The Anesthesia Record

As much I'd love to shield my missteps from public scrutiny, my goal for this little blog is to give others an honest glimpse into the life of a CRNA student -- and missteps are an unfortunate reality of that life.  So, here it goes...

I bombed my exam on Friday.  There, I said it.

Nurses who are drawn to the field of anesthesia have a well-deserved reputation as type-A, detail-oriented-to-a-fault overachievers. (Go ahead and roll your eyes.  Because, while we may not make for the best companions during Spring Break in Cancun, you'll come to appreciate these traits the next time you're being wheeled back to the OR for surgery.)  Well, I fit that mold to a T, which is why my result on Friday's exam was particularly difficult to stomach.

You see, I'm that girl that gets good grades in class.  Maybe not the best grades, but certainly darn good ones.  And, until now, I've only had to put forth a "strongly mediocre" (as my buddy, Dave, would say) effort to do so.  Given the caliber of students that attend Baptist's and other such programs, I'd venture to say that I'm not alone in this situation.

But all that's changed since my graduate studies began.  I remain engaged during lectures, study long and hard outside of class, and put forth a strong effort to succeed.  And, until  8:01 on Friday morning, all that effort was paying off.  The strange thing is that I studied -- I kid you not -- 18 hours on Thursday alone.  EIGHT.  TEEN.  Suffice to say, my poor showing on the exam was not for lack of effort.

But you know what?  Anesthesia school is hard, and everyone is bound to struggle at times.  The trick is to learn from your mistakes and move on so you don't fall behind the pack.  (I learned that I shouldn't attempt to study with a group if I don't have a fairly good grasp of the material beforehand.)  Even so, it took me a few hours to quit mulling over the wrong answers I'd submitted and refocus my attention on our next exam.  But I did eventually move on and, if you're in anesthesia school or plan to be at some point in the future, you'll have to learn to do the same.

Coincidentally, I was cleaning my apartment on Saturday and came across some papers given to our class during Surviving the Bubble, in which I found the following statement: "I will continue to maintain good study habits even when my grades fail to reflect the time I spent on preparation for the exam; What is most important to me is that I understand my mistakes and learn from them."

My next exam is scheduled to begin in approximately 1 hour.  So, here's me, getting back on the proverbial horse...