Saturday, July 11, 2009

exciting day

Ive been in clinic for eight weeks now and up until today i sort of was.... well .... a little bored! I mean its a lot of work , don't get me wrong... they overload you as it is... but i wanted excitement and boy did i get it today! My mornings start at 6am and im on the floor by six fifteen. This morning started out with my first deceased body viewing! Im a little weird i guess you could say considering all i wanted to do was assess the whole thing from top to bottom! I couldn't though because the family was going to come in for a last goodbye. Weve already been trained in post mortem care in school, but i wasn't sure exactly how i was going to react to the actual real experience. I knew it wouldn't gross me out, cause there's really only a few things that gross me out..but there's always that weird lingering fear and unknown of death that made me a little hesitant. Turns out i was fine! It just felt normal. Like a natural part of life. It was sort of funny because there were a couple girls in clinic that were freaking out about it and didn't even want to go in! I honestly saw it, assessed it and forgot about it like ten minutes later and went on with my day!

So at about eight o clock one of my patients was eating breakfast and started seizing. So we quickly gave her a shot and waited to see if it eased up... well it did a little bit, but fifteen minutes later she started getting worse. Unfortunately, the nurse on staff wasn't really paying much attention to it, maybe because i was her student nurse and she knew i would be in there? i dont know.. im just trying not to make her look bad. haha. I finally decided to go and get my instructor because it just wasn't sitting right with me. After having my instructor assess the situation she decided that it needed to be taken to the next level of care. After that things got a little bit out of control. The patient started coding and we had to get her stable real quick! It felt weird to actually be " the nurse" and not just someone who is watching in the situation! It was so fascinating watching all of the different signs and symptoms of someone who is probably going to die,and fast. I had to be on my toes and act fast. I wont go into the details of everything that happened after that because its probably all boring medical jargon but by the time i left she was doing o.k.

My instructor bragged about me at the end of the day it was weird... i almost wanted to cry because i feel like im such the underdog considering almost everyone in the class already has some sort of background in health care. She also pulled me aside and told me she thinks im going to make a great nurse. I needed that.

I finally felt like it was all really happening today, as much as i want everyone to be healthy and save them.. its things like this that inspire me to learn and grow and become the nurse that i want to be.

3 comments:

taryn said...

oh hell ya!!!!!! I just got chills when your instructor pulled you aside and told you that!!! Just the motivation I'm sure you needed to keep on going!!! Good for you and your instructor for realizing whats up!

Vanessa said...

I'm picturing the first season of greys when you tell these stories. You've got guts serious ones. People like me are so lucky to have people like you in this world to do this kind of work. Not just anyone can do these things!!!!!!! I'm so happy you are being recognized for your hard work.

LB said...

i wanna know what the "few things that gross you out" are!!!!!! your instructor was right, you are going to make a great nurse!!!!!