Adult Med-Surg....Check.

Well, I finally made it. I passed my cardio unit exam with a (yes, you guessed it) a 76. Somehow I don’t seem to be able to get into that B range in this class. That put me needing 75 points to get a B in the class and only needing 25 to keep my C. Today’s final provided me with 51 points. At least I made an A in clinical. I have to admit that this has been the most difficult semester for me ever. That includes all of my “artistic” training years ago. No matter how much I tried, it just seemed that I could not learn all of the knowledge base I needed to know for the application portions of the exams.

I’ve got my course information for next semester (babies and mommies) and my books are on the way. I have a good nursing teacher friend who is able to provide me with free books for next semester…yea! Now if I could just figure out how to use them to benefit my grade. Any study tips from my readers are more than welcome. I’ll be able to get some of the reading done during the Christmas break.

I am looking forward to five weeks of R&R, Review, and Preparation for the next semester.

-DV

The End is Near

With this semester fast approaching, I look back and have to wonder where the time went. I completed the last of my clinical paperwork a week ago Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and presented my paper to my clinical group on Thursday. Now that that is done all I have left is one more lecture in my cardiovascular unit followed by the unit exam on Wednesday. Then the biggie....a comprehensive final next Monday. There is still a chance for me to get a B in theory. I'm really hoping that the stars align for me and it works out. However, if not, I'm still in good shape for a C. Yes, it would suck just a little, but I'll be okay with that.

Tuesday is out last day in clinical and our instructor is allowing us to attend observation areas for the day. I have really enjoyed every area that I've been to except respiratory. I'm not too interested in doing that again. Also there will be opportunities for cath lab and wound care that day. Guess I'll have to wait and see where I end up.

I've been pretty stressed out lately with crazy family happenings (always during the holidays) and school, work and the like. I hope that all of this stress will go away after next weeks exams. I have been having some issues with my blood pressure lately. This summer I went to the dentist and they checked it (139/90). I figured it was just because I was in the dentist office for the first time in a while. I went again in October...still high. Then all last month I started checking my BP myself. It hasn't been below 130/90. During the last couple of weeks I've been having mild headaches daily along with fatigue and not sleeping well. I really don't want to have to deal with this type of problem, so I'll see how things go when the semester ends. Unfortunately, both of my parents have a history of hypertension and heart disease so it looks like I'm going to have to be really careful. I'm not even 40 yet and I exercise 3 times a week (typically). Now I could stand to lose a few pounds (15-20) but still, I'm not ready to be a patient. It's probably psychosomatic. Yes, that's it. It's all in my head. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself for another week and a half.

-DV

Recovery

I wasn’t too sure about going to the PACU today. I’ve heard reports from other students that the PACU is pretty boring mostly because of the delay in getting any patients. However, I actually had a very positive experience today. Admittedly, the first hour and a half was slow. The charge nurse told me that I was welcome to study until patients started coming in from surgery. Fortunately, I came prepared with my books and notes from class. After a while I was finally assigned to a nurse for when patients started coming in. I lucked out and got a really good staff nurse who immediately started showing me around and asking me if I had any questions. She was able to explain to me the processes for assigning patients to nurses in the PACU. She also made sure that I was able to have something to do when patients came through like getting them hooked up to the monitors. She was careful to explain all of her charting as well. Our first patient was a port placement, so that wasn’t very tough. He was pretty much fully conscious when he got to us. The story he told us about his brain tumor was very touching. Basically it all happened in the last year and he had to quit work as a highly educated professional. It must be very difficult going through an illness like this. After about thirty minutes we accompanied him to his room and came back to the PACU. A while later our next patient came. This is where things started to become very interesting. He was an open heart surgery patient who had a history of drug abuse. Basically, he came in yelling and continued to yell the entire time I was there. He was calling for his “momma” and yelling that “it hurts, I’m gonna die!” Mind you he was 39 years old and the morphine we were giving him I’m sure wasn’t nearly as effective as what he took out on the streets. Still, he was kind of being a big baby about it. I suppose “Be quiet and suck it up” would not be a very good example of therapeutic communication. I have to admit, I like patients like this. It makes for an interesting day. Maybe I’ll change my mind once I become a real nurse.

-DV