March 26, 2009
I had my first patient die today. It was not weird or creepy, but it was quite sudden. Literally, one second she was alive, and the next second, she had no pulse (I was feeling her pulse when it vanished). The STAT team was able to revive her temporarily but a mere five minutes later, she passed away. I was there at the bedside the entire time, holding the patient's wrist because she had had IV Heparin running but had pulled the IV out. Naturally, her blood just starting oozing all over her hand and her bed. I didn't want that to be more traumatizing to the granddaughter, so I just held gauze to her wrist and stroked her hand as the granddaughter said her goodbyes. She knew it was time. I tried to be as comforting as possible which meant I just stood there with the granddaughter and didn't say much. Jennifer and I cleaned the room as much as we could, and then just gave the family space to say goodbye.
Whoa...
March 30, 2009
March 24, 2009
this should be a hint....
on why I shouldn't do blogs!! I can't keep up with them!!
Since February, I have had 3 more clinicals. I have been assigned two patients each time and although nothing 'spectacular' has happened, I have still learned so much. I continue to give all meds, document all assessments, and fully enjoy my patient's company. I have had to call MD's for order clarifications and also report a change in a patient's status. That was a little intimidating ONLY because I had never done it before. The MDs that I have had to contact were really nice so that made it easier.
I also had two interviews today with Piedmong regarding my placement for the Residency Program...whoa. So glad that is over with! Luckily, I was not intimidated by any of the interviewers, but I was nervous about the questions they were going to ask. I think I did really well, so in the next couple weeks, I will know what floor I am going to be working on as an RN!!
Since February, I have had 3 more clinicals. I have been assigned two patients each time and although nothing 'spectacular' has happened, I have still learned so much. I continue to give all meds, document all assessments, and fully enjoy my patient's company. I have had to call MD's for order clarifications and also report a change in a patient's status. That was a little intimidating ONLY because I had never done it before. The MDs that I have had to contact were really nice so that made it easier.
I also had two interviews today with Piedmong regarding my placement for the Residency Program...whoa. So glad that is over with! Luckily, I was not intimidated by any of the interviewers, but I was nervous about the questions they were going to ask. I think I did really well, so in the next couple weeks, I will know what floor I am going to be working on as an RN!!
March 5, 2009
5th/6th Days
February 26th
Today I had my own patient (again)! I know it was only one person, but to be 'in charge' of her care for the whole day was pretty exciting. I gave her all her medications and monitored her blood sugar during the shift. She did not have a whole lot going on with her, but that gave me time to figure out other things on the unit such as the charting system. All electronic charting has both positive and negative aspects in my mind, but I seem to be getting the hang of it.
She was incredibly easy to take care of but I was so happy my nurse has been trusting me and encouraging me to become more independent. The charge nurse also gave me my very own medicine cabinet key.... I felt so special!!
February 27th
Today, I got assigned 2 patients!! Whoa!! They were still the 'easiest' out of my nurse's assignments, but it was still a big deal to me. It was incredible how much just one person will make you schedule your day in a completely different way because now you have 2 sets of vital signs, blood sugars, medications, charting duties, and assessments you have to keep track of. I actually am highly leaning towards being a general med-surg nurse as my first rotation and there you have at least 5 or 6 patients!!
One of my patients was the woman I had had the day before (which was nice because she knew me and I knew what to expect with her) and the other patient was a man who had come in to get treated for fluid overload (extremely common with people with congestive heart failure and is sometimes indicative of non-compliance with meds, diet, exercise, etc....). So he didn't have a lot going on either but my nurse wanted me to get used to multi-tasking to work on my time-management.
Again, I gave all shots (PO, IV, IM) and charted and basically just tried to make them as comfortable as possible. I made one mistake regarding medications by accidentally deleting her scheduled meds from the medication scanner and my nurse had to manually input all the orders back in to the scanner. BUT, she was so nice about it and said 'we are all human and we all make mistakes'. I could not have asked for a better preceptor.
At the end of the day I was exhausted, but it was really really neat to have two patients to call my own ;)
Today I had my own patient (again)! I know it was only one person, but to be 'in charge' of her care for the whole day was pretty exciting. I gave her all her medications and monitored her blood sugar during the shift. She did not have a whole lot going on with her, but that gave me time to figure out other things on the unit such as the charting system. All electronic charting has both positive and negative aspects in my mind, but I seem to be getting the hang of it.
She was incredibly easy to take care of but I was so happy my nurse has been trusting me and encouraging me to become more independent. The charge nurse also gave me my very own medicine cabinet key.... I felt so special!!
February 27th
Today, I got assigned 2 patients!! Whoa!! They were still the 'easiest' out of my nurse's assignments, but it was still a big deal to me. It was incredible how much just one person will make you schedule your day in a completely different way because now you have 2 sets of vital signs, blood sugars, medications, charting duties, and assessments you have to keep track of. I actually am highly leaning towards being a general med-surg nurse as my first rotation and there you have at least 5 or 6 patients!!
One of my patients was the woman I had had the day before (which was nice because she knew me and I knew what to expect with her) and the other patient was a man who had come in to get treated for fluid overload (extremely common with people with congestive heart failure and is sometimes indicative of non-compliance with meds, diet, exercise, etc....). So he didn't have a lot going on either but my nurse wanted me to get used to multi-tasking to work on my time-management.
Again, I gave all shots (PO, IV, IM) and charted and basically just tried to make them as comfortable as possible. I made one mistake regarding medications by accidentally deleting her scheduled meds from the medication scanner and my nurse had to manually input all the orders back in to the scanner. BUT, she was so nice about it and said 'we are all human and we all make mistakes'. I could not have asked for a better preceptor.
At the end of the day I was exhausted, but it was really really neat to have two patients to call my own ;)
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