|
Muffin_Girl
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Cassandra
Gender: Female
Interests: Baking, soccer, reading, frolicking in the sun, escaping from the belief that living equals monotony, finding inspiration, being thrown out of my comfort zone, scrambling to pull myself up onto my own two feet, loving.
Expertise: Enjoying the small things in life. If I can inspire one person to do one good deed a day, that's a great day in my books.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Nursing
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
3/20/2003
|
|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Week 16 as a level 2 nursing student
This week was awesome but I'm so sad the semester's over. This was our last week of classes and we had a final exam on Tue for PBL. Then we had two guest speakers come in for clinical skills and I gotta say, I really admire ppl who are able to stand up in front of a crowd and talk about their experiences. To be able to tell a group of 70 about your health history, how you felt after a surgical procedure, and how it's affected your life takes an incredible amount of courage and I really respect that.
We had our last class of patho with David on Wed and it was kind of sad but also exciting at the same time. I'm sad we don't have it over 3 semesters because it's such an important course but the materials are crammed in. I'm going to be a keener and study patho over the winter holiday. Go ahead and laugh at me, but who wants a nurse that can't think and make sense of a diagnosis? I would never wish that upon anybody.
This week clinical was great for me. I had one patient who was very independent and the second patient was total care. I am feeling very good about IV meds, infusions, and injections now. The patient who was total care also had dementia - something I haven't dealt with since level 1, last semester! So it had been about 6 months since I had practiced those communication skills and I was reminded of how patient I had to be. It was pretty hard getting back up to speed, but it was so nice to see at the end of the shift how he had warmed up to me! I walked in and asked if he recognized me and said, "well, I don't know, but I remember the smile!" That is one of my warm fuzzy nursing moments for this week.  
Today was my very last day at MSJ and with my clinical group! I am so sad! I'm glad to be done this semester because I'm excited for the holidays, but I'm going to miss my group, instructor, and it's been such a great semester!!! I had the opportunity to nurse with my friend from high school today and it was SO exciting! I had been looking forward to it for such a long time - when I found out that I was at this hospital, I had to contact him right away and say "I hope I'll have a shift with you!!!" and then I saw that he had signed some charting for one of my patients the week before and texted him excitedly saying that I saw his name (not the patient's name) on charting, so there was a sign of him on the unit! So I finally got to work with him and it was so exciting and I have so much respect for him.
I had my final evaluation today with my instructor and he was so encouraging. I was so sad that this semester is over that I couldn't give him any feedback about his teaching (which is great). We made a really awesome gift basket for him and he seemed so surprised! Even though he saw it in the morning...haha! We also made a bunch of things for the ward for them to eat. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have alot of the nurses we worked with throughout the semester there today! So we never really got to say goodbye! 
4 exams to go!!! Wednesday, here I come!!!!  LEVEL 3, HERE I COME!!!!
| | |
| Week 15 as a level 2 nursing student
One more week of classes and two more weeks including exams until the semester's over! I can't believe it's breezed by so quickly! We practiced removing sutures this week and shortening penrose drains. I haven't seen any penrose drains in the clinical setting and a lot of instructors say that they are not very common anymore, but I think it's still good to learn. You never know if you'll be practicing in a place where they're still being used, right?
Patho's been pretty fast-paced for the past few weeks. We're definitely trying to get through as much material as possible. I really wished that I had taken some background courses before coming into the program, but I'm coping. The keener in me will be reviewing patho this winter holiday.
Clinical this week was good - I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with IVs and have been able to work together with my classmates, going to the bedside with them and watching them set up an infusion. It's really nice to have someone there going through the steps with you and telling you what you're missing, or if you've forgotten to put on the roller clamp. Haha. Two brains are always better than one!
One thing I love about nursing is that I get to keep learning (I realize I'm a student and there are more things TO learn than to NOT learn.) - just when we thought that we'd seen all the surgeries and conditions on this unit, I learn about lupus and Raynaud's disease. It's pretty interesting, learning about these diseases and tying them to which medications the patients are on.
Holidays are a comin!
I ALMOST FORGOT TO ADD MY WARM FUZZY NURSING MOMENT FOR THIS WEEK!!!!!!
So remember how a few weeks ago, I talked about removing the snyder drain and not realizing that my patient was wincing in pain because I was so focused on getting the task done? Then remember what my instructor said about becoming more observant after more practice? Well my patient wasn't in pain when I removed her IV, but she was very very scared. I asked if she wanted me to explain what I was doing as I was doing it (it usually helps with casualty care in first aid) but she was very quick to veto that. So instead I created distractions for her and basically started chatting her up as I removed it. Right after I removed it, I said, "all done!" and she was so surprised she looked at her arm, then up at me, and smiled because she couldn't believe it! So it was exciting for me to be able to do a task (granted it wasn't a HUGE one) and help ease the patient's anxiety related to the task while I did it. My instructor was right and my patient appreciated it!
Ok, that's it. Time to study!
| | |
| Week 14 as a level 2 nursing student
We had our second 12 hour shift this week on Fri so we had Thursday off which was a nice break! We had our last PBL class of the semester and we practice irrigating bladders this week in lab.
This week in clinical, I had such a good shift! It was really busy for me and I felt kind of crazy, but I really enjoyed it. I got to do a lot of practicing on IVs both on a pump and by gravity!! My morning started off really disjointed and I felt really behind and I was so thrown off by drawing up two different types of insulin into one syringe - I had to do it three times and I was so frustrated!!!! I can totally verbalize what I need to do, but one time I pulled the safety sheath over the needle and had to restart, the second time I was 1 unit short so I pulled up a bit and ended up getting 5 units and had to restart yet again. But I got it the third time, thank god! I was so mad at myself for taking so long! Then I found out that one of my patients had been discharged already and I didn't even know! That made me even MORE mad at myself!! Hello! What was going on with myself! I was so frazzled. Then I went to do my patient's head to toe assessment and they started crying!!! I was surprised but also not really surprised because their affect while I was in their room was quite sad the entire time. So I guess crying was the next natural progression. It was kind of sad because I asked if they wanted to talk about anything and if they could tell us about what was bothering them and they said declined. When I talked to my instructor, he asked how that made me feel, but I knew that it wasn't personal - it's not like she hates me and doesn't want to talk to me, it's just the situational thing, really.
But it was so exciting for me because at the end of the shift when I was saying goodbye, they asked if I was going to be there the day after and I said no and she seemed kind of disappointed and then they smiled at me!! MY PATIENT WHO DIDNT WANT TO SPEAK TO ME AT ALL DURING THE FIRST PART OF MY SHIFT SMILED AT ME!!!! Celebrate your victories, right? Yay!
My second patient was really tired because they had just come up from surgery and I got to do a lot of work with gravity IV stuff and it was just really exciting to be able to practice. The patient and her husband were really nice, too. There was a lot of family support and she was super sweet.
Almost done level 2!!! Woohoo! I'm going to miss my clinical group and my instructor so much!!!
| | |
| Week 12 as a level 2 nursing student:
Week 12 totally trumped week 11!!! Not that week 11 was so fantastic that week 12 had lots to live up to, though. At any rate! Monday was a bit stressful because I was studying for patho after class before work at the gym. But I think it was a nice break to go to work because I had been studying all of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday afternoon/early evening. It's a nice bit of time for me to relax and not think about patho. So on Tuesday I went and worked out after my shift at the gym and let me tell you, it felt SO good. I think it helped me release all my pent up stress from patho and everything else. I felt so good that I went again on Wed between my two exams.
So, word to the wise, while it's important to be on top of your game and study hard and work hard, you can't put aside things that can help your mental health (like physical fitness). For me, last semester and this semester, I have been walking to and from school, but I don't know what it is about this semester, but it's been more difficult for me. I'm still loving the program and nursing, but I just haven't been taking care of myself very well. So I'm going to be going to the gym on Mon and Tue of every week to destress.
Clinical this week was great! I love it when family members are involved because they always ask questions and I get to practice my patient teaching. I don't necessarily always know the answer, but it becomes another learning opportunity for me. So this week I got to discharge a patient and we talked about diet, exercise, home care, and I got to teach her and her daughter how to empty a drain she had. That was a really neat experience for me because it was like I got to teach a skill that I learned this semester to a student. These weeks are really busy because we're able to do a lot more skills now but I love being busy because that means I get to practice some more! In total, I've done 6/7 dressing changes and this week, I got to do my first dressing change independently because my clinical instructor says he's seen me do them enough times! And as my instructor predicted, I'm becoming more organized after doing the tasks more times.
So those who know me well know that I've been talking about wanting to volunteer at a nursing school in Bangladesh next summer (2010). I emailed one of the contact people a few months ago and he responded saying that it was still too early on in my nursing education for me to go. Naturally I was pretty disappointed because I was so eager to learn about the initiative and even began to research some information on Bangladesh. It was really nice of him to offer to meet me when he came into town, though. So we had set up a meeting for this past Thursday to have coffee and just chat. Long story short, I think I'm going to Bangladesh in June of 2010!!!!!!!! I was so happy/thrilled/excited/surprised/shocked I almost started crying tears of joy after him and his wife left. I had to go to the bathroom to jump for joy. I was so excited and still am incredibly excited, for lack of another word. Time to start saving and reading up on Bangladesh and figuring things out!!!!! I've started looking up flights and looking at dates already, I'm so excited!!!!!! 
It's been a great week!
| | |
|
