Well it is now the middle of November. Time keeps flying by. Faster than I thought it would. School is EXTREMELY busy. I have never studied more in my life to only do mediocre on my tests. It is driving me crazy. It also is very frustrating that when I was in San Juan's nursing program I could study for an hour or two and get the class high. Now here I study 20+ hours and get a C. I don't know what to do. But with time flying so fast I want to be able to remember what my clinicals and school experiences were like. I have made it through all the "fun" roations and now am on med-surg for the remainder of the semester and have been for the past 4 weeks.
Week 1
I took care of a little old man. I can't even remember what he was admitted for. I hardly did any care for him. If I remember right he was discharged not long after I started my shift.
Week 2
We have to pick out our patients the night before we go and I saw this little old lady was admitted for SOB (shortness of breath) and anemia. I figured it would be a nice easly patient to take care of. After chosing her I read in her history and physical that she actually was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. Not the early stages either. She was in END stage Leukemia. It was really sad. My first day she kept having bloody noses from the oxygen we were giving her to help her saturations that were so down because of the overflow of white blood cells took the place of the reb blood cells that carry oxygen. But she was the sweetest thing ever. After one of her last bloody noses I was helping her clean up and she was able to squeeze out the words that she just wanted to watch the Jazz game. It was so cute. I found the Jazz game and she was as happy as can be. That made me really sad, It reminded me of my Grandma Joan, my dads mom. As long as she could have her cinnamon bears, pretzles, Winnie the Pooh, and the JAZZ she was as happy as can be :)
The next day I went to clinicals and the morning shift told me that she had taken a turn for the worse. By that afternoon she had passed away. It was really sad. Her 1 daughter was so sweet and just kept hugging me and thanking me for the care I had given her mom. She even laughed with me as Iwas going to flush her IV earlier that day and shot the cap and the saline clear to the seeling while trying to figure out how to get that stupid air bubble out of the syringe. But the hardest part was walking the mourtary man, and the daughters as they pushed their mom down the hallway to the back door and to the van where they were taking her to the mortuary. The daughters walked back to the door I was holding open just sobbing and hugging. The one hugged me again and my tears just started to flow down my face. I couldn't control it I am such a boob. Seriously I even cry about reality shows. Being the person they want to hug is the best feeling. Thats one reason why nursing is rewarding. *By the way this week my homework assignment was a 25 page paper. =) *
I had another patient this week who had a total knee replacement. He also was my grandpa Thayn's 1st cousin we found out as we talked. It was funny I was walking down the hall and I heard him tell someone he was visiting with, "ya know that Kathie Thayn girl" "ya I remember her" "well her daughter is my nurse today" ha it just made me smile. Its funny how if we hadn't have moved to Price I wouldn't have know hardly any of my extended family. Especially Aunt Collene who is basically now my grandma. She lives at the Heirloom now and I give her the best treatment ever. =) I go up and get her ready and bring her down to my office and she just sits with me while I do my work. =)
Week 3
This week I chose a little old lady again, did all of my homework on her and got to clinicals and she had been discharged. UGH thats sooo agrivating when I'm already pressed for time and I do all of this pre clinical homework on a patient I chose and get there and the homework is useless because the patient left. So I got another patient who I had no idea what was going on with her. It actually turned out ok cause it was just a total knee replacement so same thing as my secondary patient the week before. This was an experience. First the drain that the surgeon put in was not working so I had to change her dressing about every 45 minutes cause it was saturated with blood. Then the next day I got to infuse blood. (only and RN skill =) ) The nurse that actually was assigned to this patient I have a really hard time with. Her idea of showing the students around and helping them consists of sitting at the computer telling them what of her work needs to be done. She also treats us stupid sometimes. One time I didnt know how to work the IV push syringes and I was asking the charge nurse about it and this other nurse goes "big sigh, ugh" give it to me and I'll show you. Ha it made me chuckle because IV push medications are only an RN duty and she's an LPN so I was all um... can you even push meds. NOPE I didn't think so. It just makes me laugh that she is so mean to the people who may one day be her charge nurse. =) So later that day I was doing vital signs on my pt and that nurse comes in and says, "take out her drain, take out her catheter, and change her dressing" then she was gone. At that time I was listening to her heart so its not like I could really hear her or understand what she was doing. So I go ask the charge nurse and she just rolls her eyes cause I guess she had told the nurse that she could go home after that stuff was done, ha but instead she pawned it off on me, oh well I got to learn how to cut stitches, pull not only 1 but 2 drains that were like a foot long. ugh. It kinda made me cringe. Later this lady yanked on her IV and disconnected the tubing so blood was squirting EVERYWHERE I basically had to clean her entire room. After talking with this patient she actually works for the same HH company I do and we had worked together like once about a year ago.
Week 4
This was another week that my primary patient was discharged, well was discharged right after I gave her the pneumonia vaccine. But the lady I got after my primary pt went home was also very cute. She had a gastric bypass about 15 yrs ago and basically has never recovered from it. She has been in and out of the hospital for years. NEVER GET A GASTRIC BYPASS. Jeannie had a friend that had one and never got better but she actually died from effects of it. This lady was a sport though. She now weighs 88 lbs and has a feeding tube. Weird, I bet she never thought she would have a feeding tube. CAN you imagine giving this lady a shot. Well it was AWFUL. She has NO fat or muscle to give a shot it. So I scooped up as much skin as I could and held it in place to give it. She did have IV medications until her IV infiltrated and after 7 times trying to restick the doc finally changed her meds to shots and by mouth. I felt horrible, I put it off as long as possible until the charge nurse asked why I hadn't given it. My regular nurse laughed cause she knew I was stalling. But it went ok.
Then yesterday we went down to Moab for a burn confrence. It was actually pretty interesting. I enjoyed it. I saw alot of people from Blanding that I had met while I lived there and my old nursing instructors.
Well that's what has happened thus far. My teacher told us the other day that maybe only 5 people were passing, right now I barely am. Thats encouraging huh. So pray for me hopefully I can make it through. We have a test basically every Monday morning. This coming week we have one Monday and Tuesday.. ugh shoot me now.
But even Kyle is tired of me doing homework. I did my homework at his house last Sunday so I could at least see him, and after like 5 hours he's like " are you done yet." Nope I wasn't. I went home and did a few more hours. Nursing school sucks and I can't wait to be done. =)
Thats all for now as I have alot more studying and homework to do.
