Supplies, Networking and Testing

I’ve had a pretty good week so far. I was very busy in clinical this week. I’m still on the PCU and the acuity of these patients is pretty high. I’m not sure how I’ll do when I move up to ICU. I am seeing a trend with this hospital, however. I really like the fact that this facility serves an underprivileged community, the nurses seem to really enjoy their jobs, they work well together, and learning is always encouraged. I’ve checked off more skills in my two days on this unit than I have the last year and a half of nursing school. Here is the problem…you can’t find supplies, techs are rare and there seems to be a lot of issues with charting. They are short of unit secretaries, so paper charts don’t get put into the computer system in a timely manner, there is double medication charting and paper care plans that are not computerized in any way, shape or form. I know that back in the olden days, that’s how things used to be all the time, but step into the 21st century people. I don’t know for sure if the low supplies and low staffing are a normal part of this hospital, but I hope things get better as I go through the semester. I’d love to work here come January!

A word about “Meet and Greets”…. Last week I attended a local hospital’s recruiting “meet and greet” at a restaurant close by. For those who are looking into attending something like this in the future, please note that you will NOT get a job this way. There were literally hundreds of nursing students from all over passing out resumes to the unit managers who were hiring GNs for the spring. Unless you already know someone, don’t expect to be able to stand out in this crowd. Besides the fact that I had previously met one of the nurse managers, my time last week would have been better spent studying for the test I’m am having today. Yes, I learned a little about their GN/new RN training, but I have a feeling that the resumes I passed out will never see the light of day. Anybody who knows me knows that I am pretty introverted and not the hob-knobbing type, so maybe I could have done some things differently. For the most part though, it’s better to get in good with the people you meet at your clinical sites. I’d be curious to know if anyone else has had luck at event like this. Anyone?

The test: yep this morning I’ll have my first test of my last semester. It’s over Cardiac/Respiratory. Here is my oversimplified example of a standard nursing question…

Question: What is the sum of 2 + 2? Choose the best answer.
A. 6 - 2
B. Four
C. IV
D. 4
E. Only A and C

Wish me luck!

-DV

It's the "squirmy" little things.

Day one on the floor ended up being a really great learning experience. We missed morning report due to some computer training that ended up being postponed until next week. After listening to a couple of paper presentations we were taken up to our respective floors to get paired up with an RN. I was placed on the progressive care unit with a relatively new nurse. I can say that being paired with a nurse recently out of school ended up being one of the best days I’ve had in a year and a half of clinical. She was able to really remember what it was like being a student. She explained everything to me and let me do lots of stuff during the day.

I was allowed to do trach care, IM’s, IVPB’s, peg tube meds, condom cath, and last but certainly not least…leech therapy. Yep, you read correctly; L-E-E-C-H Therapy. Until Tuesday, I thought that the last time leeches were in use was back in the 1400’s. Apparently, leeches are still used occasionally today as a therapy for wounds with buildup of venous blood and wounds that are not perfusing properly.
Amazingly, the leeches have anticoagulant and anesthetic properties in their saliva. I had no idea! They are a little squirmy, but once you get them out of the bottle, you just place them on the wound and let them suck 15 - 20 minutes and they fall off on their own once they are full. Funny….the Rx says “Apply three leeches to wound for 15 minutes q2h”. Hee, hee! You won’t see that very often.

All of the RN’s were extremely helpful and even let me get a taste of the charting they had to do. With all of the paperwork (computer and hardcopy) they have to do, it’s a wonder patients get taken care of at all. I was allowed to get the initial information directly from a new patient, enter it into the computer, chart the plan of care and get her checked into our floor. I got to see a patient who was posturing. I’ve only seen that in the text books so far.

In addition to the skills I was able to take part in; I was able to talk one-on-one with my instructor about my head to toe assessment. That is always something I get nervous about. I am always forgetting something. She was very thorough and had lots of tips for how I could improve my efficiency. For the first time, I am actually looking forward to the next time I get to give a head to toe assessment next week.

Hopefully next week will go as well as this week.

-DV

Get off your butt and go do something!

Need some motivation to study, eat right, go to the gym, etc.?

This ought to do it.

Gahh! When did I get old?

Gee wiz! Apparently at some point in the last 30+ years I went and got old. Last week when I went in for my TB test my doc had me submit a complete blood work up. It had been about four years since the last one, so I’m like, okay; I’ll get to see my lab results and compare them to some of my patients (It’ll be fun.) WTF…when I go in today to “discuss” my results my Globulin is low, my Alb/Glob is high, HDL is low, Tri’s are high and apparently I have a hypo active thyroid too. And to top it all off I have a sore throat and my wisdom tooth extractions still ache. I get scripts for antibiotics for the throat and hormones for the thyroid. I go back in a month to check things out. Until then it’s eating lean and hitting the gym a bit more often. I'm too young for a cane!

DIE, FAT, DIE!!!!!!!!!

-DV

Every point matters & I’m hungry.

Today was my second day of lecture. I have to admit that I’m a bit of a teacher snob. I have a degree in education so I know what I like. Also, I became a little spoiled this summer listening to my favorite YouTube teachers and Podcast teachers talk about things I need to understand. They are great educators. My current theory instructor pretty much just goes over her PowerPoint’s and doesn’t present the information in a logical, systematic way. Teach-Check Comprehension-Re-teach is not part of her style. So once again I’m on my own for really figuring this stuff out. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a nice person and probably a very good nurse, but an educator she is not.

We had another quiz today. I missed one question because I just wasn’t thinking. (Duh!) and another question for sure. I’m fairly positive that I got all the others correct. That means I’ll get another point added to my score at the end of the semester. Each quiz is worth one point and you must answer 70% correct to receive the point. Now, there are a total of 1000 points for the semester so each quiz is (you guessed it) 1/1000 of my total grade. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but my experience has shown that it is possible to increase your letter grade by only one or two points. Conclusion….study hard for each quiz!

In one hour from now I go to get my wisdom teeth removed. Yea! (can you sense my sarcasm?) I haven’t had anything to eat since dinner last night and I’m starting to get hungry for lunch. Looks like my next meal will consist of water, broth and pudding. Actually my next few meals will consist of that. It’s going to be a rough Labor Day weekend. I’m going to be irritable.


-DV

BTW here are links to some of my favorite online professors. They’re awesome!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/DoctorNajeeb

http://www.youtube.com/user/Campbellteaching

also, check out Dr. Gerald Cizadlo’s lectures on iTunes They’re free and totally awesome too!

Theory Day 1

Rocked the quiz over rhythm strips including times for each wave and interval.

I am also TB free. Thanks for caring!

-DV

The beginning of the end

Alas, here I am in the first week of my last semester. WOOT! I took the summer off just to recharge and spend some much needed time with my family. I applied for several PT/PRN tech jobs but only got one interview. I didn’t get the job, however. At this point I’m happy for that outcome. While I would have liked getting some experience dealing with patients and staff, I am glad to be able to concentrate on my studies over the next few weeks. I did spend a little time this summer reviewing and going over anticipated material for this semester, but not as much as I had hoped. I suppose that’s how it goes; you start out with the best of intentions…

As for today… I believe I got a little too comfortable with my summer schedule and was not looking forward to starting classes this semester. THEN, I went to my first clinical on Tuesday. I am so pumped about being at the “county hospital” that I can’t even begin to tell you. My clinical instructor is going to be awesome. She has a great sense of humor and at the same time will be willing to push me to learn everything I need to learn before I graduate. (Which is December 15th BTW!!!!! Super WOOT!) You can tell that she is really passionate about critical care and making sure that we learn something this semester.

In just a few hours, I’ll be attending my first lecture for the semester. Cardiac! I am looking forward to this unit. I hope I remember something from Adult I last fall. We’re supposed to have quizzes every day so I’ve bee brushing up.

Hopefully I’ll get black to blogging a little more now. It seems like yesterday that I started this blog and now I’ve got just a few weeks left.

-DV