This morning I had to attend clinical class to do a head-to-toe check off (or cephalocaudal to be exact) which means head to tail. This means that I had to assess someone in my class...taking their vitals signs (temperature, respiration's, blood pressure, O2 stats, and pain scale). I am fine with most of these but hearing that first BP sound (the systolic sound) is VERY difficult for me. I did okay as the teacher had a double stethoscope that we were using so she could listen too. I was only a few points off of her assessment of it so she said it was ok. Then we had to look and the head face and see if we notice anything, listen to breath sounds, check capillary refill, check radial and pedal pulses (on hands and feet), listen and palpitate the stomach, ask about bowel/urinary troubles, test hands and feet strength...and a few more things. IT WAS SOO NERVE WRACKING!! I knew what to do but when you are in a stressful situation you stop breathing and then you don't think properly!! AGHH!! I know that we couldn't "fail" this but being the perfectionist that I am I wanted to be perfect which of course I wasn't! I am thankful that intro to nursing professors are so gracious and willing to hold our hands through all of this! We have only had this class 3 times and we just really learned this stuff last week! So to be tested on it this week...oy vey.
And then to top all of this off it was supposed to snow this afternoon but low and behold it started at 9 AM instead of 2 PM like the weather people said! I took quite some time getting home from school but I made it fine. There is a really steep hill in my apartment complex that I have to go up in order to get to my apt and as I was going up I noticed someone in an SUV struggling to get up the hill. I looked to see that the other direction wasn't being used and I moved over and cruised right up the hill. I thought about waving as I passed her but I thought it might be rude so I didn't...
Now...I am going to take a nap because I was up until almost midnight doing homework and practicing taking blood pressures on myself (pretty awesome huh that I could do it!) and I needed to get up at 5:45 to get ready for school. The one nice thing today was that it only took 15 minutes to get the 12 miles from my place to school. Most mornings if I leave after 7:15 it takes me at least 30 minutes to get there!
Okay I am really going to take a nap now!!!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Just a day...the begining
So I have thought of this for a while now...blogging my experiences in nursing school so that those of you who are curious can follow my adventures! I while back I started the official blog page and now...dunnn...dunn...dunnn...dunnnaa! Here it is! And it even had a background set up on it! Man I am good.
Today was my third official day as a nursing student. My first class was my Intro to Nursing Lab at 8:30 AM. I woke up early, got ready, did a load and a half of laundry, and set out the door over an hour before class as traffic on the interstate gets bad and I needed gas. I stop down the street at the local Mapco (a gas station) pump my gas and then realize...I LOCKED MY KEYS IN MY CAR!! Along with my cell phone, apartment keys, my life...etc. The first thing I thought of was I was going to miss my very first Lab class! Not a good way to start out the semester. I remembered that they (our teachers) said "if you are going to be late call us and let us know" how was I to call when my cell phone and all of the numbers were in my car! I called my mom back in Washington (mind you it's 5:45ish AM there) and tell her I need her to call GEICO to get someone out to open my door and to look up the number to Belmont and call my teacher Mrs. Stafford and let her know what was going on. (I did all of this on the nice manager at the Mapco's personal cell phone!) I spent a lovely hour hanging out at the Map (I think that is what I will call it from now on) drinking bad coffee and reading the newspaper. I did manage to get into my car @ 9:15 and then proceeded to need to have my battery jump-started as my lights had been on this whole time. :(
I finally got to school around 10 went to an info session and then went and found my lab instructors to let her know I was there. I ended up being able to go to a make-up lab right then which worked out perfectly. In lab today we were able to play with many different types of lifts (machines that help to move patients). We were all able to both use the lifts (operate them) and experience them as a client would. This was a lot of fun! There was a lift that was like ablow-up mattress attached to a Shop-Vac that filled up with air so that clients could be easily transfered from bed to gurney and back. There was a chair lift where we were strapped in and lifted up in a sitting position (it also had a hole in the bottom in case you needed to assist a client to the bathroom!) This one you could move around; you could put a client in there and transfer them to another room, etc. There was a lift that helped you stand but I found it to be very awkard (one must have a much larger abdominal girth in order for this one to be sucessful!), and my faveorite was the Guldman lift that had a large sheet and strapped that attached to a handle bar which was then attached to tracks on the ceiling. In this one you could be lifted up feet off the bed and then moved to the left, right, front, back all with such little effort that I moved one person with just two fingers! (I imagine that this device is not readily available in most hospitals but would be so nice if it were!)
After lab was over a couple of us stayed to practice making an occupied bed (with someone in it) and then spent time eating lunch before our first Introduction to Nursing lecture course. (Dr. Shores (our professor) is she ever reads this someday will laugh as I proceed.) Dr. Shores talked to us the first hour about how you can be squeamish and still be a nurse as she fainted everytime she was in a room with a woman in labor! And then she spoke to us about how she locks the doors to the classroom so as to protect us in case someone was to try and get in the room like the kid on the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. We laughed about how she said she would grab the person's feet and then we were to dog pile the person and call 911 and security! Too funny!
We did make into the lecture portion and talked about urinary elimination...sounds very exciting for our first lecture right?? Next week in Intro to Nursing Clinical we are going to be learning to place catheters (even more exciting) and so this is where we started.
Overall, I am very excited about finally being in nursing school but feel so great about the choice of Belmont. (not that I had much choice as they were the first ones to offer me a spot) The professors and instructors are fabulous and I really am enjoying all of the people that I have classes with. This is going to be a great two years (or maybe 16 months if they switch me to the Accelerated program...please...please...please!!!!). I look forward to all of my adventures and hope that you will enjoy reading about them!
Today was my third official day as a nursing student. My first class was my Intro to Nursing Lab at 8:30 AM. I woke up early, got ready, did a load and a half of laundry, and set out the door over an hour before class as traffic on the interstate gets bad and I needed gas. I stop down the street at the local Mapco (a gas station) pump my gas and then realize...I LOCKED MY KEYS IN MY CAR!! Along with my cell phone, apartment keys, my life...etc. The first thing I thought of was I was going to miss my very first Lab class! Not a good way to start out the semester. I remembered that they (our teachers) said "if you are going to be late call us and let us know" how was I to call when my cell phone and all of the numbers were in my car! I called my mom back in Washington (mind you it's 5:45ish AM there) and tell her I need her to call GEICO to get someone out to open my door and to look up the number to Belmont and call my teacher Mrs. Stafford and let her know what was going on. (I did all of this on the nice manager at the Mapco's personal cell phone!) I spent a lovely hour hanging out at the Map (I think that is what I will call it from now on) drinking bad coffee and reading the newspaper. I did manage to get into my car @ 9:15 and then proceeded to need to have my battery jump-started as my lights had been on this whole time. :(
I finally got to school around 10 went to an info session and then went and found my lab instructors to let her know I was there. I ended up being able to go to a make-up lab right then which worked out perfectly. In lab today we were able to play with many different types of lifts (machines that help to move patients). We were all able to both use the lifts (operate them) and experience them as a client would. This was a lot of fun! There was a lift that was like ablow-up mattress attached to a Shop-Vac that filled up with air so that clients could be easily transfered from bed to gurney and back. There was a chair lift where we were strapped in and lifted up in a sitting position (it also had a hole in the bottom in case you needed to assist a client to the bathroom!) This one you could move around; you could put a client in there and transfer them to another room, etc. There was a lift that helped you stand but I found it to be very awkard (one must have a much larger abdominal girth in order for this one to be sucessful!), and my faveorite was the Guldman lift that had a large sheet and strapped that attached to a handle bar which was then attached to tracks on the ceiling. In this one you could be lifted up feet off the bed and then moved to the left, right, front, back all with such little effort that I moved one person with just two fingers! (I imagine that this device is not readily available in most hospitals but would be so nice if it were!)
After lab was over a couple of us stayed to practice making an occupied bed (with someone in it) and then spent time eating lunch before our first Introduction to Nursing lecture course. (Dr. Shores (our professor) is she ever reads this someday will laugh as I proceed.) Dr. Shores talked to us the first hour about how you can be squeamish and still be a nurse as she fainted everytime she was in a room with a woman in labor! And then she spoke to us about how she locks the doors to the classroom so as to protect us in case someone was to try and get in the room like the kid on the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. We laughed about how she said she would grab the person's feet and then we were to dog pile the person and call 911 and security! Too funny!
We did make into the lecture portion and talked about urinary elimination...sounds very exciting for our first lecture right?? Next week in Intro to Nursing Clinical we are going to be learning to place catheters (even more exciting) and so this is where we started.
Overall, I am very excited about finally being in nursing school but feel so great about the choice of Belmont. (not that I had much choice as they were the first ones to offer me a spot) The professors and instructors are fabulous and I really am enjoying all of the people that I have classes with. This is going to be a great two years (or maybe 16 months if they switch me to the Accelerated program...please...please...please!!!!). I look forward to all of my adventures and hope that you will enjoy reading about them!
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