Nursing Student

Almost Done!

My Sophomore year ends this Saturday. I’m officially done with my first round of clinical rotations. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had in College yet. I remember every single one of my patients and I doubt I will ever forget them. They were all unique and amazing people.

I am not sure if I am working for a hospital this summer or not. I still have to go home and check out the local hospitals. If I do, I will continue to write this blog and update about what I am doing and all the things I am learning. If not, I probably won’t be posting as much. I will pick up and continue with my Junior year in August. I’ll be doing Clinical 2 days a week on a Med Surg floor!! (exciting!) And I will be entering my first Med/Surg class. (Hopefully it goes well). 

I wish everyone the best of luck with finals! Study hard and remember summer is right around the corner. Thank you so much for all the support this past semester. It truly means a lot to me <3

I GOT TO HOLD A UTERUS!

I went into the OR last week in clinicals. In my surgery, the woman was getting a hysterectomy. (Note: I know nothing about the patient. We were not given any patient information this week, we were just randomly assigned to an operating room and told to watch). 

The procedure only took about an hour and a half. It was a lot shorter than I had thought it would be. Also, something I found interesting was when they opened her up, she didn’t bleed a lot. I forgot to ask the surgeon why that was because I was in awe at the whole thing but if anyone knows and would like to inform me, send a message! I would love to know why that is.

During the procedure they cauterized a lot of fibers around the uterus that was keeping it attached. This was my first time experiencing cauterization. I had heard that it smelled horrible and that it made some people nauseous. Honestly to me it was like something was burning but not flesh. Like if you burnt popcorn or something lol. And the smell went away very fast. But after they removed the uterus and ovaries, they put it in a silver tray and the surgeon came over and told me I could hold it and mess around with it.

It was awesome! So squishy and really warm to the touch. (I’m guessing because it was just removed from a woman’s’ body). There were a few cysts on it. One was the size of a ping pong ball. They were apparently harmless but might have caused some pain. They were a little harder then the actual tissue itself but not too hard. The ovaries are also bigger than I thought they were. They are about 1 inch long. It was half the size of my thumb and the entire uterus was about half the size of my fist. (Tiny!!) For an organ that can cause so much grief to people, I was expecting it to be a little bit bigger lol. 

After I held it I talked with the surgeon for a bit about hysterectomies and why woman chose to get them done. He told me a little bit about what other surgeries were like and how learning to perform surgeries was difficult but amazing. He told me I should consider being a scrub nurse since I was so excited to see the inside of a body. He said many students that come in generally either have to leave or they pass out. I was just so excited. (any Grey’s fans out there?!) 

Yeah that was my experience. I’m slowly dying this week however. It’s finals and I feel so unprepared. I’ll be spending hours in the library. So good luck to any other students out there taking finals as well, we all need it!

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!

Home for the weekend and practicing Physicals on my family.

My brothers put up a fight at first but I think they began to realize that its going to happen no matter what. In lab this morning we learned how to asses the ears nose mouth and eyes so I only practiced those skills. It was actually very easy on my 1 brother and my Dad. I was able to use the ophthalmoscope and asses the optic nerve, the veins/arteries and the fovea. They were clear, easy to move around and look at. However on my mother and my other brother I was only able to get to the red reflex and that was it. I could not see further into the eye to asses anything. So I moved on to use the Otoscope and look into the ears. The ears for me are much easier to look into and see everything. I saw the Tempanic Membrane clearly, the reflecting light, part of the malleus and of course lots and lots of ear wax! The other body parts were not as much fun cause I didn’t have to use a scope or a cool gadget lol. But on the bright side, from what I can tell, everyone in my family has healthy ears, eyes, noses, and mouths! So that’s good. :)

Thought this was pretty nice: 5 Reasons to Date a Nurse

Originally posted by http://swaggervin.tumblr.com/

1.  They can be the best cure for hangover and the most adorable first-aid provider in town.

          Are you going to date a nurse? Well, I’m gonna throw all my worries and stresses away if I were you. No need to fret hangover because an expert will be on your side and ready to give you effective ways to get over it. Of course, your dear nurse will know first hand that coffee is not the best cure for it so you better be passive and play the patient role. Furthermore, if you or someone on the other table accidentally choke during your date, your dear nurse is so ready for the adrenaline rush that he/she will be done doing Heimlich maneuver after a few seconds. You don’t need to fear for other spur-of-the-moment incidents because you have your own nurse ready as hell for anything that might come your way. Remember, nurses didn’t get those first aid certifications for nothing.

2. You won’t hear “Eeeewww”  when they see blood or disgusting body fluids.

          For a well-exposed nurse, blood and pus are common place that they already think of squirting blood as something boring. Show your wounded blood to a non-nurse person and she will be nauseated; show it to your nurse-lover and you will have your wounds cleaned and dressed like its a work of art. They are always on the go and open for new and exciting things so if ever you have a broken heart, feel free to approach a nurse and he/she will mend it for you like its the most special emergency case.

3. They wont be disgusted by your toilet habits.

          You don’t have to pretend to be Mr. or Ms. Perfect when you love a nurse. Believe me, they’ve seen all imperfections that a typical human being has to offer; name it, a nurse has encountered it. You can even fart while with a nurse and she will just answer it with a smile. A nurse looks at a person as a whole and provide holistic care despite that person’s flaws and bad habits. A good nurse is a nurse  that is not judgmental so if you are dating one, just be yourself.

4. They can be your own personal Google/medical dictionary.

          Dating and loving a nurse has a lot of advantages and one of these is the fact that if you’re lost with medical terms mentioned in Grey’s Anatomy, confused with what’s written on your doctor’s prescription, or in a serious search for the definition of Hirschsprung’s disease, you don’t need to look any further because your own nurse is willing to answer almost all your medical questions as detailed as possible. Of course, they don’t know everything but at least it will save you a serious amount of time.

5. They are great listeners and counselors.

          Nurses are not robots programmed only to give medications and assist doctors; they are compassionate people ready to talk to every patient regarding their situation and give some pieces of advice that are vital for their swift recovery. Just so you know, this is what nurses call as “therapeutic relationship”. The good news is that if you love or dating a nurse, you already have your own personal confidante, friend, and counselor ready to catch you every time you fall. It might sound so cheesy but nurses have all the qualifications to take care of your heart and emotions. They are willing to give parts of their selves to people they really love and care about. If they can do it to their patients, there is no reason for your nurse not to willingly do it for you.

Clinical Day: 2 

Today was a lot more fun than the last day. 

It began when my friends and I walked into the hospital and straight to our conference room. Immediately our instructor said we would be seeing our first real patients with another classmate and we would be taking vital signs for the first time. 

um…..terrifying might describe what I felt. We haven’t learned all the vital signs yet, we still have to go over them in class.

So anyways, after our instructor left to get reports, the other 6 of us in the room freaked out and began to think of what to do. I gradually came to accept that we had to listen to direction and that if we needed help with anything, there would be many nurses on the floor willing to help.

Me and my friend walked into the first room and met an elderly man who was still very sleepy. He willingly let us take his pulse and pulse ox. We took respiration BP and temp. Then we thanked him and left the room so he could sleep more. The next room we went into was a young woman who had surgery performed on her leg. We assessed her pain level, took her vitals and thanked her for being understanding of our learning. She laughed when she found out she was our second patient ever. 

Next it was on to bed baths and charting. I changed the linen in a bed with an occupied woman, then performed a full bed bath on her. She was a very kind elderly lady. She talked to me about football and how she couldn’t wait to see “those Giants kick the patriots asses!” She was funny but picky about what she liked done. I took it as a learning experience and performed to the best of my ability.

I got yelled at by someone for the first time. The patient was going in and out of conscious states so they were NPO and being tube fed. The patients parents were there and yelled at me when I came in to assess the tubing. Of course I had no clue what to say but I stood my ground and told them that I was not familiar to the case and that I would get the nurse in charge of the patient. The nurse was very understanding and took care of the rest of it. The family wanted to take the patient out of the hospital against Medical advice. Later in the day I passed the room and the patient was gone. The nurse told me the family was moving the patient to another hospital. 

Later on in the day my group made final rounds on patients and served some people lunch. I met some guy nurses which were really nice and pretty chill, they snuck me into the supply closet to show me where everything was because as students we are not allowed in there. I think they took sympathy on  me for being yelled at or something lol. 

We were dismissed later on in the day and I went back to my dorm, showered and threw my scrubs into a bag to be washed however I still can’t get the smell of bed bath out of my room. I febreezed it and even threw the scrubs in the wash but the smell is just lingering. No one else gets it though so it might just be me haha. 

I’ll post more later but right now I’ve got to sleep, I’ve got my fundamentals lab in the morning and we are learning Vital Signs :)