I have a certification!

It's fairly common knowledge (at least, among those that know me - not so much worldwide) that I'm currently in school, completing the prerequisites for the Registered Nurse program at Centralia College and (im)patiently waiting to be notified of my status for starting that program this fall. Today I took one step closer to it - I completed and PASSED my Nursing Assistant - Certified evaluation!

This (horribly nerve-wracking) exam starts with a written test in the morning, and a practical skills test after that. I wasn't worried as much about the written exam because the final exam in my NA-C class was actually an old state exam - at least I knew what kind of questions to expect. No, the part that was getting to me was the skills test. Even though my instructor for the class prepared us well I was afraid that I would forget some important part of a skill and fail. Like someone would come along and stamp my forehead in red ink - FAIL. It didn't help that I was one of the last pair of people to go and the examiner told us to be sure not to break the chain - everyone else today had passed! No pressure, though, right?

Every skill set starts with hand washing, so I knew I was safe for at least one. Then there are 4 others selected out of the handbook that was the NA-C form of a Bible - each one designed to quickly show the evaluator that you can care for people's daily needs without endagering them or yourself. Oh, and did I mention that it's timed?? As if it wasn't bad enough to have a complete stranger hover over you while you try to remember things (should I have gloves on to feed someone? No, that would be kinda gross.... Wasn't the cup supposed to have a straw in it? Should I go looking for a straw or would that be a silly waste of time?) But then the clock is staring down at you saying (or so it seems) hurry, hurry! You don't have time to look and see how much time you have left, but hurry!! The 25 minutes that you're alloted suddenly seems to speed by and leave you thinking, did I give them back their call light and remember to lower the bed? There's also the little voice in the back of your mind:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Nothing helpful at all on that channel.

But even though I was nervous the entire (something less than) 25 minutes, I apparently didn't do anything that would be life-threatening to my partner or any long-term-care residents I might encounter in my career. We don't get to see anything about our skill evaluation, but the fax came back not with a big red (or any other color) FAIL in the corner, but with a big black PASS!! And I'm proud to have the letters NA-C after my name, my first official label in my trek to RN.