Nursing School Chronicles ~ Wise you are, Jedi Nurse!

Don't ask about the title.  It's late and I am tired.  (For those of you wondering what I am doing up at this hour ~ and you  know who you are.....there were careplans that awaited me)

THAT SAID.....

I miss everyone.  I am about to enter the final week of Acute Care.  Acute Care for us would be Intensive Care Units .....sometimes step down and ER.  I have a complaint.  I did not get to go to the ER.  *grump*  I did not get to go to any stepdown units.  I did get Telemetry one day and a Med Surg floor one day. 

So what have I learned about this experience?

This is what I like about ICU.....

~ Almost every supply you could ever need is on the floor somewhere

~ The patient per nurse ratio is 1 nurse, 2 patients.  Sometimes 1:1, other times 1:3....but that is a nice ratio how ever you cut it.

~ Very talented people. 

~ You see things you might not see on the Med Surg Floor everyday.

~ You get to know your patients very well.

What I did not like about ICU.....

~ People are very sick.  I suppose you call it job security....but I cannot lie....I feel bad for the ones all tied up with machines and tubes coming out everywhere.  It is not enough to make me not want to do it......more like it makes me sure of what I want (or don't want) for myself at the end of my life. 

~  It amazes me that you are there to recuperate.....but really it is hard to sleep sometimes.  Lots of meds, lots of treatments, lots of waking the patient up.....lots of alarms....lots of equipment.  Crazy really.

NOW I know that is what ICU is.  And it is good.  And I would not mind working there.....especially for the nurse patient ratio.  I am attracted to it because you learn so much doing it.  hmm more I think about it the more I like it...very well actually.

Today was a great day in the ICU.  I met a travelling nurse.  I harbor a secret desire to do travel nursing....but I have to wait for the kidlets to get bigger.  But I have to tell you......she was an awesome nurse.  Great mentor.  She is the kind of nurse I want to be.  She was very knowledgeable.....yet very personable.  She was old school. But not so much so that she was rigid.  (Shoot that is an article in itself.....I will write about it next time) Great hybrid.  She was a great teacher and she shared so much with me that she did not even have to share.  I wish I could tell you her name but she doesn't know I am writing this so I cannot.

I also met a nurse who was in resource pool.  She basically was helping out in the ICU.  She was mainly a med surg nurse.

You know this is what I notice.....and all my nursey friends I hope it doesn't step on toes....not my intention:

Sometimes I notice that some nurses think that other nurses are below them.  The other day I was talking to an ICU nurse.  He asked me if I was ready for a career in ICU.  I told him that I may pursue gerentology, pallative, hospice, oncology, or mother/baby.  He laughed and said...shame...I guess someone has to do it.  Won't be me.  I am sure he meant no harm.  But I think it is important to remember, that each kind of nursing has something special about it.  I pray that I can hold my head up in a 6:1 patient load.  But I hope even more that eventually I will be able to advocate.....like my old school nursing instructors taught me about.  It may not be glamourous but I don't believe that the only measure of smart, compassion, value and worth is saving someone from dying everyday.  That is great.  That is wonderful.  And I can say it truly feels good when you do it.  BUT......I hope I am not to sleepy to express this correctly.....You die once.  You live more days than you die.  I want to be part of the living I think.  Know how when you find out you are sick and everybody comes?  And then you have been sick for a month and less people might come.  And then you are sick for some months and everyone's lives maybe moving ahead or in different directions and you say.....but I still live!  I am still here!  I am still important!  My life is a little different now, more challenging.....but I am living.  And then someone dies.....and everyone shows up again.  Well.  It's natural I suppose.  It is what happens.  But I don't think I forget.  I think that is how I want to save a life.  The life that we try to live everyday.  And sometimes I get scared.  I look at the fields that I want to be in and you are placed in charge of so many more lives......1 person for 6 people and families too and I fear that.  That is huge responsibility.  You have to be very smart to do that and maybe it is not evident every day.  And maybe it doesn't come with all the accolades or the 'wow'  but I still want to try.  And I want to change that ratio.  I want to make the old school nurses proud and happy that they did what they did for us today that allowed us to be so diversified.  Because sometimes I imagine that the plan was for us to grow in knowledge and be stronger as a group........but sometimes it feels as we have grown in knowledge and forgotten where we came from and splintered instead.

You may commence to the throwing of tomatoes nursey friends. 

Well that is my somambulent ramble of the night. Not my best article.....but it actually gives me ideas for the next.

Gotta go iron my uniform!