Week 3 of CPE II

This past week has been wonderful.  I finally found my rhythm.

What The Teacher Wants
Every teacher has their idea of what a successful, good nursing student is so every semester is a struggle to match my efforts to what my teacher wants.  My current teacher likes it if I prepare for the worst case scenario and get everything done before noon.  This means that I speedy my way through everything in the morning, and then take the afternoon easy doing less important tasks or taking care of new things that come up.  It's actually a pretty good way of working.

Clean Clients are Happy Clients
This week has also been made wonderful by two lovely patients. One was a delight right from the get-go.  She liked everything that I liked to do for her (ex. change her sheets daily, keep her clean, take care of the little things).

In fact, she liked me so much that she asked me to keep the other nurses away from her so that she only had to work with me.  (Yikes!)  She didn't even like my teacher stopping by to check on my work.  She would ask me if I could please only return with myself next time, and not bring the other nurse (my teacher).

Before she left the hospital, she asked for my name so that she could write a letter to tell my "supervisor" how I had been the best nurse that took care of her while she was at the hospital.  What a flattering thing to hear!  She told me that the best thing about me was how patient I was.  Interesting...

The Importance of Trust
My other client was quite the handful.  He arrived from the operating room spouting offensive remarks and rude jokes.  "Oh boy, " I thought, "this is going to be difficult."  However, as I ignored all his bad behaviour and joked with him about other things, he decided he didn't mind having me as his nurse.  I was working very hard to make sure he was comfortable, and I listened to him when he complained about different things that bugged him about the hospital and his condition.

He actually started looking forward to my care.  In the morning he'd say, "Is that who I think it is?" and then he'd say, "Oh, good!" when he saw me.  He would then tell me about all the terrible things he had suffered while I was gone.

Sometimes I'd arrive to find him in a mess, all sweaty, his gown missing, covered with nothing but a sheet.  He looked absolutely miserable and like he hadn't slept a wink.  I'd give him all the medications I knew he needed, brought towels and hot water so he could wash up, change all his sheets, and bring him a new gown.  I knew he wasn't eating most of the hospital food, so I would bring him some milk and juice that I knew he liked.  Grape juice was hard to come by, but he liked it a lot so I'd hunt some down for him.

If his back hurt, I'd put a warm blanket on it so that he could relax.  Then he'd drift off into a peaceful nap, knowing I'd be back with more medications, ice packs, water, juice, and other things when he needed them.  I was actually pretty pleased with how cleaned up and happy he looked by the end of my shift.  I think I did a good job this week.

Moving On Up
Next week is my last week at the hospital.  I think I miscounted the weeks of CPE II because it's week 5 next week, not 4.  There are only 6 weeks to this CPE II.  It's always a shame to have clinical rotations end because they always end when I have just gotten the hang of things.

My teacher feels that we have all jumped up a new level in this clinical rotation, even though it was supposed to be an extension of last semester.  I think she is right.  I feel a lot more confident with a lot of things compared to last semester.  Some of it is practice, and the other half has to do with the kind of patients we are dealing with.  The patients in this ward have been hurt both physically and emotionally.  Also, expecting us to get things done by noon has made us more efficient.

Anyways, yay for a good week!  I hope next week will be just as good.

Cheers!