Covering My Butt

Last year I was warned by C who was already in nursing school, "Make copies of EVERYTHING you turn in to the office of the CON." Apparently these folks have quite the reputation for losing things. I'm not talking about the nursing professors, those responsible for turning us into highly skilled professionals. No, I'm talking about the administrators, the people in charge of my PERMANENT FILE. The people who, with one wrongly placed X on an official document, could put me on a course that no GPS on the planet could make right again.

I want to thank C again for the heads up.

The first hoop I had to jump through following my acceptance into the program was to gather together all kinds of information and signed documents, get immunizations and a physical, take an assessment exam, and turn it all in within THREE WEEKS! of acceptance. This was a pretty significant feat to accomplish in such a short amount of time since I still had to go to class full time and work two jobs, but I did it. And, most importantly, I made copies of everything. Which was a good thing, because a week after I turned it all in? Oh yeah, I got this message from the office of the CON:

TRAUMA QUEEN,
WE DO NOT HAVE YOUR CLINICAL REQUIREMENTS. IF YOU DO NOT TURN IN THIS INFORMATION, YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ATTEND CLASS.

And yes, it was all CAPS and bold. Those folks sure know how to make a person feel all warm and welcome. I immediately replied:

Hi, K
I turned in all of my material last week, on Monday. Was there something missing from my packet?
Trauma Queen

But rather than wait for a reply, I went over to the office to handle the matter in person. I told K again that I had handed my packet of information to B and it was on her desk when I left the office the previous Monday. K was just a teensy bit condescending when she said, "Well, we don't have it." And so was I when I said, "Well, it's here somewhere, but I did make copies of everything just in case something like this happened." Then K said she would look in my file - my PERMANENT FILE! - on the chance that my packet had been put there before crossing her desk. And lo and behold! Crazy though it may sound, my packet had indeed been placed in my PERMANENT FILE. I asked K if everything was there. She looked through it and with a friendly smile said it was all in order.

Trauma Queen: 1
CON: 0