You Might Be a Nurse If........

after you use a public restroom, you wash your hands with soap for a full minute, then turn the faucet off using your elbows.

Mnemonics - Cranial Nerves

Ah yes, my introductory post mentioned cranial nerves and that a tip to help memorize them might be forthcoming, so here it is! Well, here *they* are - a couple of the nerves may be referred to by a couple of names, depending on your facility and, well, how long ago your teacher went to nursing school. :)

 First, the boring list....

(I) Olfactory, (II) Optic, (III) Occulomotor, (IV) Trochlear, (V) Trigeminal, (VI) Abducent, (VII) Facial, (VIII) Vestibulocochlear (formerly Auditory),  (IX) Glossopharyngeal, (X) Vagus, (XI) Accessory (sometimes Spinal Accessory), (XII) Hypoglossal

If you take the first letter of each nerve, in order, you get OOOTTAFVGVAH - or OOOTTAFAGVAH if you use Auditory instead of Vestibulocochlear. Doesn't help much, does it? No, it doesn't, so nurses over the years have come up with memory tricks to keep it all straight. Memorization is hard enough for many people, so don't re-invent the wheel on this. Use the wisdom of those who have already been where you are now!

On

Old

Olympus' 

Towering

Top,

A

Friendly

Viking       (Vestibulocochlear)

Grew

Vines

And

Hops

Orange

Orangutans

Often

Try

To

Avoid

Feeding

Angry        (Auditory)

Gorillas

Very

Ancient

Hotdogs

Oh

Oh

Oh,

To

Touch

And

Feel

Very

Good

Velvet.

Such          (Spinal Accessory)

Heaven!

There's always one......

Unless you've been extremely lucky, you've already met one of the most dreaded species of nursing-school teachers by now. She's a nice person and is probably a really, truly good nurse out in the field..... but she really shouldn't be teaching. Really.

Do you recognize any of these symptoms of the Teacher Who Should Not?

-Spends the entire class period showing Power Point slides.

-And reading directly from the slides.

-No, really, the entire class period.

-Sputters when asked to explain anything not printed on the slides. May well dodge the question.

-Has trouble clarifying unclear test questions because she didn't write them, she just checked boxes in the electronic test bank that came with the teacher's edition and let it write the test.

This teacher seems to have no grasp on the concept that we students have actually paid good money to take this class and that we might appreciate getting some teaching for that money instead of doing nothing that we couldn't do at home with our book. At least at home, we'd have a mug of hot chocolate standing by!

OK, let's take a moment to reflect on the wonder that is hot chocolate.

Great. Don't we all feel just a bit better now? Don't we all feel well-rested, joyously happy, and in just the right mood to share our own Teacher Who Should Not stories? You know you have one. [grin]

 

And we begin :)

Welcome to the Wannabe Nurses blog. This site was born out of the stress and frustration of my own nursing school experience. I am currently about 1/3 of the way through an LPN program, after which I will need to return to work full time while I pursue my RN. While I have made good friends in my classes, I am also dealing with financial aid, teachers who range from very good down to, well, not very good, a not-well-organized school structure, and, oh yes, studying. :-)

I will be posting about my experiences when I can, in between school, homework, and family. I'm hoping that we'll get to everything from tips on how to memorize cranial nerves to stories about nightmare instructors and I can't wait to hear from all of you!

With so many people turning to nursing as a profession offering steady employment (we hope!) even in this recession, it'd be nice if we could all share a laugh as we help each other through our programs.

So, welcome to all you Wannabe Nurses!!!