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!

Weeks 6 & 7 of Semester Two of Nursing School

Midterm Insanity

Ah yes, midterms. I had almost forgotten how nerve-wracking it can be to jump from exam to exam throughout a single day only to sink into more exams the next day. Over and over it goes until you feel throughly rinsed out with the influx of new information that must be flushed out the next day, and scribed onto paper.

I think today was one of the hardest days because I stayed up past 1 am the night before to finish up homework due for this morning at 8 am. Midday was a medication administration exam that I *must* get 100% on in order to be able to give out meds, and late afternoon was a Biology midterm that lasted two hours.

If you can believe it, I almost fell asleep during the Biology midterm. I had already finished writing it, but I was going over the answers when I realized that I was staring off into the unknown about to shut my eyes for a snooze. That would have been awkward if I woke after my head hit the table :)

Last Week's Clinical Experience

I had the opportunity to care for my own client this past week, and it was a really good learning experience. Of course, this is in hindsight. At the actual moment of these learning experiences, I felt incredibly dumb and that I would make a hopeless nurse. I kept asking myself how I managed to miss obvious things, and why I didn't remember to apply principles in real life that I had learned in theory. Temperature's too low? I'm supposed to recheck the temperature first. Moist sounds in the lungs? I'm supposed to check oxygen levels and breathing. Instead, I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off worrying that something terrible was about to happen.

On top of that, I discovered after two days of spoon-feeding one client that he could feed himself. I thought it was amusing that he let me spoon-feed him without having said anything to the contrary. I mean, it's good practice for me, but it's just odd that he never corrected me (he can talk just fine). When I told my sister, she said that my dad would have done the same thing. My dad loves being pampered and to pretend that he's incapacitated so that someone will baby him. We all laugh about it because *we* can tell when he's faking it, but I bet my dad would get a kick out of a little newbie student nurse not knowing any better. When I exclaimed to the client, "You can eat by yourself!" he spooned some food into his mouth and grinned.

Anyways, I better get some sleep. I have one day off tomorrow to catch up on homework because my teacher is sick, but we'll be back at the hospital the day after. I wonder what new adventure I'll have next? :)

Have a great week!

Week 6 of Semester Two of Nursing School

The Vomit Story

Does seeing someone throw up bother you? Does it make you want to throw up too?

Apparently, it doesn't bother me.

I once caught my friend's projectile vomit in a Safeway bag, and one of our dinner guests once hurled all over the bathroom door outside before plastering the floor inside. (No, the food wasn't THAT bad! She just had the flu and someone happened to be in the bathroom when she got the urge to purge.)

And this week, one of my patients was very sick. She threw up all morning and the urge to retch and vomit did not go away. I stood by calmly and handed her tissues to wipe her mouth. Then I dumped out her container of vomit and replaced it with a clean container. I even poured her cold glasses of water so she could rinse out her mouth.

I have to admit, I surprised myself. I honestly expected to feel grossed out and unable to assist. However, when I see someone in need like that, I go into auto-pilot and the desire to be supportive and kind takes over. I pat her hand, smile at her, and tell her soothing things. I listen to what she's saying, and I try to say encouraging things back. I don't want to embarrass her and I don't want to be in her way, but I do what I can to be there for her so that she doesn't feel alone and scared.

I watch as her family watches anxiously as I monitor the patient's vital signs, and I can see how it scares them. I think that they fear that their family member will die right then and there in front of their eyes. Luckily, that did not happen.

Evil Health Care Workers

Most of the health care workers are very good at their jobs and they are kind and caring too. However, one lady - I'm not sure if she's a nurse or not - was very offensive to me. She came to take a blood sample from the sick patient, took one look at her retching into a container and said, "I hate it when people throw up!" Then she walked out.

When she came back, she looked very grossed out and she said to the patient, "Are you done throwing up yet?" The patient looked back with wide eyes and shook her head. She had been throwing up all morning, it was unreasonable, really, to expect her to suddenly stop. "When you throw up, I feel like throwing up!" The health care worker said. Well, I understood this idea, but it wasn't a very thoughtful thing to say. "Can you hold it in for a little bit?" The patient continued to look terrified while still clutching tightly to her container.

Finally, the health care worker decided to just get the job done. The poor patient looked miserable.

You Have Rights

Something I should mention now for anyone that is reading this is that all patients have the right to refuse treatment, medication, or care. If you ever go to the doctor or hospital and they want to do something to you that you don't want to have done. You can say no. As long as you are alert and aware of what is going on, and you have the ability to sign a paper that says you refused treatment or care, you can walk out and feel in control of your life.

I'm not saying that you should refuse care if you need it and if it's for your own good. I'm just saying that you have rights as a patient. I think that many patients don't realize that they can say no.

In the hospital, if I want to feed you food and you don't want to eat, I can't force-feed you. If I want to give you medicine, and you say no, I can't force you to take it. It's your right to say no.

Patients are Paying Customers

Also, the health care industry is a service to you. You're our clients and customers. If you're not happy with the service you're getting at the hospital, get your family to write a letter to the hospital to complain. You or your tax dollars are paying for care and you should be happy with the quality of service provided to you.

Anyways, I just wanted to say this because many of the patients complain about the quality of care that they are getting, but they don't realize that they can do something about it. They start to believe that they have lost control over their own life and health, but that is not the case. I think that knowing you have some control over your situation helps you to overcome it and to feel better.

Thoughts as a Nursing Student

So week 6 was a good one with lots of opportunities to help patients and to feel useful. It seems like a dream to me because it's so different from being an animator. When I woke up this morning, I expected to be an animator again, but there were drug guides on my desk, and binders were open to diagrams of the nervous system.

In some ways, I feel lost. This career change seems to be an on-going struggle for me. While I am thankful for finally finding meaning in life, some of what goes on in the hospital is so significant that I feel exhausted when I get home. You can compare it to be being a super-hero with a secret identity. For me, I'm a nurse by day, and an artist by night.

I definitely have more respect for what nurses do now.

Have a great week, and try not to barf :P

Week 5 of Semester Two of Nursing School

Falling Behind

At almost halfway through the semester, the assignments and exams were rolling in. I was barely keeping up, and I was running at 4-6 hours of sleep per day in order to get my homework and studying done on time.

Monday: Human Anatomy and Physiology quiz

Tuesday: Nursing Communication quiz

Wednesday: group presentation on Delirium, Dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease

Thursday and Friday: clinical days

For clinical, I had to look up 9 medications and read up on illnesses such as brain tumors and hypothyroidism. I also had to finish a Journal Reflection on a significant experience, and I had to fill in something called a Decision Making Worksheet, which lists all the patient information needed to make decisions and plan care for a patient. It was busy and go-go-go all week, but I felt pretty good by the end of it.

Screwing Up in Clinical

In clinical this week, we were partnered up with another student and given one patient to care for. It was exciting for me because I could focus on one client instead of a large group at once. Well, at least that was what I was expecting. In actual fact, there are 4 clients in one room so you're really taking care of all 4 of them at once. You only have a single patient if everyone else in the room is okay.

I greeted my patient with my partner and he turned out to be a really nice guy. He joked with us and he promised he'd try to help us pass our course, lol! Of course, the easy part of my clinical experience ended there.

I attempted to take his blood pressure and found that I could barely hear his heart beat when I put my stethoscope on his arm. I listened very carefully twice. The first time I couldn't hear it at all. The second time, I could barely hear it. I didn't trust such a sketchy report so I got my partner to check his blood pressure and I used the machine to get his blood pressure once too.

I reported the machine blood pressure to the nurse and my teacher got mad at me. She said, "We nurse patients, not machines!" She wanted us to be able to give a manual blood pressure reading and to be confident in our reports. Machines are often not as reliable as a manual blood pressure reading, so it is important for a nurse to be able to give accurate manual "bp" readings.

I attempted to check the patients blood pressure again the next day, but I really couldn't hear a thing. I went to the teacher and told her that I was having trouble with taking bp's and that I would like to have some more practice. "I can't hear a thing!" I said. So she gave me another patient to try it on.

Lo and behold, I couldn't hear a thing on him either. By this time, I was getting suspicious. I thought that I couldn't hear anything on the other patient because his blood pressure was low, but this patient should have had a regular blood pressure. I returned to the teacher and told her that I suspected that something was wrong with my stethoscope.

She was about to lend me hers when she stopped and suddenly had a realization. "Do you have it turned on to the right setting?" Oh, I almost died there. She tapped on my stethoscope. "Do you hear this?"

"I hear tapping..." She turned the stethoscope head and tapped it again.

"What do you hear now?" It was super loud!

Oh my goodness, I had done the ultimate newbie nurse mistake. I had been trying to listen to a patient's heart with my stethoscope turned off. Ugghhhh! I was so embarrassed. I could comfort myself that it's pretty good that I almost had the the blood pressure right even though my stethoscope was off, but that's really stretching it.

Anyhow, we had a couple more eventful moments in clinical where we were scolded for other newbie mistakes, but our client was so sweet. "It's okay, " he kept saying. "I don't mind! You girls are getting so stressed out! It's really fine with me!" He gets top marks for being supportive and thoughtful!

Since none of my clinical group proved to be stellar this week, we'll remain paired up for next week. We get new partners though and new patients. I'm spending a lot of time this weekend brushing up on my skills so that I'll be better prepared for next week. Newbie mistakes are forgivable, but I don't feel confident enough with some tasks like head-to-toe assessments and charting. I want to brush up on those kinds of skills.

Still Loving Clinical

Mistakes aside, I really enjoyed my clinical experience. I enjoyed talking with the patients and I flitted from room to room keeping an eye on little things like whether their water pitchers were empty. It was nice to say hello and to bring a smile to their faces. I also kept an eye on whether patients looked like they were not doing as well as before.

One fellow looked pale and dazed and I asked him if he was okay. He described feeling "not so good" and that he was dizzy. I got him to lay down and called the nurse over. I checked his vital signs and every thing was normal according to the machine, but when we manually checked his pulse it was irregular. (See why the machine can be a problem?)

There's just so much going on in a hospital ward all of the time. It's no wonder everyone is asking for more nurses. I'm glad that there are student nurses running around helping out, even if we do make some mistakes. We're at least another pair of eyes that can alert the nurses when something goes wrong, and it helps the nurses a lot to have us helping with the bathing and other menial tasks. The patients definitely appreciate the extra attention.

Anyhow, I better get back to the studying. I hope you all have a great week. Take good care of yourselves!!!