A four year journey has come to an end

Almost four years ago to the day, I was getting ready to take my first class for Graduate school. I had not met Cory yet, I was living in my 46th/Keystone apartment and working night shift in L&D. Looking back to when I first started Grad school, I don't think I could have prepared myself for what that four year journey would be like. So, here I am, four years later, officially finished with my Master's degree and I'm still in some disbelief that it's really over and that I really did it. For the last few months, I've had reoccurring nightmares of forgetting about a class I was enrolled in but never attended, realizing that I had missed an exam or getting a call from my high school or undergrad program saying that I didn't really finish my work there and would have to go back. All the anxiety & anticipation that has lead up to this point seems to be at a stand still while I try to believe that it is really done.

It has taken me a few days to be ready to blog about it, even though I've had four years to prepare. I completed my final clinical hours on Thursday last week, and to my surprise rather than being ecstatic or in a mood to celebrate, I felt very bittersweet about everything and even had a few tears. Being a Grad student has been one of the ways that I've defined myself these last four years and to now be at a point where I can let that go feels so foreign. I had a hard time saying goodbye to my preceptor Casey on Thursday, who has been such an amazing mentor and friend. I know that without Casey, I wouldn't be where I am at today. The clinic was such a good fit for me, I loved everything from the patients, the challenges, the staff, learning with the residents and being a part of the St. V's team again. I think it would have been a lot easier for me to celebrate being done had I not worked at such a wonderful place.

So, now that I'm a RN, MSN, WHNP (yay!), here are some statistics that I thought might be fun to share:

• Completed 607 clinical hours (7 hours more than I needed!)
  
• Cared for 401 patients
• Did 246 pelvic exams/pap smears
• Wrote 235 prescriptions
• Treated 68 cases of candidiasis
  
• Counseled 78 patients on contraceptive choices
• Diagnosed 2 cases of cancer
• Sent 14 patients to L&D
• Sent 2 patients to the ER
  

At this point, the only remaining challenge is to take my board certification exam. I'll be registering for it here in the next few weeks, and I'm guessing that I'll probably take it sometime in late September/early October. So, between now and then I get a new license from the Indiana Board of Nursing that changes my credentials from RN, BSN to RN, MSN, WHNP and I'll get my degree certificate from IU...not sure how good that's going to look next to my Purdue degree! Many of you have asked what I'll be doing now that I'm done with school. There are a lot of great opportunties for NP's out there, but for now, I'm going to continue teaching with Purdue in my new role of Assistant Professor. This doesn't mean that I won't be looking for a clinical WHNP job or that I won't work in the clinical capacity of a WHNP...just not this fall. As one of my earlier blog posts explains, I will be doing some clinical work with the St. V's ER as a sexual assault nurse examiner, but not until I finish that program (which will be in Novemeber).

Despite all the bittersweet feelings about being done and leaving the clinic, I am so pleased to have completed this program and very proud of myself for the amount of work, sacrifice and dedication it took. I couldn't have done it without the amazing support of my Cory Louis and my friends & family...so thank you to everyone who has been a cheerleader for me!