an awful nightmare

last night I dreamed about my final practical. Now, our final practical is the vision of hell on earth. It runs from 7am until noon, in which you take on 4 patients, one dependent, 2 semi-dependent and one independent. The objective of the exam is to take care of all 4 patients including bathing, wound cleaning, IV care, catheter care, lifting and handling, giving out their pills of which you have to know all possible side effects and how to treat such side effects. One also has to know the whole patients past medical history and social history, like how many kids the patient has and if they are married. In the case of a surgical ward, one must also be sure of discharge planning. Nursing reports must also be written. In record time. So unless one is really, really, prepared, there is plenty of room where to fail.

So yesterday I woke up in a cold sweat because I had a nightmare. In the nightmare it was 6.55am and I had not prepared one iota. I knew nothing about my patients. I was trying to get everything together in the last minute and then I saw the examiners around the corner and I knew it was too late and I had thrown 4yrs of nursing school down the toilet because I was going to fail.

I think the stress is getting to me...