Birthday Week at USC

This week is Birthday week in the nurse anesthesia proram at the University of Southern California. Robert Olson made a great chocolate cake by himself. Robert did admit to burning a yellow cake earlier in the evening before finishing up this great cake we were presented with today. Yummy, thanks Robert.

The birthday people from left to right:
Douglas Brannan, Amy Engelmann, and Elliza Ong ("Little Star")



This little celebration came just at the right time. We are all very tired and worn out from the exam schedule this week. Monday was our midterm Anatomy exam to be followed this Thursday by an Anesthesia Principles exam. This comes on top of a couple of papers that are due and a Pharmacology exam last week. We are all a little under the weather mentally and this little break was really nice.

Just to show you how stressed out we are a little bird was looking in on several of us this morning spying. We get to see what is going on behind closed doors. Before the lights are out on the street lamps students are pouring over books in the study area discussing the finer points of anesthesia practice.



Later in the morning when we all get together just before our lecture for the day on pharmacology several of the students have their stuff spread out. This method of study has been shown in double blinded trials to increase retention by 0.005 %. We use the technique anyway even with the low efficacy rate.




You have to notice that "the boys" have hogged the table. In a personality profile of nurse anesthesia school applicants those that were polite and thoughtful of others, ended up on the alternate list. Actually that is not the case here. This class gets along so well and generally cheers for each other every day. Even as stressful as the last month has been we are all getting along really well. That has been the best part of the whole experience so far.



There are some students that study for other classes during lecture or spend every free moment thinking about what nerve goes where. We have all been studying very hard and some of us are having a hard time relaxing lately. We decided to all meet for dinner and drinks after our Thursday exam just to blow off a little stream. This will give us a few moments where we are not worried about what premedicaiton is appropriate in preoperative management for prevention of nausea and vomiting. After our exam this Thursday we well forget for a few hours HOW MUCH FUN we are having at school at USC. Yippeee!

The little bird will be in the midst of all this fun. Pasadena here we come!