When I went to the mandatory nursing school orientation back in May as an alternate, I sat praying that some fool would forget to show up and lose his or her spot in the Fall class so that I might get in.  Only two fools did so and I was back in limbo until the admissions for the Spring class were announced.  At tonight’s orientation there were just the remaining students admitted to the Fall (about 40 students) and our alternates.  Of my small class there were 14 no-shows!  I was stunned and the 14 alternates called up were obviously thrilled.

One of the things explained tonight was the physical exam requirement, which includes titers for previously administered vaccines or evidence of immunity from natural infection, drug screen and background check.  All of the above are due no later than noon on December 4th.  Seems like I have plenty of time!  But…

  • I won’t be enrolled in the school until it is manually done by the nursing department on January 6th.  Therefore I can’t get a general student ID until then.
  • I can’t get a physical from the school because I won’t be a general student until January 11th.
  • I can’t get a drug screen because I don’t have a nursing school ID and won’t until January 11th.
  • The nursing director doesn’t want us to have the drug screen until we start clinical work in hospitals in the second nine weeks of the first semester.  If you’re keeping track, that will be at the end of February.
  • We have to get the seasonal flu shot, but they won’t be providing them.  They already did offered a vaccine clinic, sorry.
  • We have to get the H1N1 vaccine but they are in short supply and probably won’t be able to get them to us.

What?  The dates and information are conflicting?  That is my problem to figure out how to get all of that done no later than December 4th, even though I can’t until January 11th.  And yes, the drug screen that you have to do at the same time as the physical, labs, and vaccines must be turned in on the singular sheet of paper by December 4th.  But don’t do it before the 11th of January.  And if you don’t understand any of that, make a friend of a new classmate and ask them what to do.

Classmate, what are we getting ourselves into?