Clinical and National Boards

Friday March 19 was the clinical board exam. This is the big and very expensive one! I was choosing Justin to be my patient and I had a back-up patient come just in case Justin didn't qualify. At 7:30 I could enter the clinic so Justin and I went up and I got all of my paperwork done and walked him up with fingers crossed to see if he quailfied. After a nerve wrecking 45 minute wait he came back to me with a blue paper that meant that my 1st submission passed and I could get to work cleaning. (If your patient has to go to another submission it's a -4 points and even worse and more devastating if your patient is rejected alltogether and you need to submit another patient). So with 2.5 hours to clean, check, clean, chart, clean, and check-out Justin I got to work. It was a scary situation but I felt so blessed to have Justin there because not only did he speak english but he made it so calm and relaxing for me. We chatted, sang, swayed to the music and he was cracking jokes! It was really a fun and wonderful experience! I felt like I had done the best I could and after checking over and over again I decided to check him in and call it a day. He was back with the examiners for another 40 minutes and I just waited and waited. He had no idea if I missed spots, but he said that they all seemed pretty pleased. I feel really good about it.

Monday the 22nd was the national written exam. It's 200 multiple choice questons and 150 questions that went along with case studies. I got to the testing center and checked in. The center only allows 8 people in their site at at time. We check in with ID and a magical vein reader thing to identify us when we left for any breaks. We couldn't have anything on our wrists (like bracelets, watches, etc..) or anything in our pockets. NO CHAPSTICK!!! UG!! Well, I started my test at 8 and by 10:30 I was done with the multiple choice/guess. It was really mostly a guess for me-they were super hard questions!!! Well, this was my big 1 hour break for lunch, but I wasn't hungry yet. So I went potty, stretched and went back in for more torture. I figured that all that was left wat 150 questions and they were case studies so they'd be easier. WRONG!!! They took me forever! By 11:30-12:00 I was cold, hungry, and exhausted! Not to mention I felt so stupid because I didn't know any of the answers! Well, I trucked right along and kept on guessing my answers. By 2pm I was finished and I was so tired and wanted to smash the computer! It had been 6 hours of testing! KILL ME!!! I was frazzled and tired! I went out to the car and started for home. I did a few little chores and made some phone calls to patients and then I crashed on the couch for a little nappy. Man that was a hard test!

I should get my results in about 2 weeks so we'll just cross our fingers on both tests and hope that the Lord continues to bless me.