School Daze

School starts this week and I am scrambling to understand the various connect-abilities expected of me as I take two courses at two separate universities. The software seems to be the same however the access to the applications for these two different educational purposes is apparently a major undertaking. Oh well, I’m hoping to have it worked out in time for class.


I was thinking about why I go to school in my fifties -- not something most adults are inclined to pursue -- and I guess it is in part because I love to learn. It is also because I love to work. Given that all my credentials are from the last century, it seems I will have a much better chance of staying employed (on my terms) well into my sixties if I have a few 21st century credentials. Hence, I find myself once again a student.


Both of the programs in which I am participating advise that the learner work no more than 0.8 or 32 hours a week in order to accomplish all the work that the courses require. Hmmmm…not likely to happen in my case, so I guess I’ll be up reading early and studying late while burning the midnight oil.


My husband was describing to me a couple he knows (and feels bad for) who seem to be, each of them, and the two of them together, in a deep habitual rut. They work, eat, watch TV and sleep -- then they get up and start the pattern all over again. They seem tremendously older (alas, not wiser) than their chronological age and overwhelmingly listless for folks who are so young.


He has advised the young man in question to get some exercise, turn off the TV and establish a solid sleep pattern. That’s good for openers, but along the way these two (as they are a couple) need to be managing their nutrition, their brain plasticity, their bone & joint flexibility and their finances if they really plan to be healthy! Today I suggested to hubby that one or both of them might want to pursue some education since it is apparent that the degrees they have acquired did not prepare them for the earning potential toward which they wish to live. His tongue-in-cheek reply was that neither of them would believe they have any time. Sad.


As for me, I will be done with one of my endeavors before the end of the year -- I am becoming certified as a Wound Care nurse. This entails some education and roughly 50 hours of clinical experience with a preceptor who will mentor me through my hands-on experience.


The other course of study will likely take until the spring of 2010 at which time I should emerge ready to sit for the Family Nurse Practitioner certification examination, something my particular Master’s degree (some 30 years ago) did not prepare me to do.


Most co-workers ask me the typical question: “Then what?” And, while I wish I could give a definitive, precise answer, I can’t. I suspect I’ll practice where I now work. I envision a role that expands to permit me to add to my current administrative duties a host of clinical jobs that allow me to move from office to bedside to clinic room and back to the office with relative ease. I’m old (56 remember?) so I’m not holding out the hope that I’ll become a whiz-bang specialist in the years of clinical practice remaining to me. Even though I work in a world of specialists, I imagine I will become something of a jack of all trades, able to fill in wherever the organization needs me. That flexibility along with the diversity it would offer will certainly be enough to hold my attention for years to come.


For this week however, I’m going to have to master my usernames and passwords to multiple gateways just to gain access to the preliminary course materials I’ll be expected to master within the next few days!