Where....am... I?

I rubbed my eyes groggily before literally dragging myself out of bed. The numbers on my blaring alarm clock read 4:45. In the morning.

"Oh, what a beautifully wonderful day to go to clinicals," I thought, sarcasm being my only refuge that early in the morning, when dreams were still dancing before my eyes.

I groaned and stumbled, bleary-eyed, towards the door to the bathroom, where I turned on the heater to get dressed without freezing. But as I slowly became capable of thinking (a very slow process sometimes!), an idea began to press itself inside my brain.

Sleep deprivation. Check.

I followed the though thread: in my research for my thesis, I keep finding that nursing students feel isolated because they study all the time.

Social isolation. Check.

This was getting interesting. The thought started to bloom in earnest as I realized nursing school tests (which already appeared on my blog a few weeks ago) are notorious for their harshness and obscurity.

Intense questioning. Check.

So sleep deprivation, social isolation, and intense questioning... for a moment I wondered if I was a nursing student or a detained "enemy combatant" at Gitmo!

No, I know that's ridiculous. They get free food and recreation time every day. :-)

All joking aside, it is a good program. It has to be hard because nurses can't afford to make mistakes; people's lives are in the balance.

But it would be nice if we had recreation time every day. :-)