We are back from a nice refreshing Christmas break and just started the spring semester. It’s nice to be back in the swing of things here in Erie.

I am really excited for this semester because I have new classes and clinicals, and I am getting closer to being a senior and graduating.

This semester I have Maternal-Child Nursing (Obstetrics) and clinical rotations at the new Hamot Women’s Hospital. I’m also in the Healthy Restoration of Adults 1 nursing class and clinical which is taking care of adults from the age of 18 to the older adult years. I am really excited for my obstetrics class and clinical because that is a career track in nursing that I am interested in – I would really like to be a women’s health nurse practitioner in the future.

This week for our OB clinical we did not get to go to the new hospital because they are still in the process of getting things situated (since it just opened last week). Instead, we used the Patient Simulation Center and got to witness the mannequin that simulates child birth. It was cool because it shows the movements the baby has to go through to exit the mother’s womb, and there are real monitors that can be hooked up to both the mother and the baby. I’m looking forward to the rest of the semester and all of the experiences that I will have with both of my clinicals.

This semester is going to be challenging, but I am up to that challenge. The other two classes I am taking are basic dysrhythmia – a class all about cardiac monitoring and heart rhythms and abnormalities – and nursing research, which is a class about research methods and studies used in nursing.

In addition to new classes, spring recruitment for the Greek system is coming up next week and we are all really excited to welcome some new faces into the Greek community. I am on the recruitment committee for my sorority and we are in the process of planning all kinds of neat things for the weekend of recruitment. The theme this year is “Welcome to Fabulous Greek Life!” It’s Vegas style and it should be really fun – I like spring recruitment each year because it is fun to see all of the girls and to welcome new sisters into the chapter.

Well with the first week of classes comes the first set of assignments so I better get to it!

Stay tuned and see what kinds of interesting clinical experiences I have and what happens with spring recruitment!

Are you interested in where you might be completing obstetrical clinical time as a health science major here at Gannon? Check out the Erie Times News’ coverage of the grand opening.