Weekend Contemplations

It was a rough time last week. Even though I had one day off, that single day threw me a curve ball. I had to do a rewrite on an assignment, I didn't get 100% on my medication test (drats!), I didn't do my charting early enough, and I didn't follow up properly on a high blood pressure. I just let the nurse know and checked the pulse, but I was supposed to ask if the patient felt light headed or dizzy, and I should have listened to their heart sounds. The teacher said that I had a "black mark" on my record for failing to chart that day. Ugh... I started to think seriously about whether I was going to get kicked out of clinical.

On the good side, I did everything right when I discovered a low oxygen saturation. I asked the patient to cough, I recorded the amount and character of sputum produced, I got them up out of bed into a chair, and rechecked the oxygen plus the number of respirations. By then, the oxygen level was back up to normal levels, so gold star for me! I also hit it off really well with the patient, and we did a lot of chatting. I'd say that I did a pretty good job of caring for her that day too. By the end of the day, I tucked her into bed and told her I'd be leaving soon. She asked me sleepily if I'd be taking care of her again. "Because you liked having me as your nurse?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "You take really good care of me."

That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I know I didn't get all the nursing stuff perfect, and I'm worried that I won't pass this course with flying colours, but at least the patients feel well taken care of and they enjoy my company. It makes me feel like I'm doing some good in this world. I mean, the whole point of me becoming a nurse was to help people. If I didn't accomplish that little part, this whole endeavor would be pointless!