Tuesday, January 24, 2017

More than I expected

Phew!! I'm here everyone! No worries. The beginning of this "final semester" has been much more overwhelming than I anticipated. Wow. What a crazy schedule. Okay, so let's recap...

When I last left I was trying to figure out what this semester was going to be about. I've since come to the realization that when the professor repeatedly says "You are responsible for your educational success" she basically means you're on your own and don't expect me to teach. That was even more apparent when I took my first exam of the term last night and only got a 72% when my typical grade is 88-93%. UGH!!! Now I have to focus on recovering from that.

We did have a dosage calc exam last Thursday evening on the 12th. I was a little nervous about that one because of one of the types of questions that required you to titrate a dose. In the end, I knocked it out of the park and got 100%! Yay!

I also had my first hospital day of the term this past Saturday on the 21st. I was so excited and pumped about that. I LOVE bedside nursing and providing patient care!! Well, lets just say that my flame was put out when I was assigned to a gen-med floor where there were no PCTs and most of the patients were stable. I honestly spent the day being the PCT for the unit. I changed linens, took vitals, assisted patients to the bathroom and repositioned several of them. I removed IVs, fetched various snacks and beverages, had a couple of patients try to swindle me into sneaking them ice when they were supposed to be NPO, nothing by mouth, and sent two patients off the floor for procedures.

The day drug on and I just tried to stay busy. I ran into the clinical instructor a couple of times and tried to talk to her to pass the time but she wasn't really helpful. I am so frustrated with my clinical experience!! I know how to do these basic things! What I need to learn is how to program the IV pump, how to assess the bed-bound patient, how to use the EMR and plan out my day as a care provider! These are the things I'm missing. In a way, I can't wait for this program to be over and on the other hand I'm scared because I don't believe I will be prepared because the program has been more of a political game than an actual nurturing educational environment.

Towards the end of the clinical day on Saturday, all of a sudden there were a handful of things to keep busy!! There was a patient on the unit who was very demanding and probably kind of lonely. My partner and I spent a bit of time with her. Well, mostly my partner. She brushed the patient's hair, braided it, essentially gave the patient a bed bath, we both suctioned the patient, and about an hour later finally got out of the room. Hah. Then we got to go work on a patient who was having an unfortunate stay. He ended up getting a rectal tube, poor thing. It's so amazing the kind of medical interventions that are available.

It was a very long day!! Tonight there's a new class and another opportunity to get my you-know-what together and try to excel instead of just make it by. Haha. We'll see how that goes. I'll likely just try not to be a jerk but that's also just a maybe.

Next post will be an update on weight loss and health!!

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