Nursing School Week 1

Wow. I tell ya what, you start nursing school and this whole blog thing gets a little neglected! First, I should start by issuing an apology to the (small) following of friends and family that are/have been reading this...I really hope to get more regular with this as things settle in a bit.

I guess you could say I'm a 5 day old nursing student, and man, they don't waste any time! I think the hardest part so far as been adjusting to the chaos of a new schedule/life. A dear friend of mine told me that I'm the busiest person she knows, and the sad thing is, it's not the first time I've heard that! Mainly, I just feel kind of like I'm trying to figure out when the best time to do things are and trying to place an importance on things that were at one point mandatory in my life (like when do I sleep? and maybe it's more important to do that for an hour,and then eat in the car on the way to class?). I remember being in my pre-nursing boot camp this summer, and one of the instructors had us fill out this sheet. It was basically a big excel table for a one week time period, with every hour of the day listed. She made us write down how long it takes to do everything we would normally do in a day--even down to brushing our teeth!! I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was ridiculous at the time, but now, now I think she may have known what she was doing to us. Good thing those things don't sink in at the time, I may have run for the door!

I have a feeling my new activity for the year will be the study group. It's slowly becoming one of the words I use and hear roughly 50 times a day. Things like, "where is the study group going to be this week?, and "what time is the study group to review the crazy insane pharmacolgy lecture from last friday?" Ok, so maybe I made the "crazy insane" part of the last one up, but you get my point :)

As far as big things for actual class go, I've got two skills labs under my belt, and am now fully capable and trained to brush teeth, change occupied beds, and cut people's meat. Who knew you had to learn to do such things! This week one of the things we'll be learning how to apply restraints...hopefully I won't have to use that technique a lot.

I think I'll end this entry with my my first clinical experience in nursing school. All first semester students have to start in long term care (read: nursing home) their first 5 or 6 weeks, I'm pretty sure so we don't mess up too bad or inflict serious harm. Either way it's not too much fun, and I'm already counting the days and weeks until it's over. I'm actually thankful because I'm at one of the more decent one's in town, and while any nursing home kind of creeps me out, this one is decent. Of course, once inside you run the whole gauntlet of needs and have people who are fairly independent all the way to people who have complete dementia and think you're their long lost cousin Mindy.

The patient I was assigned to for the day was being discharged (an exciting thing!) and so I ended up teaming up with my other classmates for skill(s) practice. This is how I had the unique pleasure of meeting my favorite Manor Care resident. She was this sweet-looking(that should have been my first warning) little old lady, who was mostly confined to a wheelchair. It was about noon and we were passing meal trays to all the rooms. Well, my patient needed to be wheeled to the nurses station so someone could have an eye on her (hello second clue!) and it was mine and another nursing students job to make that happen. Well my little old lady decided that she was not going to let go of her food tray for anything. It didn't matter how many times I told her we weren't going to take her food, nor did it matter how many times I sweetly and gently tried to explain to her what the plan was, and that she could have her eyes on her food tray while we moved. So since she wouldn't let go of the tray and we had to move her, I pushed her wheelchair while my friend scooted her food tray on it's little wheeled table, while our patient had a death grip on the table (white knuckle death grip). Did I mention that whole time this was happening she was screaming "you dirty filthy people, you're turning God away from me, and turning God's youth into slum!" at the top of her lungs. Really, I'm pretty sure you can't pay for an experience like that, nor do I know what any of that even means. Oh and to top it all off at the end she looks at me and sneered slowly "you need to read your checkbook!" I really thought she would have gone for Bible, given the earlier tirade, but she apparently likes to keep us on our toes!
Other things to note: I got to watch a colostomy bag (a bag that connects to the bowel) being changed (disgusting!) and I got to assist in showering someone. All in a day's work.

Hang in there with me, I promise I'll try to get more regular with these...and I promise the scrub pics are coming....they're on my mom's camera and I can't seem to get the email with the link attached.

:)