that immigrants are only paperboys and gardeners. I just let it go because there is a bit of truth with this especially in the US.

I really love how Ryan Reynolds portray his characters as funny, smart, and witty.

Here's a clip that I found on the internet. I wonder if this clip was a genuine fight between Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock, and Betty White. But I bet that this is only some sort of gimmick to get people to watch the movie which I think is unnecessary because the movie is truly wonderful!






For the Love of Wine

I don't drink beer or any kind of alcoholic drinks but lately I have acquired the liking to red wine. After dinner, especially when we eat red meat, it has already become customary for me and my parents to drink red wine. I don't drink a lot though but having half a glass already satisfies me.

That's why we wanted to have a wine glass rack to be built in our kitchen of our soon to be constructed house. We wanted to have our wine glasses and of course our wine to be displayed because first of all it looks so classy and it's only convenient to have everything placed right there after dinner. It's just unfortunate that having one built by our house builder would cause a lot of money more.

But never the less we decided that we could just buy a hanging glass rack and install it ourselves. It saves us more money and we get to decide from a wide variety of shapes and styles of glass racks so it's all good.

The things we do for good health. Yes a glass of red wine a day is definitely good for the heart and may even boost the life expectancy to 5 years as a new research proposed!

Monday, July 13, 2009

The Nursing Life: Reminiscing Once Again

It has been several months now since I've written any blog post related to my life as a student nurse. But even if all I've been writing about is my break away from the "nursing world" I still remember and would never ever forget all the emotions, experience, and people I've encountered as a student nurse. I don't know about the knowledge part though because I feel like I've suffered the rare case of "selective amnesia".

A co-worker of mine asked me why I want to still pursue my nursing career when there are other jobs that offers higher compensation and are in high demand. Well let's just say that I want to enjoy my job and nursing is quite enjoyable: if your patient and other nurses aren't a pain that is.

Sure there are so many reasons I can name why I don't and shouldn't be a nurse but there is only one reason that I need to pursue my studies in nursing: I can never imagine myself in the future as anything else but as a nurse.

Well I have to get admitted to a nursing program first to be able to fulfill my dreams and goals so to the Grant MacEwan Admission Team, if you're reading this, please and I mean PLEASE accept me for this Fall term.

I also would like to give props and kudos to NursingSchools.net for recognizing my beloved personal slash nursing blog and placing it in their Top 50 Happy Nursing Blogs List!


Watching the Beautiful Hummingbirds

I really like watching animals go on with their daily lives on Discovery Channel. I find animals very fascinating and somehow just watching them makes me forget all my worries. I especially love watching the squirrels, rabbits, and especially the hummingbirds that come visit the garden of my grandma.

My grandma takes pride in her garden and her frequent visitors: the hummingbirds. She would always enjoy placing nectar in her bird feeder so that more hummingbirds will visit her garden. This coming August 2 will be her birthday and I know exactly what to give her! The best hummingbird feeder! I just know that my grandma will love her set of feeders!

It's really amazing how hummingbirds can flap their wings so many times in one minute. I've heard that an average hummingbird can flap their wings 50 times in 1 minute. Some hummingbirds can even flap their wings for 80 times in one minute. With all that flapping I'm glad that we can help them energize by providing them with their needed nutrition.

It really is great to have hummingbirds visit your backyard. Having them around makes the garden even more tranquil and peaceful.