TWO WEEKS IN ONE

I've been meaning to update but time has so easily gotten away. With the new semester under way and clinical in full swing (and still training for the 3-day for the cure) there is not a lot of 'down time' to update. So I'll try and bring you up to date from the past two weeks.

Our first real clinical day with a patient was September 9th. We were partnered up with a classmate for this afternoon and the next day as we were still acclimating to the setting and finding things. Our patient this week had something called 'hemoglobin c'; this is something neither myself, my classmate nor our instructor had heard of. In addition to this, our patient was very anemic, so we were able to observe a blood transfusion.  But the blood needed to be heated first. The nurse administering this was using this device for only the second time so there was confusion on how it actually worked. It was good to know that nurses are always still learning. We were able to have this same patient again the next evening after this patient returned from surgery. We were glad to be of some comfort to our patient as they became aware of the surroundings and their family was not close by. Our patient recognized us from the previous night and I believe relieved to 'know' someone since they woke up in recovery and all these faces were new.  It was a pretty uneventful first two clinical nights but that is ok.

The hospital we are doing this clinical rotation in has been undergoing a major renovation. The unit we are assigned to was moved this past week. We were in the unit on Monday and had our own patient. I had a very interesting patient who happened to go unresponsive in the middle of an episode of throwing up. I could not awaken my patient and immediately asked (a little loudly) for assistance. One of the RN's that was right outside my patients room entered (along with a half dozen others) and perform a sternal rub and my patient was alerted.  My patient at that point had no idea where they were (which hospital) or even which year it was. The entire rapid response team and physician entered the room and performed various tests. Before I left for the evening my patient was sent for a CT scan. 

The next evening due to our unit moving we were assigned to another unit (just for this day). I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to know how my patient was but they were no longer my responsibility and I would have to wait until we return to our brand new unit to see if I can get an update. So this evening we were again partnered up (since we didn't know where things were and were only going to be here the one night). My partner and I were able to provide care for our patient and during our 'down time' we were able to work on our assignment from the previous night. I did learn to use a bladder scan on my patient this evening and I also had to straight cath my patient (place a catheter to drain their bladder)! I was so nervous as I had not done this since lab last semester (I did get to assist an RN with one but I mostly observed), so with the guidance of the RN assigned to my patient, I was able to do this.  I always wonder how I will do when I do a new task that I've not done before and I still amaze myself that I did fine! I handled the situation providing dignity and as little discomfort as possible to my patient.  I DID IT!!! 

In the meantime my job is quickly coming to a close. This coming week will be my last week there. I have been offered a 'part time/temporary' position in the hospital. I am jumping at the chance to get my foot in the door and hoping that bigger and better things will come from this.

This coming week will be the end of this rotation and then we are on to maternity! I am really looking forward to that! I will truly try and update at the end of next week.

OH WAIT!!! We had our first exam this week and I got a B!!! I was so relieved as I always stress myself out! I had so much going on this past week. Our son, Tyler had a seizure last weekend (out of the blue) and there has been a lot of doctors appointments and getting him to and from his job and school since he is unable to drive right now. Praying that he is given a clean bill of health when he sees the neurologist next month.

So Much Going On Already

Well, I'm already behind on updating.  Last week was a LOT of craziness!  On Monday, September 3rd (mine and Dale's 30th wedding anniversary and my first clinical day of the semester), my employer informed me that he would be closing business at the end of the month. Shock cannot describe how I felt! I got so upset that I actually hyperventilated. So now the search for another job that will provide me with the flexibility to continue this journey and STILL pay our bills. I'm hoping to get into one of the local hospitals, but that is not going to be full time and certainly will not be even close to what I am currently making. I've had a wonderful time in my position here and a boss that has been so accomodating to allow me to alter my schedule each semester enabling me to start college for the first time in my life and then to actually keep this up as started into the clinical portion of the nursing program. I'm definitely going to miss this.  

So in the meantime after getting this news I had to head to the hospital for my first clinical day. This day was strictly orientation with the unit we will spend this rotation on. Unfortunately our unit is moving to a brand new location with the same hospital during this rotation. As soon as we figure out where things are we will have to do it all over again. We didn't have any patient contact last week as it was only one day (due to holiday on Monday) on site.

My clinical group started in the regular 'med-surg' area so we had to show that we were still able to do the skills we had learned last semester. I spent two afternoons in the lab going over things to make sure it was all still up 'there'! I had an issue with one of the 'Sim' dummies, I was not hearing any bowel sounds and we have to differentiate between, present or absent, hypo, normal or hyper. I was doing well on blood pressure, heart sounds, lung sounds but just could not hear the bowel sounds (and was freaking out).  Turns out that the Sim I was working on was NOT working properly!!! Thankfully when it was time to do my assessment, I passed with no problems.

Later in the week we had an IV lab where we had to learn how to hang various IV's (regular IV, secondary bag and also syringe pump). I was so glad I paid attention to the lecture as it really did go fairly smooth (I just always second guess myself and have to stop that).

I'll definitely be back the end of this week to update all that we were learning this week. Thank you again for following along on this journey.