My second week is behind me! Thought of the week, "Theres not enough hours in the day!". Monday we didn't have class because of MLK day, however we made up for this by having class on Friday. As I was going to class Friday I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had done with the precious day off on Monday! So sad. There was a lot of anxiety going into Tuesday and the start of the second week because it was my first week of having clinicals. Me+real patients=scared. The first day we didn't deal with actual patients, but got a 10 cent tour of the hospital (the place is HUGE) and went to our unit to review our patient's charts for the following day. We took notes on their procedure, diagnosis, meds, etc. That night you look up any care they might require and what their meds do. However at this point we aren't looking at the computerized charts, but literally the hand written notebooks. Lots of bad handwriting and medical shorthand. I know basic things like po means by mouth and bid, twice a day, but there were some I definitely had to look up (if i could even determine what letters they were!) Luckily charting via the computer system comes VERY soon. Wednesday morning my group (me plus 7 other students and my clinical instructor) met in the cafeteria for pre conference to discuss our patients diagnosis/needs for the day. This was a good time to hear what other students were going to be dealing with that day and if you had patient envy you could ask them if you could assist them in some skills. For instance my patient had a very routine issue and I would have preferred the chronic iv drug user. Call me crazy but street people seem a little more interesting than the grandma down the street...not that she wasn't adorable and all over getting discharged soon. Bless her heart.
We were thrown right into the mix that morning. We found the nurse who was caring for our patient and she gave us report (so professional!) on our patients needs. Then we were told to go in their rooms and introduce ourselves. Lord help me. I'm not a shy girl and I will talk to a stop sign if its the only thing around, but to go into a patients room, introduce myself, and start providing care, i was scared to death! I grabbed a vital sign machine, aka nurse on a stick, took a deep breath and went for it. We were to do a physical assessment, which includes all the vitals, pulses (pedal, carotid, etc), check their pupils with the pen light, check for edema, range of motion, etc. lots to remember. Of course I forgot a few thing on the assessment and had to go back in, but luckily she didn't seem to mind. I had never used the vital sign machine, but it's wonderful. It has the blood pressure cuff, pulse oxygen finger monitor, temp stick, and pulse count all in one nifty little rolling machine. You just record the numbers off the screen. Fabulous! Let's just say I had MY vitals taken by multiple classmates on the unit that day. By the end of that day I was beat! So so tired. Both days on the floor I was up early and there til mid afternoon. Luckily I love my clinical group and instructor. Everyone is friendly and helpful. This is great, because we are going to spend a lot of time together over the next few weeks. We aren't in the hospital on the unit every week. It alternates with spending time in the lab learning skills like sterile dressing changes, trach care, etc. That will be a nice break. Below is my beloved nurse on a stick. It just rolls around and follows you wherever you need it.
We had back to back lecture days on thursday and friday. Also on friday I had my orientation of our AHEC library. It's the area heath education center. It's a place on the hospital campus that has medical education resources that we c an use. There are multiple AHEC's across the state, typically in teaching hospitals and universities. We were taught how to use their databases to look up journal articles and their categorization system. It's going to be extremely helpful. Also they have a shelf for our school with all of our books shelved by class along with binders that include the syllabus for each class. So nice! That way if you wanted to do some on campus studying without lugging your books you'd just stop by the library and find a seat. Also I hear this is where the residents go to study/research....might be worth checking out! ha!
This week I have been so thankful that I ended up where I did. When I applied to nursing schools I didn't think too much about certain details, such as if the school was located on a big hospital campus, or if it was at a university, community college, etc. I thought nursing school is nursing school, as long as they had a good NCLEX (nursing board) passage rate and it didn't require me moving, it was fine. Now I am in a hospital every day now. It's a huge hospital. I knew it was big, but didn't know how big til I started trucking through it every day. I've been told it's a mile from my parking deck to the education building. However you can walk through the hospital about 3/4 of the way. But first you have to learn how to do that! the other day there had been a fire drill and all of a sudden i thought wait....these doors aren't usually here. where am i? It looked so different with the hallway doors closed! I figured it out, but it is quite the maze. There is pretty good signage. It's nice that I"m becoming so familiar with a place that I am pretty sure I will end up working. Oh and the cafeteria is pretty good too. They have good healthy food at very reasonable prices. When you are at a place that much you want some good eats! My first test is next week. eek! Off to study. Have a great weekend!
