Two Exams and a Nursing Home

Well it's been more than a week since I updated.  It's getting harder to update after my two very long back to back clinical days.  I get up 5am to go to the Y, get to work before 8am and to clinical by 2:15 pm.  This rotation started our nursing home clinical setting.  We have not gotten out before 9:30 either night!  By the time I get home it is after 10pm and I have at least an hour (or two) of homework for clinical that has to be completed before I can go to bed (as it has to be turned in at the start of clinical the next day).  Since I work in the morning that means I have to finish in order to go to bed.  So this week was a long one! 

Last Thursday I had my second exam in NUR 141 and got a C.  I would normally be disappointed but I felt really bad leaving that exam I was very glad I passed.  Today was my second exam in NUR 142 and I got a B!  

So back to this weeks clinical!  So Monday we started at our new location, a retirement/rehab facility.  It was my first time in one of these in a very long time. We spent the first 1/2 of Monday getting oriented to the facility, their regulations and policies.  At 5pm we went to the dining room and assisted an elderly patient with their dinner (some are not able to feed themselves, some just need assistance cutting things up, some just needed to be reminded to eat).  After that we took our dinner break before we were assigned our 'patient'.  We were teamed up with another student.  

Our patient had been ill earlier so when we arrived at the room we thought it was best to give our patient a bed bath, provide incontinence care and attend to a pressure ulcer.  Our patient is not able to communicate but does understand and can nod a response (when they want to).  All in all, a good first day.

Tuesday we arrived back to the facility and were assigned our same patient (and team) from Monday night.  Thankfully the student who I was working with really wanted to improve our patients spirits.  So we decided we were going to get our patient out of bed into the wheelchair and down to the dining room.  I accompanied our patient to dinner and provided feeding assistance.  While we were there, the other student was doing a complete bed change on our patients bed.  That way when our patient turned in for the evening the sheets, pillow, blankets were all fresh. Our patient had taken a short nap in the wheelchair after dinner and was difficult to awaken.  I was concerned and contacted our instructor who came right to the room and got right down in front of our patient and 'loudly' called the patient by name telling them it was time to wake up!  BAM!!!  The eyes opened and our patients entire demeanor had changed.  Our patient was very cooperative and let us do our head to toe assessment.  We provided wound care, and continent care and prepared our patient for bed.  We were done by 8pm so we worked on paper work and assisting other students until it was time to leave.

All in all it was a good two days.  The other student and myself felt very connected to our patient and hate that Monday we will go back and get a new patient (and I believe we will be on our own then).

Today was a sad day.  It was eleven years ago that my sister, Susan, passed away. Susan (I mentioned her several weeks back) was hospitalized after a fall and acquired a health care associated infection.  This is something I've learned more about and sadly these can often be prevent with proper asepsis techniques.  This was my sister Susan with my mom.  I believe this was the Christmas before her fall.

Well, tonight I am 'relaxing' and taking a few hours off from school.  Have lots of lectures to watch this weekend.  We started on pharmacology last week and are finishing up the 'nursing process' this week.  

Thank you again for following along on my journey.