My Starting Point – Chelsea Ruiz – First Day Nerves

So this is my third blog post; if you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that I’m studying Medical Assisting at the Carrington College Tucson campus – if you’ve not read them – catch up here!

Not Much Sleep

That first morning, Monday March 10th, I was really nervous; honestly I didn’t sleep much the night before. I had all these things going through my head.  I hadn’t been in a classroom in so long, I didn’t feel like I was going to belong.

I was nervous that it was going to be way too hard for me, and that I was going to flunk out. I was scared that even though I knew they’d teach me how to properly draw blood and give injections, I believed that I was going to hurt somebody. I was really concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to do it.

Walking into class that first morning, you could tell everybody was nervous. Nobody knew where to sit, we had to pick who we were going to sit next to – so it was like all the clichéd groups that first day. Even though it was only a few weeks ago really, I can’t remember what we did that day; it was all kind of fun though. We didn’t really have any class work; we had to get all of our books – there are so many books! I’m pretty sure we played a game of some sort that included getting up and presenting something to the class.

Our instructor was really funny; he made us all laugh and get comfortable with ourselves. Within that first couple of hours, I knew I would be ok; I felt much better by the end of the first day.

I’m Like The Carrington Squirrel

Now I have about five weeks under my belt and I love it here, I really do. The time flies while I’m in school because I have so much fun in my classes. There are so many options for help too; they made it very clear who to go to in any kind of situation, or if you just need to talk. Everybody is welcoming, nobody makes it seem like you’re bothering them.

During the foundation class (FA100), we do something called breakouts every Monday where for the first two hours we’re in our regular class, and then we sit in on an actual Medical Assisting class for two hours. We sit at the back of the room and watch what they’re doing. It’s a good way to get to know the instructors, who we also met during orientation.  Ms. Shiela will be my primary teacher.

Now that I’ve started the program I feel very confident that I can continue to pursue my health care career further.

They’ve helped me feel like it’s not out of reach anymore.  Have you seen this Carrington commercial with the birds and the squirrel? I know it sounds so silly, but I’m totally this squirrel! Check out the commercial and you’ll see what I mean!

Making Lifelong Friends

My classmates really helped me settle in. I’ve made so many new friends; I’m pretty sure they’ll be lifelong friends once we’ve injected each other hundreds of times! The things we have to do, the things we have to get comfortable doing, really help us get to know each other. Today we all had to present a PowerPoint presentation about ourselves; we all got to learn about each other and our families. We’ve all become pretty close in a short period of time. I think that’s helped us all get comfortable

We’ve not moved on to our core classes yet, so I’m still a little scared that I’m going to hurt someone. We all have to practice injections and blood draws on each other. Although I’ve been assured that giving someone an injection is ‘idiot proof’, I’ve got it in my head that I’m going to hurt somebody. I know the first injection day is going to be tough for me – I’m sure I’m going to cry! But giving injections is an important part of a medical assisting career, so I can’t really say no if I want to be successful can I?

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave them below and I’ll find time to answer them as soon as I can!