Today was a very busy day in clinical. I have to admit that it was kind of fun too. I was able to keep fairly busy which made the shift go pretty quickly. I learned a lot about trachs today. I fed a woman her breakfast this morning. Unbeknown to me, you are supposed to have a cap on the trach during feeding. The RN in charge didn't set it up like that for me. You see, we haven't covered trach. care in class yet. So I'm trying to feed this poor lady her breakfast and she's choking on half the stuff I give her. Ultimately, she doesn't eat very much anyway. When the RN did try the cap on her, she didn't want it anyway because it was difficult for her to breath. I'm sure that's part of the weening process that my patient hadn't been through anyway. Later this morning, I was able to perform some physical therapy with the PT at my side. That was pretty fun.
Before I left the unit I was given the opportunity to check glucose levels on a couple of patients. I know that if you're a diabetic, that's no big deal, but for me it was one of the highlights of my day.
Finally, just after my shift was over, my clinical instructor gave me permission to stay a while and watch a tracheostomy. It was totally cool! At the same time, it was very humbling. Every day that I learn one new thing, I learn that there are about 100 things that I know absolutely nothing about.
Even after five weeks of constant reading and studying, I feel like I'll never learn all of this. I have a VERY long way to go.
-DV
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