Last day of clinicals, FOREVER.

I finished up my hospital clinicals about a month ago, and have had community clinicals since then. Last week I went to an STD clinic, and it was awesome. Okay, I know that sounds completely weird, but I have so much respect for those nurses. I guess I should say that THEY were awesome. I saw some nasty stuff, too, but I won't go into that.

This week I was at Gatesville prison. I broke the number 1 rule. I ate the food. Oh.my.gosh. I've had some bad food before, and I consider myself to be a pretty tough person when it comes to things like that--but this was horrible. The type of horrible where you have to close your eyes and pinch your nose to take a bite. It was a "hamburger," "macaroni," and corn. Oh, and a biscuit! Even though it came across with the Mayflower, that was my saving grace.

The nurses there were awesome, too. I wouldn't say that prison nursing is for me right now, but I also wouldn't toss it out the window for later down the road. The nurse I was helping said that 90% of the women there were in for drugs. There were two women prisoners in particular that I sat in with that were so sweet...I don't know how they would be capable of doing anything to deserve prison--to be taken out of "the free world," as they call it. I was very impressed at how polite they all were. Also, I didn't know this, but all of their medications are paid for by the state. They only pay $3 for the visit, and often times they can get that fee waived. They get treated very well in that regard. On the other hand, if they need any tests done, it is free, but it could also take anywhere from 1-4 months to get the results...

The first day it was kind of creepy--all of the buildings were white, all of the prisoners were in white, everything was white. And I was in purple, head to toe. haha. Today I felt as at home as you can feel in prison. My friend Katie and I got out early, so we celebrated our LAST CLINICAL DAY IN ALL OF NURSING SCHOOL, EVER at Taco Bell.

The next time I step into a hospital, it will be at my job as a real nurse. I can't believe it!!!