We will have our first clinicals this mod!! I am sooo excited. And I am soooo scared. All at the same time.
Here are some highlights and updates to our progress:
* Four are no more
We lost 4 people in Pharm II. I believe they can join the class behind us but I have to say something about one of them. My friend, an excellent person, a hard worker, an LPN, will not be going on with us.....and that is Teri. And I just want to say that I hope and pray that somehow someway she finds her way back to and thru the program. She is a hard worker and she has a lot going on in her life. This program is accelerated and fast paced and so is her life. Sometimes it doesn't always go together. Please pray for Teri so that she has the strength to keep pushing thru it and get the RN. She already is an excellent LPN and an astounding person.
* Full Health Assessment ....on each other! *gulp*
This weekend we will be doing a complete health assessment on one another....so we get to wear shorts and some are wearing pjs. I will be rockin' some yoga pants. But again....I am really nervous. Note to Errrbody in class: Wear your deodorant, brush your teeth, and clean underwears. Well. Actually we have see a lot of thongage already......I think the same company that make plumber's pants make our scrubs. Shorty.....you get your cousin!! PRP!!!! heeee.
* IVs *gulp*
Apparently we will be giving one another IVs. My neighbor.... ShoLANA!...well she is a lab tech and I am hedging all my bets. I trust strangers more than I trust some of these in this group. I have crappy veins....so I need a professional.
(PS I am ready for all you nurses to remind me how back in your nursing school days, you cath'd, injected, and drew blood with 3 gauge needles.......I am a wimp....I will not lie. the only good side of a needle is the plunger side if you ask me.)
* Teachers *gulp*
We have the teacher who was handing out "C"s for orientation. Fortunately I did better than a 'C' last time. I KNOW where the library is. She is a career Military Nurse....which makes her cool....yet scary.....all at the same time.
The second teacher.....she is career military as well. She looks like her name should be Hildegard or something strong and Norse Godess like. I cannot lie. I thought she was going to speak with an accent. She told us that she had nursed in "Saudi, Iraq, Germany, China, thats...yeah...that's all....no wait....Korea, Bahrain......."
That's it. I hope she shares stories. Cause I can dig it. I wish she would do it with an accent.
Hopefully I will be back with a new report....
Shorty? Barb?
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 31
I actually worry about both hurting and being hurt. eeeee. But I am steeling myself because I did an IV like 15 years go but I feel like it doesn't count because I got a drop of blood return only because the veins were so sclerosed. They did end up calling a Peds nurse. So I am having a confidence pep talk everyday. I can do this. I can do this.
Want to hear something strange? I have seen blood, I have seen guts, I have seen things all nasty and gross (and smelled them too)
But above all what makes me woozy or feel faint is if I believe that I am hurting someone. I did a catheter for a man like 15 years ago. All I could think of were 2 things. Don't break my sterile technique and don't hurt him. And it went well. Until the very end it was all finished and he moaned. I don't remember what happened after that but my instructor said I pointed at her to come here. And I passed out. i did not break sterile technique.
Actually I can imagine sticking you. Barb says: What! That's all ya got. Dig, dig!! i can take it!!!
You know I am kidding.
She was right.
Six weeks later we were doing patient care. We learned to start IVs holding a glass bottle of IV fluid between our knees, the tubing clenched in our teeth to clamp it off, and using a 1" 20 gauge steel needle. I remember when Jelco's, the original IV catheter, were experimental and you had to put on a tourniquet before removing one because a couple of them had ended up in patients' ventricles. Armboards were the norm. I've even, in a dire emergency, started an IV in a toe.
BTW....we started with 60, graduated 14. During our entire senior year we were charge nurses.
You know I wonder a lot this....
There are some damn good test takers in there. But I really question their common sense skills. I wonder how that will end up.
Alot of folks are like ewww, ewww, ewww. Do these folks come out ok? I am scared but not grossed out.
I think mainly I am scared of life getting in the way.
First, ask the patient if they have a best vein. Even if it looks like crap to you, try that first. They're usually right. If they say no, put a tourniquet on loosely and wrap the arm in a black trash bag. Go take someone else's vitals. When you get back every vein in that arm will have crawled its way to the surface. If you don't believe me, do it to someone at home and look.
They have to be old enough to know that money buys things. Around three is usually old enough. Keep a pocketfull of change. Ask the kid if they've ever had a job they actually got paid real money for doing. Most say no. Fill both their hands with change. Put their hands under their butt. Tell them that sewing them up is going to hurt JUST until the doctor makes their cut sleepy. Tell them it's a little worse than a mosquito bite but not nearly as bad as a bee sting. Their job is to keep their hands where you put them and hold very still. Tell them they can yell as loud as they want and if they want and if they want you'll help them yell, but if they move or take their hands out from under them, you get your money back. I've never gotten my money back. Not once.
With the littler ones, have them pinch their nose while you're giving them an injection. Hard. Harder. Come on, you can pinch harder than THAT, can't you? Oops, we're done!
I just read this article about a Swedish hospital banning crocs, and I remembered you talking about it, so I came here to share.
Yesterday we were talking in the car. Shorty, me, and we will call her Three were saying our group....well it is like we are married to each other. We see each other more than our families see us. I am watching us grow up more than my kids.
And now y'all have touched me in places I have never been touched. No...I am serious. It's as if we all have gone to second base with each other.....my dates should be so lucky! ha ha.