Saturday, January 13, 2007
third quarter, off and running
This is the end of the first week of third quarter of nursing school. And boy did we hit the ground running. Day 1 we had a brief intro to the instructors and what we would do this quarter, then we had 2+ hours of lecture on testable material! Then we had a 2-hour skills lab as well. I love my skills/clinical instructor - she's very funny and silly, but also really seems to know her stuff and is very protective of her group of students. Tuesday was another 3 hours of lecture. Then Wednesday, we got up way too early and six of us convened at the park & ride to go to Big County Hospital for clinical orientation. We were there from 7:30 until 4:00 - it was a long day. While we did learn some useful things, a lot of it was pretty boring (especially the video about infection control). I know infection control is really important, and the factoid the video gave (near the beginning before I started dozing off) about MRSA and VRE being cultured off of computer keyboards on the floor was certainly an eye-opener, but the presentation method was dullsville. On the other hand, the training on the computer charting methods they use was really fun. As a reformed nerd, I LOVE computer charting. How awesome.
It was strongly emphasized to us that this quarter, we will be the acting nurse for our patients on our clinical shifts. We're supposed to take 2 or 3 patients each week and come in with a plan of care ready. And we're supposed to do all the care for those patients for an 8 hour shift. The example my instructor gave was, "Say you have a patient who has suddenly spiked a fever of 102. Last quarter, you would've gone to the RN and said hey, this patient has a fever. This quarter, you should go to the RN and say hey, this patient has a fever and his other vitals are XYZ and I think we should call the doctor and suggest that we should see if this guy has an infection." Critical thinking, in other words.
I felt really anxious when I first thought about providing all care for two patients... then I remembered that I routinely kept track of 10+ residents at my CNA job, which wasn't as intellectually challenging, but certainly required me to be organized and keep track of lots of details. So I should be fine. Even when I worked on the dementia ward, I was capable of keeping 6 residents clean, dry, and fed - certainly I can take care of two patients!
One fascinating thing about this quarter is that I barely have time to be nervous about clinical - there are only 6 weeks of clinical with 2 shifts of patient each week. And during those 6 weeks, I have 3 different observation days, where I go to observe some other aspect of hospital care (surgery, respiratory therapy, endoscopy) instead of going to clinical on the floor. It just so happens that all 3 of my observations are during the last two weeks of clinical, so I will basically go to clinical for 4 weeks, plus one extra day, and THAT'S IT. Holy crap. As if that weren't stressful enough, we have SIX exams before the final exam, the first one being a week from Monday. I can already tell this quarter is going to be over in a flash.
But you know? My #1 goal this quarter has very little to do with school - it is to NOT gain 10 pounds like I did the last two quarters. It would not be cool at all to graduate from the program 60 pounds heavier than when I started.
It was strongly emphasized to us that this quarter, we will be the acting nurse for our patients on our clinical shifts. We're supposed to take 2 or 3 patients each week and come in with a plan of care ready. And we're supposed to do all the care for those patients for an 8 hour shift. The example my instructor gave was, "Say you have a patient who has suddenly spiked a fever of 102. Last quarter, you would've gone to the RN and said hey, this patient has a fever. This quarter, you should go to the RN and say hey, this patient has a fever and his other vitals are XYZ and I think we should call the doctor and suggest that we should see if this guy has an infection." Critical thinking, in other words.
I felt really anxious when I first thought about providing all care for two patients... then I remembered that I routinely kept track of 10+ residents at my CNA job, which wasn't as intellectually challenging, but certainly required me to be organized and keep track of lots of details. So I should be fine. Even when I worked on the dementia ward, I was capable of keeping 6 residents clean, dry, and fed - certainly I can take care of two patients!
One fascinating thing about this quarter is that I barely have time to be nervous about clinical - there are only 6 weeks of clinical with 2 shifts of patient each week. And during those 6 weeks, I have 3 different observation days, where I go to observe some other aspect of hospital care (surgery, respiratory therapy, endoscopy) instead of going to clinical on the floor. It just so happens that all 3 of my observations are during the last two weeks of clinical, so I will basically go to clinical for 4 weeks, plus one extra day, and THAT'S IT. Holy crap. As if that weren't stressful enough, we have SIX exams before the final exam, the first one being a week from Monday. I can already tell this quarter is going to be over in a flash.
But you know? My #1 goal this quarter has very little to do with school - it is to NOT gain 10 pounds like I did the last two quarters. It would not be cool at all to graduate from the program 60 pounds heavier than when I started.
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Hon, I feel your pain! My immediate goals are to survive the next 6 weeks of critical care and then do what you're doing in Leadership starting in March. Thanks to an upcoming summer beach vacation, I'm going to try to LOSE 15 pounds by July. That sounds small to some people but huge to me. Weightwatchers, here I come.
If I can just quit eating while I'm studying...
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If I can just quit eating while I'm studying...
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