Monday, April 24, 2006

Time to Relax

Whew- it's about time, I know. I'm not going to do a play by play on my last two weeks at clinicals because well, that's just to much work. Let's just say they were good, and I'm learning a lot. :) So far, I've gotten to do these clinical skill checkoffs:
  • Started an IV (successful on the first try!)
  • Did subcutaneous injection (multiple)
  • Did my first accucheck, plus about a million more after that
  • D/C'd a male foley
  • Did an IM injection
  • Gave p.o. meds (oral meds)
  • Flushed an IV
That's about all I can think of right now. I think that's pretty good for only being in Block I! And I have a week and a half left. Whew.

I never imagined how stressful and exhausting this would all be. I am literally tired 24/7. I hope it will all be worth it in the end. I am even more stressed right now because I got a bad grade on my last test (along with about 50% of the class, so that made me feel a little better...). I have about 20 more points to lose, with one more 30 pt test and a 50 pt final. That's not a lot of cushion, if you ask me. So I have to make sure I get a *great* grade on this next test, and you have no idea how much pressure that is! I'm not used to having to count every little point- usually I leave myself with plenty of room for error. This is a very new feeling for me, and I'm hating it. I'm sure I will be fine, because really, even if I get the lowest passing grade on each test (a 23/30 and 38/30), I'm still fine. It's just a sucky feeling.

In other news, I bought a new ipod nano. My friend Lindsay brought her 20gb ipod into work the other night and all of a sudden I decided I wanted one, too. So I bought the black 2gb nano from Apple - I was a little leary of the black because everyone says it scratches and shows marks a lot more than the white. However, I plan on going out and buying a case before I even touch it, so hopefully we'll be A-OK. I wanted the black- it looks so sleeeeek! Also, you might wonder why I got the 2gb instead of the 4gb. Well, basically, I don't really listen to music all that much, and I don't have that many CD's, so I think 2gb will be just fine for me. I mean, that's 500 songs! I don't even know if I know 500 songs! Hopefully it will suffice! :) I was also torn about the new video ipod, too, but also decided that's a lot more than I really need. Not to mention I have my brand new snazzy laptop to watch videos and shows on anyway!

That's all for now ... I'm going to get better at this, I swear! And well, It's Deal or No Deal time, baby!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Week #1 Clinicals

Seriously, I'm doing this- I'm updating every week, at least. That's not so much to ask, is it?! I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it...

So this week (or last week, really... well, Wednesday and Thursday) was my first week of clinicals for Block 1 Nursing. I'm happy to say it went very well. However, I was on Endoscopy on Wed. and the OR on Thurs. So basically, I just observed... I didn't have to pick a patient and do a care plan or really provide any sort of patient care whatsoever, so technically this week is my first week.

So here's how it goes. Every Tuesday night, we are supposed to go to the floor of the hospital we are assigned to and "pick a patient". This means find a patient with an interesting diagnosis who is going to be there for the next two days. We are basically this patient's private nurse for Wednesday and Thursday. We have to look through their chart, write down all their information (history, lab results, diagnosis, etc). We put that all into a care plan (which really is just a bunch of paperwork where we have to fill in the blanks and do a little research here and there). If there is information we need that we cannot find, we need to get it directly from the patient. Therefore, we have to dress nice and wear white lab coats when picking our patient (very snazzy). I am actually excited to do mine this week! Wednesday and Thursday we meet at the hospital at 6:30 a.m., go to our respected floors, and meet back at 2pm for post-conference. Last week was kind of disappointing because I got to hear everyone talk about the foleys they started, the shots they gave, the meds they gave, etc. But now it's my turn!

Wednesday I was in Endoscopy and it was actually really interesting. I saw about 3 colonoscopies, a bronchoscopy, an EUS and an ERCP. In one of the colonoscopies the man had about 3 polyps, so I got to watch them remove those. He also had what is known as diverticulosis(which, I learned, is different from diverticulitis). That looked like a bunch of holes in his colon... pretty interesting stuff. :) The bronchoscopy was extremely painful to watch. This girl had been diagnosed with a disease known as Wagners Disease(I have yet to find out what that is). She was prescribed prednisone, which gave her symptoms of pneumonia. She was in bad, bad shape, coughing the whole time (and keep in mind, she was pretty sedated). It sounded like she was drowning- basically, it was terrible. All in all, though, the day was very interesting. It seems to me, however, that nurses on Endoscopy don't do too much besides some paperwork here and there, and maybe an IV or two. Please, correct me if I'm wrong!

Thursday I was in the OR(surgery) and it was amazing. I loved every second of it. I was lucky to get paired up with an excellent nurse, and I stayed with the same 2 nurses, doctor, and anesthesiologist most of the day. The first procedure I saw was a laprascopic cholecystectomy (basically? Removal of the gall bladder through a scope). It was amazing. The liver looks like every picture of a liver I've ever seen. The gall bladder is this little egg hiding behind it. This lady had some huge gallstones. The next procedure I saw was a mass being removed from a lady's buttocks (not so interesting), and the last was a bilateral inguinal hernia reconstruction. This guy also had what is called a non-communicating hydrocele, which basically means he had a bunch of fluid around his testicle. It was crazy to see the testicle pulled up through the stomach. It also looked like a little egg! Around 1:45 or so they were going to start a gastrectomy(removal of the stomach) and I just missed that... very upsetting, because that would have been awesome to see!

So that's it for this weeks Adventures in Nursing School. Hopefully I'll have an interesting patient to tell you about next time! :)