study break...

Well...I got to observe surgery Thurs...all I can say is it was awesome :) But to make sure I'm complying with HIPAA, I need to state a few ground rules:

I will not tell you where my clinicals are at.  Anything I say will be very vague and nonspecific.  You won't get to know age and gender of the patients I mention and will get the barest details. I do owe these people their privacy when they so kindly let me learn from their experiences.

On to the fun part! I wake up at 0530 and drag myself into the surgery wing of the hospital.  Upon entering the staff lounge, I get caught up on everything that's going on in people's life. Our first surgery was going to be later than normal so we went to the cafeteria for breakfast.  During that time, I get to hear about stalkers, girls night, and things I won't mention on here. They were great people to spend time with. I learned what the nurse does before the patient even comes in. Before the patient even comes in, the nurse has to make sure all consent forms are signed. Any labs or tests the doctor ordered have to be be reviewed before the surgery can begin. It's the nurse's job to make sure all paperwork is in order and know what needs to be done before the patient even enters the room. When the patient comes in, the nurse helps the patient complete any paperwork and makes sure they understand what they're signing. While she did this, my student buddy and I took vitals and made sure the patient and their spouse were comfortable.  The nurse explains the procedure and tells the patient what to expect.  Then the doctor comes in and further explains the procedure and answers any questions the patient may have.  Every surgical patient has an IV in to help control fluid balance.  I later got to d/c this IV. We took the patient into the OR for their arthroscopy, which was a relatively short outpatient procedure and we had them out and on with their day relatively quickly after recovery. 

Next surgery...That's right, I got to watch 2! This one I won't say much of past it was a mastectomy. I got to get up close with the CRNA and learn about what he did and watch the surgeon suture the wound which was pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time in recovery with the patient as I was replaced by another nursing student to make sure she got to the med-surg floor.  I met with the other nursing student and we agreed to do different care plans and swap so both our clinical groups got to see what we did.  We had lots of fun and I made a new friend that day.  There's something about standing wide eyed in an operating room that forms a bond. :) I hope I'll be able to go see more.  Surgical nursing is an area of nursing I'm adding to my list of areas I'd like to do...I haven't mentioned this list yet have I?

The List:

* Oncology
* ER
* Surgical
* Psych (I haven't tried this one yet, but it sounds fascinating)
* Pediatric (See note on psych.  I'll update this after next semester)
* Flight Nursing

Yep, that's all I've got so far. I know it'll grow over time.  But speaking of time, I have a test tomorrow and a skit in the afternoon.  I have to study fluids, TB, COPD, perioperative nursing, ethics, upper respiratory infections, and admission, transfer, and discharge.  And find NCLEX style questions over cephalosporine.  Wish me luck!

first day of clinicals!

Well I just got back from my first med-surg clinical. Preconference starts out with my professor telling us that we'll walk on the floor and stand around wide eyed not knowing a thing. As we walk on the floor, I look around. Sure enough, he was right. We all had no clue what was going on. Fortunately, the nurses were awesome and helped us out. We did basic patient care today--no meds or IVs or anything to make us run screaming into the plains of western Oklahoma. By the end of our shift, it was much more manageable and we're all looking forward to seeing what the med-surg floor has in store for us tomorrow....except for me....I will be waking myself up at 0530 and presenting my bright and shining face in the OR by 0630. That's right, I get to observe and hopefully participate to some degree in my very first surgery! Depending on the day planned, I'll get out early or stay later. Either way it should be full of adventure and experiences I'll look back on and laugh at how silly I was 10 years from now. Now on to what all I did.....

After walking wide eyed onto the floor, I poked my head into my patient's room...who was asleep...at this point I'm thinking it's going to be a similar experience to my nursing home days. BUT once she was awake, I can quite honestly say she was amazing. I'm always amazed by the strength and resilience of the human body. This woman was so patient with us. Especially when the BP cuff started acting up. All this automatic stuff is awesome, but so prone to malfunction. There's nothing like knowing you can do it yourself when the machine fails...I digress...in addition to basic patient care, I got to watch the nurses give meds, including an IV push. They were really patient with us and helped us figure out what was going on amidst the chaos that is the med-surg floor....even though we spent alot of time looking for things to do...

In other news, I have my first med-surg test Monday. So off I go to catch up on my readings.

back to the grind...

Well...Fall break's over and back to class Monday. I have to admit, I was enjoying the time off. Those few days off were relaxing, fulfilling, and not nearly long enough to fully recharge my batteries....Come on, Thanksgiving! Anyways, I went to the bookstore to pick up my med-surg book that I've needed since last Monday only to realize it was Sunday afternoon and no bookstores were going to be open. Upon checking my assigned readings for tomorrow, I realized that most of it comes from the book taunting me from it's cardboard box behind locked doors...darn...I guess I'll focus on pharmacology and hopefully ace that quiz.

In other news, I've finally started running again. My workout schedule has been sporadic at best this semester and I can feel it. And there's no better way to blow stress than to lace up your running shoes and go. (If I do say so myself) Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it better after rationalizing like a madwoman for the better part of 30 min. Of course, this rationalizing was done out loud while forcing myself up a hill and praying I don't fall over. It's way too hot to be fall...

Well, off I go to study. We start clinicals this week and have our first IV mastery Friday. I can't wait to see what's in store for me!

A brief intro...and more

Hi my name is Katie and I'm a first year nursing major at SWOSU! One of my friends inspired me to start this blogging thing after I read her blog. Maybe I'll tell you which one is hers later but I'll keep you in suspense for now... Anyways, I thought it might be a good idea to record the many adventures I have while learning how to be supernurse and blow off some school related stress in one go. Seems like a good idea now, we'll see where this goes... I just finished my first nursing class ever!! Fundamentals of Nursing was surprisingly....fun lol I learned a lot of the basic nursing skills and spent about 6 weeks working in a nursing home with 7 very awesome girls and a pretty fun instructor. We spent most of our time talking to our patients and probably annoying the CNAs with our constant search for something to do. Usually that consisted of feeding, transfers, bathing, and taking vitals. We were each assigned a patient and got to get to know them and develop care plans... Mine didn't seem very interested in talking so I often left frustrated. But I admit, while I spent most of the time frustrated, I was a little sad when it came to an end. But guess what?? I start my next round of clinicals next week! I'm so excited to start learning how a hospital works and get to use some of my new skills.  As far as I can tell, med-surg nursing is the type of nursing you see in the medical shows...taking care of patients after surgery and keeping them comfortable type thing. I hope I get to see and learn a lot this next 8 weeks. 

So aside from being crazy busy and learning tons, I've gotten to meet a bunch of awesome people.  We went to our first convention last week and I got to see a different side of a few of my nursing buddies...some of them have...interesting taste in music lol. After spending a couple nights as the only 4 girls in a scary hotel, I feel very close to them.  Close enough to let them practice sticking IVs in me. One for each hand.  It was super scary and one of them blew a vein! It kind of hurts, but one of my instructors said if I kept icing it, it should be fine. I can't be too upset about it since I missed the poor girl's vein entirely...don't worry! I'll have it figured out before I try again :)

Well that's about all I can think of to say for right now. I probably said too much lol but I'm new at this.  Let's hope it works out!