Clinical Day: 4
Yesterday was my very first day taking care of a single patient by myself. (Well without my instructor or other nursing students with me). It was so exciting. Sunday afternoon I went to the hospital with a few friends and we picked up our patient information sheet, wrote down charting info and left. While the Superbowl was on, I made my drug cards, wrote up my care plan and got an article for my instructor that related to my case. When I walked in the next morning I was told to wake my patient, get vitals, and begin my care plan process. My patient was a very sweet elderly man who happily let me take his vitals. He was interested in what they were and was happy when I told him his blood pressure had come down. Next I went back to our conference room and let my instructor review my care plan. I had a few mistakes but I’m still learning and still trying to get a hold of all of it.
Later, while checking in on random patients on the floor and asking if they needed anything, I was pulled aside and asked if I would like to do a Foley Catheter removal. Of course I said yes. I walked into the patients room and greeted her. She was very nice and willing to let me do the removal. The nurse told me exactly what to do from emptying the catheter bag and charting how much came out to deflating the balloon that is expanded inside the bladder. I deflated the balloon and prepared to have some friction against the catheter when it was being removed or the patient to be in pain but it was exactly the opposite from what I prepared myself. The catheter just slipped right out, no resistance what so ever and the patient said she barely felt a thing. I helped clean her up and then properly disposed of everything and went back to helping patients.
After lunch I had to ambulate my patient. He seemed very eager to walk around so I opened the door and let him begin to walk. He was very self sufficient, he walked at the same pace I did, did not need any help, he held onto his IV and put his catheter hanging so it wouldn’t need to be held. We circled the floor 3 times before finally he decided to go back to his room and call his son. I gave him his privacy and went to go help more people. I was able to remove another catheter but this time on a man. He was paralyzed so he did not feel a thing. We rotated a few patients, and changed the linen of a patient who was not able to get out of bed. Finally we did final rounds on our patients, my patient was sound asleep so I decided not to wake him. The nurses told me he was in good condition and would be discharged before I came back.
Over all it was a very good day. I learned a lot, especially about Catheters and removing them!
