Ok...so it's been over 2 months since any of us have blogged. Clearly, I will not even try to make any excuses, other than to half-jokingly postulate that maaaaybe it's better that the three of us were hitting the books (saving future lives!?) instead of blogging all the time, right? Well, that's at least what we'll tell ourselves...
So obviously too much has happened in the past two months to give a play-by-play: you'd be stuck here reading it--if you had the patience, that is--for far too long. So a reflective post is what you'll get...
So as not to sell ourselves short, we just finished up our second semester of nursing school. But in many ways, it was kind of like our first, because this was the semester where book learning met practical experience via clinicals. It was a full semester with classes, labs, evaluations, exams, clinicals, and more. I don't think I've ever been so busy, but looking back, I wouldn't trade it. We learned SO much, got to experience so many things, and finally got to APPLY all that learning we did in all our 3-hour lectures!
A few quick personal highlights...and lowlights (in no particular order):
1) H: All of the sweet old gentlemen that I got to help take care of this year. I just always hit it off with any and all men above the age of 65. Good thing too, because I'd say 99% of my patients this semester were 65 or older!
2) L/H: My 87 year old MEAN and ORNERY woman I blogged about before. Despite her antics, I learned a lot from her about taking care of patients, and a lot about end-of-life care as well - highlight. I also had to write a 12 page research paper off of her case - lowlight!
3) L/H: I had this old gentlemen who fell in his bathroom and laid there for 2 days with no food or drink before he was discovered. Which also meant that his 97 year old mother who he took care of also went without food and water for those two days - lowlight. His story really bothered me and stuck with me. But he was SO cooperative, and sweet, and eager to take the tiny baby steps needed to get him feeling better. He was one of my favorite patients, what a sweetheart - highlight!
4) H: My clinical group and instructor. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved my clinical instructor. She was so knowledgeable about anything and everything cardiac, but she could convey all that information to us in a very understandable way. Plus, she was so laid back. I just love her. And my clinical group! What a fabulous and unique group of people. We had some great times on 3 Anderson, yay for friendships formed in nursing school.
5) L: There was a patient that every single one of us (on 3 And) took care of in some capacity. She had a multitude of comorbidities, and was with us shortly after having a craniectomy (removal of half her skull, to decrease pressure). Unfortunately, after many complications and a move to the CICU, she passed away. It was very sad, especially because I remember being so excited the day that she went from being hardly responsive to sitting up in bed and eating her breakfast the next.
6) L: Tests, papers, open labs, and evaluations! AHHHH! At least we're done with evaluations this semester :)
7) H: Passing (with a few re-dos!) all of my evaluations to include: handwashing, standard precautions, sterile gloving, oral med administration, temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure taking, IV push medication, IV med piggyback, sterile dressing change, hanging TPN, CVAD push and dressing change, tracheostomy site care and suctioning, G-tube med administration, and urinary catheterization! WOO!
8) H: Watching a femoral-peroneal bypass graft from 2 feet away. When the doctor pulled the sapphenous vein out (which was being used to bypass the poorly-working peroneal vein) to check its patency, he said "Doesn't it look like a big piece of spaghetti!?" Yes, yes it did...gross. But also fascinating.
9) H: I had a patient who presented to the ER in atrial fibrillation (bad), and after going through a period of a systole (VERY bad), converted on his own to a seriously low pulse in the low 30s (sinus bradycardia - still bad in his case). They took him down and did a cardiac catheterization, then an ablation study to pinpoint the part of his heart causing the irregular rhythm (a fib). After inducing the irregular rhythm, they let me shock him with 200 J to convert him back to his normal rhythm. I also got to draw up the atropine they used to stop his heart momentarily, but don't worry, I didn't give it - one of the nurses did! They fixed the irregular rhythm with the ablation, and then put in a pacemaker to fix his really slow rhythm. It was an awesome experience in all, and the nurse, Brian, who took care of me during it all, was SO helpful and the one who was suggesting I do all that they let me do. The picture at the top is my patient's EKG strip (from telemetry) that caught his heart going from a fib into a systole (also known as "flat-lining")!
10) H: Realizing that I love what I do already, and that I picked the right career :)
It's been a really great semester - I can't believe how much I've learned. Next semester is promising to be even better, and I'm sure stories will abound, especially once we start our psych rotations...hopefully we'll be better at updating!
To my family that reads this blog and whom I happen to live with: maybe this end-of-semester post will bring with it an end to my random outbursts of information in response to anything and everything that could remotely relate to something I learned in nursing school this semester. I'm sure one or two more will slip out, but thanks for putting up with them so far!
Merry Christmas Everyone :)
